EIAorg

April ComDocs

2008-06-14T08:34:00.002+01:00

For anyone trying to keep track of what has been published in the EurLex ComDoc list, the following have been slipped into the list for April at the same time as the May ones have started to appear:

Proposal for a Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the establishment of a European Quality Assurance Reference Framework for Vocational Education and Training

COM(2008) 179 final
09 April 2008

Proposal for a Council Regulation amending Regulation 1683/95 laying down a uniform format for visas as regards the numbering of visas

COM(2008) 188 final
14 April 2008

Keeping EP informed about Commission Committees

2008-06-10T09:37:00.002+01:00

There is an interesting item in the OJC today (2008/C 143/01) regarding the Commission keeping Parliament aware of the activities of committees established in accordance with
Decision 1999/468/EC.

It says:

"The Commission will establish a register containing all documents forwarded to the European
Parliament . The European Parliament will have direct access to this register. In accordance with Article 7(5) of Decision 1999/468/EC, references of all documents transmitted to the European Parliament will be made public."

ComDocs are back

2008-06-10T09:36:00.000+01:00

The first few documents for May have appeared on EurLex today.

Missing COMdocs - the official explanation

2008-06-05T11:35:00.002+01:00

Patrick Overy, University of Exeter EDC, says that he's just received this explanation from the EUR-Lex helpdesk:

"This is a problem in the loading chain from the Secretariat General toEUR-Lex. The technical team tells us (since 2 weeks) that it will be solved very soon ... For the moment you can see only the titles of these recent COM documents on the Parliament website, at the bottom of this page, or on Prelex you can search by date.

Sorry for these inconveniences !"

Inconveniences?? We can't access some of the Commission's most important documents for more than a month and they describe it as an inconvenience!! What IS the world coming to?

Welsh to become official EU language?

2008-06-04T15:31:00.002+01:00

Welsh might be used at EU level, according to this BBC news item.

National legislation

2008-05-30T15:13:00.000+01:00

The latest EUR-Lex newsletter reports improvements to 'Sector 7', which gives details of national implementing measures.

Still no COMdocs

2008-05-29T16:24:00.004+01:00

Here we are a week later and there's no new COMs been added to the EUR-Lex page, with the latest addition still 30 April - that's four weeks ago!!

What's going on? Maybe it's true that the Commission has gone into hibernation until the future of the Lisbon Treaty is known - a suggestion made in the International Herald Tribune, which I stumbled on via the EU Referendum blog.

Death of the Directive - continued

2008-05-27T10:01:00.002+01:00

According to a press release in Rapid yesterday the Commission is proposing to replace the Construction Product Directive (89/106/EEC) with a new Regulation which adds to the ones I mentioned in an article in Focus a couple of months ago.

I still think this is how the Commission will solve the implementation problem!

It is also interesting that the press release links to the Enterprise and Industry DG, which offers a link to the proposal, COM(2008) 311 final.

However, if you go to EurLex, which is still showing no ComDocs added in May, and put 2008 311 into the ComDocs search box, it says "Not available in English"

Why doesn't EurLex mention on its front page that it hasn't added a preparatory act since 30 April?

Commission and Parliament seal deal in London

2008-05-23T08:44:00.002+01:00

From 2010 the European Commission and European Parliament will be sharing offices in London, according to this press release. Facilities will include a conference centre, exhibition space and an information centre.

COMdoc scandal

2008-05-22T18:00:00.003+01:00

How is it possible that, on 22 May, the latest addition to the list of COMdocs on EUR-lex is dated 30 April?
Where are the texts of the COMdocs announced in Commission press releases over the past three weeks?
Why has the situation become so appallingly bad recently? This is scandalous!

Communication

2008-04-25T10:35:00.001+01:00

I have just noticed in the Council register a reference to the following document:
Communicating Europe in Partnership – guidelines for inter-institutional co-operation

A note alongside states "The content of this document is not accessible."

Perhaps this indicates one of the basic problems in EU Communication policy...

New Committee

2008-03-19T17:34:00.000Z

Our AGM on 18 March saw Paul Clarke and Lynette Falconer join the Committee - more details on our contacts page.

