... this is the last real post of this blog, and the day after tomorrow at midnight, quite exactly two years after he came into existence, the blogger "Julien Frisch" will cease to exist.
Two years ago, I have started this blog because I wanted to. I just thought it was right and necessary to discuss European politics from the perspective of a convinced European. And so I did.
However, I didn't want to throw myself into the public at that time. I also didn't want to take my private history with me, I wanted to try to develop a new voice, one that went beyond what I had done before. I wanted to talk about what came to my mind, and I wanted that my words were just taken as the words of an individual person; I wanted to write freely without being interpreted in the context of my private or professional life.
So I decided to write the blog under a pseudonym - "Julien Frisch".
I've always liked the name "Julien" because it sounds good in English, French, and German (even in Spanish), and I added "Frisch" mainly because of Max Frisch, the Swiss author - Switzerland being some kind of a small European Union and Max Frisch an author that I liked reading. Important was also that the combination "Julien Frisch" didn't produce any Google results at that time, so I wouldn't take up a spot that was already covered by others.
In the first year - despite the blog receiving some relevant attention in the EU sphere although the actual readership has never been big compared to big national blogs - almost nobody (except for 1-2 friends) in my surroundings knew I was writing a blog. Even up until today there is only a limited amount of people inside and outside Brussels who know my real name and there is still only a limited amount of friends, family members and people I have met outside the web that know my blog because I told them.
I never had the intention to promote myself, and I have no intention to change that with this last post. So you got to know me as Julien Frisch, and you will see me vanish as Julien Frisch.
The main reason why I will stop writing this blog and stop using the pseudonym is that I feel limited in my work as a political scientist and also that I want to get involved in new projects related to EU politics that would bring about conflicts of interest if I continued writing under a pseudonym.
Actually, I've never had a problem using the pseudonym because I've never been directly involved in EU matters or lived in Brussels (until recently) while writing it.
I even started to react very well to that new name after a while. But today it makes me feel restricted in becoming active outside the digital sphere, in particular because I always have to think about whether I need to tell persons my blogging background or not. Because of the latter I also get uncomfortable as a political scientist whenever I ask people to talk with me.
In addition, blogging on this blog also takes up a lot of time. And since beside my work as political scientist I want to devote some more time for other EU- and non-EU-related projects, there is also the problem that days only have 24 hour and weeks only 7 days.
Hence, I needed to make a choice, and the choice has been made against the blog and against the pseudonym.
Don't get me wrong: This is no spontaneous decision, I've been thinking about that for while already, but I feel that now is the time to leave. I will continue contributing to the development of the euroblogosphere through Bloggingportal.eu, and I will also continue to be around in EU social media communication. But this will not be in the context of this blog and not under the pseudonym that has followed me for the last 24 months.
When I will re-appear, I will be my real me, and even if I will have to start from the scratch, I don't want to take "Julien Frisch" with me. Call it creative destruction or an idiotic digital suicide, but the decision has been taken.
So this blog and this identity will come to an end, the euroblogger "Julien Frisch" will disappear into the digital nirvana from Thursday at midnight and I'll leave this identity behind without much regret because while it has been a great time I still love to move on.
I hope you enjoyed reading and following this blog and my Twitter account, and I hope I could inspire one or the other person to become active and to engage online and offline in EU politics.
It's actually not difficult to become a euroblogger, just take the courage to attack the little stupid things happening around EU decision-making every day, follow 2-3 subjects of interest over time to be able to tell a real story, and interact with others who are involved inside and outside the EU sphere. Share your knowledge and your ideas, spread news and discussions, and you will realise that even when your audience is not massive you reach out to people who care.
Go and fight the hierarchies and the ignorance of the higher ranks, disclose the hidden politics and secret circles that have formed to profit from the complexity of the Union, attack the narrow-minded and the satisfied, show that bureaucratic politics are not without alternatives, unveil that diplomatic language only exist to cover the failure to actually produce solutions, make your voice heard from inside the institutions and shout into the half-open doors of these institutions if you are on the outside.
Write in English or German, Maltese or Polish, but do it, just do it! If we don't do it, the Union might fail due to a lack of open and honest critique.
And don't hesitate, as I did, to use a pseudonym, as long as you stick to it, as long as you don't use it to protect lies or undue attacks. I feel that the pseudonym has given me the freedom to be more objective, to be more direct, to cover issues because I found it important to cover them, not because I wanted to present my person in the best possible way. It allowed me to experiment with my identity, with my style(s), with my thoughts and political positions.
This blog may not have existed if I would have been legally obliged to disclose my real name. And I would not have been the person I am today, doing the things I do the way I do them. This is meant to be a statement against anybody who wants to prevent anonymous or pseudonymous writing.
Yet, it doesn't mean that this is the perfect model, it's just an option that might work well for some people in some situations as it has worked for me over the last two years. I still think that in an ideal society we would all be able to write openly and freely about what we think and about what we want to write in our own name, but society isn't ideal, so sometimes our choices aren't either.
Now these are definitely the last words of the last article of this blog and I could go through a long list of people who deserve thanks and congratulations for so many different reasons, but I will just quit by saying good bye and leaving quietly into the summer sun of Brussels.
See you around in Europe, online or offline!
Sincerely yours,
Julien Frisch
PS.: The comments of this blog will stay open until the day after tomorrow, 11.59 pm, and then I will close them forever. I will also stop writing on my Twitter account at this time. My email address will remain active, so if you need to contact me for whatever reason in the future, feel free to do so.
Showing posts with label me. Show all posts
Showing posts with label me. Show all posts
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
Thursday, 17 June 2010
A Euroblogger's report from the EPP Summit
But let's report from the beginning, starting on Tuesday evening when I began to write this blog post.
Tuesday, 15 June 2010, 23h11
The EPP has invited me to come to the their pre-European Council summit on Wednesday in Meise near Brussels. I'm not a journalist, I am a blogging political scientist, and so I've no clue what my role can, will and should be. I'm not even sure why exactly they want me to be there and why they trust me - I've just met their spokesperson Kostas Sasmatzoglou once over a beer.
But I have agreed with pleasure to go to the summit because the scientist in me finds it fascinating to watch such an event from as close as possible, the blogger thinks it is worth trying to write about this from a different perspective, and the Bloggingportal.eu editor expects that it is definitely worth having (euro)bloggers at this and other comparable meetings, showing that a coverage beyond classical journalism is possible without being in competition with the journalists (I'm not going to fight for the best pictures or quotes, I promise!).
Yet, while I'm writing these words - it is still Tuesday evening, one day before the meeting - I'm not sure what I should do and write, how I should prepare, what I should take with me.
Should I go in a suit and adapt myself to the people I'm going to look at or should I go in street wear to make clear I'm a blogger, I'm different - I'm a rebel? I don't even know how journalists go to such an event or whether they actually care. I'll probably go in a suit...
So far all I know is that tomorrow at 5.15 pm I will enter a bus organised by the EPP in front of the European Parliament and this bus will bring me and some journalists to a place near Brussels that is called "Bouchout Castle" where the EPP leaders will meet to prepare the European Council meeting on Thursday. And I know that some of the participants of the summit are among the most influential people in EU politics (and beyond).
The main questions I have are:
How close will I get? Should I just stay and watch? Will a story come to me or will I have to find my story? Should I be overly critical to show that although I was invited I still keep my independency and critical thinking as a blogger? Will there actually be something worth criticising or will I rather just see the staging of a political event without being able to actually observe anything of value?
No answers yet, hope to find them tomorrow.
Wednesday, 00h07
Okay, so the EPP meeting is scheduled from 19h30 to 22h00, the Party of European Socialists' (PES) prime ministers and leaders are meeting from 19h00 to 21h00 and, surprisingly, the European Liberals (ELDR) don't have anything on their agenda.
Too tired to search more in detail, will do that tomorrow.
Wednesday, 11h13
Did some research to see how some of the less known EPP leaders look like.
Then I saw on Twitter that Barroso held a speech in front of the European Parliament talking about the upcoming European Council. I was shocked by the bad quality of the text, so I interrupted my search for photos of EPP leaders from Malta and Lithuania to write a blog post about that speech.
If this blog post about the EPP summit would end up too uncritical, I'd at least have something where I could argue that I was at least somewhat critical about one of the main EPP leaders today. Oh, and to underline that I should remind I was one of the supporters of the Anyone but Barroso campaign and I criticised the choice of Jerzy Buzek as European Parliament president. For the protocol.
