With the click of a mouse

To come closer to citizens, to become more "transparent", and to promote better knowledge of decisions taken in Brussels and Strasbourg, the EU is reinforcing its presence on the Internet.Web, accessibility and transparency. In actual fact the EU institutions are already easily accessible, far more so than those of member states and of other international organizations. Thus, from the portal www.europa.eu it’s possible to discover practically everything that is happening at the level of the Union (laws and directives, policies, budget, working documents, live coverage of sessions, roles and tasks of EU administrators and politicians, foreign relations, and so on): with the start of 2010 and the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon the effort of communication is increasing and, just to give one or two examples, internet addresses have been made available to enable citizens to get to know the Treaty itself better, the institutional roles it introduces ("stable" President of the EU, High Representative for Foreign Affairs), the initiatives linked to the rotating Presidency or to the European Year for the fight against poverty, and those realized as part of the "European Capitals of Culture".New institutional roles and powers. So, if we key in the internet address www.consilium.europa.eu we enter the website of the European Council and from there we can access the space dedicated to the "stable" President, the Belgian Herman Van Rompuy. The President, with an enhanced office "invented" to give greater continuity to the action of the EU and a recognizable face to Europe on the international scene, will perform tasks of coordination of the 27 member countries of the Union, chair the summits in which he will establish the agenda, and also play a role of inter-institutional coordination, maintaining constant contacts with the Parliament in Strasbourg and the Commission. The Council’s official website also provides information on Van Rompuy’s career, agenda, official speeches, commitments in third countries… And again from this website it is possible to access the home page of the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, who is also Vice-President of the Commission: the post, it too deriving from the Lisbon Treaty, has been assigned to the British MEP, and former European Commissioner for Trade, Catherine Ashton. Also in her case the website provides details about her CV, commitments, statements and documents. Written, audio, video and photographic material, as always on EU websites, is abundant.At the head of the ministers of the 27. The rotating Presidency of the Union has been assumed by Spain for the first half of 2010. With the recent reforms introduced in the "common home", the rotating Presidency now loses various powers and thus importance; on the other hand, the national government called to fill this post will chair, with its ministers, the sectorial meetings of the Council of Ministers of the EU: general affairs, foreign affairs, economy and finance, justice, labour and social policies, agriculture, competition, transport, environment, youth and culture. A further innovation is linked to the fact that from now on the rotating Presidency will in fact be shared between three countries that will formulate a programme of action lasting 18 months: in the current semester, therefore, the Spanish Presidency (www.eu2010.es) is sharing its role with the governments of Belgium and Hungary (www.eutrio.es). Culture, social projects, institutions. The web also becomes, among EU media, the most direct way to find out about the initiatives of the three European Capitals of Culture for 2010, namely Essen (Germany), Pécs (Hungary) and Istanbul (Turkey). For all information of the Year of the fight against poverty and social exclusion we should access instead the website www.2010againstpoverty.eu. Returning to the Lisbon Treaty, and given the importance it assumes in the field of integration, a dedicated web page has been created (http://europa.eu/lisbon_treaty) which explains the contents of the Treaty, its repercussions on the policies of the Union, and innovations at the institutional level. It – as the leaders of the 27 have repeatedly pointed out – "provides the EU with the necessary legal framework and tools to meet future challenges and to respond to citizens’ demands". From this website we learn that the Treaty’s objectives are fourfold. The first is to create "a more democratic and transparent Europe", by giving "a strengthened role to the European Parliament", by enabling "national parliaments to have greater opportunities to be involved in the work of the EU" (principle of subsidiarity) and by instituting the right of citizens to petition the Commission. The second aim is to create "a more efficient Europe, with simplified working methods and voting rules, streamlined and modern institutions for an EU of 27 members". Third point: annexed to the Treaty is the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which was written in 2000 and now enters into European primary law, ensuring better protection for European citizens. Fourth, the Treaty enables Europe to play a beefed-up role "as an actor on the global stage".