Our annual awards

2008-03-19T16:03:00.003Z

Our annual awards were made on 17 March at the Conference dinner. The EIA Award for excellence in European Information provision (electronic sources category) went to Caselex, the "first premium information service offering the most important national and European case law linked to the EU's commercial areas of law, without need for multilingual and multinational legal skills".
Our Award for outstanding contribution to European Information was presented - though sadly not in person - to Margot Wallström, Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy.
The Helen Greer Memorial Prize was given to EIA Committee Member and UK EDC CoordinatorMargaret Watson, who is also Academic Services Librarian at the Bodleian Law Library.
There was also a surprise for out-going Chair Jenny Lawson, who received a special 'Above and Beyond' award, for all her hard work over the past eight years.

New material in EurLex

2008-02-20T10:23:00.002Z

I have written to EUrLex today as follows:

"I have written to you before on this matter but I would again draw your attention to the fact that several documents dated 13th February have appeared in the ComDoc section several days after their date of adoption.

There is no indication that they have only recently been added.

It would be much easier to keep track of new material if you added it under today’s date, irrespective of its date of adoption. At the moment anyone trying to follow all new material has to check back regularly to count up whether there are still the same number of document shown under the dates for at least the last week.

This is surely not your intention.

There may be a reason for filing these documents under their adopted date but I can only repeat that it makes an excellent database more difficult to use. There are several important documents on the freedom of movement now listed under the 13th February and they will be missed by many of your users who are not aware that new material can be listed under previous dates."

They didn't reply last time but maybe if I keep trying...

President of Europe?

2008-02-08T08:56:00.000Z

Most of the people signing the anti-Blair petition seem to be from the UK - I wonder why?!

Q&A on EU information

2008-02-05T21:49:00.001Z

Reply to this post to ask questions about EU information.

The Dark Side?

2008-02-05T21:46:00.000Z

Has anyone noticed that the Europa website appears to have been cloned? If you go to euramis.net you’ll see what appears to be a complete copy of Europa. Apparently Euramis stands for European Advanced Multilingual Information System, but whether that’s relevant to this site cloning issue, I have no idea. Does anyone know what’s going on? Is anyone allowed to say?

Print on Demand - Do you have any experience?

2008-02-04T10:59:00.000Z

The EIA is investigating the potential of on-demand publishing/printing. We are interested in producing new publications in a way that allows us to print relatively small quantities without paying a very high unit cost.

One of the key benefits would be minimising financial risk to the Association when publishing a new title . Although on a lighter note the EIA committee is particularly keen to avoid having boxes of new publications in our garages now that the stacks at Manchester Central Library are no longer available to us!

Do any members have experience of using on-demand publishing/printing. All hints, tips and recommendations for service providers gratefully received.

Law Society guide to Treaty

2008-02-01T19:55:00.000Z

The Law Society has published a guide to the Treaty of Lisbon which it describes as "a vital tool for solicitors, parliamentarians and anyone else who has an interest in EU law ". It looks in particular at the EU’s role in areas of day-to-day legal practice including dispute resolution, family law and criminal law.

Worth a look.

BBC

2008-02-01T09:11:00.000Z

Thanks Eric, I didn't spot that until later. Usually the BBC leave the earlier versions of stories on their site and link back to them but maybe someone mentioned that the first one was rubbish!

And while I'm having a soap-box moment, you might want to look at this item I came across from Personnel Today a leading UK human resources magazine

Now look at the report of the European Parliament debate.

Some discrepancy there? The correspondents to Personnel Today certainly seem to have taken it from the original story that the MEPs were about to pass new legislation. "Yet more EU red tape" as they put it.

The voice of the nation - part II

2008-01-31T13:10:00.000Z

The original article referred to below has now been replaced by a different text under the title Win for disability rights woman. Still cause for concern over the reporting, though, as this is an Advocate General's Opinion - not a judgement of the Court. Although reportedly followed in 80% of cases, there is no guarantee that an AG's view will prevail - so any celebrations might be premature. The text of the Opinion is now on the ECJ website.

The voice of the nation

2008-01-31T08:44:00.000Z

According to the press, the BBC spends hundreds of thousands of pounds sending its staff on training courses with regard to diversity, health and safety and similar modern obsessions. What a pity that they don't spend a few hundred and send them on an EIA course.

I draw your attention to the story "Disability rights ruling expected" and especially the comment: "When it was first announced in 2006 that her case would be heard by the European Court [of Justice] Ms Coleman said she was overjoyed. Since the UK instituted the Human Rights Act, few cases have been referred to Europe."

