What happened after we send an Open Letter to Barroso and the incoming new Commissioners? A number of us had a chat with a member of his “cabinet” (private office) who was genuinely interested in what we proposed. The Open letter and an article will be published in the Commission’s internal newsletter “Commission en Direct” most likely with a reaction from Barroso or his cabinet. Wait and see!
The Commission’s webmasters and internet editors had a half day workshop on social media and the use of it. It was good to see that a number of Commissions departments have started to use Twitter, facebook and the like while many others are planning to do so. But first wait for the new Commission to arrive, always a time of changes and turbulence (for better or for worse!).
A number of Twitter friends and I got together to plan for the next Open Beer #3, which will take place on the 1st of March 2010 in Brussels near Place Luxembourg.
In the office we worked hard to improve the pages for HR/VP Ashton (1) and to launch a page where all information on the Haiti crisis could be found. The HR/VP coordinates all this so it should be visible on her pages.
In the meantime we also launched “sotto voce” the new site for the European External Action Service (EEAS), ie a site called “European Union – External Action”. The Commission and Council staff working for Mrs Ashton and involved in building up of the EEAS work together to publish on this site all relevant information on the EU’s foreign policy. Have a look at http://eeas.europa.eu/. The site is in English for the moment but will appear in French as well in the next days. The cooperation is both interesting and challenging and everyone involved feels that we are setting up something new. Of course, it is not always easy to put people together that come from quite different administrative and hierarchical backgrounds. And at the same we face some technical difficulties as both sides work in different IT environments.
In the next months the site will grow into a complete website covering all activities of the EEAS once it’s up and running.
All this is happening while the normal work on other websites and projects (Shanghai Expo 2010, for example) continues.
But we take a rest in the weekend and write a blog!!!
1. Following the entry into force of The Treaty of Lisbon, the European Council appointed Catherine Ashton High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. In this capacity, she chairs the Foreign Affairs Council. Drawing on her role as Vice-President of the European Commission, she ensures the consistency and coordination of the European Union’s external action. The High Representative will be assisted, once it is established, by the European External Action Service (EEAS).
Tags: EEAS, web 2.0 EU Europe
Dick Nieuwenhuis Blog 
06/02/2010 om 21:33 |
The fact that the Commission plans to publish the open letter in its own weekly magazine is good news and shows that the issue is taken serious!
It will also provide an opportunity to make the work of the Commissions web community known to a much wider public within the institutions.
07/02/2010 om 11:07 |
Congratulations on getting the EEAS site on-line – that must have been quite a challenge! Hope to catch you at the open beer on 1 March.
08/02/2010 om 13:00 |
Even if you are kept busy by the changes, one issue for the Commission as a whole to take up soon is how to counter false statements and distortions about the EU in the blogosphere and elsewhere.
It is not enough to produce correct information. There is a need to go directly to the debates and to engage.
08/02/2010 om 21:58 |
Ralf,
yes and no! We have tried in one Member State to do that with certain parts of the press and it didn’t work. At the end we provided the correct information to the rest of the press who used it to counter the euromyths.
If we at the Commission would have to counter false statements and distortions about the EU in the blogosphere and elsewhere we would need as many eurocrats as there are now. And we would still fail!
And perhaps the Member States politicians and MEPs could do a bit there as well, no?
🙂
21/02/2010 om 20:07 |
Dick,
Thank you for the kind reaction.I’m looking for the most effect way to make
a strategic implementation of the project in the European Administration.
There are several possibilities, I think: through the cultural progamm, the
media programm and the education issue, especially for youngsters. We need
their active participation in the project. Or we can focus on different
levels: partly cultural, partly media and partly education.
If you would be so kind to communicate the people that I have to contact in
the administration, It would be great.
Best regards,
Dirk
02/01/2011 om 23:48 |
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