On Thursday evening November 13th from 8pm-10pm, the European Commission Vice President Mrs Margot Wallström will be interviewed live by Ursula Halligan on:

* The future direction of the European Union
* The Lisbon Treaty and what it means for Ireland
* and difficulties of communicating Europe

The webcast will be live during the interview. You can submit questions for the interview here, and there will be a chat interface available on the day next to the stream.

The event is hosted by the European Movement Ireland, and webcast by euireland.tv.

Anybody watching this ? Get out your Budweiser ..

Come on! This isn't bad - you can heckle people! We'll get serious eventually.

Fair play to Wallstrom.

Wish there were more European politicians like her.

Everytime I tried to open it, it crashed my firefox.

It's telling me that it's 'off air.'

Squire wrote:

Wish there were more European politicians like her.

She has a blog - have you ever visited it ? She sounded really approachable, caring, interested. Do any of ye think that the likes of this - with a bit more interactivity - would be good for socio-economic democracy or should we just stick to chasing cold fusion ?

Auditor #9 wrote:

Squire wrote:

Wish there were more European politicians like her.

She has a blog - have you ever visited it ? She sounded really approachable, caring, interested. Do any of ye think that the likes of this - with a bit more interactivity - would be good for socio-economic democracy or should we just stick to chasing cold fusion ?

Ursula Halligan was supposed to relay questions from the web audience, but decided she didn't want to. Very annoying.

Auditor #9 wrote:

Squire wrote:

Wish there were more European politicians like her.

She has a blog - have you ever visited it ? She sounded really approachable, caring, interested. Do any of ye think that the likes of this - with a bit more interactivity - would be good for socio-economic democracy or should we just stick to chasing cold fusion ?

I just don't have the time to get involved in searching out blogs. To my mind we do need a stronger and more cohesive Europe and that there are many failings in the existing structures.

Like most Europeans I am well and truely a mongrel. When I consider history it is clear that my forefathers spend over 1000 years killing each other. So my outlook is coloured by the futility of war in Europe and the need to ensure that it does not happen again.

It also amazes me that many in Europe have become so inward looking and lacking in confidence. Even what is considered as Europe has shrunk in the last century. Many indeed use this limited view and brand name in combination to justify aspirations limited by their fears and prejudices. There is a lack of statesmen who are able to project a strong and positive European agenda. However with the economic storm ahead the advantages of better structures may become clearer. Imagine Ireland right now if it was trying to prop up the punt!!

Europe has become a useful scapegoat and is frequently used to hide national failing. When I look at Ireland, or the UK I fail to see what is so wonderful about the nation states. Woe is us if the EU fails and there are many who seek that end. We need a cohesive, open European agenda that can counter the arguments, lies and propaganda that is churned out by those who seek to destroy. In this context it is worth considering that a strong EU is not necessarily in the interests of the USA.

ibis wrote:

Auditor #9 wrote:

Squire wrote:

Wish there were more European politicians like her.

She has a blog - have you ever visited it ? She sounded really approachable, caring, interested. Do any of ye think that the likes of this - with a bit more interactivity - would be good for socio-economic democracy or should we just stick to chasing cold fusion ?

Ursula Halligan was supposed to relay questions from the web audience, but decided she didn't want to. Very annoying.

Well it needs feedback to survive - that's what we're basically lacking all the time - how did Halligan miss out on that. There should be one of these shows every friday or something. Enough nerds exist to keep it going - it could travel around the country too. I don't know exactly but I'd love to see it - any more planned ? The likes of EU directives coming up to be voted on could be singled out and highlighted too - or are there too many of them or is it not viable or is it done now ? Is there a directive launched every month or something ?

I think we're fairly far away from political Euro news in Ireland but that show is a good vehicle for it. There are enough nerds going around. There were nearly 30 viewers last night - could the stream support a lot more ? Any ideas of the limit or is there one. The reception for me was excellent.

