coffeefactory - What's On

cafebabel.com local teams in Action!

Spock — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:00:00 +02:00

Today we head to our friends from Budapest, Paris, Prague, Sofia, Seville and Athens, Tallinn and Vilnius!

Life of the local teams: Get some insights!

Budapest and Prague

Babel Ackademy participation of Csilla made fruits in local team life in Budapest. Our Budapest team is looking for an intern in order to mobilize young people in the city – check out the announcement poster here!

Prague has recruited during summer two new members –the team will therefore start freshly into the autumn.

Seville and Athens

The Seville team is lacking for members and is therefore looking for people to join the team – so if you know anyone in Seville, who’d like to join the team, let them know!

Our Athens team is trying to recruit new members with the help of the General Secretariat for Youth (responsible department of the Ministry of National Education), we’ll keep you posted how it worked out!

Sofia and Paris

The Sofia team is now growing strongly: they are now having 4 people, who are very active and the team won’t stop here: right now they are also preparing a recruitment announcement.

And the Paris team will have tonight a recruitment party - so far over 20 people have been interested in exploring the team!

Editorial activities: Check out the city blogs!

The Budapest team is heading off with an article in the Budapest city blog about the background of the current Hungarian-Slovakian 'conflict'.

Prague and Sofia want to create cityblogs – so congratulation to both teams for taking this step! You too you wanna start a babelblog? click here!

And it won’t stop here!

Budapest is going to participate in the EUdebate project and is looking for bloggers. Tallinn and Vilnius are looking for local team partners for EUdebate2009.eu.

Tallinn is also going to launch the first EU-Debate on the ground (former called EUCampaign on the ground) from October 23-26 2008! Ole is proposing you therefore a very interesting project.

Our Praha team is having a content providing partnership with euractiv.cz and the Sofia team is also getting reading to start partnerships: and are meeting with the Association for European Partnerships.

cafebabel.com on French national television

Spock — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 17:40:00 +02:00

What do the cafebabel.com team at HQ in Paris look like? Find out by clicking on this link to see them on the 'Soir 3' programme on France 3, on Friday 26 September.

Babel Ackademy 2008: young, journalist and enterprising

Spock — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:18:00 +02:00

Rome. Fiumicino airport. The exit of terminal C. Thirty glorious degrees over five days in early September. Forty young people clucking about like your typical fifteen-year old adolescents, unleashed at the doors of their first ever nightclub. Only here, we are surrounded by suitcases, backpacks and trolleys.

Perhaps they are a hysterical group of Ricky Martin fans? Some political party’s puppies preparing an ambush for the new season? A brotherhood of nostalgic scouts and guides without any plans for the summer? They are waiting for the bus which will take them two and a half hours away to Isola Polvese, the biggest island on Trasimeno Lake, in the heart of Italy’s Umbria region. Pine trees, belfries and pot holes fly by along the motorway.

From daddy cools to buzzing mosquitos

These guys are the props in a journalistic adventure apt to the twenty-first century. They make transnational media triumph over the maturer models of national journalism, the oldest of which isn’t more than thirty. They represent up to nineteen European countries from Estonia to Spain. They blurt out their own nonsense in between guffaws, all trying to speak in a common language which isn’t their native tongue, forced to use vocabulary which neither dazzles nor claims much splendour. It’s not Shakespeare’s English, Dante’s Italian or Moliere’s French, but they are spoken and shared with equal enthusiasm alongside Cervantes’ Spanish, Camões’ Portuguese or Kafka’s Czech. Viola Fiore (read: ‘Violet Flower’), our summer Italian intern in Paris HQ, is factótum in choosing this idyllic spot. She is also the unlucky one percent who loses her luggage along the way, which is hopefully not en route to Dubai on the Kuwait Airways Boeing which the team from Paris have just climbed off. Later, once settled in the bunker bed room, someone in the team has managed to sort her out clean undies, skirts, vests and various hygienic means in the form of friendly and discreet contraband; she can forget about the segregation which chance plays a hand with with many fellow travellers of the globalised world.

