Note: See European Commission reply at the bottom of the page 

After well-known blogger Berlaymonster wrote a critical post about the "EU Circus Campaign"- it appears the Commission moved swiftly to take down the webpage. We hope that this is just a mistake, and not the product of deliberation. Indeed, responding to a blogpost as a "threat", taking down web-pages before "more people see it and word starts to spread" would show real immaturity, and inability to handle even the smallest of crises for the European Commission. Furthermore, it seems that the Commission is not quite embracing social media. (See the last editor's notes for more about EU and Social Media)

Clicking on the original link to the "Circus" page gives you an error:

The address you used is incorrect or obsolete: /news/employment/090209_1_en.htm
You may find the information you want at: /atoz_en.htm
You will be redirected to this new address in a few seconds or you can click on the new address indicated above.
 

Below, see an excerpt of Berlaymonster's original post, as well as a picture of what the website looked like prior to its dissapearance. To the right please see the videos of the criticised campaign- which are still available on the Commission's servers.

Tis the season to be jolly... the EU silly season to be exact.

With Parliamentary elections a mere four months away, the majority of Commissioners readying to hang up their self-importance ... and lobbyists finding increasingly eclectic justifications for their billing hours (team-building sudoku, anyone?), now is the time to release the action plan, public awareness campaign or legislative initiative that just wasn't good enough for the first, second, third or even fourth work programme.

First up, the Commission's effort to completely trivialise serious issues through gimmicky use of everyone's favourite form of exploitative entertainment: the EU Circus Campaign....

(Full post at: http://Berlaymonster.blogspot.com)

I truely and honestly hope that this is a mistake... Or else maybe someone can explain what exactly happened?

For those who don't believe... See here for the google cached version of the page

But this is not the first case of a website “disappearing” after a negative blog post. After Brussels Blogger and Julien Frisch posted on Brussels Media “Milkshaker: EU election website gets election date wrong”. The post noted that:

“The site is called “milkshaker“ and unfortunately it has not only a confusing name but is also confusing in itself, as Julien (Frisch, a popular EU blogger) has already noted. Finally, the makers of the site seem to have put in a wrong date for the countdown to the EP elections. It currently says 143 days, but in fact 7 June (the date on which the majority of EU countries will hold the European elections) is only 117 days away.

(Full post at: http://www.brusselsmedia.eu)

I truly and honestly hope that this is a mistake... Or else maybe someone can explain what exactly happened?

Note that I do not pass any judgment as to the European Commission "Circus" initiative in question. I do however find myself worried about this action-reaction. The way the Commission learns to handle negative remarks in the blogosphere needs to be very carefully looked at. It wouldn't surprise me if they made a flowchart like the US Airforce.