Wednesday, 13h35
Tried to find some in-depth background on the substance of the upcoming European Council. Not much really, beside the draft annotated agenda. Thankfully, Grahnlaw who also complained about the lack of background notes did some preparatory work for us here, here and here. The press is focussing on the Merkel-Sarkozy meeting yesterday.
Wednesday, 13h49
I realise that while Buzek, Barroso, van Rompuy, Juncker and Merkel are on the provisional list of participants, Sarkozy isn't. (I hear later that day that Sarkozy doesn't come since Wilfried Martens became EPP President. I don't know whether that is true.)
Now continue looking up not-so-prominent EPP leaders, including opposition politicians who won't be at the real summit tomorrow. I realise I wouldn't even recognise Yves Leterme. Luckily his country won't exist for too long.
Talking about Belgium: What would happen if an EU Presidency country would split up during the presidency. Would we have two presidencies then?
Wednesday, 15h21
Finally, the official invitation letter to the European Council and the long-awaited background note have been published by the Council communication services.
Wednesday, 16h12
Did some necessary reading while following Spain-Switzerland in the background. Now thinking about what I should take with me to Meise. Thought about bringing my laptop but it'll probably be more disturbing than helpful, although I'd look more like a blogger.
Decided to just take something to write, a small digital camera, a bottle of water and a book in case I need to wait somewhere without being able to do something else. You never know...
Wednesday, 16h43
Dressed up, ready to leave.
I look conservative in a suit, don't I?! Think I might fit in well then. Decided just to take something to write and the camera. Don't want to carry a bag around.
Wednesday, 17h00
The bus is waiting on the parking opposite to the European Economic and Social Committee. The journalists waiting mostly wear normal clothes, only some appear in a suit. I feel slightly overdressed, but not too much.
Wednesday, 17h30
The bus is leaving and I'm told by one of the EPP people that I'm going to receive a "VIP badge" at the venue. Until now I'd thought I'd be like all the other journalists, but apparently I'm not. I'm glad that I chose to wear the suit and that I didn't take my bag. But I feel slightly uncomfortable, especially towards those journalists travelling with me who probably won't get these privileges.
Wednesday, 17h55
We are still in the bus, passing by the Royal Parc in the north of the city. In my head the thoughts are turning whether I should be glad to get a real view behind the scenes or whether I should feel guilty. I decide to feel glad. Kind of.
Wednesday, 18h10
We arrive at the entrance to the castle and walk towards the venue. It's a perfect day to walk in the parc, sun is shining and it's neither too cold nor too warm.
Wednesday, 18h25
When we arrive at the castle, the journalists have to wait in the line to get checked and receive their badges. After I ask how I would be handled, I'm led inside the castle where I receive a green badge that allows me to walk around freely and to access the whole venue except for the meeting room of the EPP leaders. In that sense I'm now on the same level as the EPP leaders' advisors, which meant I was able to walk along with the politicians on the stairs to their room.
At one point I was walking 50 cm next to Silvio Berlusconi who was then stopped by the security because they didn't know him while I had been walking up and down several times already. How often will that happen in a lifetime: Berlusconi is stopped by the security while the blogger keeps on walking...
Wednesday, from 18h30
During the next hours, I hang around in the advisors' room and in the press area on the ground floor, taking pictures, starring at important people arrive in big cars, listening to prime ministers' advisors speak about politics and football, watching journalists do their work, seeing communication people spin communication, talking with journalists and EPP people, thanking Roberta Alenius for the good communication work of the Swedish presidency (did anyone notice the Spanish Presidency on the web?).
Most fun I had talking with a group of medical staff who were at the event in case of an urgency and who also were allowed to access the advisors' room to profit from the buffet. Since they didn't know, I explained the nature of the event, who was expected and why they were here. Whenever a limousine with someone important arrived I tried to tell who he (no women except for Merkel...) was.
My favourite reaction from them was when I told that this summit was actually a meeting of the European centre-right and one of them said: "What, this is the Right? Then I will eat more food from the buffet." That seemed to be a good punishment for the Right from someone who didn't sound like a fan.
Wednesday, around 20h00
The "family photo" is taken (EPP twitpic & flickr).
Wednesday, after the family photo
Afterwards the leaders disappear into the meeting. Until 21h30, you don't hear anything from the conference room except the very general tweets from the official EPP Twitter account (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here).
Then, at 21h30 Jyrki Katainen, EPP Vice President and Vice Prime Minister of Finland comes to the press - many journalists had already left after they got individual interviews form the arriving EU leaders and the family photo - and gives the remaining press crowd an intermediate briefing about the state of discussions.
I only understand that he is more optimistic than before the meeting and that there seemed to be some agreement on more transparency (I think it was on transparent stress tests for banks). Some journalists directly inform their home bases. Must have been incredibly substantial, but I cannot notice but that Katainen doesn't sound like a Vice Prime Minister but rather like someone who talks to the press for the first time in his life.
Wednesday, 21:45
I'm told that the bus is already there. For a moment I think whether I should stay, listen to the final press conference and then try to get home on my own. But since I don't expect anything spectacular to happen, I walk back to the bus.
Wednesday, 22:15
We leave. The journalists sitting in front of me in the bus transcribe the briefing from Katainen some 45 minutes ago. Another journalist joins them and gives them some background information he has heard from someone important.
Wednesday, 22:35
We arrive at the parking where we left five hours ago. It is still quite warm and the daylight is almost gone. I walk home.
Conclusion (Thursday, 2:30 am)
It was indeed fascinating to see such an event from as close as I was allowed to watch it, to walk around freely and to see all these different people work around such an event. It is important that people like me don't just take a look at EU politics through the limited windows of the web but that we go and see and smell how these things feel like in reality.
But let's face it: I didn't witness much substance. I didn't see much politics, I wasn't dealing with arguments, the world didn't get better because I was there.
At such an event you can get the obligatory 20 seconds of video material for the evening news, you may be able to have a background chat with an advisor or to grasp a glimpse of power rushing by and disappearing in the maze of endless meetings and discussions, materialised in a photo or two (or three).
As a blogger, I don't think I could have actually contributed much more than by writing this report. Anything else I could do would be classical journalism, just online and just without money. And I'm not a journalist.
In the end, blogging needs to cover what is not yet covered instead of just following the crowd - and "big" events like EPP summit are occasions where the media will come for sure.
Bloggers need to take a closer look behind the scenes, scenes that are not just made for the purpose of looking nice but that are actually hiding things that need to be revealed. Bloggers should go to events where journalists can't go because they wouldn't be able to sell the story or because they don't have the time to participate or because they don't have the competence to understand the substance or the background.
I realised today again that I am not a journalist, and I don't feel like becoming one.
I'm not interested in fighting for background information or a line I can quote. It's not enough for me to have a nice picture shot and then disappear. It also doesn't satisfy me to get to know details that I'm not able to write about afterwards, at least not by quoting the original source.
That doesn't mean that bloggers - citizens writing for other citizens - shouldn't be invited to such events. To the contrary: I am still convinced that looking at (EU) politics with different eyes than the ones of professional journalists can add layers that make democratic processes more interesting, more rich, more colourful.
If you don't have to sell a story, you look at profanities with less interest and you listen to details with more care. If you don't need to reach out to the rest of the world, you can actually chat with the medical staff and discuss with people who are actually concerned by the big and small politics that are produced and reported during these events.
Being at such an event as the EPP summit and having the privilege just to watch closely, to listen and to see the others rush from task to task shows you how much of politics is just a lot of hot air, done with a lot of professionalism and usually with a good bunch of enthusiasm, enthusiasm that is necessary for democratic processes but that is maybe too often stuck in rituals than in real substance.
And so a long day ends, another day where the life of the euroblogger Julien Frisch has been enriched by new impressions, new acquaintances and new ideas - things that I would never have seen or done hadn't I started this blog almost two years ago. Big thanks to the EPP for the invitation!
All pictures were taken by me. You are free to use them under Creative Commons license (CC BY 3.0).
Update: Below you find the video the EPP produced about the event.
Sunday, 16 May 2010
The travel
Getting up way too early in my home village, the day began cold and rainy. Not the perfect start, but who cares?! Since non of my family members was at home, one of the neighbours was so kind to get up early, too, and to bring me and my luggage to the train station in the neighbouring city (the bus goes there just once a day!). Big thanks again!
The only person that I came across in the regional train at that time was a man searching for empty bottles in the litter boxes. He turned to me asking very carefully whether I had a Euro for him. Which I had.
