El Pacto por el Euro Plus o la muerte del keynesianismo en Europa

El Pacto por el Euro Plus o la muerte del keynesianismo en Europa: "Durante muchos años los europeístas hemos defendido la necesidad de caminar hacia un gobierno económico europeo. Ahora parece que estamos más cerca de conseguirlo, pero a costa de renunciar a una de las señas de identidad de la Europa de la segunda mitad del siglo XX, el keynesianismo económico, que tanto bien ha hecho a las políticas sociales y al estado del bienestar.
Con las conclusiones del"

El Leviatán existe: vive en Bruselas (Article)

El Leviatán existe: vive en Bruselas (Article): "Las instituciones europeas son una hidra de papel que devora a los ciudadanos, afirma en su última obra el ensayista alemán Hans-Magnus Enzesberger, que insta a los europeos a plantarles cara. (Article)"

Anuario Galicia-Norte Portugal 2010

Anuario Galicia-Norte Portugal 2010: "¡Por fin lo he conseguido! Desde que conocí la noticia de la nueva edición del anuario estadístico Galicia-Norte de Portugal 2010 en el pasado mes de diciembre, lo he estado buscando en la web con el fin de compartirlo, y hasta hoy no lo había encontrado. Por tanto, lo primero que voy a hacer es [...]"

Innovación y participación ciudadana

Innovación y participación ciudadana: "Os propongo una reflexión que hace tiempo que persigo (o que me persigue), se trata de la relación entre innovación y participación ciudadana. Casi siempre se entiende la participación ciudadana desde su lado más político y pocas veces persiguiendo la participación ciudadana como experiencias (que es preciso observar) , como conocimiento y no simplemente como opinión. La innovación en la"

Everything You Need to Know About Open Innovation

Everything You Need to Know About Open Innovation: "

Open innovation is a concept I originated that falls directly in that gap between business and academe. Conceptually, it is a more distributed, more participatory, more decentralized approach to innovation, based on the observed fact that useful knowledge today is widely distributed, and no company, no matter how capable or how big, could innovate effectively on its own. Yet at the same time there is a critical role for an overarching architecture that connects these seemingly disparate activities together. And the business model (which itself can be innovated) determines what companies look to bring inside the firm and allow to go outside the firm. So open innovation supplies a lot for academics to study, and there have been literally hundreds of academic papers written now on this topic in the past 8 years. For business, open innovation is a more profitable way to innovate, because it can reduce costs, accelerate time to market, increase differentiation in the market, and create new revenue streams for the company. So there’s a lot of opportunity for business to profit from open innovation.

Click here to continue reading this column on Forbes.com.

"

The ideal of multiculturalism: Rest in Peace?

The ideal of multiculturalism: Rest in Peace?: "

Author: Christopher Houtkamp (Board-member & Web-editor European Student Think Tank)

Multiculturalism is dead. At least, according to many prominent EU-leaders. It’s a shame though, that they didn’t present a feasible alternative to the multicultural society. Should we say our permanent farewells to the multicultural ideal, or should we instead try to reform it, giving it a chance to survive? I’ll try to answer that question below.

The last few months we have seen a trend among conservative politicians to sharply distance themselves from the multicultural ideal. Chancellor Merkel of Germany opened the ball by saying that the thought of multiculturalism in Germany “ist absolut gescheitert”. UK’s prime-minister Cameron soon followed, declaring that “state multiculturalism” has failed. Naturally the French president Sarkozy didn’t wish to be left behind: he declared roughly the same as his conservative colleagues. And yes, even in my own small country, the Netherlands, our conservative-liberal Prime Minister Rutte buried ‘multi-culti’ in the cemetery of failed ideas, for good.

Why the politicians aren’t entirely wrong

The different government leaders formulated their death declarations in various ways, but the core of their criticism is roughly the same. We as north-western European countries made a grave mistake in the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s, to think that immigrants with a wholly different cultural background could easily integrate, with little government intervention, in our societies. According to them, the opposite is true: immigrants don’t learn the host country’s language, sometimes absolutely refuse to respect the dominant cultural norms and are in the worst case the root of many social problems. Despite the fact that the statistics, at least in the Netherlands, nuance that image a bit (according to the hard facts, the process of integration in terms of socio-economic participation is going smoother than ever before), it’s hard to completely deny their statements. There are indeed many segregated districts in the big European cities, where the majority of inhabitants is of non-western origin. I also know stories of people that had a couple of Muslims living above them in a flat. Sometimes the Muslims felt the need to initiate a ritual slaughter, killing for example a goat without anaesthetic. The blood then seeped down from the bars of the balcony. You might understand that integration under such circumstances tends to be a bit difficult.

