Euroalert makes up a very special services package for Europe Direct info points

Despite being in Agust it may seem that everybody is on holidays or just coming back from them, activity never stops.

A few weeks ago Euroalert published in its website the Call for proposals to select the host structures of the Europe Direct information centres for the period 2013-2017. These centres are without any doubt key players in the task of bringing the EU closer to citizens and providing information about the EU which is directly related to practical aspects of everyday life.

As you will certainly know, in addition to providing services that allow to track information with customized EU Newsletters or tender alerting services, Euroalert also provides a range of services that enable organizations of all types to disseminate EU contents tailored to the interests of their users. Especially considering the needs of the Europe Direct centres, we have put together a service package to help Europe Directs to disseminate News and European grants in an easy and automatic way.

The Euroalert package for Europe Directs includes the One Web Full Content widgets to display EU News and Grants which are very easy to implement and once installed are automatically updated with no need for further management. The contents can be adapted to any web layout, filtered by area and displayed in the best way for users. They can also be shared social media completing the on-line communications activities.

If you belong to a Europe Direct centre or to an institution willing to take part in the call to host a centre in the coming years, you can download here the brochure of the Euroalert package for Europe Direct and check some Euroalert experiences with Europe Direct centres in our portfolio. The package is especially designed to give the best results at minimum cost.

To know more about the Euroalert special package for Europe Direct you can call us at +32 2 318 03 01 or reach through any of these contacts. And, of course... all Euroalert Team wishes you many luck with your proposals!

9 of May: Celebrate the Europe Day with Euroalert

Since Robert Schuman delivered his famous 'Schuman Declaration' on 9th of May 1950, Europeans celebrated that day the Europe Day. This statement officially has started what is today known as the European Union, but back then it started the European Coal and Steel Community. 

Although 9th of May is not a national holiday in any of the 27 Member States, as you can see on the calendar that we created, Representations of the European institutions such as the Representation of the European Commission in Spain, they do celebrate that day events to promote the European spirit. Among these activities, the European Commission in Spain has made available a mobile application  for Android and iPhone, and with the collaboration of Euroalert, so as not to miss any detail of the celebrations and that also allows you to know the latest news related to the EU.

In Euroalert, most of the content is related to the European Union. You can access to the EU breaking news from our News section and select the specific topic that interests you. You can also install a widget on your website with this news and customize it. On the other hand, if the information you need is related to financing and business opportunities in the EU, you can check the grants issued by the European institutions and also adapt them to your web through a widget that you can customize. Regarding the business opportunities that are published in the EU, among other competitive intelligence products, we "alert you" on the public tenders relevant to your business through our alert system 10ders Alerts. We can not forget the European legislation that is published daily in the EU Official Journal (OJEU). You can also follow it in Euroalert through our newsletters. In the coming weeks, we will announce important developments in our products competitive intelligence in public tenders that surely will be very useful for you.

This is the way that Euroalert has to celebrate the 9th of May, Europe Day with you: bringing you the European information you may need and what else you might be interested. If you want more information about any of our products you can visit our online store or contact us via e-mail or via Twitter and Facebook.

Crisis? What crisis?

Many of the contents Euroalert.net provides with to all our users and subscribers have lately been focused on the same burning issue, which is in fact one of the main concerns European citizens have expressed to their institutions: economic crisis. And the truth is that crisis is actually the talk of the town: it is in all newspapers front cover, opening all TV news and, of course, a new very common topic for chitchat...

In Euroalert.net we know crisis is there, that it is really serious and is probably going to be one of the historic events our grand-children will study at school. However, we would not like that a newcomer in conversations and news, makes anybody do without something that has already become an essential tool for our subscriber's work: Euroalert.net information widgets.

We all agree that information has become an essential item, at it is not a luxury thing one might do without in hard times. For that reason, Euroalert.net will not change tariffs for widgets this year, therefore maintaining the same pricing lists as for year 2008.

From Euroalert.net we aim not only to provide contents, but also solutions and tools to get out of the economic turn-down. Public procurement, as well as being one more source of wealth and employment for countries, is also a secure and reliable opportunity for businesses. EU Programmes boost many different areas such as research, training, culture or business support, and there are constantly calls for proposals which may be of great help in such fields. Euroalert.net offers them every day.

All these essential resources will keep on being available for everybody browsing our web to be informed about the European Union, as well as through Euroalert.net free widgets. And for all those wishing to enjoy a service adapted to their own needs, we will continue to provide Euroalert.net personalised widgets in the same conditions as we did last year.

