Rasmus Kleis Nielsen’s Post

Working with exceptionally good professionals doesn't guarantee quality on its own. There's been some noise the past week about typos on a poster for the federal elections in Brussels. I don't know why that happened, but it did and it's unfortunate. Maybe it was intentional and it did go somewhat viral. It got eyeballs 👀 and I guess it's all that counts for some. A missing 'd' in a word; the French word 'liste' merged with the Dutch 'lijst' and became 'lijste'... Some might react 'So what?', others like me might just consider it a serious quality issue. The mistakes weren't necessarily harmful in this case. But they did get published and (looks like) nobody noticed it until they went public. I know it's not the end of the world. But still... Brands are hard to make and easy to break. This is why I think it's invaluable to have the right workflows in any given context. It might be redundant, but it ensures consistent quality. I know a lot about translation. Below, I've added an example of a workflow that makes things quite bulletproof. 🤜

The Manthri.lk platform of Verité Research, launched as Asia’s first-ever parliament monitoring platform in 2013, celebrates its 10th anniversary today (23). In this period, the platform has coded, quantified, cataloged, and analysed every single line of Hansards covering over 5,000 sittings of Parliament, and ranked all those who have been members of Parliament (MPs) based on their contributions.    Click the link to read how Manthri.lk has changed the parliamentary culture in Sri Lanka by educating voters and incentivising MPs. https://lnkd.in/gXrSyfek

DISTORTING POLITICAL DEBATE AND INTERFERING IN DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS: CHINA’s SPIES HAVE SO DEEPLY INFILTRATED OUR OPEN DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL SYSTEMS, THAT THEY FREELY SEED HAVOC AND SOW DISCORD TO SHATTER OUR UNITY. VENAL POLITICIANS ARE THE ENTRYWAY FOR THE CHINESE STRATEGY. SIMILAR INTELLIGENCE AND DISRUPTION STRATEGIES ARE EMPLOYED TO ENFEEBLE OUR INDUSTRY, ACADEMIA, AND MILITARY/ CIVIL INFRASTRUCTURE. “Chinese spies had run a far-right Belgian politician as an intelligence asset for more than three years in a case that shows how Beijing has conducted influence operations in an effort to shape politics in its favour. Daniel Woo, an officer in China’s Ministry of State Security spy agency, pushed Frank Creyelman, a former Belgian senator, to influence discussions in Europe on issues ranging from China’s crackdown on democracy in Hong Kong to its persecution of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. As German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was about to visit China in late 2022, Woo asked Creyelman to convince two right-wing members of the European parliament to say publicly that the US and UK were undermining European energy security. The exchanges revealed in explicit detail how Chinese intelligence tries to manipulate political discussion around the world in Beijing’s favour — a concern increasingly flagged by western security agencies. While most big countries engage in spying, the MSS operation in Europe highlights one of the defining features of Chinese espionage — widespread influence operations aimed at shaping political debate that have stretched from Ottawa to London to Canberra. Washington has also repeatedly warned of covert efforts by Beijing to interfere with elections.” #china #espionage #europeanunion

Given the number of times I have been asked questions like, "how long have you been working for the Council of Europe Mick", sometimes it can seem like the public is not as informed about the work of the Council/how it operates, as the Commission or Parliament. This new publication on the work of the European Council and the Council of the European Union is a timely, concise and excellent introduction into how the Council operates. It contains lots of useful information on areas such as: - how is the work of the Council organised? - how legislation is adopted in the Council? - what are the voting rules? - what is Coreper? Clearly presented and broadly interesting for anyone, whether you are researching European studies or just interested in how the EU works. https://lnkd.in/er5wqJGy

An interesting read from journalist and free Speech advocate, Michael Shellenbeger, regarding the censorship of media in Brazil. I think it also draws parallels with the relationship between Government and the mass media in NZ, as he says in relation to Brazil… “Corporate and government media are in a downward spiral. They are losing readers and corporate advertising revenue to social media platforms and therefore have to rely more on governments for money. This means that their financial incentives are to carry out state propaganda. If they report honestly and objectively about the Lula government, they risk losing government subsidies. As a result, they attract mediocre reporters willing to repeat state propaganda. Thus, they further alienate their audience who discover the truth in X. And they increasingly depend on government funding.” And… “Governments like the Lula government can finance the media for a while. But time is running out. The more frequently the media engages in spreading this type of misinformation, the less the public will trust them. And the more the public will trust X, where people can see the truth for themselves. It may be only a matter of time before corporate-government media outlets go the way of all older technologies in the face of new and superior technological entrants, whether the printing press, telegraph, radio, or television.” RIP Newshub. What next?