Mosquitos, work

The fourth edition of cafebabel.com’s biannual ‘Babel Ackademy’ – cafebabel.com’s very own European participatory journalism academy - has just kicked off in Italy, after previous editions in Barcelona, Bombannes, Bois le Roi abd Berlin. As tradition dictates for an organisation born in 2001, cafebabel.com’s inner workings and equilibrium have an element of mystery to them. ‘Fernando,’ uh-oh – I rememeber a Spanish translator’s email to me, which arrives in my inbos one hour before the publication of a translation of an article. ‘I am in India and have spent the last two days suffering from extreme diorrhea, so I couldn’t get the translation to you this time.’

But this group of apparent daddy cool trippers are not here to start sucking each other's dicks just yet, a la Harvey Keitel ( The Wolf in Pulp Fiction). In an almost scientifically isolated atmosphere, populated almost only by hovering clouds of mosquitos, they are here to become those very irritating mosquitos which tug on the ears of Europe’s politicians. A Public European Opinion is the main goal which rises up like the main actor in the European elections of June 2009, due to wind down the political discourse we are premiering here. We are isolated on doctor’s orders, says Julien Bidoret, one half part of the Pau-based Oxys duo, the technical wizards behind cafebabel.com’s online creation. ‘Cafebabel.com is not a closed sphere,’ Bidoret clarifies, ‘which has to connect with the rest of the blogosphere and network in general.’ A heart ready to beat systoles and diastoles to nourish and feed itself with new journalism, up until the final capillary of the most remote local team in Europe’s last confines.

Strategy for 2009: less sexual fantasies, more just do it

The star projects which cafebabel.com launch from September 2008 to September 2009 include EU Campaign On the Ground and Eudebate2009.eu. ‘Journalism 1.0 is dead,’ Adriano Farano, director of publication repeats. ‘Journalism 2.0 means that even if an article is published online, it doesn’t mean that it is complete.’ More following through of concrete themes, lesser publication of more useful, accurate and connected articles? Time to discuss concrete strategies. And of course, nothing is left out under the microscope. ‘Up until now, cafebabel.com has been an overly pyramidal structure,’ Bidoret says. ‘The work done by a network of volunteers has to be more horizontal. Less Kominterns, less Soviets, more just doing it!’

What about the newest technical tools we can play with? ‘We want to be able to run surveys in the babelblogs! We want to be able to contact babelbloggers more easily!’ What about a life-sized piano?! Very shortly, cafebabel.com will be enjoying newer customised babelblog designs, video carrousels, interactive photo galleries, and less ‘error 500s’ which freeze our webpages when they crash. ‘Anyway,’ Farano insists, ‘as technology speeds on we fantasise increasingly. Bt we have to stay realistic with our goals!’ Tell me about it; forty online journalists gathered on one Italian island with not miserable wi-fi connection in the air!

Text: Fernando Navarro
Translation: Nabeelah Shabbir

cafebabel.com winners of the European Young Journalist Award will meet commissioner Olli Rehn

Spock — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 19:12:00 +02:00

The European Young Journalist Award, organised by the European commission's DG enlargement unit, took Europe's 33 winners to Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia in June.

In a follow-up event for some winners and mentors in Brussels, cafebabel.com's France and UK winners will meet commissioner Olli Rehn and other EC Representatives in Brussels on 9-10 September 08 to discuss current EU Enlargement issues.

Got any questions to pose to Rehn? Send us your ideas!

Get on the Live Debate: How dangerous is Russia?

Spock — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:02:00 +02:00

After the Russian-Georgian crisis, the world started to feel the pressure of a new, possible Cold War. Estonian politicians and public opinion split in two fearing the consequences this could have on the future of the Republic and asking help to NATO more often than European Union diplomacy while Russia showed everyone its will of playing a new leading role in the global order.

How and when will the Ossetian war really end? Does Estonia really risk its independence again? What is Europe doing in the mean time? And, most of all, what is happening in Russia?

