The European Journalism Centre will organize next year a contest for bloggers that want to cover the European Parliamentary Elections.
That’s a great idea - especially for countries like Romania, where the voters still need a great deal of information on this matter. And the Internet seems, for the moment, the best way to do it.

Only three conditions should be fulfilled before you register:

1. Nationality of EU Member State
2. Possibility to submit your posts in English
3. Previous publication(s) if applicable

and afterwards:

1. Participation in the launch event in Brussels (25-27th January, 2009)
2. At least one post per month (from February 1 to June 9, 2009)

Think about it!

… This time Google map service is the one that could face a EU lawsuit.
Peter Hustinx, the EU data protection supervisor, presented on 15 May the annual report and, during his discussion with the reporters, he mentioned that if Google launched such a map service in European Union, they should comply with European privacy legislation, which in most member states is stricter than in the United States.

“Making pictures on the street is in many cases not a problem, but making pictures everywhere is certainly going to create some problems. I’m quite sure they are aware of this.”

“Complying with European data protection law is going to be part of their business success or failure”
“If they would ignore it, it is likely to lead to [court] cases, and I think they would be hit hard.”

said Mr. Hustinx.
Google map service has been already launched for many North American cities, and has been a success so far, since the users have the possibility to make a virtual trip to places they cannot visit otherwise.

Definitely this will continue. So far, the internet and software European regulations seem to give the American software giants many headaches.

Microsoft decided on 9 May to appeal the latest record fine of €899 million imposed by EU Competition Commissioner in February 2008 on its software licenses between 2004 and 2007 and the release of information on its products (EurActiv 28/02/08).

Meanwhile, a new accusation of unfair competition was filed by the The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA) on 13 May.
BECTA claims that the incompatibility between Microsoft’s OOXML document standard and alternative codes (ODF etc.) is deliberate and is acting as a barrier to educational and training institutions which are active in closing the so-called digital divide.

The European Commission published the report “Communicating about Europe via the Internet: Engaging the citizens”.
As the report mentioned, the objectives of the EUROPA website are to:

· respond to the needs of people with a broad and/or professional interest in EU affairs;
· help people looking for a particular service, or for information on their rights or EU policies;
· communicate the views of the Commission to the widest possible audience;
· allow people to express and exchange their views and opinions throughout Europe;
· help create a sense of European community as a supplement to the national sphere.

The fact that they intend to contact some of the most active websites dealing with EU issues, to explore “possible Web partnerships” and developing a “network of civil society and public and private websites that promote contact with or between European citizens and stimulate debate on EU policy issues” might be a good thing. The discussions on European issues can thus become more accessible to the citizens - I believe I’m not the only one bothered by the new developed “wooden tongue” (those who experienced the former communist ‘propaganda machine’ know what I mean), that the phrases, clishes and expressions repeated over and over again end up by being empty of any sense etc.
I don’t know how they will select the website to cooperate with, I really hope there will not be only those ‘pro-EU’, that the websites that also have sometimes critics on EU Institutions actions (not necessary eurosceptics - but why not? this would be a real debate) will not be ignored. Otherwise the internet can become something else, not just a source of information.

Forum “Debate Europe” has a new face. You can participate to the discussions on European themes with people all over the world. This is a way to make your opinions heard

EU regulators will drag again Microsoft into court. Reason:monopolistic practices, again.
This time the focus is on two essential areas for Microsoft: Internet Explorer and Microsoft Office suite.
Having in mind the result of last EU vs Microsoft case in European court, it is quite possible the concern will have to pay a significant amount (significant even for them) and “make substantial changes”.

European Digital Rights Initiative (EDRI) just started a blog on EDRI’s activities (N.B. the first message was published by Bogdan Manolea).
As there is written on their website:

European Digital Rights was founded in June 2002. Currently 28 privacy and civil rights organisations have EDRI membership. They are based or have offices in 17 different countries in Europe.
Members of European Digital Rights have joined forces to defend civil rights in the information society. The need for cooperation among organizations active in Europe is increasing as more regulation regarding the internet, copyright and privacy is originating from European institutions, or from International institutions with strong impact in Europe.
Some examples of regulations and developments that have the attention of European Digital Rights are data retention requirements, spam, telecommunications interception, copyright and fair use restrictions, the cyber-crime treaty, rating, filtering and blocking of internet content and notice-and-takedown procedures of websites.

Speaking of which … there are more and more talks on Romanian blogs about recognizing the ‘jurnalist status’ for bloggers, about ‘organizing the Romanian blogosphere’, ‘rules’ to be adopted etc.
Maybe this is not a bad thing, but I wonder how many of them do realize that this means setting limits, boundaries, monitoring, controlling, filtering … censorship …so much with the ‘absolute freedom’ on the internet. And who will be the Big Brother?

Monsieur Valéry Giscard d’Estaing is making in his blog (yes, he had started a blog at the age of 81, and, as you can see, the venerable is very active) a detailed comparison between former (or should I say ‘the late’?) Constitutional Treaty and the present Lisbon/Reform Treaty.

(I really like how it sounds in French: ‘billet’, it reminds me somehow of Arghezi’s ‘Bilete de papagal’)

The European Union started today a new anti-smoking campaign - see NicoMarket. They are promoting few fake products, which are suppose to stimulate (and simulate) the negative side effects of smoking.

Personally I think it is rather stupid. No smoker will be impressed (no, I don’t smoke and I hate smokers).

Nothing like a picture of lungs destroyed by cancer, a coffin and a sign: “We wish you to gain what are you striving for every single day of your life. But that’s no need to poison others, too. Don’t share this ‘gift’ with us, please”

..or cigarettes that only lit at both ends. Enjoy!

After losing antitrust case in September, Microsoft agrees changes to comply with EU regulations. A Microsoft spokesman announced that the company will not appeal again the decision, ending thus the long legal battle.
In consequence, software developers will have permission to access and use the interoperability information, and the royalties for a worldwide license, including patents, will be reduced from 5.95 percent to 0.4 percent, according to Commission.
Georg Greve, president of the Free Software Foundation-Europe, a group that had challenged Microsoft’s practice of using confidential server protocols, said for New York Times:

This is a huge breakthrough, Microsoft is finally doing what the commission ordered it to do. This will level the playing field.

Considered as one of the biggest EU court trials ever, the verdict gives an interesting image about EU’s ability to challenge giant corporations, even from USA.