Later on, in the next train, a young mother and her young child were walking through the wagon in what was apparently a train discovery tour of the little child. Since the mother talked Russian to the infant, I said "privyet" (one of the few Russian words I know) to the girl when it discovered that it could fold down the seat next to me and climb on it.
This one Russian word made that the mother began speaking in Russian to me, so I had to interrupt her with two more words I know in Russian: "Nye panymayou..." ("I don't understand.") She then told me in German that they were on their way to grandma and grandpa, which reminded the child that there was still a lot to discover before the train arrived. And so it left, taking the mother with her.
In the next city where I had to change trains I used the time to drink a coffee and to read the regional newspaper. Interestingly, the first page of the cultural part of the newspaper was a full page about John Malkovich playing a serial killer on scene in Brussels. They seemed to know where I was heading...
Arriving in Cologne, I had to rush to get my connection train to Brussels.
A lady in front of me was also rushing, which her scarf didn't appreciate and so he decided to leave her in favour of the platform floor. I picked him up and had to rush even quicker behind the woman to catch her, which I only managed two wagons later when she was already entering the train. Handing the scarf over to her saying in German that I supposed that it belonged to her, she turned around, smiled, and thanked with a loud and cordial "Bedankt!" (which is Dutch). I think she and her pink scarf will be able to continue living a fulfilled life together!
The high speed train from Cologne to Brussels was packed, but I had reserved a seat and so I could relax after the rush and sit down at the table with three (still unknown) passengers after helping another lady with her luggage (I wouldn't mention that also if it wasn't part of the story, as you will see).
I was kind of tired but still tried to read the Spanish novel that I had taken with me to practice my Spanish (since I was moving in with a Spanish). But I realised that it's kind of hard to read a foreign language that you haven't used for a while, especially when you are tired and people around you chat in 4-5 different languages including Finnish (the woman on the other side of the corridor was reading a Finnish newspaper). So I plugged in my earphones and listened to spheric techno music provided by one of the train's radio channels.
At some point, the woman next to me and the man on the other side of the table started chatting, apparently in Spanish and soon later I became part of the conversation because my neighbour had concluded, seeing my novel, that I must also speak Spanish (she wasn't aware that I had just failed to concentrate on the book).
So the conversation continued for a moment in Spanish until we realised that he was actually an American who had just moved to Germany and she and me were Germans, so we changed to English which allowed the fourth passenger on the table, an Austrian living in Brussels, to also join the conversation.
Two main topics evolved for the rest of the trip: German culture and dialects (because the American wanted to visit Germany in the weeks to come and asked for advice) and Brussels sightseeing tips (because he wanted to visit Brussels but only had the rest of Saturday and Sunday).
Arriving at Bruxelles-Midi the conversation ended and we wished us goodbye.
But the woman whom I had helped with her luggage when entering the train had heard that I was moving to Brussels and thus she asked where I would start working (probably assuming that I'd be heading into one of the EU institutions). I told her why I was coming.
She then grabbed into her pocket and handed me her business card - she is, as I learned, the assistant of a German MEP - and told me: "Here you see the first Brussels habit: Everybody will give you their business card. Contact me - we have all started small here in Brussels!"
I realised that I don't have business cards yet. I probably need some not to be regarded as an outcast here in Brussels.
The American and I left the train together and I walked through the train station with him. Since I still had time until I could move into my apartment in the evening and since the sun was shining I decided to join him for his sightseeing tour.
We left the metro at the stock exchange and were received by the loud techno music of the last wagon of the Brussels gay pride parade. We had a drink on the central place (yeah, like real tourists!), talked about Europe (he has been around for a while already) and then left towards the European Parliament where I gave a rapid tour in EU politics. Hardest question: Who is the most important person in the EU?
In front of the Spaak building of the European Parliament we met three Algerians, one from Belgium, one from France, and a senator from Algeria, who were also on a visiting tour, and entered into a friendly discussion (in French) about European history and intercultural relations with them, a discussion that went on for about 15 minutes. The Algerian from Belgium told that it was the first time in the 40 years he was living in Belgium that he came to see the institutions, but he wanted to show his friends what we Europeans were able to develop over the last decades, which he thought could be a model for the Arab world, too (though he had doubts that this was possible).
The American and I ended our tour on Place Jourdain with Belgian fries and a drink in one of the cafés before we finally separated.
I walked to my apartment not very far from the place and finally got to know my Spanish housemate (Bruxelloise for several years already), her cat and her parents who were on a visit here in Brussels. We spent the rest of the evening with tasty Spanish food and wine, talking in Spanish and French about life in Spain and Germany.
This was a truly European day with so may different facets, and honestly: If I had just come for this one day, my travel to Brussels would have already been worth it!
Picture: © renaissancechambara / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Saturday, 15 May 2010
Sunday, 9 May 2010
My Europe (4): Brussels
Belgium will be the fifth European country in five years that I am living in, but I don't feel like I am going "abroad". I am going away from where I am now, and it will be different from where I have been in the past. But that is not important, this is life in Europe.
In fact, I move to Brussels as a political scientist, as somebody who is trying to understand social and political regularities of a system called "European Union". These regularities may not even be specific to the EU, but I am interested in studying them for this particular case, a supranational political system.
This is actually the first time I will live in Belgium and in Brussels, and it is the first time that I will try to take a look at EU politics from inside "the bubble" (except for my short visit last October).
I'm intrigued by the change of perspective, although I still hope that I can keep the view of an outsider while trying to adapt to the living conditions of a new city and a new country.
I'm not sure what this will do with my blogging, because I've always been euroblogging from an outsider perspective. But as I have said above: I come as a political scientist, not as a blogger. Blogging will move with me, but that is because it is part of my European citizenship, not my profession. There is no need to be in Brussels to euroblog, to the contrary, it might even be better not to be there.
What I know is that as a political scientist I want to meet as many people working in and around the EU institutions as possible and talk about their work, their thoughts, see how they interact and how this makes them part of EU decision-making.
So if you'd like to meet me as political scientist or as a (blogging) European citizen, don't hesitate to contact me, I'm interested in a lot of topics and perspectives related to EU politics or life and work in the EU "capital".
Until then, I wish you a Happy Europe Day 2010, a happy 60th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration - and see you around, whether in Brussels or elsewhere in our Europe!
Picture: © redvers / CC BY 2.0
Thursday, 29 April 2010
My 1000th Euroblog post: Join the "My Europe" experience!
Next week, from May 3rd until May 9th, European bloggers are going to organise a blog carnival titled "This is My Europe" - and I thought it would be worth dedicating the 1000th post of my own euroblog to announce this here.
Whether you have a blog or not, you can join and write, either by sending us the link to your blog post or by posting your complete article directly on our #myeurope platform, both through this form. It doesn't matter whether you write in English or French, Estonian or Maltese, Russian or Turkish, just write about Your Europe, your thoughts, wishes, ideas, angers...
The team of editors of Bloggingportal.eu is looking forward to your contributions!
I myself have been "Watching Europe" since 1 July 2008 with 1000 blog posts. I found my way into the circle of people blogging about European issues - I call them eurobloggers - through the EU blog directory (not updated anymore) that Nosemonkey had set up and kept updated at the time - I was included around August 2008. Since then, I have stayed around the block.
And believe me: When I started the blog, I didn't think that I would ever reach 1000 posts, especially not in just 22 months.
In the first year of my euroblog, quite some posts have been devoted to my thoughts about Europe and about European blogging, besides my focus on the European Parliament elections. Just some examples:
- What is Europe and why am I writing about it?
- Digging deeper
- Talking to Europe
- The European Dream
- A European blog = A European blogger?
More recently, I tried to explain how my mind became a "European Mind", why I am blogging in English, and I told a story about the strange notion of "Strangers". These are all different kind of reflections on how I perceive Europe, the European Union, and the blogging about both.
But these are just my thoughts on Europe, and I hope many of you will join to tell stories about your Europe, making #myeurope a shared experience of European bloggers and European blogging.
Let's shape the next week into our joint European week 2010 - be part of the experience!
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
Euroblogging, journalism & institutional communication
It is important to exaggerate from time to time, which is the luxury of writing a blog.
But while my vision of journalism in Brussels and the video Journalists vs Bloggers were meant as satirical reference to debates that I think are not really worth having, I have given a short interview (French; Spanish, Italian, English, German) to Cafébabel with a more serious tone and a more balanced argumentation.
