Podcast

This is the second and final part of the interview. Also present is Joe Hennon, her Spokesman. Part one is here

Part 2 Interview with Commissioner Wallstrom (31.05, 28.4mb, mp3) Criticism, the citizens' right to have a voice, how to tell if a Commissioner is doing a good job, getting rid of jargon, what frustrates her, advice for the next commissioner, the difference between old and new media, making the pro-Europe case, why we need referenda, the workload of a commissioner, the difficulties of public life, the need for doubt, and starting writing.

This is the first of a two-part podcast with Commissioner Wallström, who has revolutionised the European Union's strategy for communicating with citizens and has been a bold experimenter in using internet based technologies for putting their message out and encougaring debate between the institutions and citizens.

Whilst her efforts have not always been appreciated, to put it mildly, by the EU institutions, her remarkable energy and tenacity is slowly changing the entrenched mindset of many people.

It may be too early to say how successful she has been, or if future Commissioners will continue opening up debate, her impact is beyond doubt. As she nears the end of her two terms, she discussed openly, passionately and movingly on her work and beliefs, she also spoke about the price of a life in politics and her plans for the future.

Part 1: Interview with Commissioner Wallström (29.59, 25mb, mp3) Reforming communication strategy, blogging, using the internet to encourage debate and discussion, why people's attitudes to govenment has changed, why politicians blame 'Brussels' and the dangers of reading the Daily Mail every day.

Part 2

We have two excellent interviews with Chris Davies, one of Britain's most effective Members of the European Parliament and recently nominated as MEP of the Year.

He's recently visited Gaza, and blogged from there. He's also known for leaking a report into MEP's expenses and was recently busted for posessing cannabis as part of his decriminalisation campaign.

In this podcast, we covered a lot of ground and Chris spoke freely and interestingly and gave a real insight behind the parliamentary walls. In this podcast the Lib-Dem MEP discusses a wide range of issues including;

Part 1: Gaza and Israel ( 14.37, 13.3MB, mp3) His trips to Gaza, including during the conflict, dealing with Hamas and looking for a peace process, the Arab Peace Plan.

Part 2: The European Elections and the European Parliament (32.34, 29.8MB, mp3) On prospects and effects of the BNP gaining seats, discussions on how to counter the far-right, The difference between European and national parliaments, the political process in Europe, the pro-Europe case, the Euro, the forthcoming elections and why European politics is boring.

Further Reading:

Chris Davies MEP official site - Contains articles, speeches etc.

Chris' Weblog - includes his blogging from Gaza

Last night I interviewed William Morris of the Next Century Foundation.

They are involved in conflict reolution in places such as Gaza, Iraq and also facilitate track 2 dialogues, for example arranging confidential discussions between Hamas and people who publically claim they're not/ cannot talk to them. These meetings are a way of initiating a process of dialogue.

An example of such a process would be the secret talks between the UK and the IRA that ultimately led to the peace proccess.

Audio interview with William Morris (mp3 14.5MB)

The Economist's David Rennie explained how the endorsement came about. Every Monday there would be a debate amongst the management team, with people selected to represent both parties. After several sessions the senior managers came to a decision.

Speaking at a debate on the US election, hosted by the 311 forum at Brussels' think tank, The Centre Rennie elaborated on the thinking behind the decision and also discussed some of the issues awating the new president and how his first European visit is going to cause problems... for the Europeans.

Following him, Gerald Loftus, Democrat Abroad Belgium gave insights into the campaign and the issues surrounding it and what's Obama going to do in office.

Listen to the debate:

David Rennie (mp3 6.35MB 13:52)

Gerald Loftus (mp3 5.91MB 12:55)

You should enjoy Gerald's aptly named blog: The Avuncular American

Demonstrators gather as MEP's back caps on carbon emissions from power stations

As MEPs met to decide on a range of climate change issues in Brussels, protestors campaigning against the construction of 50 coal fired power plants held a lively demonstration outside the parliament under the slogan, No More Coal.

Stefan Singer, Director Global Energy Policy, World Wildlife Fund explained what they were asking for, “We want the policymakers, especially in the Parliament to address the emerging threat of coal. Coal is coming back in a big way, it is cheap and abundantly available, but it is the biggest offender to the climate system. It has the highest emissions and it is dirty. We need to do something this if we want to take climate change seriously.”

He denied that he was anti-coal, but suggested that putting a cap on emissions would force power generators to look for ways of using cleaner coal in a more efficient way and developing renewable energy sources. MEPs were also asked to look into co-ordinating the European power grid to make it more responsive and efficient.

The European Parliament's environment committee voted to supply billions of euros to help test carbon capture and storage technology (CCS), something Stefan backs, saying if CCS works then there is a future for coal.

Interview with Stefan Singer (mp3 4.02mb 8:47)

Photos of the demonstration

 Today, I attended a meeting on Georgia and the EU, organised by the Centre for European Policy Studies. During a break I managed to get an interview with Ghia Nodia, the Georgian Minister for Education.

I also came accross two interesting papers, Post-Mortem on Europe’s First War of the 21st Century by CEPS Michael Emerson and Ghia Nordia's The war for Georgia: Russia, the west, the future

The interview is here (mp3 6:28 min 2.96MB)

It seems that the EU visit to Moscow has been quite successful: Russia agrees to a deadline for withdrawl

This morning I interviewed Nigel Farage MEP, leader of UKIP and of the EU Parliament's Independence and Democracy movement.

He had many interesting things to say regarding security, electoral reform, David Davis and civil liberties and the rise of the political class. As you would expect, this interview had to be interrupted several times, because of his job and positionand recording was paused at times, so I apologise for this, but the interview is worth listening to for anyone interested or involved in Europe.

Part One (25:38 mins 13MB)

Part Two (14:06 mins, 6.45MB)

There was a good turn out on this hot day and as BBC Brussels staff lined up holding portraits of Alan, the spokesman, Johnny Diamond gave an impassioned speech to remember him and a direct plea for his release.

Margot Wallstrom, vice-president of the commission said the EU would do all it could as did Leila Shahid, the Palestinian Authority's envoy to the EU.

Listen to our interview with Johnny Diamond (mp3) on the kidnapping and the difficulties facing journalists

Our second interview from the al-jazeera Forum last week. This is a 20 minute interview with Hugh Miles, author of "al-Jazeera, How Arab TV News Challenged the World".

Listen Here

Hugh goes into detail about al-Jazeera, its values, it's significance and it's potential. For anyone who wants a quick grounding in this listen here, if you want to go into the subject further, go to Amazon and buy the book, it's highly recommended.

The first of a series of interviews we conducted whilst we were at the al-Jazeera Forum last week.
This is a 20 minute Breakfast Interview with Dahr Jamail, covering his experiences in Iraq and Fallujah, the failings of mainstream media in reporting Iraq, and the potential for disaster if the rhetoric directed at Iran turns into US action.

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We would like to dedicate this to George Dubya, in honour of his current little constitutional difficulties...

It is a remix of an Alabama3 remix of the gospel classic 'God's Unchanging Hand', featuring American presidents past and present, introduced by Don Rumsfeld.

Listen Here