So, quoting Vinton Cerf, one of the “fathers” of the Internet who happened to be with our friends from CTIC at the end of April: there are still people who “take a great deal of pleasure in providing information to others who can use it”... We like that!

The “most aware” Europe's Ear

A complete success, that's what's making Macarena Rodríguez with her blog La Oreja de Europa (Europe's Ear). Just a couple of days ago, we knew about La Oreja de Europa being elected as the Spanish representative in the Internet category for the 2009 European Parliament Prize for Journalism.

The European Parliament Prize for Journalism, which the EP awards for the second time in 2009, is a public reward for all those journalists who cover EU issues and contribute to a better understanding and image of Europe among its citizens. It is in the first phase of the EP Prize of Journalism, where La Oreja de Europa has been shortlisted as the Spanish representative in its category.

Euroalert.net has been in luck having Macarena as a contributor sending us some articles from the very heart of Brussels for the current news from the European Union section, and we are, of course, very happy for her nomination. Congratulations Macarena!, you are The most aware Europe's Ear ;-) All Euroalert.net Team wishes you the best for the finals!!!

The current European Union news widget

In the series of posts specially dedicated to the new features released by Euroalert.net, we now have the pleasure to announce you the launch of the new Euroalert.net Current News widget. This new widget allows you to display up to date European Union Current News form Euroalert.net automatically on your website, and for free!

If you already have your Euroalert.net API key for the EU Calls for Proposals widget, you will not need a new one for this new widget. They can both coexist along-side one another in the same page, as you can see in the right sidebar of this blog, where we have installed both of them as an example. But if you don't have your API key yet, all you need to do is sign up with the Condelway platform.

We are not telling you any news about how to install, customize and use this widget, because this information is exactly the same we gave you last week, when we announced the release of its twin brother, the widget that allows you to publish EU Calls for Proposals. All the necessary documentation and examples are available on the EU news widget page within the section Widgets and tools for the Euroalert.net community.

We would especially like to thank our friend Macarena from La Oreja de Europa for her her input whilst launching the new widget.

In Euroalert.net we will keep on working to provide you the best information contents about the European Union as well as the best tools to make them useful for your websites.

Euroalert.net directly from Brussels

We have one more in our team! We would like to present to you Macarena Rodríguez who has involved herself in the editing team of Euroalert.net from Brussels, the headquarters of the European Union's principle institutions. From there she will send us hot information on everything that is coming out of the European Union first hand through her articles.

As you already know, we work continually to improve the services the Euroalert.net provides and now we are looking at the section Current news from the European Union.

From now, thanks to the addition of Macarena to the team, we will be able to offer a greater number of news articles about the European Union everyday. Her first contribution was an article on the Official Launch of the Single Euro Payments Area which we hope will be the first of a long series of articles from Brussels.

Macarena is qualified as Bachelor of Arts Degree in Journalism & Media and also in BA in Humanities from the University of Salamanca. She did a MA degree in European Journalism at the Haute École Galilée (IHECS) in Brussels. On a professional level Macarena has accumulated a huge amount of experience throughout her youthful career and has been, amongst other things, delegate of press in the both community institutions the European Parliament and the European Commission. Furthermore is the author of the EU blog La Oreja de Europa.

Besides from tell you all a bit about her we would like to take the opportunity to welcome Macarena to the Euroalert.net team.

Free newsletter from Euroalert.net: now European information every week

One of the oldest services that Euroalert.net has offered to its users is the free European Union newsletter which has been sent by email in Spanish since 2000. This morning we have sent all our subscribers the last fortnightly edition. In response to the requests of great number of you whom with good reason wanted a more up to date service, we now send our newsletter out weekly.

The format of the newsletter has not changed, you will receive in your mail boxes a selection of the most relevant contents about the European Union every week free as always. (Current news, Calls for Proposals, programmes and initiatives from the European Union, etc.)

To be more precise, we will send you the Euroalert.net newsletter every Wednesday at 10.30 am. With this change, we hope the newsletter will contain the most up to date information on everything that is coming out of the European Union whether it be the current news, a calls for proposals or a new initiative.

The change from fortnightly newsletter will be automatic, this is to say that those already subscribed, will continue to receive on a weekly basis. If it is the case, and we hope for not many of you, that the new newsletter is inadequate for your needs, you are able to cancel subscription yourselves.

As always we will keep you informed through this blog of any improvements that we include or of any features that become new to the international version of Euroalert.net.