Discuss these questions in the new BabelTallinn debate moderate by Vahur Koorits from Postimees and with exceptional guests such as H.M. the Georgian Embassador in Estonia, Mr. Zurab MARSHANIA, Sven MIKSER, Evelyn SEPP, Maarika MIIL and Aleksander SHEGEDIN.

Friday, 22nd of August, Opetajate Maja, Tallinn 7 pm

Live on tallinn.cafebabel.com

Western Europe Time (GMT): 5 PM; Central Europe Time (GMT+1): 6 PM; Eastern Europe Time (GMT +2): 7 PM

‘Young European Laboratory of Theatre’ on tour in Europe

Spock — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:59:00 +02:00

The Young European Laboratory of Theatre (JTLE) is a non-profit organisation whose aim is to create a European space for theatrical creation and study. The theatre troupe is bringing together a group of young actors from different European acting schools with a performance which will be shown in all corners of Europe.

The group will show its performance in France, Italy, Slovenia, Romania, the Czech Republic and finally Germany, throughout the month of August. The tour ends in Paris in early September with another week of performances.

The performances will be aimed at all audiences and free of charge.

Calendar of performances:

July 2d (Tuesday) to August 2d (Saturday): Residence at the Lycée Jacques Cartier Saint-Malo
August 2d (Saturday) to August 7th (Thursday) Performances at the Saint-Malo Intra-Muro Theatre
August 8th (Friday) to August 31th (Sunday) European Tour : Italy, Slovenia, Romania, Czech Republic, Germany.
August 9th (Sat) to 11th (Mon) Performances in Genoa (Italy)
August 12th (Tue) to 13th (Wed) Performances in Ljubjana (Slovenia)
August 14th (Thu) to 16th (Sat) Performances in Maribor (Slovenia)
August 17th (Sun) to 20th (Wed) Performances in Hunedoara (Romania)
August 21th (Thu) to 23th (Sat) Performances in Auid (Romania)
August 25th (Mon) to 27th (Wed) Performances in Prague (Czech Republic)
August 29th (Fri) to 31st (Sun) Performances in Berlin (Germany)
September 2d (Tue) to 9th (Tue) Performances in Paris

Check out the website of the theatre troupe for more information.

In collaboration with:

cafebabel.com EU Reporter project wins European commission ‘Golden Star’ award

Spock — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:48:00 +02:00

The European commission has selected our ‘EU Reporter’ project from twelve other civic participation projects that encourage action and debate on EU issues at a grass-roots level.

Later this year, these projects will be awarded the "Golden Stars of active European citizenship’ in a prize ceremony in Brussels, hosted by education, training and culture commissioner, the Slovak Ján Figel'. The 2008 Golden Stars are awarded as part of the Europe for Citizens programme. They give official recognition to initiatives that showcase co-operation, effective working methods and tangible results in the area of civic participation.

The Golden Stars award ceremony will take place on 13 November 2008 in Brussels. It will be open to the public upon registration.

For more information on the programme, on the winning projects as well as on the complete programme of the upcoming award ceremony event in Brussels, see http://ec.europa.eu/citizenship.

Check out our summer special editions from this project - including:

‘Seville on the ground’ – flamenco, mosques and more

‘Berlin on the ground’ – teddy tours in the city, the aeroport, media projects on the river Spree and more

‘Brussels on the ground’ will be published 19 August on cafebabel.com

Question to our babelians – why is the internet important for a European public sphere?

Spock — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:24:00 +02:00

For a long time the EU has been blamed for a deficit of democracy by political science. ‘There is a lack of European public sphere,’ the reproach says.

The fact that no functional European public sphere has been generated until now is due to the absence of pan-European media. Some pan-European media projects have failed because the diversity of European languages and distribution caused high production costs. These made the products unprofitable. Internet provides a new platform for European media, because it features structural advantages compared to other mass media. The internet is a medium which is especially appropriated to account for a European public sphere.

