A human Ciolos & an inhuman Reding: Two faces of the EU Commission's social communication

Dacian Ciolos, European Commissioner for the Agriculture, said the following about the value of his presence on Facebook today:

I gather that as from today you are already 500 people following my journey through the European agriculture. I want you to know that I feel your wish for interaction, I enjoy your presence here and it helps me tremendously to remain human, accessible and down-to-earth. Thank you.

I may add to these beautiful words that one should interpret this message as an involuntary but direct attack to Commissioner Reding and her cabinet who are actively working against the European Commission from entering into 21st century communication - disguised as bureaucratic newspeak in the form of a "solid cost-benefit analysis" and a "coherent communication strategy".

These are the inhuman words from the technocratic ages of controlled communication and closed-up public institutions.

As if one could simply measure "cost-benefit" of openness and transparency, reaching out to the public and communicating more humanely or as if the idea of social media wasn't the exact opposite of what were "coherent communication strategies" in the last century where journalists and big media dominated the intermediation between public institutions, citizens and other stakeholders.

But maybe it is a problem when a former journalist and a former legal adviser to a large media corporation are responsible for reforming the communication of the European Commission...

If the Commission was intelligent, it would see that people like Ciolos and so many other human voices from the Commission are not a threat to good communication but the greatest opportunity of opening up a bureaucratic organisation to the public, a public that the organisation is supposed to serve.

Ms Reding, do you hear that? I bet you don't, because it would mean you cared about it!


Picture: European Parliament / CC BY-NC-ND

The future of CAP: Ciolos interviewed

The EU Commissioner responsible agriculture, Ciolos, has been intervied by a Romanian radio station.

It's a fairly long interview (48 minutes in audio) so I'd just point to one paragraph on the future of subventions under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union:

"După 2013, intenţia mea este ca nu numai Pilonul doi, programul de dezvoltare rurală, să susţină micile ferme, ci chiar şi subvenţiile să se acorde şi pentru ferme mici care realizează produse care se comercializează direct pe piaţă. Sper să găsesc modalitatea, instrumentele prin care astfel de pieţe locale, pieţe tradiţionale, pieţe ţărăneşti să fie susţinute financiar."

This pledge for for the support of farmers who produce for local markets seems to be quite important for Ciolos, since he underlines this right from the beginning of the interview.

The interview is also worth reading for its "Eastern" perspective on the CAP and the problems faced by smaller farmers in Romania and beyond.

And the moderator does a good job in playing the devil's advocate, pushing Ciolos to give answers also on other subjects like gene manipulated products (Ciolos: Everyone is free to decide.) or the relations between the EU and national or local levels (Ciolos: If European funds are misused, it is first of all the responsibility of national authorities to take measures instead of centralising complaints at the Commission.)

So take a look at the interview; I've just checked and the Google translation seems to be quite understandable.

(via Ciolos on Facebook)

Fish & Fields: EU reforms for the better?

CAP and CFP are the EU abbreviations of the week, but they will remain extremely important for the months to come.

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) of the European Union need reform, and with the informal meeting of EU ministers responsible for fisheries (see also: Euronews) and the data harvest of CAP subsidies for all member states - except Great Britain - there were two notable events on Monday and Tuesday that made the euroblogosphere talk about CAP and CFP.

Both reforms have already begun with public consultations but their outcomes are uncertain.

The fisheries policy consultations are already finalised, with over 300 reactions from the public and interested stakeholders as well as a statement by the EESC, the European Economic and Social Committee (a consultative body of the EU). In the light of these discussions, the European Movement in the UK also sees an urgent need to reform the fisheries policy and not to let the CFP slip back into the hands of the member states. (Update:) And the Commission seems to agree.

In the same business, but on the fields instead of on the sea, the EU Commission is inviting the public to participate in the CAP reform consultation. This is more necessary than ever seeing that the subsidies spent through the EU's agricultural policy are largely misdirected. Without a reform of the CAP, the whole "Europe 2020" reform will not be possible as Valentin notes, not least because most of the EU's budget is wasted for large-scale agriculture, to the disadvantage of the future of the EU and to the disadvantage of farmers all over the world, instead of investing it in future technologies and the brains of EU citizens.

And so, while the National Farmers' Union has reportedly issued its vision on the future of agriculture in the EU and while Commissioner Ciolos is already participating in different consultation meetings - e.g. in the EESC - it remains absolutely vital that people like the guys from Farmsubsidy.org keep track and follow the subsidy money to give a real basis for the debate - e.g. that the number of "CAP millionaires" continues to rise - both for us bloggers but also for the mainstream media.

Most eyes may be on Greece these days, but we should also keep our ears open and listen to the proposals for the fisheries and agriculture reforms because they will be as important for the future of the Union as the stability of the financial markets.

Picture: © marcs-album / CC BY-NC 2.0

Cecilia Malmström & transparency in the EU Commission

In a recent blog post (Google translated), Commissioner Malmström told that she would (partially) publicise her official communication on a special Commission website called CaROL (Cabinet's online register)*.

In the comments to the post I asked her:

Will you be able to convince your colleagues in the Commission to do the same?

and her Cabinet assistant Love Berggren today gave me the following answer:

Cecilia Malmström’s would certainly welcome if other Commissioner’s were to follow, and hopes to provide a good example by making this register available. But the decision is up to each and every Commissioner.

I want to thank her assistant Love for the answer - and I definitely hope that Ms Malmström will serve as an example for her colleagues, indeed!

PS.: This seems to be "Commissioners' Reactions Day", since fellow euroblogger Samuel just received a reaction to one of his blog posts from EU Commissioner for Agriculture Dacian Ciolos.

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* You can use the following short link for direct access to all the correspondence of Commissioner Malmström: bit.ly/9H8ib8 - which can be helpful because in default it shows only the last ten letters.

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Picture: © european_parliament / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0