Archive

Year: 2007

  • Britcham Blogging Event on 17 January

    December 19, 2007

    An interesting event from the folks at Britcham in January, as the "Britcham New Generation" host journo-bloggers Mark Mardell (BBC) and Jean Quatremer (Liberation) on the subject "How to communicate Europe: is blogging the way forward?" on 17 January. Registration can be made here. Many of us have been involved with the New Generation for years. Despite now being decidedly older, we still attend for what are usually some great discussions with some interesting people...

  • Top Ten Sustainability Blogs: our picks

    December 19, 2007

    As proof that good ideas travel fast within well functioning companies, we are pleased to see that our global sustainability communications practice has recycled (fittingly one may suggest) the concept of our top ten blogs list for particular issue areas. The global team have created their own top ten sustainability blogs. The recycling may of course have something to do with the involvement of our dearly departed Dan Baxter (who leaves Brussels over Christmas to head...

  • Parliament tests web TV channel

    November 29, 2007

    European Parliament Vice-President Vidal-Quadras (EPP, Spain) today announced to members of the European Parliament via email that the new EP web-TV is open for testing via the Parliament's intranet. We understand that if the test goes well, those behind the channel are hoping to launch to the channel to the rest of us in the New Year. One of the first to have a look at the channel was one of our intrepid former interns...

  • Postcard from Germany: Pac-man for Politicians (and Fridays)

    November 23, 2007

    As Christmas draws nearer and the lure of day trip across the border to visit a good Christmas market grows stronger, one of our resident Germans Frederik Seeger provides a short overview of the use of the internet by politicians of his native land. This being Friday, he also highlights a number of sites from politicians to whittle away the last working hours of the week. An in-depth analysis of the web presence of German...

  • EU receives petition of 1.294.997 signatures on disability rights

    November 22, 2007

    This morning saw the European Disability Forum hand over an EU wide petition of over a million signatures to the European Commission. The petition calls for stronger disability legislation in Europe. Under the new Reform Treaty: "Not less than one million citizens who are nationals of a significant number of Member States may take the initiative of inviting the Commission, within the framework of its powers, to submit any appropriate proposal on matters where citizens...

  • Give Europeans a vote!

    November 20, 2007

    Many of us would argue that Europeans should pay more attention to the European Parliamentary elections. However, there is no denying that the outcome of the US Presidential elections in 2008 may have as much of an impact on our lives here in the Old Continent as it will in the New. Henning Meyer, creator of the 1,000 strong army of activists on the PES 2009 Election Campaign group on Facebook, is endeavouring to give...

  • Wallstrom launches climate change wiki

    November 19, 2007

    Today sees Margot Wallstrom, former Environment Commissioner and now the EU's Communicator-in-Chief, launch another climate change initiative the Road to Copenhagen. At least it's a road to somewhere, we suppose. The organisation, which includes Club de Madrid, Respect and Globe Europe, is inviting citizens, NGOs, business and government to contribute to a wiki that will become a draft resolution to go to global leaders at Bali climate change meeting in December. One has to wonder...

  • Clegg and Huhne still friends, at least on Facebook

    November 19, 2007

    After a bout of political car crash TV on yesterday's The Politics Show (BBC), a quick and dirty scan through the listings on Facebook reveals that former UK MEPs Chris Huhne and Nick Clegg are still friends.  The Guardian speculates wildly today that whoever loses the UK Liberal leadership election campaign is not likely to find themselves on the Lib Dem front bench... If you like road kill, you can watch it again here. Elsewhere...

  • Essex CC, Facebook and all politics being local

    November 14, 2007

    After reading the story in every publication we looked at this week (well, PA Newsletter and PR Week to be precise), we thought it was about time we gave a nod towards the folks at Essex County Council in the UK. Their comms team have enlisted the power of social networking site Facebook in their quest to oppose the closure of the county's post offices. We can only wish the two hundred odd supporters of...

  • Blogactiv – the future of the EU blogosphere?

    November 6, 2007

    We often stare in wonder at the supposed influence of US bloggers on political discourse and ponder whether such things will ever happen in Brussels. Over at the Brussels Media blog, they report on a development we heard mooted around town over recent months; the development by the internet information portal Euractiv of its own blogging platform blogactiv.eu It is an interesting development, but we think it also throws up some interesting questions about the...