With my study ‘European public sphere and internet – self-image and function of pan-European online newspapers exemplified on cafebabel.com’, I find out which sites are available on the web, addressing their news coverage of Europe and the EU explicitly to European public. The structure, themes, users, self-concept and function of cafebabel.com are analysed as an example of pan-European websites.

How do pan-European websites contribute to the development of a European public sphere?

Babelians: why are pan-European websites – especially cafebabel.com – important in the European public sphere you share?

by Franziska Horsch

Franziska Horsch studies journalism and communications at the University of Hamburg.

MEP Alain Lamassoure: 'A Europe built on European networks'

Alberti — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:08:00 +02:00

Opinion: 'The enormous divide between the European Union and public opinion is surprising. We've removed all the boundaries between us and brought down the barriers - except where public debate is concerned' 'The political arena remains divided into 27 individual forums each closed to the outside world. A study published several weeks ago showed that in 2007, programmes broadcast on French TV allocated less than 2% of coverage to European politics and the daily life of community institutions! Furthermore, the majority of stories and opinions are given from a very French perspective.

As if to illustrate this, French president Nicolas Sarkozy has given two important European speeches over the last few days to inaugurate the six-month French presidency of the EU. The French press retained the only sentence from that of 5 July to the national UMP board that mentioned national politics – an ironic comment about the typically French strike becoming 'invisible' in France. The media focus on the 10 July speech given to an enthralled and already won-over European parliament – with the notable exception of broadcaster France 3 – focused on the Franco-Chinese relationships that had a brief mention during the debate. When TV cameras point at ‘Brussels’, it is not to recognise it as a centre of authority, of power but as one more building block or pedestal – one more studio to show off the only subject that appears to matter to France: the end of its own nose.

With things as they are why would our political leaders give importance to Europe beyond the figureheads that are imposed on them? The microphones and cameras seem allergic to it. In any case, our leaders' only accountability to their electorate is in how they have defended national interests in Europe, or too often, against Europe.

How then to break this vicious circle? I believe there are two ways.

Firstly, as Europe has gained power, and notably legislative power, we must work towards making these institutions fully democratic. This is the Lisbon treaty's aim: the parliament will finally live up to its name, holding legislative power together with government representatives and by voting in the commission's president who will become responsible for European executive policy. The European people's party (EPP) is already working on a solid legislative program, consistent across the 27 member countries, to present to voters. They are also preparing the candidate they will present for the commission's presidency. He (or she) will not only campaign in their own country, but in all member countries. If other European parties follow suit TV media will be forced to organise debates between them: the result? Barriers will start to crack. The next time they will crumble until finally, they will come down altogether.

It will take time: two or three legislative elections? For this reason another type of action is needed, an action that cafebabel.com, amongst others is pioneering. Fundamental links from the ‘bottom up’ between all those who believe in Europe, who have chosen to live in this European environment, and who want to bring the political debate to life in a zone free from even the most transparent of barriers. Foreign workers, Erasmus students, multinational employees, those with holiday homes abroad, pensioners from northern Europe attracted by the warmth of life in the south, those involved in administrations and NGOs working for the European Union, sports professionals, artists, intellectuals committed to European cooperation, elected representatives of twinned towns and dual-nationality families must all work to create the nucleus of this kind of network.

It will also take some displays of federal action. What about a communal petition signed by a million European citizens, an idea that the Lisbon treaty makes possible? Let's find a subject that motivates people enough to launch an initiative never seen before that will mark the true birth of European citizenship!'

The author is MEP for the European People's Party

Translated from French to English by Susannah Readett-Bayley (sjrbayley@googlemail.com)

Photos: Alain Lamassoure (webtissimo/ Flickr), journalists in the European parliament (eumiro/ Flickr)

Participate in the first Summer Media School in Lisbon from September 21-30

Spock — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:09:00 +02:00

Youth Press Portugal invites cafebabel.com journalists to participate in the Summer Media School in Lisbon from September 21-30 2008.

During eight days 40 young Media makers will work in one of four workshops: television, radio, photography or printed media. You’ll indulge in a rich learning environment and a fun experience, all run by young people for young people.