Robert Putnam on ‘multi-culti’

In his article E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and Community in the Twenty-First Century the famous political scientist Robert Putnam does some research on the effect of ethnic diversity on social capital. By social capital I mean the extent of an individual’s network and the amount of participation within social activities. For example, an individual that participates in various sport-clubs and volunteering work has much more social capital than another who never sees a soul. Anyway, Putnam found that, on the short term, in all ethnic divers (or ‘multicultural’) neighbourhoods the amount of social capital was at an all-time low, both for natives and immigrants. Integration is then evidently practically impossible, because it requires at least an intensive interaction between native and immigrant communities to be successful. In that sense Putnam’s research confirms the statements of the four government leaders I mentioned before: different cultures can’t effortlessly live together. The sad message he has for the politicians is that government policy alone can’t make integration work. Sure, if you’re a policymaker you should let the immigrants learn the dominant language and provide for the necessary conditions to improve the interaction between natives and non-natives, but integration is foremost a time consuming process. It’s an absolute illusion to think that if you let immigrants pass a citizenship course, which is basically just a language course, and ‘release’ them in our society with minimal knowledge of our language and culture, that they will be able to instantly participate as if they were natives. It takes time for every person to adapt to a new culture. And it’s worthwhile to take that time: Putnam emphasises the enormous positive boost immigration gives on the long term. Immigrants give a country a kind of dynamism, by presenting new fresh ideas. Putnam clearly argues that the West needs immigrants to not completely lose its leading position on the world stage. His arguments in this regard are roughly the same as Amy Chua’s, whose ideas I’ve discussed in a previous blog (http://studentthinktank.eu/blogs/beyond-intolerance-and-xenophobia-a-plea-for-a-liberal-labour-immigration-policy/).

The task of Europe’s leaders

Declaring the ideal of multiculturalism dead while not presenting a feasible alternative is not only a bit odd, but also, on the long term, plain foolish. It’s a fact that we live in a multi-cultural society and we should try to deal with it the best way we can. I do realise however that the ideal is in dire need of reform. As long as we don’t think it’s the panacea for all the integration diseases, I advocate that all immigrants do an easy citizenship course before coming to Europe and finish it when they are finally here. Scientific research has proven that the chances of successful integration will then increase. But that’s basically all a government can do. For the rest our different leaders, and maybe even the EU as a whole, should try to formulate a convincing set of values and beliefs that binds ‘us natives’ all. That way the immigrants have a clear idea what kind of values they need to respect, and maybe even make their own. But it’s more importantly to actively live up to them. In Holland for example, we have a fundamentalist protestant-Christian party in the parliament (the SGP) that seeks to install a theocracy and discriminates women, while we at the same time condemn the fundamentalist Muslims for advocating exactly the same. I believe that if we both add this ‘value’ ingredient to our multi-cultural recipe (however hard that may be, I’m aware of that) and present the new immigrants with even more opportunities to help them with their integration, then a reformed multi-cultural ideal should be able to survive.

Literature:

Putnam, R (2007) ‘E pluribus Unum: Diversity and Community in the Twenty-first Century in Scandinavian Political Studies 30(2) pp. 137-174

"

GUÍA DE FUENTES DE INFORMACIÓN DE LA UNIÓN EUROPEA Y ORGANISMOS INTERNACIONALES (CDE).

GUÍA DE FUENTES DE INFORMACIÓN DE LA UNIÓN EUROPEA Y ORGANISMOS INTERNACIONALES (CDE).: "
Joaquim Millan
Eurolocal

GUÍA DE FUENTES DE INFORMACIÓN DE LA UNIÓN EUROPEA Y ORGANISMOS INTERNACIONALES

Esta guía, elaborada por el Centro de Documentación Europea y el Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales de la Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, es de particular importancia y utilidad. Los lectores tienen entre sus manos una herramienta que les ayudará a aproximarse al funcionamiento de las instituciones, no solamente europeas, sino también de organismos internacionales. Este manual es un excelente instrumento que, estoy convencido, contribuirá a aportar claridad y transparencia en las labores de los usuarios.

