Last week I had a long discussion with a man known to most of the New Europe readers not by his real name, but as Kosmopolit. Blogging is one those things that hasn’t quite hit the EU level yet. With Brussels being the epicenter of the European dimension, the relatively small blogosphere is facing a questionable future. At the national level of most EU member states there are a vast number of blogs covering political, and social affairs. In the US blogs have an extremely large following.

The most important example is none other than The Huffington Post. Time magazine explains: “HuffPo has become one of the most popular and widely quoted sites on the web, its influence easily rivaling that of many mainstream media outlets.” At the EU level however engagement is lacking.

The EU Institutions
The European Commission is closely monitoring EU blogs, superficially rejoicing for their existence (as they help further develop the European dimension in individuals), yet not happy that there is yet another element in the equation of Europe that is not under their control.

The Commission has indeed tried to foster greater contact with bloggers- most notably through the European Journalism Center’s TH!NK ABOUT IT “european blogging competition 2009”. Initiative like this is positive; the fear however is that eventually, the EU Institutions will start to deal with the matter like the US Air Force; with a flow chart…

The Essence
My fear for the EU blogosphere is that it will be taken over by commercial and political interests. Don’t get me wrong; there are some very good blogs out there which fall into this category, but in every sphere, there is a balance between this kind of interest driven blogging vs. bloggers who blog for no-one but themselves, and maybe even for the European idea. Brussels is overrun by interests. People are very aware that there the system is feeding on money coming out of, or going into the EU governing bodies (one way or another).

Media outlets, Think tanks, Political parties, Consumer organisations, Environmental Organisations, etc etc etc. This money will eventually also be channeled into breaching the blogosphere; and I hope, that the blogosphere will not be overrun. Europe needs more independent bloggers. Hopefully these will include people blogging from within the Berlaymont; more MEP assistants blogging their thoughts, more people blogging from within Europe, for the sake of Europe, and not for the sake of interests. Sadly, there are not too many people who will dare to do this; whether in fear of getting caught or being labeled as whistleblowers, most people who work within to serve and protect the system.

More on EU Blogs
There are indeed notable bloggers who blog about the EU dimension, and certain efforts to enlarge the EU blogosphere.
Some of the best (non-professional) EU blogging efforts are: Jon Worth’s Euroblog, Kosmopolito, Berlaymonster, Bente Kalesnes’ Blog, Julien Frisch’s Watching Europe, Stefan Happer’s PolitikPortal, Nosemonkey’s EUTopia, etc.

The newest EU blogging venture is BloggingPortal.eu (explained in detail here); and it looks promising. The reason it looks promising is that cooperating on this project are four of the top EU blogging minds. The portal aims to aggregate European blog content for users who do not have the knowledge, or time, to navigate the best content from EU blogs independently.