Latest posts
Tweeting MPs get Minister ‘down on her knees’
As the Dutch Parliament is officially still on its annual summer leave, several MPs turned to Twitter to raise questions about the conduct of Dutch Environment Minister Tineke Huizinga, who rented a private jet to travel back and forth to attend a bu...
FH European podcasts # 1: Thought Leadership
I’ve recorded our first podcast on Corporate Communications and Public Affairs in Europe. Why podcasting, I hear? We believe we know a fair few people at Fleishman and beyond who have plenty of interesting things to share but might not always have...
Around the world in “Tweety” days
We like it when a neat idea, some good will and a little Twitter get together: Paul Smith, a 34-year-old freelancer, returned from his honeymoon with the travel blues. Yearning for another trip, he decided to try to get from the UK to Campbell Island...
The Wikileaks phenomenon: impact on 21st century statecraft?
Yesterday evening, The New York Times, The Guardian and Der Spiegel published analyses of a six-year archive of classified documents from US-led forces in Afghanistan, released to them by the organization Wikileaks. The disclosure of the material h...
Mapping the Euroblogosphere: what are the must-read EU political blogs?
Difficult question, one to which we would be tempted to answer: all of them. But as that wouldn’t be of much help, we’ve had a go at making our own selection of the must-read EU political blogs, also known as Euroblogs. Inspired by previous at...
Why the shortage of influential policy bloggers in Brussels?
Some people will tell you there are scores of influential policy bloggers in Brussels. Unfortunately, they’re wrong. There’s an active throng of smart and passionate Eurobloggers who write about the EU and a number of issues surrounding it. Most...
Belgian elections: a new start?
On June 13, federal elections took place in Belgium. The results are along the lines of the predictions. Both the Flemish nationalists of the New Flemish Alliance (NV-A), headed by Bart De Wever, and the Francophone Social Democrats (PS), led by Elio...
Kroes will stay
In recent weeks there have been rumours in Brussels circles saying that Neelie Kroes, Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, might become the next Prime Minister of the Netherlands, should her party, the VVD, come first in the elections. Yesterday it w...
And the winner is …
Election night in the Netherlands was quite ‘hot’; at some point the NOS television program ‘election night’ announced that Twitter was overloaded and inaccessible due to the vast interest of the people in the probable results. The Dutch...
FH Athletes storm the Brussels 20km
On 30 May, six of FH Brussels’ finest athletes (?) took the streets of Brussels alongside 30,000 other participants to face the annual Brussels 20km run. A great race was had by all, with some of the more seasoned runners breaking personal bests an...
BHV: Not just a French department store
One of Paris’ largest department stores is the Bazar de l’Hôtel de Ville or ‘BHV’. Women’s fashion, decoration, furniture and DIY material…you can all find it at BHV. The slogan of the Paris BHV is ‘Tout pour trouver son bonheur.’ Tr...
Tough home truths in IMF report
It was evident from the beginning of the eurozone crisis that the only way to discipline recalcitrant member states in the face of enormous budget deficits was to involve the International Monetary Fund, an independent, external organization which wa...
Countdown to the Belgian Federal Elections
On April 22, Open VLD, the Flemish Liberal Party, withdrew from the Belgian government coalition after having lost confidence in the government’s handling of the complicated dossier surrounding the electoral district of Brussel-Halle-Vilvoorde (BHV...
First Ever Digital Election Debate
In the run up to the 9th June parliamentary elections in the Netherlands, the first ever election debates took place through Hyves and Twitter – on the same day. Hyves for breakfast and Twitter for dinner. The 30 minute debate on the Dutch soc...
Low profile on Europe for UK coalition
Against the backdrop of a European economic crisis of monumental proportions, the creation of the UK’s coalition government must seem like “noises off” to other European theatre-goers. But at least the deal reached between Conservative leader D...
The EU’s Digital upgrade: European Digital Agenda!
The European Commission has finally published its anxiously awaited European Digital Agenda, or “EDA” to add a further official acronym to the alphabet soup of the EU. During the past few months the European Parliament, Council, consumer groups a...
You don’t ‘get’ social media? Just open your ears and listen…
It is very easy to tell how many followers we have on Twitter but have you ever wondered why people are using social media? Why people are reading your blog? What kind of information they are looking for? If the answer is “no”, you should definit...
Post your blog at 0900 hours, General.
Picture an enthusiastic proponent of social media in your head. Who comes to mind? I’ll tell you who I am thinking about – Admiral James Stavridis, the Supreme Allied Commander for Europe in charge of NATO military operations and planning and the...
We’re tickled pink by Julien’s fish and mash-ups
An interesting post over on Julien Frisch’s blog who shows yet again how online tools out there for free can help all of us seeking to understand and explain the EU’s legislative processes – whether to clients or just because we are...
Big changes on the way after UK election?
There’s never been a British general election campaign like this one! With just over a week to go before the May 6 election day it seems from the opinion polls that big changes could be on the way. Here the Brits stand, midway between a Continental...
