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THE VAST SIZE OF the operations of the European Union means that, in the Internet age, the number of web pages has also proliferated. In this issue the European Review takes a look at one of the recently inaugurated sites. As France took over the EU presidency on July 1st, it has started a web site in line with recent practice. When the Review took a look at it, there were one or two technical hitches but on the whole we found it quite an impressive site. A stylish home page has two frames (text which does not change as the main page changes, not available on all browsers) on the left hand side but we found that these frames seemed to appear and disappear unpredictably. The first includes the logo of the new presidency which consists of the EU and French flags combined with the outline of a face which apparently 'represents "Homo Europeus", with his own cultural identity enriched by the European identity' and 'is inspired by the cubist movement's simultaneous depiction of different views'. The site proclaims that all news and navigation will be available in French, English, German and Spanish with some items in all 11 EU languages. '
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The logo of the French EU presidency |
It is necessary, however, to hit the 'EN' button to translate each one. Clicking on 'France' changes the main part of the page to 'Profile of France' which includes such links as 'France in the World' and 'The Country'. The second frame now includes links such as 'Webcams' where we are promised digital views of five French cities (all are still 'under construction') and 'Bastille Day' where you can watch the fireworks from the last celebration. You can also download all the national anthems of the Member States should this appeal to you. To return to the home page it appears to be necessary to hit the 'back' button on your browser, which is definitely a design fault. If you do this the original list of links reappears at the left hand side of the page and by clicking on 'Europe' the user can click on links such as 'Major Stages in the Construction of Europe' and 'The three pillars of the European Union' as well as accessing the conclusions of various EU summits. |
'THE INTERNET AND the changing face of Hate' was the arresting title of a speech given recently by the EU Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs. Antonio Vitorino dealt not only with so-called cyber-crime but the use of the web as a platform for racist and anti-Semitic views. He said that greater international co-operation was needed to combat this and that the Commission would soon present ideas on a comprehensive policy. He welcomed the action of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia to investigate the use of the net to encourage violent and racist behaviour at football matches.
THE European Commission has set out its plans to create a European internet address suffix. It has been campaigning since 1999 for a top level domain name. Examples of these that may be familiar to web surfers are '.com' for international companies and '.co.uk' for British firms. The campaign forms part of the eEurope action plan agreed at the last EU summit.
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