Julien Frisch

Yeah, could be. ;-) The article was triggered bot...

2009-11-08T17:24:17.095+01:00

Yeah, could be. ;-)

The article was triggered both by the anti-EU debates coming from the UK these days as well as Tayebot's tweet on bloggers who only want fame.

But that is the problem when you write at 2:30 - it's not the time to produce well argued posts. I just knew I would not publish anything at all on the topic if not this incoherent "philosophy".

... and some think that writing a blog entry at 02...

2009-11-08T16:41:11.327+01:00

... and some think that writing a blog entry at 02:29 does not produce coherent philosophy? ;-)

:) that's fab. A working internet link helps to...

2009-11-06T17:10:18.751+01:00

:) that's fab.
A working internet link helps too of course - I can't get enough publicity for my blog at the moment because I can't blog regularly enough...

This post could cause a UK constitutional crisis i...

2009-11-05T22:20:02.343+01:00

This post could cause a UK constitutional crisis if the press spots there has been a further transfer of power to the EU: the power of British humour!

I simply love this post. I think is part real and ...

2009-11-05T13:58:53.008+01:00

I simply love this post. I think is part real and part for laugh. Anyway, it is time for laughs:
http://laorejadeeuropa.blogspot.com/2009/11/oferta-de-empleo-se-busca-presidente.html
Did you forget to comment on self-promotion in other euroblogs? I do not want to say I am doing...

great advises... I bet that from now on the number...

2009-11-05T11:26:43.121+01:00

great advises... I bet that from now on the number of eurobloggers won't keep rising! ;)

(Informative and) very funny! :-) You could even h...

2009-11-05T10:21:51.770+01:00

(Informative and) very funny! :-) You could even have called it "euroblogging for dummies".

Brilliant Julien! And I agree with Eurosocialiste...

2009-11-05T09:43:26.014+01:00

Brilliant Julien!

And I agree with Eurosocialiste, the facebook page can add some traffic too.

Cheers,
Emil

Ahaaaa! Thanks for the good laugh! It's pretty muc...

2009-11-04T23:51:29.925+01:00

Ahaaaa! Thanks for the good laugh! It's pretty much all true. Let's hope that motivates other people to join the club.I've found a new step to add! Create a Facebook page for your blog, did it yesterday and it's working! Youuuhouuuu!

I totally agree with you, Julien...let's start wor...

2009-11-04T00:28:11.492+01:00

I totally agree with you, Julien...let's start working with the reforms being implemented soon and get back to tackling real political problems instead of focussing on institutional ones all the time. That's the best way on how to get citizens involved in the European project!

@ Dick & @ Slartibartfas I agree with you hesitan...

2009-11-03T21:47:07.569+01:00

@ Dick & @ Slartibartfas

I agree with you hesitant optimism - and I am well aware of the work and possible problems ahead.

But at least we are looking ahead now...! :-)

Let's be happy about this for a moment. The proble...

2009-11-03T21:13:59.274+01:00

Let's be happy about this for a moment. The problems will catch up soon enough anyway.

When the convent was in place, I was still in school. Unbelievable. I took part in a great seminar with some Austrian MEPs and pupils from other schools. To be honest, I was skeptical if this reform would ever have a chance to become law. When the enlargement took place and still no reform was in sight (Nice does not really count) I gave up any hope. Now years later, its almost like a miracle that the Lisbon treaty actually made it. It was not a beautiful straight forward ratification process, but I can't see how one could have managed to reform it under the rule of law in a better procedure (with realistic chances of success).

The fight is not over, but calls that the EU is not reformable have been debunked now.

Dear Friends, let's be realistic. There is still a...

2009-11-03T19:47:03.843+01:00

Dear Friends,
let's be realistic. There is still an awfull lot of work ahead to make this a real success.
But nevertheless, it makes me a happy men!

Let's crack open the champagne, roll our sleeves u...

2009-11-03T17:54:03.372+01:00

Let's crack open the champagne, roll our sleeves up and get to work now!

Being a cynic is not a bad thing. After all, cynis...

2009-11-03T12:13:28.777+01:00

Being a cynic is not a bad thing. After all, cynisism is an unpleasant way of saying the truth. But sometimes the truth is an unpleasant thing in itself.

Democracy in my view means that you elect the people you trust, then let them do their job. If you don't like what they do, you throw them out at the next elections. You don't want a referendum for each decision, you can't run a government, an administration, or a business if everybody has a say in every single decision.

No, I'm not an advocate for covering up everything, hiding every reason behind every decision; but there are limits to the level of transparency, and if you cross that line, the effect will be counterproductive. The last thing you want is a set of great transparency rules that make life more complicated for everybody involved, and in the end to see people contuining the things they used to do, only in a more complicated manner (so, who's a cynic now?)