Enjoy the exchange of knowledge and cultures, while relaying on team work. On your four last days, you will be working online on your final project, which will call for your creativity. Don’t worry, there is still time for party!

Send your application until the 2nd of August to sms_portugal2008@sapo.pt When? 21-30 of September 2008 Where? Lisbon, Portugal

Requirements:

18-25 years
Active in Media:
Students of Journalism or Communication Freelancers or already working in the field in part- ore full-time
Already have participated in an international event
Countries: Portugal, Spain, Italy, Romania, Germany, France, UK, Belgium, Sweden, Austria and Hungary, Malta and Bulgaria (*)

Participation fee is 250 € Travel costs, accommodation, meals and working material are covered by the organizers

(*) If you are coming from another country and are willing to participate, send us an e-mail: sms_portugal2008@sapo.pt

In partnership with:

cafebabel.com journalist nominated for the first European Parliament Prize for Journalism

Spock — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:54:00 +02:00

The European Parliament is debuting a Prize for Journalism in 2008. It will be given to journalists who have dealt with major issues at a European level or have promoted a better understanding of the EU institutions and/ or EU policies.

There will be four different categories for the prize: written press, radio, TV and internet. Irish journalist Angela Steen has been nominated for her article ‘Åland - a land neither Finnish nor Swedish’ published on cafebabel.com.

Please click here to read her article!

We wish her good luck!

From Strasbourg to Lisbon: what happened to the European public opinion?

Alberti — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:19:00 +02:00

These are the questions asked by the activists working everyday to build through this magazine a genuine European public opinion. We decided to share these concerns with all the readers of cafebabel.com. We launch today a consultation on the future of cafebabel.com and on the future of the association Babel International. Speak your mind! For Europe, Strasbourg is a symbol. A symbol of both hatred and friendship between France and Germany, a symbol of the European movement, a symbol of the money wasted by the European Union as the most extravagant of its three parliamentary locations. Since 2001, Strasbourg has also become the symbol of another Europe born from the ideas, energy and the work of a handful of Erasmus students who gave birth to the magazine you are reading: cafebabel.com.

Though there are issues seemingly imbedded in the lives of all Europeans – the Euro, Maastricht and the European Council but to name a few examples – the ability to look at the phenomenon-Europe without the distorted lens of national perspectives remains an obtainable goal. No "European media" could balance the growing European political power, no effective pan-European political party was active in European institutions and the social movements of Europe were denied access to a legal status of "European association".

Cafebabel.com seeks to break the barriers to achieve these goals down as they are not mere intellectual speculations but tools to achieve political goals. Europe is seen as the solution, to better solve our problems, to enlarge the space for the rule of law, for democratic and economic freedom. All against the limitations imposed by feeble national spaces.

This vision presents us with ambitious political projects when compared to the conformism and breathlessness of today's Europe. After the belated and disappointing compromise of Nice, the Convention of Giscard d'Estaing and the so-called "Constitution" defeats in France and Holland there was an interminable period of "reflection". The ability to move on from this deadlock was presented in the form of the Treaty of Lisbon but yet again the answer was no thank you.

That is why we wonder if there is still room for us in Europe. Is there consensus to build a European public opinion? Is there opportunity in today's Europe for European associations? Is there desire for a European media that can hold EU democracy accountable? Is it possible today to build a political alternative to challenge the Eurosceptics cries of the EU’s democratic deficit and the fatigue of the European "bureaucracy"?

These are the questions asked by the activists working everyday to build through this magazine a genuine European public opinion. We decided to share these concerns with all the readers of cafebabel.com. We launch today a consultation on the future of cafebabel.com and on the future of the association Babel International. Speak your mind!

Nicola Dell'Arciprete is the president of Babel International, a pan-European association which publishes the magazine cafebabel.com

Shruti Dudhia is the head of the youngest cafebabel.com team, in London

Fernando Navarro Sordo is the political editor of cafebabel.com

Call for applications to the Euro-mediterranean Summer School of Peyresq!