Take a look and judge whether you like me like this or whether you prefer me less balanced in my own blog...
But while my vision of journalism in Brussels and the video Journalists vs Bloggers were meant as satirical reference to debates that I think are not really worth having, I have given a short interview (French; Spanish, Italian, English, German) to Cafébabel with a more serious tone and a more balanced argumentation.
Take a look and judge whether you like me like this or whether you prefer me less balanced in my own blog...
Saturday, 20 March 2010
Radio music. Newspaper. Fresh coffee.
Starting the weekend with radio music, the newspaper, and a big cup of black coffee.
Good morning, Europe!
PS.: My reading recommendation for the weekend are the panel presentations (panel 1 & 2) from this European Defence Agency conference last month - a pretty clear view at where the EU is in terms of military capabilities right now.
Good morning, Europe!
PS.: My reading recommendation for the weekend are the panel presentations (panel 1 & 2) from this European Defence Agency conference last month - a pretty clear view at where the EU is in terms of military capabilities right now.
Thursday, 18 March 2010
Overconfidence & blogging
Sometimes you should just shut up and think before you write your unreasonably overconfident comments into the web. And with "you" I mean me.
My excuses go to Eurotribune.
My excuses go to Eurotribune.
Friday, 29 January 2010
The European Mind
As we grow, our minds grow with us. As we age, our eyes see and our ears listen. And when we are mature enough, we understand.
The story of my European mind probably begins in that one single moment when my parents decided to buy me a book with a lot of pictures and words in a foreign language - English - even before I learned that language in school. Weeks later, we had visitors who spoke that language as a mother tongue, and I could actually use these foreign words I had memorised until then, seeing that learning a language was worth the effort.
One year later, we travelled to the UK. First to the big city - London - with the many international tourists, a lot of history, and loads of things I had never seen before. Then we went to another region of the country - Wales - where people also spoke English. But the son of the family where we were staying went to a school where I got to know, going with him one day, that "Bore Da" was another possible way to say "Good morning" in the United Kingdom.
Yet another year later, I stood on top of the Eiffel Tower for the first time and I knew how to order orange juice in French. I had gone there because my school, although situated in a town of less than 10,000 inhabitants in a region quite far away from any border, had a special European profile with a focus on France at that time and I had won a trip together with other pupils from my school.
Two years later, I spoke some basic French and spent the first week in a French family during a school exchange, something I would repeat several times during my school time.
In the same year, we also visited my relatives in the Czech Republic, seeing a different kind of economic situation than I witnessed in France or Germany. Nevertheless, I was always received with arms wide open. And at the end of the year I knew that "attention" and "pozor" meant the same in French and Czech.
In the summer of the following year we were on summer holidays in Bulgaria and also spent an evening with family friends that my mom's parents had made when they lived in the Soviet Union, and they hosted us as if we were part of their family. And yet another year later, I was allowed to go to a French lycée for a trimester, living with a guest family during that time who also took care of me as if I was their son.
After the trimester, I participated with others from my school in a meeting of young people from four cities in France, Germany, Poland and Spain. I still remember that evening when a Spanish girl was explaining a game in French which I was translating into English for the Polish who didn't speak French while next to me one of the French boys was chatting in German with one of my classmates.
After this night I realised that my mind had become a European mind.
I knew it right away, and still remember how sharp it hit me. Everything that has happened afterwards was guided by these school years and especially shaped by that one evening that revealed the full beauty of the European project to me at the right moment in my life to make the right decisions afterwards.
Until then, my parents and my European-profile school had opened my eyes and ears for Europe, and this openness was the right attitude to become a European citizen with a European mind. Since then, I have lived in several European countries and travelled to even more without ever feeling foreign - to the contrary: With every new place I see and with every new person I meet I feel more home everywhere on the continent.
I will thus always be deeply grateful to my parents and thankful to my school for that they made this state of my teenage mind possible - and my school has received a small donation from me these days that they will hopefully use to open the minds of the next generation of European citizens.
The story of my European mind probably begins in that one single moment when my parents decided to buy me a book with a lot of pictures and words in a foreign language - English - even before I learned that language in school. Weeks later, we had visitors who spoke that language as a mother tongue, and I could actually use these foreign words I had memorised until then, seeing that learning a language was worth the effort.
One year later, we travelled to the UK. First to the big city - London - with the many international tourists, a lot of history, and loads of things I had never seen before. Then we went to another region of the country - Wales - where people also spoke English. But the son of the family where we were staying went to a school where I got to know, going with him one day, that "Bore Da" was another possible way to say "Good morning" in the United Kingdom.
Yet another year later, I stood on top of the Eiffel Tower for the first time and I knew how to order orange juice in French. I had gone there because my school, although situated in a town of less than 10,000 inhabitants in a region quite far away from any border, had a special European profile with a focus on France at that time and I had won a trip together with other pupils from my school.
Two years later, I spoke some basic French and spent the first week in a French family during a school exchange, something I would repeat several times during my school time.
In the same year, we also visited my relatives in the Czech Republic, seeing a different kind of economic situation than I witnessed in France or Germany. Nevertheless, I was always received with arms wide open. And at the end of the year I knew that "attention" and "pozor" meant the same in French and Czech.
In the summer of the following year we were on summer holidays in Bulgaria and also spent an evening with family friends that my mom's parents had made when they lived in the Soviet Union, and they hosted us as if we were part of their family. And yet another year later, I was allowed to go to a French lycée for a trimester, living with a guest family during that time who also took care of me as if I was their son.
After the trimester, I participated with others from my school in a meeting of young people from four cities in France, Germany, Poland and Spain. I still remember that evening when a Spanish girl was explaining a game in French which I was translating into English for the Polish who didn't speak French while next to me one of the French boys was chatting in German with one of my classmates.
After this night I realised that my mind had become a European mind.
I knew it right away, and still remember how sharp it hit me. Everything that has happened afterwards was guided by these school years and especially shaped by that one evening that revealed the full beauty of the European project to me at the right moment in my life to make the right decisions afterwards.
Until then, my parents and my European-profile school had opened my eyes and ears for Europe, and this openness was the right attitude to become a European citizen with a European mind. Since then, I have lived in several European countries and travelled to even more without ever feeling foreign - to the contrary: With every new place I see and with every new person I meet I feel more home everywhere on the continent.
I will thus always be deeply grateful to my parents and thankful to my school for that they made this state of my teenage mind possible - and my school has received a small donation from me these days that they will hopefully use to open the minds of the next generation of European citizens.
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Why I am Euroblogging in English
I started to write a blog post in German, and then I erased everything because it didn't sound right.
The reason I even though about blogging in German was this request by Europaeum yesterday:
What I realised is that for me, part of the Euroblogging experience is writing in a foreign language.
It is leaving the national thought system and entering into a mindset that has been shaped through so many European experiences, most of them connected with speaking English. English is also the language I read and write the most in my scientific work. Changing into English thus means to think more analytically and to feel more cosmopolitan at the same time - and both are constitutive parts of this euroblog.
So while I understand that Euroblogging needs to go national, it wouldn't work out for me.
I am ready to connect to the national blogosphere(s) through any possible channel, I am ready to read blog posts in as many languages as I can read or that Google Translate is able to handle, but I don't feel comfortable euroblogging in German.
And to be honest, I am personally convinced that euroblogging in English makes sense at this development stage of the Euroblogosphere: With only a limited number of blogs, there is the need to be able to interact easily and quickly, to be able to grasp the other's argument and to turn it into real debates.
I agree that this doesn't really happen in the Euroblogosphere so far. But if all of us were writing in our own national language, there would be even less possibility for debate, because we would miss many interesting points other are writing about (since we definitely wouldn't translate every post not written in a language we understand).
So don't expect me changing languages in this blog - it's English and it'll stay this way.
The reason I even though about blogging in German was this request by Europaeum yesterday:
Außerdem wünsche ich mir von den vielen Euroblogs noch mehr Mut, auch in der eigenen Sprache zu bloggen und damit die Euroblubble wenigstens ein Wenig aufzustechen.For those not familiar with German: Europaeum is hoping for a little more courage by eurobloggers to blog in their mother tongue in oder to puncture the eurobubble.
What I realised is that for me, part of the Euroblogging experience is writing in a foreign language.
It is leaving the national thought system and entering into a mindset that has been shaped through so many European experiences, most of them connected with speaking English. English is also the language I read and write the most in my scientific work. Changing into English thus means to think more analytically and to feel more cosmopolitan at the same time - and both are constitutive parts of this euroblog.
