URL: Latest posts
Farewell to the Hungarian Presidency – or “is there life after the Presidency?”
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(There is definitely life for this blog after the Hungarian Presidency, as we will carry on blogging and tweeting, so you are welcome to follow us.)During the last six months the Presidency has fully occupied our days and part of our nights. A few pr...
The (many) mistakes we made
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From the feedback we get from all over in Brussels, it seems the Hungarian Presidency is considered a great success. From Olli Rehn, arguing for a Schuman Prize, to Hannes Swoboda wanting to stop the clock on the 30th of June, all actors are impresse...
Federal plans in Central Europe and its message for today’s Europe
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(This article is based on an exhibition organized by the Hungarian Presidency in the Berlaymont building under the title “Central European Union”. The closing cocktail will take place at noon on 28/06)We have stumbled upon some interesting Centra...
Sunday reading list – a very subjective take on Hungarian books
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On Sundays we’ve been trying to give a little cultural twist to this blog. This time, it is not music, but books. Kováts is a great fan of listing things, so here is a very subjective list of the five “best” Hungarian books:1. The most talked-...
A practical solution to the migration questions arrives just in time
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Getting serious on a solution to migration?!Today’s the last European Council during the Hungarian presidency, with migration and Schengen high on the agenda. (After meeting Jerzy Buzek, leaders will discuss economic issues over dinner. Tomorrow co...
Presidency goes like mad
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Right now the best and brightest minds of Brussels are focused on Greece and the economy because of Thursday night’s European Council dinner. The Presidency will have to report on the delivery of two key elements of the comprehensive response to th...
Sunday music -Eurovision Pidgin English
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UPDATE (17/05/2011) We have received a few comments regarding voting patterns at Eurovision. Is this a good tool to map likes and dislikes between Europen countries? Not, because of the voting system (see here), the non-representative selection and t...
Survival guide for spokespeople III. – on lessons learned in presidency communications
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Following our post on gaffes by spokespeople (see here) and part two on communication dilemmas in Brussels (see here), we present our first take on lessons learned with only two months left to go in the presidency. This is a rather theoretical piece,...
Europe Day’s three degrees of separation from Humphrey Bogart
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Six degrees of separation refers to the idea that everyone on Earth is on average approximately six connections away from any other person on Earth. The notion has been invented by a Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy and first introduced in his short...
Survival guide for spokespeople II. – on Brussels communication dilemmas
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Following on our previous post on communication gaffes, we want to make good on our promise of sharing with you some of our dilemmas and lessons learned as spokespeople for the presidency of the Council of the European Union. We have learnt some of t...
Survival guide for spokespeople I. – famous gaffes
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The daily routine of people facing the press and publicity can be rather grueling and unspectacular – but what everyone remembers are the gaffes. This is unfair, but that is how communication works.Politicians make gaffes (think of Gordon Brown’s...
Kovács & Kováts are back – with one eye on the wedding
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After a silence of a few weeks, we are back with regular articles on this blog. The first one is coming tonight. That is after we settled our argument on whether to watch the wedding or not. (According to Reuters, 22% of British people were def...
The interpreter who started a war (...well, almost)
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Photo: EPWe have been blogging repeatedly on the Brussels language regime and we can’t stop ourselves from continuing it. Even though the event described in this post happened in Strasbourg at the plenary session of the European Parliament, for...
How the eurogroup/ECOFIN statement was finalised....
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We only had the draft version at hand, so we had to update it with all the changes of the final version. And a friendly cameraman immortalized the process of "finalising the eurogroup/ECOFIN statement"..... (What did you think when you clicked on the...
Kovács & Kováts at 10,000 - we're learning to fly (but we ain't got wings...)
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Today, we have reached 10,000 pageviews since the start of this blog in early February. In two months this is not a big achievement in comparison to certain fashion blogs raking in so much in one day, but not bad if you consider that we’re both wet...
A lingua franca for Europe? (Brussels Pidgin English III)
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Gen 11:7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.(As you will see from the text, there is a deep disagreement between Kovács and Kováts on language use, one of the few subjects whe...
Mumsnet beats Brussels – and everyone else
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(Updated 05/04/2011)Kovács & Kováts faced strong competition on the 1st of April, so we decided to look into some of this year's april foolery (which pale in comparison to the all time bests, of course.). After several EU institutions were targ...
Happy Birthday, Marshall Plan!
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On the 3rd of April 1948, President Truman signed the Economic Cooperation Act into law, which launched the Marshall Plan for Europe. The whole Eastern block, including Hungary, refused participation under orders from Stalin. A report by...
Hungarian Presidency extended
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Coreper has discussed today the extension of the mandate of the Hungarian Presidency in light of a successful first three months. Spokespersons Kovács and Kováts stated: „We have proven that we are part of the solution and not part of the problem...
The EU speaking with one voice?
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In our experience, public opinion does not distinguish between the European Parliament, Council, Commission, etc. The images of the institutions are not distinct of each other and citizens (rightly) look at the EU as one "organisation". Outside of Br...
