OSCE representative criticises Czech Republic on media freedom

In an official statement published today, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, the Hungarian Miklós Haraszti urges the Czech President Vaclav Klaus to veto the new draft criminal code just passed by the Czech parliament, which according to Harszti will threaten media freedom in the Czech Republic.

Quoting from the statement:

Haraszti objected to the code's provision that could sentence journalists to up to five years in prison and a fine of up to five million crowns for the publication of conversations wiretapped by the police. He also criticized the code for failing to decriminalize defamation.

[...]

Haraszti was also critical of the draft law's failure to differentiate between the liability of state officials who leak information and the liability of civilians, including journalists.

[...]

In addition, he expressed disappointment that the Criminal Code missed the unique opportunity to decriminalize defamation during this legislative reform, and argued that such cases should be dealt with in civil, not criminal, courts.

"A 21st-century Criminal Code in Europe should not preserve crimes that have proven to be incompatible with the modern concept of free speech," Haraszti warned. "They are also at odds with the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights, and even with the practice of the Czech Constitutional Court."

These are quite harsh words against the present EU Council Presidency, and the condemnation by the OSCE representative is very alarming in my ears.

For me, it is unacceptable that the country representing the Council - and thus all 27 member states - sets an example of violating common European values, norms, and standards - so Mr Klaus, stop this law!

European Parliament elections 2009 (49): Awareness raising through Europe Direct

It looks as if the European Union wants to raise awareness for the EP elections through Europe Direct, at least the European Parliament has scheduled a ceremony celebrating the setting-up of (special?) information centres.

350 information centre managers are invited, quite an important figure... Your local information centre you can find here.

Read also:
EU info centres on red altert (18 February 2009)
The second generation of Europe Direct (18 February 2009)

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Under the category "European parliament elections 2009" I am following up national and European activities on the path to the European Parliament elections 2009.

For an overview over all articles in this category have a look at the overview article.

For the five newest post see also the sidebar.

The Community trade mark: New EU Council Regulation - updated

The Council Regulation (EC) No 40/94 of 20 December 1993 on the European Community trade mark, which has been several time amended, will be replaced by a new codified version.

The text of the new regulation (Update: here the second revised version) has been issued by the Council, but it seems to me as if it has not been published yet. Nevertheless, it was on the agenda of yesterdays COREPER meeting (AP 10) as a legislative act, so it should be formally adopted by now.

Interesting: The European Parliament has already approved this codified version in June 2007, but it seems that is has taken another 1 1/2 years until the Council has come to an agreement.

Responsible for the registration of trade marks is the European Union agency called The Trade Marks and Designs Registration Office of the European Union (OHIM).

European Parliament elections 2009 (48): Grahnlaw on the EU law foundations of the EP elections - update

Since Ralf Grahn runs the best legal EU blog on earth, I would just like to point to his recent article titled "EU Law: European Parliament elections".

Everything is in there, including a historical comment and other critical remarks - so don't ask me, ask Ralf!

Update:

Also don't miss Ralf's follow-up on the information provided by the EU institutions for the 2009 elections, notably the EP elections 2009 website I have also criticised some time ago. And don't forget the article on the bases for the number of MEPs.

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Under the category "European parliament elections 2009" I am following up national and European activities on the path to the European Parliament elections 2009.

For an overview over all articles in this category have a look at the overview article.

For the five newest post see also the sidebar.

Damn, I am going to miss the European Pet Night!

I just saw that I will miss the European Pet Night, which takes place already tonight.

Now I have to got to bed without having petted my favourite European critters (this one, this one, this one...)

European Parliament elections 2009 (47): The PR and candidates of the Party of European Socialists (PES)

Today I received an email by the Party of European Socialist (PES), the second within a week.

First, they have invited me (addressing me personally) in my "function" as blogger to participate in the launching of their campaign website www.elections2009.pes.org, which I could not take advantage of because, well understood, I don't live in Brussels.

And today a second email that started with "Dear bloggers", showing that the PES campaign team is taking its PR job relatively serious, not just relying on the national level campaign but engaging also in concrete PR activities on the European level, in this case directly mailing to European bloggers.

The style of their campaign website reminds me of their Manifesto site, a design I am not the biggest fan of. It doesn't really appeal to my eyes and I don't feel very invited to continue reading. That is quite subjective, but luckily I am a blogger and not a journalist.

What I like is the sub-site with the top candidates of the different national parties, an overview that will be quite helpful to see who will be in the next European Parliament from the PES side (especially since most top candidates will probably make their way into the assembly).

