Archive
Year: 2009
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EP survey fever hits us (and may be you)
April 29, 2009
For those who have missed it, we're conducting a survey of MEPs and their digital behaviour. We shall be launching the results on a dedicated micro-site in mid-May. Lots of interesting data (we are currently swimming in pivot tables) from the responses we've collated in recent weeks for both MEPs and their staff and the PA community in Brussels and elsewhere. In case you are feeling that you just can't wait another couple of weeks...
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EU Fisheries Warning on Climate Change
April 27, 2009
If you want a flavour of the political challenges we face in dealing with global climate change, then take a look at European fisheries. It’s a disaster area! We should heed the warnings it sends. For year after year political expediency has triumphed over the evident need for drastic action to save a vital resource from almost complete destruction. The indisputable need to curb fishing effort and allow the recovery of fish stocks has been...
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License, registration and website, please.
April 27, 2009
Last week in Strasbourg, Public Affairs 2.0 came across two examples that show how people still fail to grab the 'digital' opportunity. Andreas Schwab has a slick car. So much so that I wanted to read more about him online. I walked carefully around his car, but couldn't find a website address. Enormous disappointment. Imagine if I wanted to learn more about Dr Schwab's positions. I would have whipped out my new BlackBerry, connected to...
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Join Us: Roundtable Discussion on the Future of Chronic Diseases: Into the Digital Age
April 27, 2009
E-health for chronic diseases is coming of age in the EU. After years of promise, the potential of e-health is beginning to be realised as hospitals, doctors and patients come to use and rely on e-health tools to deliver and support healthcare provision in the area of chronic diseases. Chronic diseases are one of the biggest budget items for healthcare systems, so the ability of e-health tools to bring both clinical and cost benefits to...
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Understanding the digital lives of MEPs
April 24, 2009
Eagle-eyed colleagues have spotted that French daily Le Monde cited this blog as a source in its profile of MEPs and what they do. Well, some good news for those of you who want to know more about the digital lives of our European Parliamentarians. Fleishman-Hillard Brussels is currently engaged in surveying the digital lives of Members of the European Parliament. The audit is seeking to establish how far, and to what effect, MEPs in...
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Trichet Adopts a Measured Pace
April 20, 2009
Don’t pile up new decisions, but execute what has already been decided. That’s the basic approach of ECB President Trichet as expressed in Sunday’s interviews with Japanese newspapers. He thinks the policy-makers have done what it takes to restore global growth, but, he warns, it won’t happen until 2010. Some commentators had complained that the ECB did not cut enough when it reduced interest rates by a quarter per cent early this month to 1.25...
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Digital, ascendant hand in hand with the Parliament
April 14, 2009
The FT's EU-watcher Tony Barber wrote a insightful comment that I'm willing to bet many people missed because it appeared online only and over the Easter holiday weekend, when most EUrocrats and assorted hangers-on depart for family or sunny locales. Tony takes a look from outside the bubbling pot of frogs and notes how the power relationships are shifting among the Commission, Parliament and Council. It's worth reading the full comment for his analysis. His...
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Europatweets
April 10, 2009
A quick nod - via Julien Frisch - to www.europatweets.eu, a nifty website that does a good job of compiling all MEPS twitter feeds. Like out MEP Twitter feed on the right hand column, this site uses a pipe to collect twitters from MEPs, but also to MEPs, from Candidates to MEPs, and from the general public using the elections hashtag. It's an interesting resource. It's good to see a number of sites popping up...
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Could you wait while I look for my hearing aid?
April 10, 2009
Can you Hear Me Europe? Really? That is the best name that MTV could come up with for their European Elections project? As I noted last week, the campaign is initiated by European Commissioner for Communication Margot Wallström and MTV, who met earlier this week. It has received some press coverage. I think the campaign's name is misguided at the least. The Commission's target of 'young citizens between 18 and 24' is the most recalcitrant...
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Public Affairs (News) Goes Digital
April 7, 2009
Our industry's (UK based) trade rag PA News - "essential reading for lobbyists" - proudly announces today by email that it has gone digital. Alas, a mouse click later here and we find that all that this venerable publication has done is place its print copy in a e-magazine format online. It would appear that the public affairs industry is still to learn that simply putting content online that would have otherwise been in ink...