😱 "HELP! WHO DO I VOTE FOR???" [Mystery is solved: see below.] ❓ This is a question people will soon be asking us at CEIO - Brussels Commissioner for Europe and International Organisations. And as a neutral public body we of course cannot really answer. But we'd like to share some useful information. 📋 The Belgian media are launching their election quizzes. They're a user-friendly resource to help confused voters situate themselves in the Belgian party landscape. (Although I'm not sure people should totally outsource their voting decisions to a 5-minute quiz...) 👉 I'd love to share some of these quizzes with our audiences at CEIO - Brussels Commissioner for Europe and International Organisations, but I have a problem. I can't find a quiz that works well for Brussels! The VRT and RTBF versions have a slight focus on Flanders and Wallonia. Le Soir offers some specific questions about Brussels, which is nice. ❗ But the big problem isn't the questions, it's the fact that the answers are limited to parties who speak the language of the quiz. So RTBF and Le Soir only rank your answers against the Francophone parties, while VRT only gives Flemish parties in the results. For International Brusselers in the bilingual Capital Region that makes no sense: we can vote across linguistic lines and we don't necessarily have an inherent connection to one political ecosystem or the other. Governance and public services in Brussels are also bilingual, so we need to know parties which speak both languages. 🙏 So, has anyone found a robust election quiz from a reputable newspaper/channel which situates you in a bilingual landscape of all parties? Bonus points if it has Brussels-focussed questions. Even more bonus points if the quiz itself is available in English, but that might be a dream for now! Or is there just a button I've missed on the quizzes I'm looking at...? 🕵♀️ EDIT: MYSTERY IS SOLVED! VRT and RTBF have a set of Brussels-specific questions which are slightly hidden at the end of their general quizzes. Both allow you to compare your results with parties on both sides of the linguistic divide. Hurrah!

🇪🇺 Today, the plenary of the EU Parliament voted on the English version of the PPWR. The regulation was adopted with 476 votes in favour, 129 against and 24 abstentions. The translations and legal language checks in all official EU languages are expected to be completed by June 2024. After the European elections (6 to 9 June 2024), the newly elected Parliament must adopt the final version following the corrigendum procedure, which could take place in autumn 2024 as things stand at present (Note: The adoption is a formality – however, the new Parliament is not bound by it). The final version will then be adopted by the Council and published in the Official Journal of the European Union (entry into force 20 days after publication in the Official Journal, general validity 18 months after entry into force). “We very much welcome the fact that the EU Parliament has given its final approval to the PPWR today. Even if there are still a few more procedural steps to go, nothing stands in the way of this key lever for a modern and international Circular Economy anymore”, says Dr. Fritz Flanderka, Managing Director within Reclay Group. #reclaygroup #circulareconomy #ppwr #packaging #epr

The Fiscal Compact is dead, the Stability and Growth Pact is back with a different packaging. Another "machine à gaz" European Commission style, where one imposes tough constraints and sophisticated rules only to have another one scheming how to avoid them. The lessons for the spendthrift governments will be as brutal as for Ms Truss and her disastrous 48 days in office. It is the bond market which will impose discipline on EU member country governments. And if the interest spending is not included in the spending plan for regulatory purposes this does not mean that excessive spending plans will not trigger a risk premium, as the market sanction for economic populism.

European Parliament Vote Monitor The European Union is a 448 million-people democracy. Voters in all Member States directly elect the Members of the European Parliament to represent people’s interests with regard to EU law-making and to make sure other EU institutions are working democratically, making the European Parliament a key player in the EU decision-making process. However, it is not that easy to monitor how 705 members of the European Parliament vote while in office. All the information is available online. However, it is dispersed across multiple institutional pages, making information retrieval quite difficult and time-consuming. Therefore, the IEP@BU - Institute for European Policymaking at Bocconi University, with professors Simon Hix and Abdul Noury, created the European Parliament Vote Monitor, a web application designed to easily visualize the results of votes in the European Parliament. The app offers an intuitive user interface with in-depth analysis of the votes across different visualization options. Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/dius2ycG

New article co-authored with Lars Nord: "Views from the other side. Party perceptions on news media in Swedish election campaigns 2010–2022" is now published in Journalistica. We explore parties' perceptions of media coverage in election campaigns by analysing Swedish parties' official post-election analyses. The findings largely support the arguments proposed by mediatization literature, highlighting the significance of media in party communication. Parties display eagerness to attract positive media attention while expressing regret over inadequate or negative publicity. More surprisingly, there is a lack of references to media bias in the reports, suggesting that the hostile media effect is not a major concern. https://lnkd.in/gSBpXggp