And although I don't think that it is the task of a blog to promote PR materials of parties, I would still like to present to you a quotation from Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, President of the PES, that was part of the PR message sent to me:

“The EPP and ELDR have no coherent response on financial market reform and the economic recovery. They will be found out. The PES has a plan: coordinated investments in smart, green growth and regulation covering all financial players at European level and at global level. Already our governments have been proposing progressive job creation programmes. We are the only party that is actively putting pressure on Barroso and McCreevy to come forward with concrete proposals at the spring summit.”

So the campaign has started, the Socialists attack their main adversaries - the European Peoples Party and the European Liberals - saying that they don't have answers to the present crisis. The PES leader also mildly attacks Commission President Barroso (EPP) and Internal Market Commissioner McCreevy (from a party of the national-conservative Alliance for Europe of the Nations).

I hope that the debate(s) will continue on this level, European leaders attacking European leaders, bringing more profile and personalisation to the European dimension of the elections, which might soon be covered by the cacophony of national discussions.

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Under the category "European parliament elections 2009" I am following up national and European activities on the path to the European Parliament elections 2009.

For an overview over all articles in this category have a look at the overview article.

For the five newest post see also the sidebar.

Finnish Foreign Minister Stubb: EU foreign policy co-ordination inefficient

In a blog post titled "Ten Theses on Europe", the Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb discusses the future role of the European Union and its relevance for Finnish foreign policy.

The whole text is not very revolutionary, but I would like to point to one paragraph:

3. A common policy and funding require joint preparation. To me, the External Relations Council of the European Union bears too much resemblance to international conferences where participating states complain about their own worries. We need a much more uniform and effective preparatory machinery that brings more specifically selected and better thought-out proposals to the negotiations. The quarrelsome and dispersed actors of Brussels must be forced, once and for all, to work in better cooperation. The EU foreign ministers should be able to concentrate on major policy lines rather than tinkering with minute details.

This paragraph highlights something that I have experienced myself in one of my previous employments: EU foreign policy co-ordination is not always oriented towards the common good, it is too much focused on little details, on individual countries' "mental state", and not designed to foster positive co-operation but rather inter-country bargaining. This is not only the case on the level of foreign minister represented, but apparently also on the levels below.

However, if a foreign minister (who is working for a country that has presided the EU Council only 2 1/2 years ago) is complaining about the work of the foreign relations Council, this seems to be a quite strong signal to me that the practical organisation of EU foreign policy co-ordination needs reform, not necessarily through a Treaty reform but maybe just by a change in procedures and, what could be even more important, by a change in spirit.

I am very glad that Alexander Stubb is raising this issue, and I hope it is heard among his colleagues and those working in the Council on the side of the member states and also on the side of the Council secretariat.

NATO is planning war on German and French territory around Strasbourg in April - updated

In early April, NATO is celebrating its 60th anniversary in Strasbourg with a huge summit.

For Christoph Marischka, writing for the (interesting but mostly quite leftish) German online portal Telepolis, this will be the state of emergency. Police, army, secret services will join in their efforts to "protect" the international VIPs, limiting citizens' freedoms and mixing up competencies between national, transnational, and international authorities with military and non-military status.

And although the scenario Marischka is painting is rather biased towards the dark side (or better: against), it gives an idea about what the French-German border area around Strasbourg can expect in April:

We will get the usual summit war between the international military (and pseudo-military) forces and the not less militaristic anti-militaristic forces from all over the continent.

Update (11 February 2009):

Today I met somebody who lives and works in Strasbourg. She says that already now it is getting crazy, she and all her colleagues have to fill out questionnaires, and have to announce which guests they expect for the days of the Summit.

She recommends avoiding Strasbourg for these days.

milkshaker.eu - a strange mix (updated)

When you put in many things and mix them like milkshaker.eu does, the result might be that the mix does not taste too delicious!

In other words: I don't get it.

Update (12 February 2009):

Tried to reach the page today, but it seems to be offline. Probably this critique and the one from Brussels Media made them think about the concept?

Moderation and censorship in the European Parliament

Have a look at this very interesting article by the EP webeditors on the problems of distinguishing between moderation and censorship of comments on the European Parliament website.

Why just Georgia? - On the refocussing of European institutions

Sorry, but when I read declarations like this one from the Greek OSCE presidency I ask myself why European institutions seem to over-focus on Georgia.

Diplomacy prefers to come after the crisis, then spends millions of Euros on post-treatment, shortens money for other regions (what about the Western Balkans, Ukraine, Moldova, Nagorno Karabakh...?) and wonders why the situation in those forgotten countries degrades soon afterwards.

Turning every Euro-Cent for preventive measures and wasting large sums on worthless post-conflict activities is just stupid, but almost nobody seems to notice...

Good news: Swiss support Schengen including Romania and Bulgaria - updated

As a vigorous supporter of free movement, yesterday's news that almost 60% of the Swiss support the enlargement of the Schengen free movement agreement for Bulgarians and Romanians was really good news.

