A memo sent to correspondents, friends and acquaintances of The Budapest Observatory (BO) in October 2001

Dear Colleagues,

You belong to the selected minority, whose address could be reconstructed after a sweeping visit of a virus called Judges Disemboweler.

Charms of the electronic age

Yes, we are firmly rooted in the electronic age. Gone are times when we, in Eastern Europe, queued for a telephone line or wondered at letters received from the West, bearing traces of word processing. We have all of that and even more. After a relatively harmless mailing virus in summer, we were hit by a really dangereous one now, which destructed the entire set of active files of the Observatory. Just a quick touch at an attachment named seducively "scholarships"...

(As a private matter: on the same days my bank card was tapped in a similarly ingenious way. There the bank reimburses me, here our data are gone for good.)

Ruffolo Report
BO web site survived the attack. Find a short resume of the Ruffolo Report on it. This document is rapidly gaining momentum in circles of cultural policy, administration and diplomacy. Mr Ruffolo chaired the committee which drafted this report for the cultural committee of the European Parliament. The draft was passed by a uninamous vote last summer and posted to the Commission.
The claim for joint European cultural policy making was never put forward so strongly before. The report regrets that in 2000 only 0,1% of community resources went on culture. It invites the Commission (dreadful name for the quasi government of a quasi confederation) to report on the cultural policies of the Union and the member states each year.

The report stresses the need of co-ordinating and developing the fiscal schemes which affect  cultural life in a positive way (tax benefits, one of the themes of BO).

The cultural contact points in the respective countries, including some accession states, may have been pleased that the report advocates an upgrading of their functions.

For more, consult  http://www.budobs.org/eu-ruffolo.htm.

EFAH
The Ruffolo Rerport also called for the holding of a next Cultural Forum.

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ceu nyár
gesa kiadvanyai
london nov 23
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unesco kozgy
perceptions: http://www.budobs.org/eu-perceptions.htm a White Paper on Governance is under elaboration. The main recommendations of the White Paper are based on twelve reports, two studies and intense consultation of European, national and regional actors, as well as academics and European citizens (the Report on Consultation).
One of the above two studies focuses on how European citizens and those of the candidate countries perceive the EU and what their expectations are.