Take a look at the great transparency initiative: the voluntary register... the financial disclosure, etc... Everybody keeps talking about who should or should not register, think tanks, law cabinets, lobbyists, etc... But nobody really talks about WHY they should register, and what good that financial disclosure does. Do you know who's interested in financial disclosure? Not the regulators, they're smart enough to know who's knocking on their door, and why. And in 99,9% of the cases the lobbyist knocking on their door tells them exactly whom he's representing. No, the ones that are interested are... the lobbyists themselves, who want to know who's working for whom, and what the size of their budget is...
So who registers? All the lobby firms who already operate in a responsible manner. Of course the so-called NGOs that are financed for 98% by one corporation, or that choose fancy names that make them sound like something well-known and respected, don't register; these are the ones that send their comments in public consultations, that manage to work their way into the media, that are capable of setting off some public scare, without any accountability to anyone. No need to register for that. So, what's the effect of this great new transparency? That legislators are better informed? I don't think so.

Of course the Legal Service is an "uncontrolled gatekeeper". They can advice, but the Member States still have their own legal services to scrutinize that advice. In the end, it is the European Court that decides if anything is legal or not. You need experts to advice the politicians about the legality of their ideas, their proposals; you don't want the European Courts flooded with ramshackle legislation. Where you want transparency is in the political process: WHY do politicians want a certain piece of legislation? They should be accountable, when the legislation they throw upon us, doesn't bring what they set out to do. I don't believe that the legislators will blindly believe everything from the Council Legal Services... they have their own lawyers, and they double-check (or would you want the Member State internal legal comments on the Council LS advice also attached to it?).

You say "Democracy is not about decision-makers and administrators, it is a way to channel the expressed will and interests of citizens into regulation (or de-regulation) trying to balance the diversity of these interests in fulfilling them".

May I re-phrase that: Democracy is a way to channel the expressed will and interests of citizens into regulation (or de-regulation) trying to balance the diversity of these interests in fulfilling them; for that we need a system that allows decision-makers and administrators to work efficiently and correctly.

My theory - heads of state and government create a...

2009-11-03T00:28:13.228+01:00

My theory - heads of state and government create a weak European Council President and give it to a socialist. EPP gets strong High Representative (who is also Commission Vice-President) in return.

I am just confused by the Van Rompuy rumours...

In theory, yes she's a great candidate but why the...

2009-11-02T23:39:07.439+01:00

In theory, yes she's a great candidate but why the heck would we want a social-democrat at the head of the European council while 2/3d of European governments are right-wing? That would be a political suicide for the PES. I'd put my bet on Vaira Vike-Freiberga.
PS: thanks for linking to my blogpost!

My argument is about the fact that I want transpar...

2009-11-01T23:12:02.907+01:00

My argument is about the fact that I want transparency in reasoning behind law-making for 500 million people.

For that I don't need every word recorded, I don't need every little piece of paper written by a civil servant stored and saved and published.

For that I need knowledge about the crucial decisions, the crucial advices, the relevant argumentation that lead to a decision, and as long as not even this basic need of a democratic society is fulfilled, I think we citizens for whom this democracy is designed have the right to demand more openness and transparency.

Democracy is not about decision-makers and administrators, it is a way to channel the expressed will and interests of citizens into regulation (or de-regulation) trying to balance the diversity of these interests in fulfilling them.

For me, this complex democracy is about (good) arguments, but if you don't know what the (real) arguments behind a decision are, how can you make better ones if you think the decision is wrong? How can you prevent decision-makers telling me why they have decided in this or that direction, while in fact their real arguments were completely different?

The reason why I picked out the legal service of the Council is its important position within the EU system:

By saying that something is not possible according to its legal interpretation, and by convincing civil servants and diplomats of the member states that this actually true, certain decisions are made practically impossible, although the Court(s) might think differently.

The Council legal service is thus an uncontrolled gatekeeper, and its analyses are not just minor pieces of communication between EU employees, they are guiding lines for what the member states may or may not do when they decide in the Council.

If you look just at the examples I have linked in the post you see that these are not minor issues, they are related to substantial EU decisions, and the analyses thus become not only legal but very political guidelines that are worth publishing.

What I agree with is your remark that making the democracy more transparent will change the behaviour of the actors involved, and they might just seek new strategies to hide.

I have no answer to that, and all I can hope that parallel to new transparency rules we will see a new mindset where people working for us citizens don't think they need to hide but where those officials realise that their job should be done in the most open and transparent way, where they are willing and able to defend and explain their decisions that they make in our interest.