+ INFO: Centro de Documentación Europea de la Universidad Francisco de Vitoria (tlf.: 917091400 ext. 1551 / cde@ufv.es ).

LINK: http://www.ufv.es/inicio/publicaciones-del-cde_317

"

IDEO to Launch Non-profit Social Innovation Practice

IDEO to Launch Non-profit Social Innovation Practice: "

Palo Alto powerhouse IDEO announced that it would spin off a non-profit arm to handle its social innovation practice. The new organization will aim to work in three different ways: partnering with non-profits to design solutions to problems in the areas of health, agriculture, water and sanitation, financial services, and gender equity; using open innovation platforms and social networking to share insights on best practices; and launching a year-long “future leaders” fellowship program that will pair fellows from the developing world with selected IDEO staffers.

Click here to read the full article on Fast Company’s Co.Design.

"

Europa y usted

Europa y usted: "
Macarena Rodríguez
La Oreja de Europa

Este es el título de un apartado curioso de la web de la Comisión Europea en el que se muestran 'los logros' de la UE en 2010; es decir, qué ha hecho la Unión por sus ciudadanos el año pasado.



Esta web se divide por temas, energía, empleo, clima,... pero también podemos ver el vídeo general que nos resume en aproximadamente tres minutos el trabajo realizado por la UE para el progreso de sus políticas y el bienestar de sus ciudadanos. Solo falta, en nuestra opinión, un foro para que los mismos ciudadanos podamos opinar sobre estos logros. Al menos, todo está en un lenguaje comprensible y en castellano.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/LaOrejaDeEuropa

"

La agencia Efe lanza un portal de información europea

La agencia Efe lanza un portal de información europea: "
Jorge Juan Morante
Ciudadano Morante

Ayer, la Agencia Efe, lanzó un portal dedicado a información europea.

Felicito a la citada Agencia Efe por esta iniciativa que contribuirá a que, los ciudadanos, sean más conscientes de la importancia de las instituciones europeas y a crear una opinión pública europea.

Ojala más medios, como por ejemplo, RTVE, tomen conciencia de esto y hagan más accesible la información europea como ha hecho la Agencia Efe y hagan caso de nuestra campaña por una Pestaña Permanente de la Unión Europea.

Podéis visitar el portal de información europea de la Agencia Efe en: Euroefe



"

Estrategia Estatal de Innovación - e2i (ES)

Estrategia Estatal de Innovación - e2i (ES)

Über alles, pero amable (The Guardian, Londres)

Über alles, pero amable (The Guardian, Londres): "Tras un turbulento siglo XX, Alemania ha resurgido como el poder político y económico de Europa. Y el renacer de su capital Berlín, es un símbolo de su nueva función como líder de una Unión Europea cada vez más integrada. (Article)"

Professor Henry Chesbrough’s Presentation at the Sustainable Brands Conference

Professor Henry Chesbrough’s Presentation at the Sustainable Brands Conference: "

Below, please find a video presentation from Professor Henry Chesbrough at the Sustainable Brands 2010 Conference. His session was titled, “Open Innovation: An Apropos Paradigm Shift for Sustainable Brand Innovators.”

Chesbrough is an Adjunct Professor and Executive Director, Center for Open Innovation at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

"

Consejo de Competitividad de marzo: principales debates y conclusiones

Consejo de Competitividad de marzo: principales debates y conclusiones: "

El Consejo de Competitividad de la UE se reunió en Bruselas el miércoles 9 de marzo para debatir los asuntos de investigación e innovación, bajo presidencia húngara. Los principales debates se encaminaron a preparar el camino de cara al Consejo Europeo de marzo y se aprobaron conclusiones sobre la evaluación intermedia del 7PM y la EIP piloto sobre envejecimiento activo y saludable.

"

La Innovación Disruptiva

La Innovación Disruptiva: "

La innovación disruptiva describe el proceso por el cual un producto o servicio con aplicaciones sencillas que al principio está situado por debajo de la línea que marca el mercado, de repente moviliza el mercado, desplazando a los competidores previamente establecidos.

La innovación disruptiva permite a una nueva población de consumidores acceder a un producto o servicio que era únicamente accesible a los consumidores con mucho dinero.

