Brussels Leaks

[henke54]

Why?

We have opened this website inspired by the success of a certain wikileaks. We don’t expect to have the full, blow-the-doors-off impact and notoriety of that platform, but we think this could be useful.

Having worked in Brussels for a long while now in various capacities we know (as anyone who works in political fields in Brussels for a short space of time) that plenty of big decisions are made on the basis of individual whims, be it whims shaped through connections to lobby groups, consultants or NGOs. Not all are bad, of course, but we’ve heard about a lot of big decisions made based on questionable reasoning.

Do we have a political agenda? No, we are not behind any particular party. We merely want to disseminate information to responsible people – be it in media, NGOs, trade unions and other groups.

Therefore we will mainly look at act as an intermediary, passing information to responsible parties. We think we are in a good position to do this because we live, work and to a certain extent breathe Brussels. And trust us, Brussels has both poor air quality and transparency.

We therefore believe that we are safer from the political pressure witnessed by WikiLeaks. If you look at the political wrath their founder is under and compare that to what the media organisations such as the Guardian or Le Monde receive, we feel fairly sure that we can work more comfortably in Brussels. And our legal advisor thinks the same – but it will constantly be reviewed.

What drives us? We all believe the EU can be an agent for good, but we’ve seen too many dodgy dealings behind closed doors. There are plenty of good people in powerful positions who too often see shocking information pass them by. How do we know this? We’ve been there.

This no longer has to happen. If there is something you feel needs to come out into the open, send it to us. We or others won’t publish it straight away (or perhaps at all), but you can be sure we will do the right thing.

Some things are better out in the open.

Contact us.

What do we do with the information we receive? Like the EU system, we can’t work that quickly. First, we need to be sure that the information we receive is true. This means research, and that takes time. Especially as this isn’t a full time job. If we are confident it is true, then we start to activate our network to find ways of getting the information out there, and out there in the right way to ensure it is for the public good.

The website: As it is, this is temporary as it is not ideal. However, as we are not looking to publish heavy document loads it will suffice for now. We are looking to build a new website, with more secure features on outside US servers.

Worried about your browsing security? We can recommend http://www.torproject.org/ for anonymous browsing capabilities (please follow it’s read me guide).

UPDATE This was updated 12/12 in response to some questions received

http://brusselsleaks.com/

European Interoperability Framework v2 - the Great Defeat

Published 11:20, 17 December 10

Long-suffering readers of this blog will know that the European Interoperability Framework has occupied me for some time - I wrote about the first version back in 2008, and have been following the twists and turns of the revision process since.

These included the infamous leaked version that redefined “closed” as “nearly open”. Now we finally have the final version of EIF v2 - and it's not a pretty sight.

http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/ope...feat/index.htm

Europees contract van 189 miljoen euro overtreedt eigen regels
Een softwarecontract van de Europese Commissie - voor een waarde van 189 miljoen euro - is flagrant in strijd met de eigen richtlijnen van de Europese Unie. Het maakt de EU nog meer afhankelijk van één leverancier. En het is een enorme gemiste kans om te kiezen voor open software, nochtans een beleidsoptie van Europa.

http://www.dewereldmorgen.be/artikel...t-eigen-regels

[Piero]

Mooi initiatief. Misschien horen we hoe de Ierse CB precies haar banken gaat steunen met de miljarden van de ECB. Gaat het op in garanties of verdwijnt het in een Ierse derivatenzwendel?

[Sus Iratus]

Uitstekend initiatief!

[D'ARTOIS]

Ik schaar me daar helemaal achter. Al wordt alleen maar de gesloten-deur cultuur bedreigd, is het al een enorme vooruitgang.

[Kodo Kodo]

Dit zou wel van mijzelf kunnen stammen:

What drives us? We all believe the EU can be an agent for good, but we’ve seen too many dodgy dealings behind closed doors. There are plenty of good people in powerful positions who too often see shocking information pass them by. How do we know this? We’ve been there.

Nu weet ik waar ik terecht kan met de dingen die ik hier niet durf te posten. Prachtig en dringend noodzakelijk initiatief! Wij hebben een EU nodig, maar niet deze...

[djimi]

Ik kan het alleen maar beamen: mooi initiatief!

Ik vind het wel spijtig dat ik op digitaal vlak nogal onwetend ben (dat is eigenlijk eufemistisch voor 'een absolute nul'), anders had ik daar graag aan meegeholpen.

[Sarah Blumpkin]

volledige steun!