Hiatus

I know at least one reader has noticed my absence since September, which is nice! Just wanted to let any readers know that I intend to be back soon - normal service has been interrupted by family developments...

EU Blog Reviews

The Brussels Blogosphere is sprawling. There is material out there to cater to most tastes and interests. On the left hand side of this page you will find a list of the blogs that I find particularly worthwhile. I have listed only blogs in languages I can read - which includes English, French, German, Dutch, and a wee bit of Polish and Italian. Not all those languages are represented, so any suggestions from readers are welcome.

I'm most comfortable in English, but will try occasionally to post in another language myself.

Some of the blogs I link to are simply essential, such as Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's blog - essential because of his role in the Constitutional Treaty and the Reform Treaty.

Others are worth reading for the insights they give into the way veteran pro-EU campaigners like the Federal Union and anti-EU campaigners like EU Referendum see the world.

Many are serious; some (like Berlaymonster) are not so serious.

Some are more informative, some are more geared to debate.

None of them, as far as I am aware, systematically review each other. That is something that I'd like to add to the landscape - an opportunity to discuss the Brussels Blogosphere in detail: its heroes and villains, facts and myths, hot policy debates, key players, etc. Hopefully this will become a place where opinions can be aired freely (and moderated in a neutral fashion by me).

I will simply start at the top of the list and work my way southwards...

Resources Postings

From time to time I intend to publish information about a resource. It might be anything - a web site or page that is useful for information-gathering, for example - but will ususally be web-based.

My first featured resource will be helpful to lobbyists who follow Brussels' notorious "comitology" committees (see Wikipedia if you don't know what comitology is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comitology). I only discovered this resource very recently, having long been deeply suspicious of comitology committees and their workings. It's the European Commission's comitology register, and it contains not only a list of the scores of committees, but more importantly, a search function that allows access to many of the key comitology documents.

You can search by various criteria. I find it most useful to search by committee. The committees are organised by Directorate-General of the European Commission by which the committee is chaired. The drop-down box is very badly designed, but if you click on it and type in "E", for example, you come to the committees chaired by DG EAC (Education and Culture). Further down, you come to ENTR (DG Enterprise) and then ENV (DG Environment).

The most interesting type of document you can find is the Voting Results - they often contain details of votes taken in committee, including how many Member States voted in favour of a Commission proposal, against, or abstained. This, combined with the information on the number of votes under QMV (Qualified Majority Voting), can often tell you pretty precisely which Member States voted how, despite the secrecy of the vote.

Pretty rudimentary functionality, but quite powerful. I'm finding it very useful, as it eliminates the need to rely on busy friends and contacts for leaked copies...

Here's the link:

http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regcomitology/registre.cfm?CL=en

Sleepy Summer

Brussels is in the process of shutting down for "The Summer Break". Hordes of officials, lobbyists, journalists, and ordinary residents are heading for the airports and the motorways, aiming for sunnier destinations. My street is emptying at a frightening pace - about 50% of the cars normally there have disappeared; the trip into work by metro or on the roads is eerily quiet. Another month of peace before everyone descends on Brussels again towards the end of August...

I learned soon after arriving that late July and August were not times to find people at their desks. Those you do find are often covering for several, luckier, colleagues, and are overworked and stressed.

Hello

Hello and welcome to my new blog, Brussels Comment! I hope you'll find it thought-provoking, informative, and enjoyable. It aims to appeal to a broad range of readers interested in the EU - from the Brussels professionals to the curious outsiders to perhaps even the journalists, there should be material for all to get their teeth into. I'd love to know your thoughts on format, content, and style. Happy reading!