Las características de las empresas disruptivas, al menos en sus primeras etapas, pueden incluir: márgenes brutos más bajos, mercados objetivos más pequeños, y productos y servicios más simples que es posible que no parezcan tan atractivos como las soluciones ya existentes pero que por el contrario aportan una propuesta de valor diferente creando nuevas necesidades. Es este, sin lugar a duda, el gran error de las compañías previamente establecidas, el echo de no prestarles la suficiente atención porque no ser sus competidores dejándolas crecer hasta que sea demasiado tarde.

Habitualmente estos productos disruptivos son más fáciles de usar, fiables y baratos que los productos disponibles actualmente en el mercado, de modo que pueden captar el interés de nuevos segmentos de consumidores y, en muchos casos, desplazar a largo plazo a los productos tradicionales.

Tradicionalmente la innovación se ha asociado a la idea de discontinuidad. Un producto es tanto más innovador cuanto más rompe con las formas tradicionales de cubrir una necesidad y aporta ventajas más diferenciales, aunque probablemente a cambio de exigir cambios de comportamiento en los usuarios y en el mercado.

Debido a que las compañías suelen innovar más rápido que lo que cambian las vidas de los consumidores, muchas organizaciones terminarán fabricando productos o proporcionando servicios que sean demasiado buenos, demasiado caros e inconvenientes para muchos clientes.

La actual tendencia la está marcando la industria farmacéutica en donde empresas pequeñas están proporcionando innovaciones a cambio de ser compradas por estas grandes multinacionales, la explicación a esta nueva tendencia es que los mercados bursátiles no ven con buenos ojos las innovaciones disruptivas y castigan a las grandes empresas con la reducción del precio de sus acciones y en su valor de mercado. Así pues la innovación será bienvenida por empresas nuevas financiadas con capital riesgo. De esta manera se producirá en un futuro la subcontratación de la innovación y esto nos lleva de nuevo a un concepto anteriormente mencionado en este blog: la innovación abierta.

Disruptive Innovation – Clayton Christensen II

Disruptive Innovation – Clayton Christensen III

"

EU Institute for Security Studies: The Arab democratic wave: how the EU can seize the moment

EU Institute for Security Studies: The Arab democratic wave: how the EU can seize the moment

Preparing for an EU Council meeting in six steps

Preparing for an EU Council meeting in six steps: "

I will be part of a pilot project this week, participating as an accredited blogger at the EU Competitiveness Council. The background for this pilot project is here, so I’ll head directly into the preparations. Please follow me into how the blogger can prepare for an EU Council meeting (Trivia is only for experts):

Step 1

Let’s go to the website of the EU Council to try to find the agenda of the upcoming Council meeting.

Trivia: Don’t end up on the website of the European Council, it looks very much alike but this is a different institution since the Lisbon Treaty is in place. Since you are an EU expert, you know that, so this was just in case. More import is not to end up on the website of the Council of Europe, which isn’t even the EU (standard mistake by the UK tabloid press).

Step 2

No link to the agenda of the Council on the front page, ~36 hours before it starts. But we’ll find it.

Trivia: You could try the menu button “Press” on the upper right and there you’d find, under “Council meetings” this link to the Council on Competitiveness (Internal Market, Industry, Research and Space), 3074th Council meeting – Brussels, 9 and 10 March 2011. However, the same link can be found on the front page where you started, right in the middle column under the button “Council Meetings”. Luckily, as a blogger, you don’t need to take the long way through the “Press”.

Step 3

Under the “Council meetings” button you get to the Council meetings page, where you now find the agenda of the upcoming Competitiveness Council. Unfortunately, the document doesn’t link or reference any documents under any of the agenda items. How to prepare for the Council’s substance? Maybe the related documents are to be found behind the link called “Presidency briefing“?

Trivia: Since you are an EU expert, you know that Council meetings are prepared by COREPER. As an expert, you could therefore go to the Advanced Search in the Council’s public register of documents. There you would enter a search for a meeting dated 1st of March or later having “Permanent Representatives” in the title (it must have been last week, therefore 1st of March or later). This would be the result when you’ve done this search. As an EU expert or as somebody who has read the Wikipedia page on COREPER linked above, you would know that COREPER I deals with the Competitiveness Council, so you’d take a look into the respective COREPER I agenda of last week. Somewhere there, under agenda item 22 (which is split over two days) you would have found the preparations of the Competitiveness Council, including all references to documents, which you could now search in the Advanced Search of the Council’s public register using the document numbers, such as 6904/11.