Spock — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:58:00 +02:00

The first Euro-mediterranean Summer School of Peyresq "Peace, Citizenship, Multiculturality in Europe and in the Mediterranean" will be held from 16 to 24 August 2008 in the village of Peyresq (Southern Alps, France).

The Rencontres de Peyresq are set up by the Bernheim Chair Peace & Citizenship (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium) and the ULB Alumni Association (UAE), in partnership with the Ecole de la Paix (Grenoble, France), the Fondation Bernheim (Belgique), the Connect Program (ONG Soliya, United States), the Euro-mediterranean Academics Network (Réseau euro-méditerranéen des universités - REMU) and Rives d’Europe.

Students from European and Mediterranean universities in a wider sense are invited to share their experience and to dialog together in order to build a common project around the key words of peace, citizenship and multiculturality in Europe and in the Mediterranean!

Please download the program and the registration form of the ‘Rencontres euro-méditerranéennes de Peyresq 2008’ here.

Contact Isabelle Maras for further information: isabelle.maras@yahoo.fr

Call for young journalists for European workshop in Potsdam!

Spock — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:36:00 +02:00

The M100 Sanssouci Colloquium, the largest gathering of European journalists, together with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation invites young journalists from all over Europe to Potsdam to debate the future of European journalism and journalism training. From 21st to 25th August 2008 young media professionals have the opportunity to engage in discussions about training of journalists and their role in the future vis-à-vis the internet, blogs and mobile phone reporting during the M100 Youth Media Workshop.

Conditions of participation: Applications are welcome from young journalists between 18 and 26 from the whole of Europe. Please submit a brief text (max. 3 pages) or a video (max. 3 mins.) about the following topic: “What does it mean to be a journalist in my country.”

Please add your CV and your journalistic preference: Print, Online, TV, Radio or Photography.

The workshop language is English.

The organisers of the Youth Media Workshop will bear the costs of accommodation and meals during the workshop. In addition there is a travel allowance of up to 250 Euro.

Please submit your application by 30 June 2008 by email to: s.sasse@m100potsdam.org

or by post to: M100 Office Sabine Sasse Am Alten Markt 9 D-14467 Potsdam

In collaboration with: www.m100potsdam.org

NECE-conference “Networking for the European Parliament Elections 09” in Strasbourg

Spock — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 19:24:00 +02:00

The NECE-conference “Networking for the European Parliament Elections 09” from 11–13 June (2008) was organised by the Federal Agency for Civic Education to give more than 120 EU multipliers in the field of citizenship education access to information and opportunities for exchange in the areas of existing and planned models, measures and projects for mobilising voters in 2009.

The event will provide a platform for participants interested in pursuing common projects to meet and discuss plans in more detail. It’s primary goal is to increase transparency for existing and planned models, and to promote European cooperative projects. The conference should therefore not only act as a catalyst for European networking and the Europeanisation of citizenship education, but also provide a stage for the work being done in the field.

Documentation under: www.bpb.de/nece.

In collaboration with:

General Assembly 2008 in Paris: Check out the pictures!

Spock — Fri, 30 May 2008 16:36:00 +02:00

This year’s General Assembly gathered people from all our local teams in Europe together in order to exchange experiences, introduce some exciting new projects within cafebabel.com and to debate about the future of cafebabel.com

This has been a unique occasion between the permanent staff in Paris and our network to meet and to brainstorm about new projects, like our new sports section. - Watch for it when the Euro 2008 will start, it will show you a new and very babelian way to talk about sports

Check out Katha, our German editor, Giovanni, from our team in Tallinn, Pedro, our Spanish editor and head of the Sports section, and Juliette, from the Paris team (left to right).

Here you have Nicola, President of Babel International, Nils, President of Babel Deutschland and Adriano, our Executive Manager enjoying lunch in front of the Canal St. Martin.

We also tried to find new ways of improving our internal communication – therefore we organized a Speed dating to stimulate truly European partnerships between local teams. Let's watch out for this couples in the future!

