Riga will host BEREC

As "predicted", Riga (Latvia) will host the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) (source).

Update: Here is the press release following the formal approval on Monday, 31 May 2010.

Will Latvia get BEREC? - updated

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Update (28 May 2010): Council Document 9880/10 mentioned below has been published - and, as predicted, the winner of the seat of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) is Riga, the capital of Latvia.

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The EU needs many bodies and agencies and groups and things and they need to be spread all around the Union to make it appears as if we are fair and just and equitable.

So now it looks like that on Monday there will be a decision on the seat of the Office of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC), although the respective Council document (9880/10) mentioned in the agenda linked above is not even listed in the register of Council documents.

As Grahnlaw noted in December, BEREC and it's office were created by a regulation in November 2009. BEREC replaced the ERG ('European Regulators Group for electronic communications networks and services') and has been seated in Brussels so far.

From what I can see and read, Riga seems to be the only city campaigning for the seat, apparently supported by France, and so the decision might have just been between keeping it in Brussels and moving it to Riga.

But we all know how the EU works and so I'm pretty sure that on Monday we can congratulate Latvia to host yet another EU agency. Celebrations!


Picture: © an_agent / CC BY-NC 2.0 (flickr)

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.

Where I won't be on EP election day: Daugavpils

Due to a short-notice, work-related meeting I need to attend I won't be able to travel to Daugavpils to report from there about the European Parliament elections 2009. :-(

Since I will be home on Sunday then, I have just offered the district administration to be a voluntary electoral assistant (poll support) because they were looking for those over the last weeks. If they'll need my help, I will be working on Sunday, if not I will try to report live about what is going on in Berlin and Germany.

And that is the difference between a private blogger and a journalist:

Blogging and reporting about what is going on around has to be behind work on the priority list.

As a private blogger, I cannot guarantee to be somewhere, to report about everything important. I can just try. This is why we will need professional journalists today as we will need them in the future: To ensure continuous coverage of politics and society.

Still, it is a pity that I won't be able to be in Daugavpils this weekend.

What I can do as a compensation is to offer to anyone living or being in Daugavpils to publish an article about the elections here on my blog.

You would be the replacement for my eyes and ears, but you may take whatever perspective you like, pro- or anti-EU, socialist, liberal, conservative or undecided. If you want to connect this with an advertisement for your business, your project, your region etc. I am open to include this, too!

Just contact me and tell me who you are, what you do, and what you would like to write about!

European Parliament elections 2009 (105): A volunteer's look at the elections in Latvia

Since I plan to go to Daugavpils in Latvia for the European Parliament election day, I was interested in how others might look on the situation in the country.

A German volunteer working in Latvia reports on Youthreporter.eu from Latvia in an article titled "Keine Ahnung" ('No clue'):

"In a country that is not as big as Bavaria and that has not as much inhabitants as Saxony-Anhalt there are more than 10 parties running for the elections this year. The translations of the parties' names brings up illustrious names like "Latvia's Way", "People's Party, "New Era", "Latvias First Party", "For Fatherland and Freedom", "Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party", "For Human Rights in United Latvia", or Socialist Party of Latvia".

The first five are rather conservative, patriotic, and anti-Russian. The last three are rather belonging to the left-wing, pro-Russian side. In between there is the "Union of Greens and Farmers", which has not much in common with the Western image of a Green party; they are also quite conservative but more oriented towards the protection of the environment and the interests of farmers.

All parties have in common that they see a remarkable amount of reproaches for corruption and ... a frequent change of personnel. If a party becomes inconvenient for a politician, he just changes to the next one. And with the personnel also the thematic focus of the parties change, so that you don't have a voter base for parties but for individual politicians.

Regarding the election campaign for these elections, you can find giant billboards in Riga and also in other big cities, active street campaigning, flyers on sidewalks and in waste bins. The newspapers are full of electoral advertisement for individual parties, too.

On the other side, almost all students and pupils I have spoken with about the elections have to admit that they don't now much about politics. They don't believe any promise of any politician in Latvia. [...]"

(own translation)

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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.

Where I will be on EP election day (1): I will go to Daugavpils (Latvia)

In a guest post last week, I have asked the question: "Where should I be on election day?" and from the answers and proposals I got from bloggers and commentators on TH!NK ABOUT IT I have chosen...

Daugavpils (Latvia)

because the reasoning by its supporter, Anita Kalmane, was the most convincing and because there are additional reasons for me to go there (my full explanations at the end of the article).

I still have to clarify with my boss if and how long I can leave, but if everything goes as I would like it to go, I will arrive on Thursday evening (4 June) and leave on Monday morning (8 June) (with Saturday being election day in Latvia), which would give me three full days in Daugavpils.

Yet, it doesn't make sense for me just to go there. Since I'll only have a limited time available, this trip will need some good preparations if it shall be effective.