Step 4

Unfortunately, the Presidency briefing is just the announcement of the Presidency briefing, not its content. This briefing is off-the-record and thus not public. Since I’m accredited for this Council meeting, I’ll be able to participate tomorrow morning for the first time in my life. Will tell you whether this is of any help. But I still don’t have my documents. There’s another link left on the Council meetings page, called “Open sessions“. Will I find my documents there?

Trivia: According to Article 16(8) of the Treaty on European Union, “[t]he Council shall meet in public when it deliberates and votes on a draft legislative act. To this end, each Council meeting shall be divided into two parts, dealing respectively with deliberations on Union legislative acts and non-legislative activities.” In Article 15(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, it is clarified that “[t]he European Parliament and the Council shall ensure publication of the documents relating to the legislative procedures”.

Step 5

To my great surprise, the site on the “Open sessions” lists three linked agenda items under the Competitiveness Council:

• Europe 2020 strategy – Annual Growth Survey; contribution to the European semester


• Proposal for a Council Decision authorising enhanced cooperation in the area of the creation of unitary patent protection


• Europe 2020 strategy – Annual Growth Survey; contribution to the European semester (industrial part)

To my even greater surprise, following these links actually brings you to a list of documents for each of these agenda items, giving you enough to read for the rest of the night. Sometimes I still get surprised by the Council website.

Trivia: Since you have taken a look at the agenda of the Competitiveness Council, you know that there are more issues on the agenda than these three. So you have to switch back to EU expert mode and search for the last COREPER meeting to get all the related documents. Sorry for that. But you may be content with what you found under the “Open sessions” and sleep the sweet dream of the clueless. Or search for every little document, including the documents referenced in these documents, which then reference previous documents. Or maybe not.

Step 6

I think I’ve done enough preparation for today. I’ll have a look into some of the documents of the the open sessions and wait for the briefing tomorrow. Let’s see what I’ll learn there.

Trivia: If I was organising Council meetings and would be interested in having an informed public (i.e. informed journalists, bloggers etc.) before and after the meeting, I’d put up a webpage for each Council where all the relevant documents (including past discussions in/agendas of related COREPER and Working Party meetings) are already linked (not just referenced) under each agenda item. But you as an EU expert, you find all these things on your own, I know.

"

Video: Henry Chesbrough Rethinks the Concept of Open Innovation

Video: Henry Chesbrough Rethinks the Concept of Open Innovation: "

In his new book, “Open Services Innovation,” Professor Henry Chesbrough rethinks the concept of open innovation to tackle a new economy. Chesbrough offers the tools to apply service-focused innovation to avoid what he calls “the commodity trap.” Chesbrough explains, “Innovating in services is the escape route from the commodity trap and a solution for growth, giving firms a significant competitive advantage. As they innovate into the future, companies must think beyond their products and move outside their own four walls to innovate.”

Click here to access the video room at the University of California Berkeley’s Haas School of Business to view a video of Professor Chesbrough discussing the concept.

"

Un horizonte neoliberal (Libération, París)

Un horizonte neoliberal (Libération, París): "La Estrategia de Lisboa, un proyecto originalmente social-demócrata, no ha fomentado ni la innovación ni la cohesión social en la UE. Al contrario: la Comisión Europea la ha transformado en un programa neoliberal. Y, en opinión de un economista francés, la Estrategia 2020, el proyecto que le sucede, acentuará esta tendencia. (Article)"

La nueva frontera de Europa (Article)

La nueva frontera de Europa (Article): "Hace treinta años nadie podía haber previsto el proceso que llevó a que los antiguos países del Pacto de Varsovia se integraran en la Unión Europea. Ahora que lo mismo está sucediendo en los países árabes, la UE debe ofrecerles la misma oportunidad para fortalecer la democracia: la perspectiva de su integración. (Article)"

La nueva frontera de Europa (Article)

La nueva frontera de Europa (Article): "Hace treinta años nadie podía haber previsto el proceso que llevó a que los antiguos países del Pacto de Varsovia se integraran en la Unión Europea. Ahora que lo mismo está sucediendo en los países árabes, la UE debe ofrecerles la misma oportunidad para fortalecer la democracia: la perspectiva de su integración. (Article)"