As Hungary takes over the EU presidency for the first half of 2011, there remain a controversy over the country's newly approved media law that will impose a rather strict government body control over both public and private media companies, as well as in theory also applying to the more informal modern forms of media outlets such as blogs. Exactly how this latter part would be feasible is on the other hand questionable. In any case such stringent overseeing by a government authority is bordering to state censorship and it is highly questionable if such a law is in correspondence with the European legal framework on the right to free speech.

Sources (selection of): http://www.eesc.europa.eu/?i=portal.en.vice-president-communication-amd-blog.13823, http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/01/07/hungary-media-law-endangers-press-freedom

The elections to the European parliament turned out to be a success for the smaller parties in many of the member states, not the least the green parties. Among the more unexpected outcomes was also the fact that the newly founded Pirate Party of Sweden got enough votes to get a seat in the European parliament.

From 1 July France holds the rotating EU presidency and for the coming six months it's up to french president Nicholas Sarkozy to try to steer the EU, a task that is made more complicated by the Irish no to the proposed reform treaty. Nevertheless he has ambitious plans for the future of the union. Beside trying to solve the administrative crisis brought on by the Irish referendum, high on the list are also the Mediterranean Union project and the climate.

Source: Tagesschau.de