So here is what I need:

• I will need to find an accomodation - privately or in an affordable ho(s)tel - preferably with a possibility to access a computer with internet.

• If possible, I would like to speak to citizens, but also to local NGO people, town and election officials, party representatives, journalists etc. Since I don't expect people to be waiting for me, I'll have to make arrangements with some of them.

• And in order to talk to people, I will need somebody - one or several persons - who could help me with interpretation (English, French, or German to Latvian, Russian and Belorussian).

I think I could manage to organise most of these things on my own, by using my private European contacts and addressing a number of persons and institutions in Daugavpils directly.

But if anybody has a good ideas or good contacts, I'd be more than glad to hear about them - in particular since I am doing this on my private budget, and any solution that keeps my expenses as low as possible would be appreciated.

As I have explained in my guest post, the goal of this journey is to give a special perspective on the last day(s) of the European Parliament election campaign and on the socio-political background of these European elections.

I want to report about my (train) trip, about the city of Daugavpils and about Latvia, about the people I meet on my way and in the city, about Europe as it is and as it could be.

I would like to connect European blogging with the European reality and I would like to show exemplarily how the local situation in Latvia relates to the European level and vice versa.

I don't know whether this will work out, but Europe and the European Union is also about taking some risks, taking the plunge into the unknown, which I am ready to do.

I will continue to report about my preparations in this blog, and anyone who would like to contact me in this regard can do this either in the comments or via [Julien Frisch] myfirstname.mysecondname@gmail.com!

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And here now the explanation why I actually decided that I would like to go to Daugavpils for the election day:

Anita has given the following reasons for me to go to Daugavpils:

In my opinion, you should go to Daugavpils - the 2nd biggest city in Latvia (although 8x smaller than the 1st biggest city, our capital Riga). Why? Because only 17% of the population are Latvians, the rest being Russians (more than half), Polish, Belorussians etc. It’s a very interesting city, where you can hardly hear Latvian language (although it’s the only official language in Latvia)…

So I think it would be more than interesting to speak with the inhabitants of the city - what do they think about EU, how do they feel as EU citizens, what will they vote for (most of Russian speakers vote for parties, which are presented by Russian speakers, but it will be much interesting to find Russian speakers who would vote for typical Latvian parties - what is their motivation?) etc.

Since these are European elections, this seems to be a very interesting perspective, one that is missing from the discussions.

Indeed, these elections are not only European because they involve European citizens of different countries and European citizens living in different countries, but also because they involve European minorities - recognised and unrecognised - that are part of the multicultural society of this continent.

Daugavpils looks like a good place to cover this aspect.

But there are also some more reasons for me to go to Daugavpils:

• It is a town at the border of the European Union and the Schengen area, so I expect to get a special view on the role of the European Union and on Schengen.

• This neighbour is Russia, and EU-Russia relations are a continuos part of the discussions on EU foreign policy.

• Daugavpils is part of the a Euroregion called "Country of Lakes".

• I had thought so far that it would be impossible to go to Latvia by train, especially not without leaving the EU. But now I realised that I can actually travel there through EU territory with my favourite transportation, which I would thus like to do.

• I have never set foot on Lithuanian soil, and I will have to travel through Vilnius, which I am very much interested to see.

• Parts of my studies have been focused on the Baltic States, and I even did one of my oral exams on these three countries, so I am particularly interested in getting back to these issues.

• Election day in Latvia is Saturday, 6 June, which would give me some room to talk to people on post-election day and to follow the coverage of the Europe-wide activities.

MEP becomes Latvian Prime Minister

In "former" times, old or worn-out national politicians became Members of the European Parliament to end their political career in a well-paid but invisible environment.

Far away from their capitals - in order not to interfere with national politics anymore - they could live in tranquility and enjoy the luxury of inconsequential politcs.

But times are changing. Following the example of a young MEP who became Finnish foreign minister, more politicians seem to find their way back into national politics.

And this time, it goes high up: EPP-ED deputy Valdis Dombrovskis (ED member) has been elected new prime minister of Latvia, as Anita Kalmane reports on Th!nk about it!, informing that Liene Liepina (who already was short-time MEP in 2004) will be his short-term successor in Brussels and Strasbourg.

Dombrovskis has quite a tough job coming up seeing the effects of the crisis in Latvia, and let's wait whether his experience in the EP was of help to get his work done.

Referendum in Latvia failed

Yes, there are still referenda in the European Union that are not EU-related:

In Latvia, a referendum that aimed at giving the population the right to dissolve the parliament has failed due to low turnout (39% instead of >50%).

But since 97% voted in favour of the constitutional amendment, Latvian president Valdis Zatlers (who is without particular political power) has proposed to the parliament to amend the constitution by itself.

Latvia would be the first European country to give its population such a right.

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Read also on this topic (updated):

Elia Varela Serra
Baltic Blog
European Voice
Eurotopics