So while I understand that Euroblogging needs to go national, it wouldn't work out for me.
I am ready to connect to the national blogosphere(s) through any possible channel, I am ready to read blog posts in as many languages as I can read or that Google Translate is able to handle, but I don't feel comfortable euroblogging in German.
And to be honest, I am personally convinced that euroblogging in English makes sense at this development stage of the Euroblogosphere: With only a limited number of blogs, there is the need to be able to interact easily and quickly, to be able to grasp the other's argument and to turn it into real debates.
I agree that this doesn't really happen in the Euroblogosphere so far. But if all of us were writing in our own national language, there would be even less possibility for debate, because we would miss many interesting points other are writing about (since we definitely wouldn't translate every post not written in a language we understand).
So don't expect me changing languages in this blog - it's English and it'll stay this way.
Small remark
It seems so natural but it's still amazing to have coins from France, Spain, Austria, Ireland, Portugal, Belgium and Italy in my pocket today.
Sunday, 10 January 2010
Remembrance
During the week I met a friend in an area where I had lived in the past.
The friend was a little late, so I took a walk around the area, seeing that the Turkish greengrocery where I had been buying fruits and vegetables and couscous was about to be shut down.
The supermarket in which I had done my weekly shopping had been re-arranged, and the personnel was different.
Nevertheless, in the supermarket I saw two people I remembered, one who had even lived in the house where I had lived before. He didn't recognise me, but he was also occupied yelling at the shop assistants for some reason I didn't understand.
Walking around, I passed in front of the Asian takeaway where I had bought food from time to time. It was still the same lady, probably of Vietnamese origin, and when she saw me passing by she said: "Long time no see."
She had remembered me over almost two years, a time in which I had moved several times, living in three different places. We held a little chat. The business wasn't running so well because of the cold weather. I told that I moved away.
I wasn't hungry, and didn't have much time, but I still felt a little ashamed walking away without eating anything after our short conversation.
My friend came. We left the area, talking about the day and the weeks to come.
The friend was a little late, so I took a walk around the area, seeing that the Turkish greengrocery where I had been buying fruits and vegetables and couscous was about to be shut down.
The supermarket in which I had done my weekly shopping had been re-arranged, and the personnel was different.
Nevertheless, in the supermarket I saw two people I remembered, one who had even lived in the house where I had lived before. He didn't recognise me, but he was also occupied yelling at the shop assistants for some reason I didn't understand.
Walking around, I passed in front of the Asian takeaway where I had bought food from time to time. It was still the same lady, probably of Vietnamese origin, and when she saw me passing by she said: "Long time no see."
She had remembered me over almost two years, a time in which I had moved several times, living in three different places. We held a little chat. The business wasn't running so well because of the cold weather. I told that I moved away.
I wasn't hungry, and didn't have much time, but I still felt a little ashamed walking away without eating anything after our short conversation.
My friend came. We left the area, talking about the day and the weeks to come.
Saturday, 2 January 2010
Strangers
It was quite warm in southern Germany where I spent this New Year's Eve.
Waking up late on the first day of the new decade, we decided to drive to the fortress of the city and to walk up the mountain on which the castle had been built centuries ago, strong and massively protected by several walls, a monument of the medieval Europe and probably a symbol of the modern Europe, too.
We had almost finished our walk around, when we saw a young child of probably 2-3 years, crying and walking quickly behind his family that had gained some 150 metres of advance. They had probably left the child behind as a disciplinary tactic that you apply sometimes to make little children learn how to behave.
Yet, I still felt sorry for the little infant.
Reaching the child, I asked whether it wanted to take my hand and come with me. I didn't expect a positive reaction, but it immediately took my fingers with its own little fingers and continued walking straight forward. More surprisingly, the little human being stopped crying the moment it was walking by my side.
Together we approached the other family members who were now waiting in the distance, curiously watching the unexpected couple.
I tried to have a little chat with the child, but I received no answer on my questions, and so we continued, silently moving along the high walls of the stronghold with all its political and cultural implications the child would only understand after many years of education.
When we reached the family, the mother (I suppose she was the mother) told me with positive astonishment: "It is quite strange: He doesn't want to walk on our hands, but he immediately takes the hand of a stranger and even stops crying."
She said this in German with a slight but audible Slavic - maybe Czech - accent.
We smiled, I handed over the smallest family member, and wished a Happy New Year to the rest of the family. Leaving them behind, I heard the mother talk to the child in their mother tongue that I couldn't identify since we had departed for some metres already. In any way, it didn't matter to me, as long as the child and the family seemed happy.
And neither the child nor I had thought of the other as a stranger.
Waking up late on the first day of the new decade, we decided to drive to the fortress of the city and to walk up the mountain on which the castle had been built centuries ago, strong and massively protected by several walls, a monument of the medieval Europe and probably a symbol of the modern Europe, too.
We had almost finished our walk around, when we saw a young child of probably 2-3 years, crying and walking quickly behind his family that had gained some 150 metres of advance. They had probably left the child behind as a disciplinary tactic that you apply sometimes to make little children learn how to behave.
Yet, I still felt sorry for the little infant.
Reaching the child, I asked whether it wanted to take my hand and come with me. I didn't expect a positive reaction, but it immediately took my fingers with its own little fingers and continued walking straight forward. More surprisingly, the little human being stopped crying the moment it was walking by my side.
Together we approached the other family members who were now waiting in the distance, curiously watching the unexpected couple.
I tried to have a little chat with the child, but I received no answer on my questions, and so we continued, silently moving along the high walls of the stronghold with all its political and cultural implications the child would only understand after many years of education.
When we reached the family, the mother (I suppose she was the mother) told me with positive astonishment: "It is quite strange: He doesn't want to walk on our hands, but he immediately takes the hand of a stranger and even stops crying."
She said this in German with a slight but audible Slavic - maybe Czech - accent.
We smiled, I handed over the smallest family member, and wished a Happy New Year to the rest of the family. Leaving them behind, I heard the mother talk to the child in their mother tongue that I couldn't identify since we had departed for some metres already. In any way, it didn't matter to me, as long as the child and the family seemed happy.
And neither the child nor I had thought of the other as a stranger.
Tuesday, 29 December 2009
2009 - a summary
2009 has been the year the European Year of Creativity and Innovation, and as usual almost nobody outside Brussels has noticed.
What everybody noticed were the European Parliament elections 2009 that have dominated this blog for the first half of 2009. The last election day and the Monday after the elections were the most successful days (in terms of visitors and hits) of this blog in the first semester. I should also remind you of the Th!nk About it! blogging competition where I was invited to moderate a discussion at the final event in Rotterdam.
The second semester was much more quiet with the summer break - until my visits to Hungary where I spoke to local and regional journalists and to the "Brussels bubble" in October. This visit was extremely fruitful, meeting people I only new through blogging and Twitter, and discussing issues that are very relevant to my own research as a political scientist. These days in Brussels have been covered in a four-part series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 & Part 4.
On 3 November 2009, we finally saw the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty that has put the EU on a new constitutional basis on 1 December 2009 - probably the last "major" reform for at least a decade.
And over the year, we got many new and renewed faces for the top EU posts: Jerzy Buzek as European Parliament President (my comment), José Manuel Barroso as European Commission President (see the very first Chasing Brussels Podcast episode), Hermann van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton for European Council President and "Foreign Minister" (Eurobloggers' comment) as well as Pierre de Boissieu as EU Council Secretary General (comment by Grahnlaw) and his successor Uwe Corsepius (my portrait. Not to forget the new European Commission as proposed by Barroso at the end of November that is awaiting confirmation in January.
Well, and we have seen the amazing evolution of Bloggingportal.eu that has become the point of reference for the Euroblogosphere that I expect to continue to mature in 2010, where we will have to move to more policy-related issues after a year dominated by institutional and personality issues.
I myself am looking forward to 2010, not least since I know my own life will change again as I might move to Brussels for some time in Spring, and I will continue blogging as I did in 2009 - although I don't think I will be able to repeat the amount of almost 600 posts published over the year...
PS: My special thanks this year go to the Swedish Presidency Twitterers and blogging Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt for their work in making the Council Presidency the most transparent ever, serving as examples to build upon in the future!
What everybody noticed were the European Parliament elections 2009 that have dominated this blog for the first half of 2009. The last election day and the Monday after the elections were the most successful days (in terms of visitors and hits) of this blog in the first semester. I should also remind you of the Th!nk About it! blogging competition where I was invited to moderate a discussion at the final event in Rotterdam.