And just to show that mixing up the Court of Human Rights and the ECJ isn't enough for one short story, we get a new twist on the idea of implementation (and a neat demonstration that the UK isn't part of Europe) :

"However, in this case the EU's Equal Treatment Directive's interpretation of disability discrimination is much wider than the UK's - in Europe, the person does not have to suffer from the disability themselves but could be the parent or spouse of a disabled person. "

Any spare places on that "What's in a Directive" course Eric?

Margot Wallström on Woman's Hour

2008-01-30T20:26:00.000Z

Communications Commissioner Margot Wallström and Caroline Lucas MEP were on Woman's Hour today talking about the reasons why 'the best jobs in Europe' are taken by men. Very interesting - it's apparently not to do with 'glass ceilings' or 'sticky floors', but with a 'layer of men'.
I heard the programme whilst driving over the Pennines to an EIA Committee meeting in Leeds, and was irritated to hear - and later to see on the programme summary - that Mrs Wallström was referred to as 'THE Vice-President of the European Commission'. She isn't of course - she's one of FIVE Vice-Presidents, which is rather different. It's a pity people can't get it right - though I noticed that she didn't correct the mistake.

EIA Conference

2008-01-15T11:33:00.000Z

What's new in European information?
EIA Conference - 17-18 March 2008, University of Chester, UK.
EIA Members can attend our Conference for £175 or Conference and two training courses for £250 ; non-member prices are just £225 / €325 for the Conference or £325 / €465 for the Conference and course package.
More details and booking form on our Conference page

New European Prize for young people

2008-01-09T14:37:00.000Z

A new European prize for young people is being launched this month. It targets people aged between 16 and 30 who have been involved with projects helping to promote understanding between peoples of different European countries.

Organised by the European Parliament and the Foundation of the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen, the Charlemagne Youth Prize provides funding of €2,000 - €5,000 for existing projects that foster a shared sense of European identity and cooperation. The best projects from each of the 27 EU Member States will be invited to Aachen, in Germany, on 29 April 2008.

As well as promoting European and international understanding, the winning projects will serve as role models for young people living in Europe. In particular the organisers are looking for practical examples of Europeans living together. The projects can focus on the organisation of youth events, youth exchanges or internet projects with a European dimension.

Application forms are available on the European Parliament's UK Office website at: www.europarl.org.uk The deadline for applications is 8 February 2008.

Slovenia's EU Presidency website

2008-01-02T20:10:00.000Z

The full version of Slovenia's EU Presidency website is now available.

Treaty and Charter texts

2007-12-17T09:40:00.000Z

The text of the Treaty of Lisbon amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community and of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union have been published in the Official Journal. The Treaty runs to 269 pages, including the various protocols and declarations, while the Charter text comprises 35 pages, including a 19 pages of ‘Explanations’.

Communication policy

2007-12-14T09:15:00.000Z

The Council register for December 4th included a Council statement about the Commission's communication "Communicating Europe in Partnership" concerning a European Union's information and communication strategy. The statement includes a questionnaire to be discussed on Dec. 18th which is of great relevance to all our work.
Perhaps we will be consulted too eventually....

Thresholds

2007-12-13T09:42:00.000Z

Anyone interested in public procurement or tendering will need to check the OJ C for 13 December which gives the values in currencies not involved in the Euro for the various thresholds in the procurement Directives.

December's Focus now online

2007-12-12T20:21:00.000Z

EIA Members can now see the pdf version of Focus on our website. Contents include a look at the EU in 2008 and 'Finding out about ... Equal opportunities'.

Focus for Christmas

2007-12-07T16:38:00.000Z

The December issue of Focus has just gone to print. All being well, it should be posted out to EIA Members before Christmas. Deadline for January's issue is 17 December.

Northern Rock deal approved

2007-12-05T20:22:00.000Z

The European Commission has authorised the UK's package of measures to support the Northern Rock bank. Details in this press release.

Sakharov Prize

2007-12-04T17:10:00.000Z

The 2007 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought will be formally awarded on 11 December. The winner is the Sudanese human rights lawyer, Salih Mahmoud Osman. More details in this EP press release.

Access to documents

2007-12-04T11:27:00.000Z

The European Ombudsman has told Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee that the current system of access to documents "suffers from a lack of clarity and a shortage of resources, and needs to provide better access." Read the EP press release.

Year of Intercultural Dialogue

2007-12-03T18:24:00.000Z

The Year of Intercultural Dialogue now has a dedicated website.

Sex, lies and ... Eurostat denials

2007-12-01T20:01:00.000Z

Eurostat has issued a press release Inaccurate articles on EU census regulation explaining its intentions over the proposed census questions.