Maybe this is impossible, but I am not a cynic, I am an optimistic realist, hoping that things can change for the better and not just for the worse...

Well, Julian.. What makes you think that a process...

2009-11-01T18:17:11.705+01:00

Well, Julian.. What makes you think that a process becomes more transparent when every written word is made available to the public? If we follow many people's obsession with transparency, every word spoken by any civil servant to any other civil servant should be recorded and filed for future reference. After all, we don't want the Commission to draft a legislative proposal on the basis of someone's opinion that might have been influenced during a chat with a colleague, a meeting with an NGO or other lobbyist (after all, what minutes are really complete..), or the reading of a newspaper article?

Will the public good be served by access to what every single civil servant reads, hears or sees? After all, every proposal is based on what a small group of civil servants believes is the politically and legally correct way to progress. And their belief is shaped by more than the opinion of the legal services.

Why is everything that you do not have access to a "dark force"?

You say: "all I want is that EU decision-making, from the beginning to the end, becomes more transparent so that nobody can hide behind secretive opinions, opaque decisions or any other so-called "strategic" interest that do not serve the public good but just the limited interest of a small elite of power-holders."

One thing I remember from Physics is that when you wish to measure something, you should be careful that the measuring instrument does not influence the state of the parameter you wish to measure... If you stick a large cold thermometer in a small glass of warm water, you will rather influence the temperature of the water than measure it. Have a look at Article 4.3. of Regulation 1049/2001 (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2001:145:0043:0048:EN:PDF) : they have understood this law of physics.

So.... how big is the thermometer that you want to plug in the butt of the Community to measure its level of Democracy?

I've been on a buses searched by airport police ma...

2009-11-01T16:27:15.772+01:00

I've been on a buses searched by airport police many times. You should consult the relevant police departments and ask them why they do it.

Perhaps they are looking for someone before they leave their national jurisdiction. It would save time & money if they didn't need to extradite.

For some reason, it's much easier to criticise tha...

2009-11-01T15:17:38.094+01:00

For some reason, it's much easier to criticise than to be positive about something. I try my best to be positive in my blogging, and that's true that it can be hard! I think it's the same issue when it comes to choosing to be politically engaged. It's much easier to be a commentator of political affairs rather than choosing to take your card in a party. I think although criticism is healthy and absolutely necessary, it is also important to recognise positive actions from time to time.

and I can add the Belgian-French borders on the hi...

2009-11-01T13:27:04.066+01:00

and I can add the Belgian-French borders on the highways were you have to go through some sort of a snake at 10,km/hr and uniformed man (what are they?) look at you. Quite different from Belgian-Dutch borders, just a plate to tell you you are in another countrt!

@ Toby Thanks for writing this comprehensive comm...

2009-11-01T00:55:41.992+01:00

@ Toby

Thanks for writing this comprehensive comment, that is much appreciated!

People in the Finnish MFA say Halonen's hanging ar...

2009-10-31T19:20:24.009+01:00

People in the Finnish MFA say Halonen's hanging around in corridors at EU summits can faintly embarrassing. The updated Finnish constitution (2000 IIRC) was a bit of a mess that left it not really clear as to who led foreign policy PM or Pres. President Halonen would often go along despite not having a particularly clear role whilst ministers or PM was in the negotiations. So her EU experience from being president isn't what say a French person might expect. The Finnish president isn't quite like the German president (bonus points for anyone who can remember his name!) but isn't the French pres either.

Halonen is from the left of the SDP, neutralist and not atlanticist by inclination. She was very suspicious of CFSP and ESDP at the start - minimising them publicly. This is all to do with the Finnish neutral tradition. I'm not certain but she might not have even been particularly pro-joining the EU in the first place, in the way that some of the leftwing in both Sweden and Finland were not.

She is the type of politician who will insist that the Finnish troops in Afghanistan are peacekeeping, and then ignore questions along the lines of "if that is so, why do people keep shooting at them and blowing them up with IEDs?" That doesn't fit well into her narrative of Finland's place in the world.

I find this troubling in that she talks a good talk on universal human rights but then supports a foreign policy that suggests an unwillingness to do much in support of them outside of Finland.

Without a doubt she is dedicated to third world development and international social justice in that sense - along with all the progressive ideals domestically that I support, but I don't think much of her foreign policy thinking.

FWIW, she speaks English a hell of lot better than I speak Finnish, but she isn't the best English speaker in the Finnish top ranks by a long way, and I don't think she speaks French at all which I know can matter in these races!

interesting and insightful as always, thanks

2009-10-31T12:06:36.191+01:00

interesting and insightful as always, thanks