Documents by topic : Culture and education

The annual prize for excellence in journalism will be awarded by the European Parliament next Thursday, 15 October. There are four prizes up for grabs divided between the print media, radio, TV and the internet. They will be picked from over 65 national award winners, who were themselves selected from over 250 entries. The prize is awarded annually to recognise those journalists who have contributed to the understanding of European issues and debates.

You can now access books, journals, films, maps etc from across Europe via the EU's online library, Europeana. It's a great idea but it's not all plain sailing: web copyright rules are not the same in all EU countries, there are issues about paying for items that are still under copyright and should there be a minimum standard for content? The Culture Committee discussed the future challenges for Europeana Tuesday morning.

Venice Film Festival: The EP today unveiled three films which will compete for this years LUX Prize, given annually by the EP to support European Cinema. These are "Eastern Plays" by the director Kamen Kalev and is a joint Bulgarian-Sweden production and "Sturm" by Hans-Christian Schmid which is produced by a German, Danish and Dutch team. The film choice is "Welcome" by Philippe Lioret and is a French production.

Polish art student Zofia Szostkiewicz is this month's guest photographer with her photos of people voting in Kolding in south-west Denmark during the European elections. Currently doing an Erasmus study year abroad, Zofia sent us her reportage taken on 7 June as Danes went to the polls in record numbers. She told us: "I signed for the euro-elections so I could vote here. It was a great experience for me and I would like to share with everyone."

Asylum seekers risking their lives, the courage of a Bosnian girl and unrequited love are just three themes in the 10 films short-listed for the European Parliament's annual LUX cinema prize. The films are all European productions that deal with issues that Europe faces - in particular those that unite or divide us. A panel of 17 people from the film industry selected the films - which will be shown in the EP before being whittled down to three finalists at September's Venice Film Festival.

Concern about young people not voting and the need for parents to tell children the importance of voting lay behind this month's guest photograph. "The change of generations" by Romanian photographer Daniel Andrei from Constanta on the Black Sea was chosen from scores of entries on the theme "on the way to vote". It was taken in the Sibiu which was the European capital of Culture in 2007. Thanks to all of you who entered - a full gallery can be found on the flickr account below.

"The police, private companies, criminals - want to have as wide as possible access to our personal information - be it for legal or illegal purposes. The monitoring of individuals could turn our societies stealthily into a Big Brother society," Greek Socialist Stavros Lambrinidis warned at a hearing on data protection on the internet.

The internet and social networking sites like Facebook, blogs and Twitter are changing politics. Every election makes this clearer and June's European elections are likely to be no different. European "eParticipation day" is on 4 March and will look at ways to get people more involved in democracy through new technologies. We spoke with two MEPs who have been closely involved in the eParticipation project.

The Czech Presidency of the EU dominated the headlines in early 2009. Unfortunately it was less about the rotating presidency and more about the unveiling of Czech artist David Černý's Entropa installation. Rarely has an EU presidency, through art, stirred such emotions and divided opinions.

This year Lithuania's capital Vilnius and the Austrian city of Linz are the official "European Capitals of Culture". Like previous holders they will be hosting an array of artistic and cultural events. The aim being to advertise the cities and also bring inward investment through an influx of tourists.

If you are a journalist covering EU policies or have written about the institutions of the Union then the European Parliament's journalism prize may interest you. Divided into four categories - print media, radio, TV and the internet - each winner will receive €5,000.

Encouraging people to be as creative and innovative as possible in education, employment and cultural activities are three main aims of the European Year of Creativity and Innovation launched Wednesday. The aim is to innovate in areas such as the economy but also social and individual well-being.

We have had great stories over the past six months and here you can find just a few of the ones we liked best. Read again about our "youth media days" event, and our article on the views of Joseph Blatter, head of FIFA and his ever-provocative views on the state of football.

As we come to the end of Europe's year of intercultural dialogue, which brought many leading religious and cultural figures to the European Parliament, we wanted to give you the chance to share again some of the insights they gave us to promote understanding between peoples and faiths.

"Resolutions for 2009" was the topic we suggested for our first guest photographer project. We had an enthusiastic response with many thought-provoking and amusing photos. We eventually settled on "En route to hope" taken in Dakar, Senegal by Mimi Mollica. Thanks a lot to all those who took part!

We all need to better understand the media we are touched by daily, especially the young, says Austrian Socialist Christa Prets. MEPs backed her report on "media literacy in a digital world" on Tuesday. In an exclusive interview Ms Prets explained to us what media literacy actually is, how we can improve it and how it can be used to teach the young.