Squire wrote:

Europe has become a useful scapegoat and is frequently used to hide national failing. When I look at Ireland, or the UK I fail to see what is so wonderful about the nation states. Woe is us if the EU fails and there are many who seek that end. We need a cohesive, open European agenda that can counter the arguments, lies and propaganda that is churned out by those who seek to destroy. In this context it is worth considering that a strong EU is not necessarily in the interests of the USA.

How is a stronger EU in the interests of the USA ? Wouldn't it be the opposite ? The more I'm hearing about it it seems that municipalities in the US seem to have more democratic input than we do here at a local level - I think Zakalwe, youngdan and Slim Buddha have mentioned this as well as others elsewhere. We're really lacking it here - voting on local budgets for example and maybe it's a culture that needs to be fostered first - slowly and tenderly given our huge inferiority complex. A show like the above could be a good model - a real crowd, an online crowd and ideally, feedback.

Ireland propping up the punt now ... we'd be the second domino after Iceland. Then the Uk - could STG get hammered in the current climate.

Auditor #9 wrote:

ibis wrote:

Auditor #9 wrote:

Squire wrote:

Wish there were more European politicians like her.

She has a blog - have you ever visited it ? She sounded really approachable, caring, interested. Do any of ye think that the likes of this - with a bit more interactivity - would be good for socio-economic democracy or should we just stick to chasing cold fusion ?

Ursula Halligan was supposed to relay questions from the web audience, but decided she didn't want to. Very annoying.

Well it needs feedback to survive - that's what we're basically lacking all the time - how did Halligan miss out on that. There should be one of these shows every friday or something. Enough nerds exist to keep it going - it could travel around the country too. I don't know exactly but I'd love to see it - any more planned ? The likes of EU directives coming up to be voted on could be singled out and highlighted too - or are there too many of them or is it not viable or is it done now ? Is there a directive launched every month or something ?

I think we're fairly far away from political Euro news in Ireland but that show is a good vehicle for it. There are enough nerds going around. There were nearly 30 viewers last night - could the stream support a lot more ? Any ideas of the limit or is there one. The reception for me was excellent.

There were over a hundred all told, coming and going, which doubled the audience. Very little advance publicity online, too. The stream could support more, and there are more planned - there's a budget there for doing another dozen or so, I think.

Auditor #9 wrote:

Squire wrote:

Europe has become a useful scapegoat and is frequently used to hide national failing. When I look at Ireland, or the UK I fail to see what is so wonderful about the nation states. Woe is us if the EU fails and there are many who seek that end. We need a cohesive, open European agenda that can counter the arguments, lies and propaganda that is churned out by those who seek to destroy. In this context it is worth considering that a strong EU is not necessarily in the interests of the USA.

How is a stronger EU in the interests of the USA ? Wouldn't it be the opposite ? The more I'm hearing about it it seems that municipalities in the US seem to have more democratic input than we do here at a local level - I think Zakalwe, youngdan and Slim Buddha have mentioned this as well as others elsewhere. We're really lacking it here - voting on local budgets for example and maybe it's a culture that needs to be fostered first - slowly and tenderly given our huge inferiority complex. A show like the above could be a good model - a real crowd, an online crowd and ideally, feedback.

Ireland propping up the punt now ... we'd be the second domino after Iceland. Then the Uk - could STG get hammered in the current climate.

Hence today's webcast on Iceland and Ireland (here). Had no real notice for this one either, and it's hard to get the web audience questions done - won't be any for this one. People are very happy with it as an idea, but you have to keep hitting them over the head on the day or they forget, and you just get a webcast, which is sort of pointless.

That Iceland one sounded interesting - the stream didn't work though. We need to get some way of getting these into the inboxes of people. The YouTube model is the first is it ? It's great with the channel subscriptions anyway.

Mobile phones are the new black/culchie accent. You need to change that kind of site to euireland.mob fast