The second semester was much more quiet with the summer break - until my visits to Hungary where I spoke to local and regional journalists and to the "Brussels bubble" in October. This visit was extremely fruitful, meeting people I only new through blogging and Twitter, and discussing issues that are very relevant to my own research as a political scientist. These days in Brussels have been covered in a four-part series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 & Part 4.
On 3 November 2009, we finally saw the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty that has put the EU on a new constitutional basis on 1 December 2009 - probably the last "major" reform for at least a decade.
And over the year, we got many new and renewed faces for the top EU posts: Jerzy Buzek as European Parliament President (my comment), José Manuel Barroso as European Commission President (see the very first Chasing Brussels Podcast episode), Hermann van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton for European Council President and "Foreign Minister" (Eurobloggers' comment) as well as Pierre de Boissieu as EU Council Secretary General (comment by Grahnlaw) and his successor Uwe Corsepius (my portrait. Not to forget the new European Commission as proposed by Barroso at the end of November that is awaiting confirmation in January.
Well, and we have seen the amazing evolution of Bloggingportal.eu that has become the point of reference for the Euroblogosphere that I expect to continue to mature in 2010, where we will have to move to more policy-related issues after a year dominated by institutional and personality issues.
I myself am looking forward to 2010, not least since I know my own life will change again as I might move to Brussels for some time in Spring, and I will continue blogging as I did in 2009 - although I don't think I will be able to repeat the amount of almost 600 posts published over the year...
PS: My special thanks this year go to the Swedish Presidency Twitterers and blogging Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt for their work in making the Council Presidency the most transparent ever, serving as examples to build upon in the future!
Thursday, 29 October 2009
Positive blogging, the future, and the one missing fact
Discussing with a fellow euroblogger yesterday about life and blogging, and thinking about a recent post of mine that I ended with the call to send in critical details about the politician I was writing about, I realised why it is rare that I write rather positive blog posts.
When I write about something that is positive I always have doubts that I missed a detail, that I didn't research hard enough to get the full picture of the story. I look for it, trying to find both sides of the story, but there is nothing, at least nothing I can find. And then the doubts start whether this is a good or a bad sign.
When I come across a negative detail, it is pretty clear that it is negative and that I should write about it. But does finding a positive detail mean that it is really positive? I suppose that this is the old scientific debate between verification and falsification. But it impacts the way I write, because positive accounts of what is happening in the EU are not written as natural as negative ones - not because I don't see them but because I am not sure about them.
And there is a second problem with positive blogging: The future.
Writing about someone or something who/that looks good today might turn out negative in the future (like idols becoming dopers, good leaders turning out to be corrupt, a good bill in one policy having a negative impact in another). So even when you think that you have researched hard enough you are not sure whether the picture you paint today will hold in the future - and whether you aren't contributing to praising something that is actually harmful.
If you think about it, it happens far more often that something that was called positive in the past is seen very negatively in the future, while it occurs rather seldom that a negative issue in the past will be redefined as positive later on.
Positive blogging is thus more risky than negative blogging, it involves more insecurity, and I suppose that this leads to a certain style characterising most of the political blogosphere - which in the end is still not that bad in a world filled with way to many yeasayers...
When I write about something that is positive I always have doubts that I missed a detail, that I didn't research hard enough to get the full picture of the story. I look for it, trying to find both sides of the story, but there is nothing, at least nothing I can find. And then the doubts start whether this is a good or a bad sign.
When I come across a negative detail, it is pretty clear that it is negative and that I should write about it. But does finding a positive detail mean that it is really positive? I suppose that this is the old scientific debate between verification and falsification. But it impacts the way I write, because positive accounts of what is happening in the EU are not written as natural as negative ones - not because I don't see them but because I am not sure about them.
And there is a second problem with positive blogging: The future.
Writing about someone or something who/that looks good today might turn out negative in the future (like idols becoming dopers, good leaders turning out to be corrupt, a good bill in one policy having a negative impact in another). So even when you think that you have researched hard enough you are not sure whether the picture you paint today will hold in the future - and whether you aren't contributing to praising something that is actually harmful.
If you think about it, it happens far more often that something that was called positive in the past is seen very negatively in the future, while it occurs rather seldom that a negative issue in the past will be redefined as positive later on.
Positive blogging is thus more risky than negative blogging, it involves more insecurity, and I suppose that this leads to a certain style characterising most of the political blogosphere - which in the end is still not that bad in a world filled with way to many yeasayers...
Monday, 12 October 2009
I don't mind climate change
Quoting myself from a comment I made to a post of fellow euroblogger Stephen on Th!nk about it 2:
"I don’t mind climate change, I rather mind overuse of limited resources, destruction of natural habitats, and the rapid pollution of our environment, some of which [just] overlaps with concerns regarding climate change."In other words: I think that the goal of preventing climate change is less important than the goal of changing our behaviours so that the earth will still be a liveable place with a healthy environment and enough natural resources for every human being, now and in future generations - no matter at what temperature this will be.
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
In the Brussels bubble (3): Are blogs and social media any useful?
On the long road to a common European Public Sphere, I used my short trip to the Brussels bubble (see my previous posts on this trip here and here) to discuss with different communication professionals about the role of blogs and other social media to advance EU politics.
First, I asked the journalists I met whether they'd find euroblogs helpful for their work and what kind of articles were most interesting for them. There seemed to be an agreement that euroblogs are part of their sources and that they read euroblogs to get new perspectives on certain topics and to find original information presented in an original way. Of most value were those posts that would make them aware of new things they hadn't come across so far. Blogs are seen as a kind of pre-filter for the mass of raw information available. Bloggers that screen, summarise, and discuss original information thus seem to be of most value for journalists.
I think that is a reasonable point, especially one that goes beyond the standard blogger vs. journalist dichotomy.
Others, like the lobbyists/PR consultants, European political party employees and also Commission officials seem to be screening both the euroblogosphere but also Twitter in order to be able to react to new developments, and the information they are getting in both spheres seem to be quite relevant for their work or are at least becoming more important. However, I have the feeling that there is much room for development, and that the use of social media both for information gathering as well as for active communication is in some ways at a very early stage of development, and the main developments are yet to come for these actors.
Thanks to the help of a fellow Twitterer from the European Parliament (thanks a lot again!), I was also able to talk to the European Parliament web editors, a meeting I hadn't foreseen before the trip but that was extremely fruitful, for both sides I hope.
Part of our discussion was on how one could advance the European Parliaments online communication in order to reach out to new audiences.
The point I was making very strong - not just with them but with most people I met - is that in order to make European politics more appealing, we have to leave the black box of EU decision-making and get to a stage where the whole process, not just the final result is more visible and traceable for the "outside world". To get there, we inter alia have to personalise EU policy-making, we have to show who is responsible at what stage, how the debates start and how they end. And social media are particularly able to do this.
But when they - blogs, Twitter, Facebook etc. - are employed, it has to be clear this does not only imply personalisation of one-way communication, but should also include the willingness to interact, to allow for the outside world to provide input that is then taken up by MEPs and others in a recursive process.
This seems to be standard knowledge to anyone involved in social media, but as one can witness from many social media communication efforts of politicians or institutions, the real understanding that this time it is not just a change in means but also in attitudes and behaviours still needs to reach out.
Just not to be mistaken: I saw that the web editors of the Parliament are actually having these discussions among themselves, that they are well aware of all this. But I also realised that changes in the (online) communication always have to be evaluated in the light of the teams responsibility for the communication of a collective organisation in which their impartiality and the balance between the political groups has to be guaranteed - which isn't as easy as it might look from the outside (which won't stop us, the outside, to be demanding... :-)).
But they looked really enthusiastic, interested and willing to get the visibility of the Parliament to a new level - and I can only ask all politically responsible persons within and outside the EP to support them in their endeavour!!
In the same line, I also told that I find their blog (as any open communication from inside institutions) extremely helpful, because you understand better what kind of considerations and thoughts are behind changes or new developments. The blog opens up the black box of the administration - the "bureaucracy" - and shows that there are human beings (with human smells) working together for us. And I hope my comments did not create extra work for some of the human beings...
But not only the institutions have to change, we - citizens willing to make the European Public Sphere a reality - also have to consider how we can actually contribute to bring things forward.
