“(P)eople everywhere are increasingly confronted with a series of intractable problems, almost impossible to deal with: environmental disturbance, a crisis in norms and customs, bureaucratisation, the uncontrollable expansion of the cities, uncertainty concerning employment, alienation on the part of young people, economic disruptions and the rejection by a growing number of people of our society’s [...]

The European Union has presently 22 official languages. The Official Journal publishes every piece of EU legislation in each of these official languages. When the 27  European heads of government or the European Parliament meet, a host of  interpreters enables them to  listen and speak  in their national language.  The Commission operates in  three working languages: English, [...]

Once proudly known as `The Steel Heart of the Republic`, the city of Ostrava is now back to what it used to be before communism came to Czechoslovakia: a collection of provincial towns located at the confluence of the Oder, Ostravice and Opava rivers. Chimneys are no longer seen as a sign of progress but [...]

The Foreign Policy Passport blog has an excellent review on the lengthy United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report on the changing nature of criminal activities in the Balkans. These countries that are struggling with an economic transition at the same time with a post-war trauma have lower violent crime rates than Western Europe [...]

Reports in the British newspapers, theTelegraph and the Sun, of the EU myparl.eu project have immediately condemned it as a waste of money.  Sadly, they have deliberately misprepresented the facts, eg:  ·     It is “an internet rival to Facebook”.  Wrong:  It is first and foremost a forum for online debate. It is most certainly not being [...]

Reports in the British newspapers, theTelegraph and the Sun, of the EU myparl.eu project have immediately condemned it as a waste of money.  Sadly, they have deliberately misprepresented the facts, eg:  ·     It is “an internet rival to Facebook”.  Wrong:  It is first and foremost a forum for online debate. It is most certainly not being [...]

This week’s UN summit on biodiversity ended with some hopeful results but there is still a lack of full awareness that protecting the planet’s eco-systems is much more than a moral obligation. “We have a moral obligation to be careful stewards of the planet for future generations”, said EU Commission President Barroso in his speech [...]

We Europeans tend to believe that we are leading the fight against carbon emissions and we are too easily pointing the fingers at the United States. I think that the great visualization tool of Worldmapper, a world map that is distorted proportionally to carbon emissions should make us think. And the EU emission is […] [...]

Contexte Dans un livre récent (”Europe, l’avenir d’une idée“), Frank Baasner, directeur du DFI, développe l’idée que l’Europe est animée par un « système de valeurs dynamique ». J’ai eu l’occasion d’avoir Frank Baasner comme enseignant dans le cadre du Master de l’ENA, dans une excellente introduction au management interculturel. C’est donc avec plaisir que [...]

Whether for romantic, affectionate, legal, financial, traditional, status-related or possibly even medical reasons – thousands of people get married every day. Lenka (30) and Pavel (29) from the Czech city of Pardubice have been engaged for five years and will get married on Friday 13 June 2008. This is their story: Original post by Bruno

Potatoes, bread, meat, cream, cumin seeds and cabbage. Those are the main components of the Czech diet, whether they come unprocessed or disguised as dumplings, pancakes, schnitzels, sausages, sauces or soups. Traditional Czech food is invariably rich in saturated fat and therefore considered unhealthy by nutritional standards. What do the Czechs themselves think about what [...]

In most countries across Europe, it would be advisable for secondary school pupils to think about continuing their educational career for another four years or so. In Finland and Sweden, it would be hard to find a job without a third-level education diploma. Young Slovenians will utterly disappoint their parents if they choose not to [...]

This post contains the full proceedings of the 2008 Rendez-vous de l’INRIA, which took place on 28 May in Brussels. INRIA CEO Michel Cosnard set the scene: “Technology transfer needs collaboration between research organisations and companies,” he said, adding that INRIA is of course well-prepared to meet this challenge: “Working with industry is in our [...]

Dans le cadre des “Rendez-vous de l’INRIA”, Laurent Kott, Directeur general d’INRIA Transfert, a bien voulu répondre à deux questions majeures sur le thème du transfert de technologie et de connaissance au sein de l’Union européenne. En particulier, il souligne « comme l’a précédemment évoqué Pierre Vigier, qu’une des [...]

I think it is a legitimate political question if we should curb economic activities in order to decrease carbon emission or not. But I see no reason to let the EU ETS going on: the quota trading system based on the Kyoto-protocol does not work. It is costly, unjust, and it just does not get [...]