PEW report says Online Political Engagement Can Lead to Offline Activism… EFF Surveys Major Tech Companies’ Privacy and Transparency Policies…A Cyberculture roundup…

What Is TPP? It’s the Biggest Global Threat to the Internet Since ACTA from EFF.org Updates by Katitza Rodriguez and Maira Sutton and Maira Sutton The United States and ten governments from around the Pacific are meeting yet again to hash out the secretTrans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) on May 15-24 in Lima, Peru. The TPP … Read more

Historic Win for the Pirate Party Movement in Iceland… a cyberculture roundup…

Pirate Party Enters Iceland?s National Parliament After Historic Election Win from TorrentFreak by Ernesto Founded in 2006, the Pirate party movement has scored some big and small victories over the years. Their biggest success came in 2009 when the party won two seats at the European Parliament. During the last year this was followed by … Read more

Irish and Lisbon treaty. Part II

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has spent half a million euros ...

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has spent half a million euros fighting for a Yes vote on the Lisbon Treaty. Ireland was voting Friday on the EU’s Lisbon Treaty in a crunch second referendum. (AFPTV)

Fear and anger

Economic slump clouds Irish vote on Lisbon Treaty

A huge round up on the referendum and other news from the EU

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Ms. vs. Mrs and Miss.

I will have to agree with the UK press. Looks like an unnecessary move for political correctness. 

Is that Ms, Miss? EU pamphlet causes ‘outrage’ in UK press

The European Parliament has outlawed the titles Miss and Mrs. But being a Ms isn’t that simple.

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"Why enlargement is in trouble

Katinka Barysch of Centre for European Reform explains why EU enlargement is in trouble and there is more from the EU in the roundup…

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Czech president shakes up the EU Parliament…

It is now certain that the Czechs encolor the otherwise boring EU politics. His recent speech in the EU Parliament was sensational as the roundup shows.. In the roundup there is more about the EU- as usual…

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"a pretty trainee with long legs and blonde hair"

can be a spy, warns the European Commission. I googled for an image of "long  legs and blonde hair" just to make this post more attractive but there are many people in the office right now and I could not dare to look at the findings. Have the post without the image, sorry.

European Commission warns staff of ‘pretty blonde spies’

The European Commission says it is being targeted increasingly by spies, who may include a "pretty trainee with long legs and blonde hair".

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"Marek Belka and Erik Berglof: New Europe Catches Old Europe?s Cold

"Eurostat yearbook 2008 ? Europe in figures

Europe split on how to restore Moscow ties

An EU policy document reveals a vigorous debate under way among member governments about how far, and how quickly, to restore relations with Moscow after Russia’s invasion of Georgia in August

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"Why does Beethoven's Ode to Joy upset some Euro MPs?

Why does Beethoven’s Ode to Joy upset some Euro MPs?

A decision to make the EU flag and motto more prominent and play the EU anthem more often angers some British Euro MPs.

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"The credit crunch and the EU

"Credit crunch hits European banks……..

Credit crunch hits European banks

Top officials from Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the EU held emergency meetings over the weekend to prevent bank and insurance giant Fortis from becoming the eurozone’s first major victim of the global financial crisis.

In defence of Anglo-Saxon capitalism

By Centre for European Reform

by Charles Grant

Those who never liked ‘Anglo-Saxon’ capitalism are feeling smug. Marxists, fans of ‘Rhineland’ capitalism and those who simply cannot stand American power are crowing. “The US will lose its status as the superpower of the world financial system,” says Peer Steinbruck, Germany’s finance minister. “Self-regulation is finished, laisser faire is finished, the idea of an all powerful market which is always right is finished,” says France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy. The British academic (and sometime fan of Margaret Thatcher) John Gray proclaims that “in a change as far-reaching in its implications as the fall of the Soviet Union, an entire model of the government and the economy has collapsed.”

 

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Bartholomew's speech in the European Parliament

TO THE PLENARY ASSEMBLY OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT (Brussels, September 24, 2008) * * * Your Excellency Mr President of the European Parliament, Your Excellencies, Honorable Members of the European Parliament, Distinguished Guests, Dear Friends, First and foremost, we convey to you salutations from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, based for many many centuries in … Read more

"EU Agencies – Whatever you do, we work for you Source: European Commission

EU Agencies – Whatever you do, we work for you

Source: European Commission

From Stockholm to Crete and from Lisbon to Warsaw, 29 agencies provide service, information and know-how to the people of the European Union and beyond. The agencies work within many different fields such as environment,
food safety, transportation, trade marks, education, or fundamental rights.

This brochure dedicates a page to each of the agencies, describing their work and giving contact details.


image
“Don’t buy exotic animal souvenirs.” In Animal souvenirs

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"Can the EU win the peace in Georgia?

Can the EU win the peace in Georgia?

The conflict between Georgia and Russia has seen the EU become the main diplomatic mediator between the two and it should use this status to develop peaceful relations in the region, argue Nicu Popescu et al. in an August 2008 commentary for the European Council on Foreign Relations.

USAK Report: Change in Caucasia brings burdens and opportunities for Turkey

By USAK

Turkey is one of the countries that will be most vulnerable vis-à-vis a new global order triggered by the conflict between Georgia and Russia, a study by the Ankara-based International Strategic Research Organization (ISRO/ USAK) has noted.

The conflict erupted on Aug. 7-8 when Georgia tried to retake South Ossetia. A Russian counter-offensive pushed into Georgia proper, crossing its east-west highway and nearing a Western-backed oil pipeline. Russia ignored Western demands to remove its remaining troops from Georgia’s heartland, saying the residual troops are peacekeepers needed to avert further bloodshed and to protect the people of Georgia’s separatist, pro-Moscow provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two days after Moscow said it had wrapped up its withdrawal.

 

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