The alternative would have been - if I understand it correctly - the halt of the agreement, because the European Union does not allow such a discrimination of its member states: All... or non.

In this sense: Welcome to the family, Switzerland!

From Coulisses de Bruxelles:

Cela fait chaud au coeur de voir que la xénophobie ne triomphe pas toujours.

100% agreement!

The Neue Zürricher Zeitung (NZZ) remarks (by linking different press articles) that finally the Swiss are seen as "good Europeans" instead of being just isolationists.

Recommended: "Some Commissioners to run in this year's EP elections"

Since I don't have time to blog, I just recommend reading The European Citizen's article and the short subsequent discussion on five EU Commissioners that might run for the EP elections, an article based on a EurActive report.

Yet, in the meanwhile, (according to the same EurActive article), Commissioners Potočnik and Figel have denied their intentions to run as EP candidates.

Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA): EU Council work - updated

Next Tuesday (10 February 2009), the EU Council Working Party on Intellectual Property has the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) on its agenda.

According to the agenda of the meeting, the Civil enforcement chapter and the Internet provisions of this international agreement for a more rigid protection of intellectual property will be presented by the Commission and discussed by the member state representatives.

As usual, these discussions take place behind closed doors, so we will not get any details before everything will have been dealt with by diplomats and bureaucrats.

And by the way: The responsible administrator in the EU Council is Leonidas KARAMOUNTZOS, who seems to working in the field of intellectual property inside the EU institutions for quite some time: If you google his name, you will find documents that show that he is at least 10 years in this field.

I am not sure that such a sensitive area with raising attention should be covered such a long time by the same bureaucrat... it sounds like an invitation for lobbyists!

Update (14 April 2009): The negotiation documents of the ACTA negotiations have been leaked (via Netzpolitik)).

European Parliament elections 2009 (46): European Liberals and Democrats (ELDR) with new website

The European Liberals and Democrats (ELDR) have launched their new website:

http://www.eldr.eu.

The reason, according to a press release, are the coming EU elections.

In fact, the new site is not very revolutionary compared to the old site which is still online at the moment.

Interactivity and web 2.0 don't seem to play a big role for the European Liberals. The new site looks a bit nicer, a bit more positive, but I don't see much improvement from the old one.

A change in style, but not in spirit.

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Under the category "European parliament elections 2009" I am following up national and European activities on the path to the European Parliament elections 2009.

For an overview over all articles in this category have a look at the overview article.

For the five newest post see also the sidebar.

New Europe: The future of the EU blogosphere is dark

New Europe has published an article titled "The future of the EU blogosphere".

Under the headline "The Essence" the author tells us:

My fear for the EU blogosphere is that it will be taken over by commercial and political interests.

I might say: This could be the case, but those of us blogging for individual reasons and from an all-European perspective should try to unmask those interests as far as possible. And I am quite hopeful that we will be able to do this.

What is Libertas?

Grahnlaw in a comment to another post in this blog:

According to England Expects media attention has brought down the membership of elected representatives of Libertas to less than seven member states (which is the quarter needed for funding), right after the European Parliament decided to approve Libertas' status as a political party at European level.

The quickest transition in EU history?

Have a look to other Euroblogs, I have seen that this story has been covered!

Read about it: EU blogging moving on

I still don't have much time to blog, but I have a lot of fun reading the two feeds from Th!nk about it:

• The Community feed
  
• The Competition feed

It's not all high quality, high interest, high profile blogging, but it is a good mix of posts from a good mix of people.

I like this - and, already now, thanks to the organisers and bloggers!

GPlus back on track: A small but valuable step towards transparency?

Sorry, I don't have much time to blog these days, but it's still worth mentioning that GPlus is back to the lobby register.

I have, following Brusselssunshine, recently covered that EU lobbyist GPlus was suspended from the European Commission lobby register after refusing to disclose four of its clients.

Brusselssunshine has now followed up on that matter, telling that GPlus is back on the register after publishing that the clients previously hidden are:

• Europcar International
  
• European Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (EVCA)
  
• Lanxess
  
• Toyota
  

I agree with Brusselssunshine that this is an amazing precedent for the future of more transparency in EU lobbying. It is also another sign that blogosphere attention can be reproduced in classical media (i.e. the Financial Times) and forces public (and not-so-public) players to react.

One could say that through Brusselssunshine (and those following) a valuable precedent in non-coercive EU governance has been sped up, which is not much but still enough to see that EU blogging is not totally in vain.

(via Kosmopolit on Twitter)

Dutch PM Balkenende to become European Commission President instead of Barroso?

Le Monde spreads the rumour that Dutch Prime Minister Balkenende might become European Commission President instead of Barroso.

I never really believe those political rumours, but this is the first good news since the starting of Anyone but Barroso!.