Check out more pictures about it here: Silvias pictures and Simonas pictures!

This year’s General Assembly has been quite a success – follow the development of it on coffeefactory!

Credit Photos: Silvia Cravotta and Simona Strimaityte

Here you have crazy RCE faces and from the network: Can you guess who is who?

Call for Reporters for the Cluny Summer universities!

Spock — Thu, 29 May 2008 11:05:00 +02:00

The “Institut Européen de Cluny” is organising a European Summer University from 10-20 July in Cluny Abbey, Burgundy, France.

This year’s summer university gathers people together under the working field of ‘European Identity - Who I am? Who are we?’ and is looking for a cafebabel.com correspondent to follow this event.

Selected journalists from cafebabel.com will be invited to the summer university and get the opportunity to publish their articles in daily newspapers like "Le Journal de Saône-et-Loire and "Le Progrès" de Lyon. cafebabel.com journalists will be integrated in the team and participate in team meetings during the summer university in Cluny.

Candidats should send their CV to Monika Oelz by email as soon as possible! Please contact her in order to get more information!

Click here to see the programme.

Participate in the European Science Parliament

Spock — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:34:00 +02:00

The European Science Parliament (ESP) takes place for the first time between 9 - 10 October 2008 in Aachen. 120 participants all over Europe will debate about the theme ‘Europe energised – Will lights go out in 2050?’

People from different age groups and professions will meet during the ESP. You can apply by participating in the online-forums on www.science-parliament.eu. The ESP-community will select the candidates for the parliament. First round will be in June!

A statement of the outcome will be drafted after the ESP-conference, which will be handed to EU-representatives. Everyone who wants to participate should register on the website.

More information on www.science-parliament.eu or mail@science-parliament.eu

In collaboration with:

European Young Journalist Award for two cafebabel.com journalists !

Spock — Tue, 13 May 2008 12:09:00 +02:00

We are proud to announce that two cafebabel.com journalists have been selected as national winners for the UK and for France for the European Young Journalist Award 2008.

Nabeelah Shabbir, editor-in-chief of the English version of cafebabel.com, was awarded UK winner for her ‘Prishtinali: urban faces in a raw capital’ article, published on 2 January 2008 on cafebabel.com.

Jean-Sébastien Lefebvre, e-community editor and journalist for cafebabel.com, was awarded France winner for his article ‘Kosovo : quelle nationalité ?’, published on 18 March 2008 on cafebabel.com.

The competition aimed to encourage young Europeans to reflect on and share their views about enlargement in the EU and to showcase their talent as writers. It attracted over 400 participants and was open to journalists in all EU member states and accession countries. Click here to see the winners of the competition in Europe.

In July, Nabeelah and Jean-Sébastien will join the 34 other national winners from across Europe on a trip through the Balkan nations. The trip ends in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where the winners will attend a conference with political and media representatives to discuss Enlargement issues in Europe.

The European Young Journalist Award was organised jointly by the European Commission, Directorate-General for Enlargement and the European Youth Press.

Cafebabel.com, the European magazine has launched a brand new version of its website!

Spock — Mon, 05 May 2008 12:53:00 +02:00

Spankier, extra interactive and resolutely multilingual, check out the making of the new face of cafebabel.com on coffeefactory, the editoral blog!

Discover the ‘babelmix’ feature

Why stick to a translation when you can read an article in its original language version? As well as the six language versions available, the new cafebabel.com website has also enabled its audience to read in ‘babelmix’ - a technical innovation allowing all registered users (registration is free), to compose their own language cocktail and read cafebabel.com in the language they speak.

Personalise your profile and react immediately to our articles!

New homepage design values professional citizen journalism: Thanks to a new ‘tag’ (keyword) system, the ergonomy of the new website has dramatically increased. You can now access all contents of cafebabel.com – be it magazine, the blogs, the forums or its comments - in one click!

Discover the new home page of cafebabel.com

Read the magazine in the left column, participate live in the e-community (blogs and forums) on the right column!