With Mathew, who has already written a number of extremely inspiring posts on the European Online Public Sphere, the added value of blogging, and the role of the EU institutions (e.g. here, here, and here), I intensively discussed how one could develop a European blogosphere that is intelligently specialised along policy areas and also reaches from and into the national blogospheres.
This was the real-life follow-up to what I started with my post on the creation of a "European blog discourse" earlier this year. I think we agreed that such a project is absolutely necessary but will face a number of challenges - who secures the translations, who filters information from the national blogospheres, who could fund necessary support structures, would external financing influence the credibility of the process, and who would administer possible funds - and that we should discuss these more in detail.
We will start doing this in a collective blog uniting interested (euro- and other) bloggers. The blog should be set up in the near future, maybe under the roof of Ideas on Europe, to unite our discussions in one public forum, not to disperse it over to many places and blogs, which makes it hard to follow for outsiders.
But to find an end to this post:
What I could see in all the meetings I had is that social media is changing institutions and actors in Brussels, and that most are trying to adapt, both out of necessity and out of conviction that these developments are actually good - and I think we as citizens can contribute by sharing our thoughts and by demanding that the changes are made in our interest and in the interest of a transparent European democratic system, whatever this might look like.
Where it will lead us is not so clear and will need a definition that won't be definite either, but that there needs to be something more is absolutely sure.
PS.: I realise by the length of this post that I took quite some food for thought from Brussels with me. In the next blog post on the Brussels bubble I will thus share some thoughts that came to my mind during these days on possible problems blogging faces when it goes local in Brussels.
First, I asked the journalists I met whether they'd find euroblogs helpful for their work and what kind of articles were most interesting for them. There seemed to be an agreement that euroblogs are part of their sources and that they read euroblogs to get new perspectives on certain topics and to find original information presented in an original way. Of most value were those posts that would make them aware of new things they hadn't come across so far. Blogs are seen as a kind of pre-filter for the mass of raw information available. Bloggers that screen, summarise, and discuss original information thus seem to be of most value for journalists.
I think that is a reasonable point, especially one that goes beyond the standard blogger vs. journalist dichotomy.
Others, like the lobbyists/PR consultants, European political party employees and also Commission officials seem to be screening both the euroblogosphere but also Twitter in order to be able to react to new developments, and the information they are getting in both spheres seem to be quite relevant for their work or are at least becoming more important. However, I have the feeling that there is much room for development, and that the use of social media both for information gathering as well as for active communication is in some ways at a very early stage of development, and the main developments are yet to come for these actors.
Thanks to the help of a fellow Twitterer from the European Parliament (thanks a lot again!), I was also able to talk to the European Parliament web editors, a meeting I hadn't foreseen before the trip but that was extremely fruitful, for both sides I hope.
Part of our discussion was on how one could advance the European Parliaments online communication in order to reach out to new audiences.
The point I was making very strong - not just with them but with most people I met - is that in order to make European politics more appealing, we have to leave the black box of EU decision-making and get to a stage where the whole process, not just the final result is more visible and traceable for the "outside world". To get there, we inter alia have to personalise EU policy-making, we have to show who is responsible at what stage, how the debates start and how they end. And social media are particularly able to do this.
But when they - blogs, Twitter, Facebook etc. - are employed, it has to be clear this does not only imply personalisation of one-way communication, but should also include the willingness to interact, to allow for the outside world to provide input that is then taken up by MEPs and others in a recursive process.
This seems to be standard knowledge to anyone involved in social media, but as one can witness from many social media communication efforts of politicians or institutions, the real understanding that this time it is not just a change in means but also in attitudes and behaviours still needs to reach out.
Just not to be mistaken: I saw that the web editors of the Parliament are actually having these discussions among themselves, that they are well aware of all this. But I also realised that changes in the (online) communication always have to be evaluated in the light of the teams responsibility for the communication of a collective organisation in which their impartiality and the balance between the political groups has to be guaranteed - which isn't as easy as it might look from the outside (which won't stop us, the outside, to be demanding... :-)).
But they looked really enthusiastic, interested and willing to get the visibility of the Parliament to a new level - and I can only ask all politically responsible persons within and outside the EP to support them in their endeavour!!
In the same line, I also told that I find their blog (as any open communication from inside institutions) extremely helpful, because you understand better what kind of considerations and thoughts are behind changes or new developments. The blog opens up the black box of the administration - the "bureaucracy" - and shows that there are human beings (with human smells) working together for us. And I hope my comments did not create extra work for some of the human beings...
But not only the institutions have to change, we - citizens willing to make the European Public Sphere a reality - also have to consider how we can actually contribute to bring things forward.
With Mathew, who has already written a number of extremely inspiring posts on the European Online Public Sphere, the added value of blogging, and the role of the EU institutions (e.g. here, here, and here), I intensively discussed how one could develop a European blogosphere that is intelligently specialised along policy areas and also reaches from and into the national blogospheres.
This was the real-life follow-up to what I started with my post on the creation of a "European blog discourse" earlier this year. I think we agreed that such a project is absolutely necessary but will face a number of challenges - who secures the translations, who filters information from the national blogospheres, who could fund necessary support structures, would external financing influence the credibility of the process, and who would administer possible funds - and that we should discuss these more in detail.
We will start doing this in a collective blog uniting interested (euro- and other) bloggers. The blog should be set up in the near future, maybe under the roof of Ideas on Europe, to unite our discussions in one public forum, not to disperse it over to many places and blogs, which makes it hard to follow for outsiders.
But to find an end to this post:
What I could see in all the meetings I had is that social media is changing institutions and actors in Brussels, and that most are trying to adapt, both out of necessity and out of conviction that these developments are actually good - and I think we as citizens can contribute by sharing our thoughts and by demanding that the changes are made in our interest and in the interest of a transparent European democratic system, whatever this might look like.
Where it will lead us is not so clear and will need a definition that won't be definite either, but that there needs to be something more is absolutely sure.
PS.: I realise by the length of this post that I took quite some food for thought from Brussels with me. In the next blog post on the Brussels bubble I will thus share some thoughts that came to my mind during these days on possible problems blogging faces when it goes local in Brussels.
Saturday, 3 October 2009
In the Brussels bubble (1)
The third morning of my trip into the Brussels bubble has begun; it is a little grey but still not less promising than the days before.
What should I say, now that the first half of my time here in the self-referential centre of the European Union is over? Should one have an opinion on something like Brussels after so short of a time?
I think yes.
The first thing that comes to my mind is that the eurodistrict seems like the most undemocratic and intransparent place I could imagine. The architecture is either depressingly monolithic or bombastically modern. There is almost no colour and no life (beyond moving suits) in the area.
The street system between the institutions is completely counterintuitive, and to my remembrance there are no signs guiding the way from one institution to the other. The lack of intuitiveness, the lack of logic of why some administrative or political body is where it is, and the depressing architectural system perfectly represent the political system of the Union:
Citizens are supposed to stay out, and the only ones quickly finding their way are the EU insiders and experts.
However, leaving the eurodistrict, Brussels is fascinatingly multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, and shines with many different architectural facets.
I've been having one of the best dinners in my life in a Lebanese-Israeli restaurant yesterday. I love the many colours and styles in the metro when driving through the city. It is beautiful to have breakfast in a french-style restaurant with classical jazz music on a quiet morning. It's energising to sense the weekend's vibrations in the student district. Eating a fresh nectarine while walking through provincial streets of Elsene/Ixelles feels like being on holidays.
And I suppose I could prolong the list after today when I'll have done some sightseeing with a friend of mine.
If the political system of the Union was able to breeze in this life outside the eurodistrict - where, by the way, the multi-cultural face of Brussels disappears almost completely - it could become more human, more vibrant, more open to changes and the needs of the society of the 21st century.
In the Brussels bubble, however, there seems to be not much room for this kind of life or political openness - if you don't consider lunches between mostly white, highly educated professionals on the Place Luxembourg in front of the European Parliament an expression of openness and diversity.
PS.: More on the Brussles bubble and the people I've met in some days, after I've come back and have a full picture.
What should I say, now that the first half of my time here in the self-referential centre of the European Union is over? Should one have an opinion on something like Brussels after so short of a time?
I think yes.
The first thing that comes to my mind is that the eurodistrict seems like the most undemocratic and intransparent place I could imagine. The architecture is either depressingly monolithic or bombastically modern. There is almost no colour and no life (beyond moving suits) in the area.
