Towards diversity and stakeholder democracy in the Board room. This is the subject of our first European Citizens’ Seminar, held in Erfurt (Germany) from 15th to 18th March 2008. You will find a full document describing the issue here. Original post by citizenseminars

This video is about impressions from the 2008 edition of the European Business Summit, and how the event blog managed and hosted by Blogactiv helped make this conference more interactive.

Based on a Discussion Webinar, Friday, 1 February 2008 Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) is not a new technology. A CSP plant in the California desert has been functioning effectively for fifteen years. Until recently however this technology has been somehow overshadowed by photovoltaic solar energy. This has started to change as CSP is attracting […] [...]

The 2009 elections for the European Parliament will be important, very important: Among other things the outcome of the elections will have great influence on who will be the coming president of the European Commission. Unfortunately voting turn outs have been decreasing steadily – in 2004 the European average was less than 50 percent! The [...]

From 31 March 2008, UK passport applicants in Belgium will need to apply for a renewal or new passport from the British Consulate General in Paris by post or in person. Only 40 days notice has been given. It is hard to imagine anyone with experience of the vagaries of the Belgian postal sytsem mailing [...]

As of 1 January 2007 a law took effect in Finland allowing the Police to maintain a secret blacklist of child porn sites and distribute it to ISPs so that these may block access to those sites. Use of the lists is ostensibly voluntary to ISPs, but there have been rather strong hints of […] [...]

It helps to understand the differences in European values and attitudes by thinking in geographical terms, what I call the ‘Macro-Divides’. There are at least three: the Island-Continent Divide, the East-West Divide and, for want of a better description, the ‘South-North Incline’. The Island-Continent Divide is the most obvious, especially on the British/Irish side! There [...]

The Romanian Government adopted on 20 February 2007 the draft law on data retention, but despite the official press release that praises the new measure, several officials have complained about the lack of reality of the legal text. The draft law was adopted by the Government at about one year after the Ministry of Information [...]

When investments banks start to talk openly about a future oil supply crunch, there is reason to get really worried. According to the Wall Street Journal, Deutsche Bank recently joined the club of high-level energy experts who think the world will never see production levels above 100 million barrels per day. The Bank is now [...]

Letter published in the Financial Times on 27 February: From Mr Stanley Crossick. Sir, Gideon Rachman’s denunciation of Barack Obama’s rhetoric (”Obama and the art of empty rhetoric”, February 26) misses the point. Barack Obama is appealing to voters who wish: first, to return to the traditional American land of hope from the present environment [...]

Andrew Wilson of the European Council on Foreign Relations argues that instead of rushing to embrace Dmitry Medvedev – Russia’s likely new president after the 2 March elections – European Union leaders should agree on a joint Russia strategy and set a series of tests for Putin’s successor. “A repeat of the experience of 2000, [...]

The German Constitutional Court published on 27 February 2008 a landmark ruling about the constitutionality of secret online searches of computers by government agencies. The decision constitutes a new “basic right to the confidentiality and integrity of information-technological systems” as derived from the German Constitution. The journalist and privacy activist Bettina Winsemann, the politician […] [...]

An annual growth of 0.5% does not suffice The European Union recently caused quite a political stir by announcing their ambitious new target of 20% renewable energy capacity in Europe by 2020. At the same time the likelihood that Europe will even approach its former renewables target of 12% by 2010 is growing smaller. The [...]

Put twelve Gods on top of a mountain in Greece and see what happens. What nowadays sounds like a boring scenario for yet another real-life soap was an everyday reality for many Greeks in ancient times. Before Christianity was imposed and all the ancient temples were burnt, a small cast of twelve managed to keep [...]

Wire transfers between banks of different EU countries should be easier to make and less expensive. It would also be a good idea to issue European stamps (instead of national stamps) so that we would all pay the same postage rates. Indeed, it would be a lot easier for European citizens if we did not [...]