Life and art, Europe and the West Wing

One thing this blog can do is let you into those little secrets of the daily life of the European Parliament. So here’s one for you: the place is positively heaving with ardent fans of the US television series the West Wing. Well at least that was my observation a few years ago when I [...]

The Battle of the Giants: Facebook and MySpace Fight It Out

It has become a platitude to say that social networks will be the next big thing. Unfortunately, if you subscribe to this widely held view, you are patently wrong. Judging by the amount of media exposure social networks get, and not just in web-focused but also business press, they are a big thing at the [...]

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From Russia with cold: 30 hour Moscow experience

Taxi driver no 1: "Until this country starts producing something, it will go nowhere" Lyudmila Alexeyeva: "It is not awarded to me, but rather to all of us, especially those, who have lost their lives for the cause. If they were alive, they would be happy" Sergei Kovalev: Russia is currently a stumbling block in the way of international progress. It's not alone; some other countries are also "splendid" enough. Oleg Orlov: "Sometimes you feel that you are scooping the sea with a spoon" Taxi driver no 2: "Airports, hotels, nightclubs, you wouldn’t service them without payoffs to gangs" @ the Airport café: "Man, move to another café. They sell the same stuff there, I'm busy"

Help! It’s a blank sheet moment…

It's a classic fantasy. You can start with a blank sheet, your options open, all choices yet unmade, no idea too crazy, no limits except the limits of your own creativity... I refer, naturally, to designing a website (what else?).

Asides

• Catherine Ashton's new diplomatic service, which will be in charge of EU foreign policy, "is causing conflict". Too many Brits in top jobs say some Member States. Also questions are still being asked as to its exact mission and cost. Watch. #
• "Will Jack and Jessica have the same career opportunities?" A new clip on EUTube explains the gender pay gap in a Commission communications campaign. Not bad.  Watch it! #
• "If I go home he will kill me." This was the thought of Swedish MEP Eva Britt-Svensson before she left her abusive husband. Being a public figure didn't make her immune to domestic violence and she wants all victims of domestic violence to know there is a way out. In an unusually candid personal interview for International Women's Day Svensson shares her story. #
• On the occassion of the International Women Day, EP Facebook team organized today a live debate with MEP Eva-Britt Svensson, chair of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality of the European Parliament. The topic of the chat was "Violence against women: We can stop it!" There were more than 40 comments made on the topic, have a glance at the follow up here. For more information on the same topic, EP opened this new page especially dedicated for women's day. #
• When looking at best web practice, it's never long before you get round to the extraordinary BBC. For an "old media" organisation, it really seems to have worked out how to live in the brave new world. Spotted this week in the Economist a series of amazing facts. Each week 98% of adult Britons use a BBC service. Its website gets 20 million British visits a month - one third of the UK population. 63% of Britons trust its journalists to tell the truth. Its income is somewhere around 4.5 billion pounds sterling. Is there anything else like this in the world? Can it last?  Article here. #
• Lots of articles in the press about the European Parliament all the time of course, but this one from the august New York Times caught our eye in the office today. It's always interesting to see how the Parliament is perceived the other side of the Atlantic, and this suggests that an important change is under way. Shades of the famous Kissinger question too: who should the Americans call to speak to Europe? Maybe it's neither Van Rompuy or Ashton after all... it's Buzek! #
• A woman in a supermarket is compulsively counting everything to herself. When she leaves the shop she passes by a man walking in the opposite direction and he is also counting to himself. Today in Europe one person in 6 lives below the poverty threshold. See more #