The street system between the institutions is completely counterintuitive, and to my remembrance there are no signs guiding the way from one institution to the other. The lack of intuitiveness, the lack of logic of why some administrative or political body is where it is, and the depressing architectural system perfectly represent the political system of the Union:
Citizens are supposed to stay out, and the only ones quickly finding their way are the EU insiders and experts.
However, leaving the eurodistrict, Brussels is fascinatingly multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, and shines with many different architectural facets.
I've been having one of the best dinners in my life in a Lebanese-Israeli restaurant yesterday. I love the many colours and styles in the metro when driving through the city. It is beautiful to have breakfast in a french-style restaurant with classical jazz music on a quiet morning. It's energising to sense the weekend's vibrations in the student district. Eating a fresh nectarine while walking through provincial streets of Elsene/Ixelles feels like being on holidays.
And I suppose I could prolong the list after today when I'll have done some sightseeing with a friend of mine.
If the political system of the Union was able to breeze in this life outside the eurodistrict - where, by the way, the multi-cultural face of Brussels disappears almost completely - it could become more human, more vibrant, more open to changes and the needs of the society of the 21st century.
In the Brussels bubble, however, there seems to be not much room for this kind of life or political openness - if you don't consider lunches between mostly white, highly educated professionals on the Place Luxembourg in front of the European Parliament an expression of openness and diversity.
PS.: More on the Brussles bubble and the people I've met in some days, after I've come back and have a full picture.
Friday, 25 September 2009
Hungary.EU - EU.Hungary
Not much blogging this week as you have seen. The reason is simple: I spent some days in Hungary, combining holidays with being a Euroblogger.
Upon the invitation by Café PR, a subunit of Café, one of the largest PR and communication agencies in Hungary, I participated in two Media Academies that Café PR organised for the European Commission in Hungary.
The goal of this series of academies is to discuss with local and regional journalists on how to report about the EU, how to find reliable information on EU topics, and how to link EU-related information and news with relevance for the local/regional level.
After I got asked whether I would be ready to participate as a presenter during two of the academies, sharing my experiences on how I - as a blogger - find and present EU-related information, I adapted my initially different holiday plans in favour of Hungary.
So I first spent two days of pure holidays in Budapest - a city that can easily cope with other major European capitals as a touristic destination - and then moved on to Debrecen and Szeged where the Academies took place.
Especially Debrecen was the positive surprise of the last years.
Being the 2nd-biggest city in Hungary, Debrecen has a beautifully restaurated city centre that is larger than one might expect at the first sight. But the self-proclaimed "Calvinist Rome" impresses not only with its city centre, its nice choice of cafés and bars, and with an open friendly human atmosphere, but also with a university complex that is a touristic attraction in itself.
The campus is situated some two kilometers north of the historic city centre, on the southern rim of a large forest-park, and since the tourist information recommended going there and also to pass by the university I finally found myself in front of the main university building - and had difficulties to close my mouth (which wasn't made easier when seeing the interior, too).
Honestly spoken, if I was a student again I would try a lot to get an ERASMUS place there, and I would seriously consider a fellowship-offer if the university made one to mee...
And it is not just the main building, the whole campus with its mix of historic, modern, and functional buildings, its huge fountain and the botanic garden is more than impressive. Together with the atmosphere in the centre and on the campus, Debrecen left the image of an excellent place with all basic conditions for academic work.
But let's not forget the media academies:
They involved, beside myself, one of the main and most respected EU experts in Hungary, Zoltán Horváth, and György Urkuti, editor at the Hungarian business newspaper Világgazdaság and renowned journalist with a major focus on EU affairs, as well as Ákos Moskovits from the Media Unit of the Commission Representation in Hungary.
Our presentations went from current EU affairs over how to find interesting EU news and information to good and bad examples on how the EU is presented in Hungarian news, which seemed to be a fairly interesting mixture of perspectives.
So it was a pity that not too many journalists were participating in the free events... Nevertheless, I still had the impression that those who were there took an honest interest in what was said, and I had the feeling that even the euroblogger's perspective I was representing was of some added value, in particular to the younger journalists present.
For me, this trip was in any case extremely valuable, both because I could discover Hungary and because I met a number of amazing people I might not have met otherwise and with whom I share the passion for Europe, European politics and modern communication.
My warmest wishes and thanks thus go to Veronika and Anita from Café PR who did a marvellous job in organising the events and who were maximum helpful and flexible in facilitating both my travel and accommodation. I also send many thanks to my co-presenter György, who, as I learned, is a reader of Euroblogs and proposed me as a possible presenter for these events to Café PR.
And last but not least I'd like to thank my interpreters in both cities - Hungarian is not in my repertoire and so their work was most appreciated! Attila Terök, my interpreter in Szeged who usually is doing freelance interpretation for the European Parliament and other EU institutions, is even a blogger himself, running a blog in which he translates American rap vocabulary into Hungarian...
What I again take with me from these days is that Europe and the EU is not about Brussels and Strasbourg, but it is about people with shared interest meeting and discussing freely, without borders between their countries and without walls within their minds - and anyone who does not understand this dimension of European integration will never understand my passion for the European project!
Upon the invitation by Café PR, a subunit of Café, one of the largest PR and communication agencies in Hungary, I participated in two Media Academies that Café PR organised for the European Commission in Hungary.
The goal of this series of academies is to discuss with local and regional journalists on how to report about the EU, how to find reliable information on EU topics, and how to link EU-related information and news with relevance for the local/regional level.
After I got asked whether I would be ready to participate as a presenter during two of the academies, sharing my experiences on how I - as a blogger - find and present EU-related information, I adapted my initially different holiday plans in favour of Hungary.
So I first spent two days of pure holidays in Budapest - a city that can easily cope with other major European capitals as a touristic destination - and then moved on to Debrecen and Szeged where the Academies took place.
Especially Debrecen was the positive surprise of the last years.
Being the 2nd-biggest city in Hungary, Debrecen has a beautifully restaurated city centre that is larger than one might expect at the first sight. But the self-proclaimed "Calvinist Rome" impresses not only with its city centre, its nice choice of cafés and bars, and with an open friendly human atmosphere, but also with a university complex that is a touristic attraction in itself.
The campus is situated some two kilometers north of the historic city centre, on the southern rim of a large forest-park, and since the tourist information recommended going there and also to pass by the university I finally found myself in front of the main university building - and had difficulties to close my mouth (which wasn't made easier when seeing the interior, too).
Honestly spoken, if I was a student again I would try a lot to get an ERASMUS place there, and I would seriously consider a fellowship-offer if the university made one to mee...
And it is not just the main building, the whole campus with its mix of historic, modern, and functional buildings, its huge fountain and the botanic garden is more than impressive. Together with the atmosphere in the centre and on the campus, Debrecen left the image of an excellent place with all basic conditions for academic work.
But let's not forget the media academies:
They involved, beside myself, one of the main and most respected EU experts in Hungary, Zoltán Horváth, and György Urkuti, editor at the Hungarian business newspaper Világgazdaság and renowned journalist with a major focus on EU affairs, as well as Ákos Moskovits from the Media Unit of the Commission Representation in Hungary.
Our presentations went from current EU affairs over how to find interesting EU news and information to good and bad examples on how the EU is presented in Hungarian news, which seemed to be a fairly interesting mixture of perspectives.
So it was a pity that not too many journalists were participating in the free events... Nevertheless, I still had the impression that those who were there took an honest interest in what was said, and I had the feeling that even the euroblogger's perspective I was representing was of some added value, in particular to the younger journalists present.
For me, this trip was in any case extremely valuable, both because I could discover Hungary and because I met a number of amazing people I might not have met otherwise and with whom I share the passion for Europe, European politics and modern communication.
My warmest wishes and thanks thus go to Veronika and Anita from Café PR who did a marvellous job in organising the events and who were maximum helpful and flexible in facilitating both my travel and accommodation. I also send many thanks to my co-presenter György, who, as I learned, is a reader of Euroblogs and proposed me as a possible presenter for these events to Café PR.
And last but not least I'd like to thank my interpreters in both cities - Hungarian is not in my repertoire and so their work was most appreciated! Attila Terök, my interpreter in Szeged who usually is doing freelance interpretation for the European Parliament and other EU institutions, is even a blogger himself, running a blog in which he translates American rap vocabulary into Hungarian...
What I again take with me from these days is that Europe and the EU is not about Brussels and Strasbourg, but it is about people with shared interest meeting and discussing freely, without borders between their countries and without walls within their minds - and anyone who does not understand this dimension of European integration will never understand my passion for the European project!
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