Changes in the Slovakia, Belgium, and Finland

Yesterday, Slovakians voted against the ruling social democrats and elected a centre-right majority into the Parliament.

Today, Belgium also tries to vote a new government, and, luckily for the politicians, voting is obligatory over here - because what I heard during last week was that politicians are tired of campaigning and voters tired of voting in Belgium after years of crisis. That is democracy how we love it!

And at the end of next week, Finnish prime minister Vahanen will be replaced by the 41 year old Mari Kiviniemi, bringing some young blood into the European Council in the near future.

Proxy shame & EUGOCOCO

Imagine you organise a large conference with communication professionals from 27 EU member states: What kind of announcement video would you produce?

Okay, you need to know two more things:

1. You are fan of Bob Dylan.
2. Your budget is 0 €.

If you stopped watching the video after 30 seconds because you cannot stand the amazing video and sound effects, please remember you are a Bob Dylan fan and at least watch the next clip until you have read the word that comes at minute 1:17...



Well, what I forgot to mention: You have a friend who is a fan of Star Wars. Maybe you should try this adapted version instead:



On Twitter, we have started using the hashtag #eugococo (European Government Communication Conference) for this conference that is announced so professionally that it can only become a major success.

The European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECRG) - corrected and updated

The "European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECRG)", isn't that the most ridiculous combination one could imagine? Mixing those who want to conserve and those who want to reform?

But it has become a truth:

The British Tories, the Polish PiS and the Czech ODS form a joint eurosceptic group in the European Parliament. This brings together three of the most important not-so-European anti-good-things parties, those who want to conserve the bad sides (like nationalism) in the European Union and reform the good ones (like working together, liberalising interpersonal relations, etc).

But since nobody really wanted to play with them (who wants to play with such a strange trio), they needed to find a bunch of individual MEPs who seem to be so unpopular among their peers that they were ready to form the appendix of their three big brothers.

And they found five six of them, from Finland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Belgium, Latvia, and Lithuania. The theatre group is formed.

Well, this ridicules the idea of a parliamentary group, but since together they combine 56 MEPs from 9 countries [see update on figures at the end!] - more than the Greens - they do have the right to form an official faction in the European Parliament.

Will they hold together? - Probably yes, because it doesn't really hurt them to stick together and the financial and political advantages are probably higher than the losses. But still, according to the new Rules of Procedure (PDF) of the European Parliament (Article 30), they will have to keep up MEPs from at least one fourth of the EU's member countries.

However, if one of the partners says something stupid - and seeing this group it is more than probable that this will happen - the other can easily ignore it, since the national media won't notice it anyway. Being in that group will thus most likely not have any negative influence on the image of the parties. So the reasons to quit might remain lower than the incentives to stay in.

And, to be honest, I think the Union and the Parliament deserve such a strange group, which is the result of a rule made by the majority against the minority short before the elections - but a rule that is easily to circumvent by those who have the will to do it if it serves their individual advantage.

Doesn't that sound like most of the EU's regulations?

PS: Jon Worth has some more substance on this matter. Nosemonkey as well.

Correction (23 June 2009): One more MEP from Lithuania has to be included as I've learned at EurActiv.

Update (23 June 2009): Besides Grahnlaw and La Oreja de Europa who are backlinked below, Jon, Nosemonkey and The European Citizen have followed-up on the story. One of the news passing around today was that the Finnish Centre Party MEP will remain with his colleagues in the ALDE group, thus reducing the ECRG down to 55 MEPs from 8 member countries.

EuroparlTV: Isabelle Durant very first new MEP

The Belgian Green Isabelle Durant was the very first new MEP to register at the European Parliament, and EuroparlTV got her on camera:

Rail noise v. railway competitiveness: The Belgian perspective

Just a little piece of high-level EU politics:

"While Belgium recognises that measures should be taken to reduce the adverse effects of railwaynoise at source, it nevertheless insists that such measures must not jeopardise the competitiveness of the railway sector."

(Special statement by Belgium on Item 12 "Greening transport, strategy for the internalisation of external costs and rail noise abatement measures addressing the existing fleet", EU Council meeting 8/9 December 2009 minutes published today)

10 years of the Bologna Process: A more or less great failure

Next week, on Tuesday and Wednesday, the ministers of Education from 46 European countries, the European Commissioner Jan Figel, as well as representatives from other (international) organisations like the Council of Europe or the UNESCO will meet in Leuven (Belgium) to celebrate 10 years of the Bologna Process.

This process was once started to make academic learning all over Europe more comparable, more reliable, more transparent. For some it was meant as a way to reduce the time young people spend in universities before they enter the labour market. The main goal was to ease mobility across borders, during the studies and between the newly introduced cycles (Bachelor, Master, PhD).

Altogether these goals that are worth supporting, and the process could have led to a better situation for student and academics in Europe.

But the process, despite the superficial changes to a new structure, has been a failure.

Member states didn't take it serious enough. University managements used it to introduce structures that suited their organisational interests more than the interests of mobile students. Co-ordination was poor so that studies across Europe are not more comparable now than they were 10 years ago.

The European Student Union (ESU; formerly ESIB), probably one of the most competent actors to analyse this, made it very clear last week in the press release accompanying the 2009 edition of its biannual publication "Bologna with Student Eyes (BWSE)":

"[W]hile progress has been made on implementing ‘structural’ reforms such as the 3-cycle system (bachelor, masters, doctorat), content reforms such as those relating to mobility, the social dimension and student participation have been largely neglected, leaving a huge hole at the centre of the Process. The report reveals that ten years on, European students are still facing huge barriers to their learning in terms, for example, of socio-economic background, gender and family situation, tend not to be regarded as equal partners in educational and decision-making structures, and are largely unable to take advantage of mobility opportunities to study abroad."

And it continues:

"Consequently, the Bologna Process is in grave danger of being revealed as a superficial redesign of higher education structures in Europe rather than a transformation of the whole academic and learning paradigm."

In the report, ESU shows that in some areas there is at least a little progress, and not everything needs to be painted in black, but the core elements of this reform have never been taken seriously across Europe.

The 10th anniversary of the Bologna Process is thus not a time for celebration, but should be a moment for reflection on what went wrong and how it would be possible to save the ideas - and ideals - of Bologna.

Les élections européennes en Belgique: Une réaction

Sorry for my English speaking-readers, but here comes my French comment to a French article published in a Belgian newspaper titled "L’important enjeu du scrutin européen" ('The important challenge of the European elections'):

C'est intéressant de voir que même en Belgique, le pays qui "héberge" la plupart des institutions de l'Union européenne, la population et les parties politiques ne se concentrent que sur les élections régionales et à peine aux élections européennes.

Comment intéresser ceux qui sont loin de Bruxelles quand même ceux qui sont proche ne suivent pas avec intérêt...?!

I wanted to comment directly, but I need a registration and I cannot register everywhere, so I publish it here on my blog.

The original article discusses low interest in Belgium for the upcoming EP elections, especially compared to the parallel regional elections, and I wanted to express my concern that if those living in the country hosting the most important European institutions do not feel interested in the European elections - how can we expect somebody living further away to care for what is going on in Brussels?

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In this blog, 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.

Belgium back to crisis

Several news sources report that Belgian prime minister Leterme has offered his resignation tonight:

Belgian media say Prime Minister Yves Leterme has offered his resignation after his government failed to agree on more self-rule for Belgium's Dutch and French-speaking camps.

Leterme who has been in office since 20 March 2008 has led a 5-party-coalition that was meant to produce national unity. It seems as if this project has failed.

UPDATE:

According to TV, the king of Belgium has refused the resignation.