Since October, readers of the European Parliament's web pages have had access to RSS, which allows them to keep up-to-date with what is going on via a free subscription. At the moment, readers have access to parliament news and podcasts, but RSS will be extended to other parts of the site later. Find out more:

Bridging the cultural divide

Focus - Culture - 11-12-2008 - 11:00

In a global melting pot, how we relate to one another's culture is an issue of the greatest importance. It involves a level of understanding of different cultures, languages and faiths. This year is the European Year of intercultural dialogue and the European Parliament and its President are determined to draw attention to the need for a bridge between different cultures. African week (8-12 September) in the Parliament which brought politics and culture from Africa to Brussels.

The Dalai Lama spoke to MEPs Thursday about the importance of happiness and universal human values. The Buddhist spiritual leader also touched on the plight of Tibet.

"e-Parliament" discusses connection with voters

Article - Youth - 27-11-2008 - 11:32

The role that the internet can play in parliamentary democracy was explored this week when 400 people gathered in Brussels for the annual "e-Parliament conference". Ways in which new web developments can be used to get people more involved in politics were discussed by 400 delegates from around the world.

The recent US elections have shown the power and influence that new technologies can exert in mobilising people to vote. The role that the internet, websites and web-TV can play in parliamentary politics will be debated by over 350 MEPs, MPs and IT experts in a two day conference at the European Parliament in Brussels 25-26 November. You can watch the debates live online here.

Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth, visited the European Parliament on Wednesday as part of events celebrating the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. After addressing MEPs, he talked to us in an exclusive interview about hope and humour and said "the issue is how do we talk to the moderates so that we can isolate the extremists?"

To mark 20 years of European youth programmes, 250 young people came to meet MEPs and set out their vision of Europe on 5 November. As part of European Youth Week across the EU, the EP event had workshops on education, employment, volunteering, social inclusion and the rights of young people. So what do young people think about the EU and will they be voting in next year's European elections?

Arab and European politics and culture came together under the European Parliament's roof in Brussels this week, as relations between the two were discussed in a series of seminars on education, human rights and the price and future of oil.

Europe's relationship with the Arab world will be the focus of attention during "Arab week" at the European Parliament from 3-7 November. A series of debates, exhibitions and even musical performances will take place in Brussels to draw attention to the politics and culture of the Arab world.

Immigration is one of the most politically emotive issues that Europe faces. As the population ages the debate over the extent we allow people into the continent will increase, not diminish with time. Pete Pakarinen's emotive article "a thousand bucks for a hazardous sea voyage" has explored the issue. On Friday he won parliament's journalism prize for his work on the internet. We spoke to him.

With the increasing availability of the internet, children are being exposed more and more to illicit images and content. A reported 74% of young people between 12-15 years use the internet at least 3 hours a day. Monday sees MEPs discuss new measures to increase the security of children who use the internet.

EuroparlTV launched

Article - Information - 19-09-2008 - 09:02

You've seen the banners, now watch the European Parliament's new state-of-the art web-TV - EuroparlTV. It's the world's most ambitious multilingual online TV service with programmes in over 20 EU languages on the people, the debates, the big issues, the latest news, life behind the scenes and with special programmes for young people.

African week has brought many prominent people to the European Parliament this week. One of them is Wole Soyinka, a Nigerian writer, poet, playwright and the first African winner of the Nobel prize for literature in 1986. On Thursday, in talks with MEPs, he spoke passionately about the need for human rights violators to face justice. Whilst at the EP we caught up with him and asked him his views on cooperation between cultures.

The flame is out, the athletes are home, the stadiums have fallen silent...the Olympic Games are over for another four years. In the run up to the Olympics, Parliament gave considerable attention to the political and human rights aspects of the Games in China, and will return to the subject in future debates, but meanwhile the world has also been gripped by the sporting competition and some magnificent individual achievements. We asked some MEPs about the sporting aspects of the Beijing Games.

The events of 1968 shook post-war Europe and are still be analysed and spoken about today - a tribute to their enduring importance. Protests in Paris during the May days were the most famous although similar protest events resonated east and west across Europe. In Czechoslovakia the Prague Spring gave us "socialism with a human face" whilst in Poland students protested for reform before Soviet rule crushed dissent. Forty years on we asked a few MEPs for their recollections of that fateful year.