Training courses

2007-11-30T21:45:00.001Z

Details of three more training courses are now on the website:
- Finding out about the EU
- What's in a Directive? Finding EU law on the web
- Tracking EU Documents - what’s in a number?
More information on our training page.

Focus

2007-11-30T21:41:00.000Z

The November issue of Focus is now on the Members' Area of our website. December's issue is well underway and should be delivered for DTPing on Monday.

Sex, lies and … Eurostat?

2007-11-23T13:20:00.000Z

European statistics hit the headlines this week with news that MEPs had blocked an attempt by the Commission to quiz women on their sex lives. Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) was discussing COM (2007) 69 - ‘Proposal for a Regulation ... on population and housing censuses’. The draft recommended - amongst many other things - that women be asked the dates on which their first and current “consensual union(s)” began. Lithuanian MEP Ona Juknevičienė in her report, said “The question is too intrusive and concerns only women, which is not legitimate.”
Source: MEPs hit back at 'intimate' Brussels census (EUobserver.com)
Proposal text
Committee on Employment and Social Affairs - documents for meeting 20.11.2007

Viewing site content?

2007-11-21T17:59:00.000Z

The EIA website is created using Microsoft software and mostly viewed - by me - in Internet Explorer. It looks quite different in Firefox, with font appearing very small. There are, of course, many variables involved, but does anyone have any comments on the look of the EIA website pages? Are they okay? Or not?

Focus update

2007-11-21T17:04:00.000Z

As promised, news of progress with Focus. The November issue has just gone to Karin Daniels, our DTP person in Maastricht. All being well, copies should be posted to EIA Members early in December.
I'm now starting work on the December issue, which should be posted and with people before Christmas. January’s issue should follow soon after. As always, ideas for articles are welcome.

Europe Direct

2007-11-21T16:10:00.000Z

An interesting press release at http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/07/1741&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
Apparently Europe Direct has already had its 100,000th enquiry this year

Information policy in France

2007-11-12T12:22:00.000Z

The Strategic Analysis Centre in France has just published a detailed article on "Finding information about Europe in France" in the online journal Strategic Horizons, co-published with the Robert Schuman Foundation. As the Reform Treaty is due to be signed in December and France takes up the Presidency next year it is particularly timely.
The article is online at http://www.strategie.gouv.fr/revue/sommaire.php3 and can be read in English, French, German or Spanish.

Maybe the British Government could get a few ideas from it...

Reform Treaty explained

2007-11-10T10:25:00.000Z

Thanks to Patrick Overy for alerting us to a chapter by chapter and sector by sector explanation of the Reform Treaty (the Treaty of Lisbon) offered in a special issue of Europolitics - go to www.europolitics.info click the large 'Europolitics' advert and then choose the 'Treaty of Lisbon' edition.

Conference booking form problem

2007-11-08T17:13:00.000Z

Despite much checking when it was set up, the Conference booking form has developed a glitch. I'm trying to sort it out and it should be back to normal by Friday morning. Anyone who's had a problem booking should please try again.
Update - this seems to be a problem relating to our ISP moving domains last week; it will take longer to sort than I'd expected, but will still be done sometime Friday I hope.
Another update - the form is working now, but it's taken hours to sort out with the ISP!

Welcome!

2007-11-07T17:07:00.001Z

This is the Association's blog - although we'd like it to be less of a blog and more of a dialogue. So less of us initiating stuff, and more of you sharing thoughts, comments, queries on the topics posted.
That said, it gives us a more informal way of communicating than our website does - so we will be taking the opportunity to let you know what's going on with our Conference, training courses etc. on a frequent, if not daily, basis.
Bookmark us now and let us know what you think ...

Conference

2007-11-07T17:05:00.000Z

Have you seen our Conference programme? Are you planning to attend? Let us know ...

Focus

2007-11-07T17:02:00.000Z

Apologies to members waiting for the Focus newsletter. The next issue - a double issue for September-October - has only just gone to print. My aim is to get the November issue out in the next couple of weeks, and December's early in that month. I'll keep you posted with our progress.

EU Communication policy

2007-11-07T17:00:00.000Z

The Association is submitting a response to the Commission's latest Communication on communication - ‘Communicating Europe in Partnership’. If there's anything you'd like us to consider for inclusion - or if you have any views on this latest document - please let us know.

Q&A on EU information

2007-11-07T16:57:00.001Z

Reply to this post to ask questions about EU information.