In less than 100 days we will elect the members of the European Parliament for the next five years. Who are the other players in the political game? How does Europe work with regard to its law-making procedure. The interactive Infographic will answer nearly all your questions.

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A growing number of “fairy tales” about the EU budget is part of the public discussion prior to every European Parliament election. The EU produced a nice interactive Infographic with some basic figures on how the EU money is spend and where the money comes from.

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From 17 to 21 February 2014 the UNESCO will hold its flagship Mobile Learning Week, which focuses on how mobile phones can improve access to education material.

This year, the emphasis will be put on teachers as the pillars of our education systems and key actors in the digital revolution to promote inclusive and better learning everywhere. Several key challenges and opportunities will be discussed, such as ensuring equity of devices, online safety, limited mobile-friendly content and the need for teacher training.

Also read the newest developments in opening up education

The European Ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, invites organisers of European Citizens’ Initiatives (ECIs), civil society organisations, and other interested persons to examine how well the ECI is working. The ECI allows a group of one million EU citizens to call on the European Commission to propose new EU legislation.
The deadline for contributions to the Ombudsman’s consultation is 31 March 2014.

How well do the ECI procedures work?

The European Citizens’ Initiative began in April 2012. In December 2013, the first completed ECI was submitted to the Commission, with support from more than one million European citizens in at least seven Member States. The “Right2Water” initiative proposes new EU legislation to make member state governments provide their citizens with sufficient and clean drinking water and sanitation.

The Ombudsman opened the investigation on her own initiative. She wants to see what the Commission has done to implement the ECI and will make recommendations to increase the effectiveness of the process, if necessary. Specific issues for scrutiny include the effectiveness of the Commission’s software for collecting signatures online, how the contacts with the different national authorities work, and possible protection of privacy concerns. She has also invited ideas on possible future changes to the ECI Regulation. Once the Ombudsman has collected the ECI feedback, she will ask the European Commission to respond.

The Ombudsman’s set of questions is available at: http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/cases/correspondence.faces/en/53104/html.bookmark

The European Film Gateway 1914 (EFG1914) is a digitisation project focusing on films and non-film material from and related to World War I.  It started on 15 February 2012 and runs for two years. 26 partners, among them 21 European film archives, are working towards the following  main goals:

• To digitise 661 hours of film and ca. 5.600 film-related documents on the theme of the First World War
• To give access to the material through the European Film Gateway and Europeana
• To build a virtual exhibition using selected objects digitised in EFG1914

EFG1914 covers all the different genres and sub-genres relevant in that time: newsreels, documentaries, fiction films, propaganda films. Moreover, EFG1914 will also give access to anti-war films that were mainly produced after 1918 and which reflect the tragedies of the 1910s.

Read more about the projectIf you are interested to see films and find out more about the available collections, please visit:  THE EUROPEAN FILM GATEWAY – FIRST WORLD WAR FILMS