I’ve just noticed that this blog had it’s first birthday on the 13th. I didn’t really know where this would go when I started it; in fact I mainly started it for an excuse to play around with CSS3. Anyone who began reading this after October last year probably hasn’t the faintest clue where the name comes from—the blog started out as a weekly briefing, though the effort of compiling that soon put a stop to it—but I like it, and it’s distinctive. It’s quite rewarding to keep this blog as well: I’ve had 1,607 visits from 56 countries since I started (I realise this is quite low traffic, but I’m not expecting much from this poorly kept hobby!), written 140 posts, and managed two election night live-blogs. I don’t have any plans to stop, so lets see if it can become as long-lived as my other blog which is now approaching its fourth birthday.

This blog could get a bit to serious and worthy if I carry on as I have done so far this year, so before I have to stand on one leg (a Federation of Young European Greens custom where the audience can demand the speaker stand on one leg while delivering their speech to show they don’t take themselves too seriously, and a custom I’d love to see at Holyrood or Westminster) I thought I’d do a post on what European blogs, podcasts and other assorted media I ‘consume’. There are great blogospheres at most political levels, but I’m still looking for the European one. So here are four of my daily reads/views/listens:

Network Europe

Okay, so most of my choices are from MSM of some form. Network Europe is good at the non political stuff. It covers cultural and lighter stories, though there is a painfully loud tone at the very start of the programme, which makes iPod listening less than perfect.

The Record: Europe

This seems to be the only programme on EU affairs on British television, so it has a guaranteed slot in my viewing habits. Most definitely for proper politics geeks, and unfortunately only available for UK viewers unless you have BBC World News.

Café Babel

A strange quasi-blog/magazine/social network for young Europeans. The RSS feed hasn’t worked for ages, but it’s worth a browse anyway. Has some of the odder European stories.

EurActiv

Without this I’d know nothing of what happens in Brussels. The news section is on my list of must read RSS feeds every day, and the LinksDossiers have become my first port of call for research.

Of course there are lots more that I’d list here if I could be bothered (but I can’t, and I have a kettle to replace), so I’ve updated my blogroll with some of them.

I’ve neglected this blog for far too long, and it’s time to restart regular blogging. So my first topic is one which I followed for a while last year: the Energy and Climate Package. Actually, it isn’t specifically about that, rather it’s about what one of the outcomes of that was meant to be.

The Commission wanted to achieve a moral high-ground with the Package. Essentially, it should have poured icy cold water on the argument that the advanced portions of the developing world shouldn’t have to act on climate change in any strenuous way, as they didn’t make the problem, and the developed world has benefited hugely from emissions of greenhouse gases. Aside from the fact that this argument for non-action can be negated by matters of self-interest for the developing world, it was a fairly good idea of the Commission to try to lead the way.

Unfortunately (or some may say, fortunately), the EU doesn’t just do what the Commission wants. MEPs and national ministers have their say too, and the Package was watered down at every stage, until a very weak piece of legislation was spat out the other end. You could say that the institutions break the legislation down like grass in a cow’s stomach. Take that metaphor where you will.

Anyway, it seems that the Commission hasn’t realised that its proposals were digested in that way, as it has apparently just urged developing nations to cut their emissions, regardless of the EU’s rather limited actions, beholden as it is to commercial interests.

Certainly, the approach to tackling climate change must be global in scale, and stronger nations must help weaker nations, but though this may be initially suggested by the Commission’s media release, it does also go on to say that:

“Up to 2020 the bulk of actions in these countries will have low costs—or even benefits—and should be financed domestically.”

To me this does not seem to be a particularly constructive way of helping very poor states to make the necessary adaptations to their economies and infrastructure that will be needed. After the diluting of the Energy & Climate Package, it seems that the EU is in a bit of a muddle over what to do. A generally pro-action Commission (though clearly not a dream Green Commission) seems held back by the more reluctant views of member states and citizens. I think this is something I’m certainly going to come back to pretty soon.

It probably isn’t related to anything I’ve written (though Analytics did show scotlandoffice.gov.uk as having referred a couple of visits to this blog), but Jim Murphy’s ministerial blog now has an RSS feed, and comments! No one appears to have actually commented on anything yet, but I’m sure that’ll change soon. I’ll certainly be following what is written, now that I can read it in Mail.app.

Being both a politics geek and a Web geek, I like it when politicos blog. So Jim Murphy’s new ‘blog’ sounded encouraging. Only one slight problem: it isn’t really a proper blog. I can understand the lack of a comments system. He can’t really justify a whole minion to moderate comments, even in the name of engagement with the public. But where is the RSS feed? I subscribe to dozens of blogs via RSS, and this lets me take in a lot more than I would if I had to go to each site in turn. Without a feed, it’s unlikely that I’ll follow what he’s writing. And while my blog habit is possibly a bit excessive in terms of the ‘average user’, I think it is fairly representative of the sort of person who is going to engage with a ministerial blog.