United in diversity...?
Finally I can present some blogs that deal with EU-related topics in some way or the other! (I also added them to the link list on the right under "EU-related blogs" for future reference)As I already outlined in my previous entry,the EU and related issues many heated debates,and not too much applause in many places. The following blogs have a critical (and that's an euphemism - full of scepticism,if not aversion close to paranoia) attitude towards EU-related issues and belong into some of the anti-EU categories/labels I mentioned before.
EU Realist and Eurorealist Files by one and the same author.EU Referendum is a very critical blog about the EU Referndum (as the title suggests...). Road to Euro Serfdom is - how surprising - also an anti-EU blog that takes its name from the 1944 cartoon The Road to Serfdom by F.A.Hayek - which is also interestingly enough referred to in External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten's speech "Who do they think we are?Being British." (about 2/3 down the page if you don't want to read it all - even though I think it's worth read.)
Speaking of Chris Patten - a critical review of a critical review of his new book Cousin and Strangers - America, Britain, and Europe in a New Century promises a slightly more balanced view on EU issues.
But really,I am still desperately searching for any Pro-EU blogs.However much important it is to have a critical attitude towards any state-like apparatus that has the possiblity to obtain too much control and it's good to have some very informed differenciated critical thought - they have to exist: the positive happy non-paranoid Europeans, or at least the positivist realists...somewhere? I suppose my search and its results have mainly been UK blogs - and just as a neutral factual observation:there is a lot of euroscepticism going on in the UK. Dutch Huib Riethof has none of that conspiracy-atitude in his writings (at least the one in English),but c'mon - there has to be more to give it a bit of a balance. Or is this the why-should-I-write-about-it-if-everything's-fine-syndrome?
United in diversity then? Not sure about unity nor diversity as far as public opinion is concerned,if you take blogs to be representative. Apropos Public Opinion - check out the Eurobarometer Interactive Search System for everything about the attitudes of "EU citizens".
To be continued...
posted by Carina @ 12:02 pm
7 Comments:
*ahem*
Europhobia's actually pro-EU... Check the links for a whole bunch of other EU-related blogs - if you ask nicely, I might even tell you which are pro, which anti, which neutral...
Ever so sorry,bad research on my side!*goes off to edit*
If I ask nicely - I think I should rather go and read them all now to find out myself and restore my non-existant reputation!;)
Thanks loads for the tip!
No worries - easily done.
Good places to start to find more EU blogs are my blogroll, A Fistful of Euros, and European Tribune - all three are loosely pro-EU, but critical when warranted, and vaguely left-wing (ish).
I think I didn't get past the title after reaching the saturation point of reading all things anti-EU that day...
Thanks for the hints,they seem like a really good read.It's a bit hard figuring out which are the decent ones and who supports what (well in 3 days time anyway...).
There are a lot more anti blogs than pro (at least in English - the French blogosphere is massive, but my French isn't good enough for me to have done anything other than scratch the surface), and most of them are raving. Most readable anti-EU blogs are probably The Road to Euro Surfdom, Tim Worstall, EurSoc, North Sea Diaries and England Expects.
The trouble is, the EU is very, very boring, so it's normally only obsessives who write about it. That doesn't usually make for good reading, it must be said...
Raving is the word,I personally find extremely populistic writing a hard read - it plays too much with opinions and as I said,that makes me reach my saturation point very easily.
Fistful of Euros seems to be an interesting and pleasent read from what I've read so far - it's more that the entire topic is so complex and entails so many aspects that it's a bit daunting to get a broad idea to start with,about anything from energy mergers to agriculture to all things constitution,enlargement,bearing in mind the different situations in each member country...I find it very interesting,just hard to find your way through it - let alone keeping track of what other people write about it and mean by it!
I struggle with myself, not to appear too satisfied with my lonely balancing act, where you mention me twice (Patten and generally) as a rare Europositive, in your post. "A Fistful" is certainly a more heavyweight Eurorealist blog than mine. And my Dutch, French, and -recently started- German, blogs are also Europositive.
Why do I do this? Not because I like being in oppposition to the main trends, nor because of some secret subsidy from the EU, but because of my experience of some fifteen years with urban regeneration. The European support for exchanges between inhabitants and experts within European city networks is a decisive factor for success and capitalisation of achievements. In this domain at least, the presence of a supranational European level has proven to be an important asset. Many colleagues and other people we are working with, think like me. But most of us are too busy, to be blogging. :-)
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