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By Stephen Mulvey
BBC News website
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There are more pictures of Mr Borrell than some readers may want
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The European Parliament is hoping to get closer to citizens with a fresh, new website.
It is a "dynamic and attractive information tool", the
press release says, unlike the old site which - it now admits - was
just "a collection of databases".
The front page now has "easily digestible, lively" news instead of a set of lists.
"We are not an ivory tower on a mountain peak," says the parliament's Spanish president, Josep Borrell, explaining the change.
"We are an institution that is permanently in touch with
the daily lives of EU citizens and we intend to convey this through the
new site."
Image problem
The smiling face of Mr Borrell beams out from the site more than is strictly necessary.
Poster pups: Why 12? One for each star on the EU flag?
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But at least it is clear what this image represents and why it is there.
Elsewhere, the designers have dug up images that are,
frankly, odd - such as the 12 dogs carrying newspapers in their mouths,
on one of the online press releases.
Or the picture of a man in a suit about to fall off a
stepladder as he paints a graph on a wall - used to illustrate a story
about economic reform.
The new site comes as the EU makes another attempt to
improve its dialogue with citizens, in the wake of the rejection of the
constitution by French and Dutch voters earlier this year.
"We have not been efficient enough in communicating the
EU. We have not invested enough in listening," Communications
Commissioner Margot Wallstrom said in July.
Don't call us
The new website does better at communicating than listening.
As Mr Borrell admits, it lacks an interactive tool enabling readers to post comments.
Clowning around: Economic reform made "fun"?
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One of the obstacles, he points out, is that the website
operates in 20 languages, from Estonian to Maltese - but he hints this
may be overcome in future.
A quick trip around the site shows that it is packed
with information, from a flow-chart illustrating the structure of the
parliament secretariat to an explanation of what the College of
Quaestors does.
It is also easier to find your MEP than it used to be.
A few clicks and you learn that one of the MEPs for
London, Gerard Batten, was formerly a bookbinder and that another,
Charles Tannock - "Knight Commander (Commendatore) of the Order of St
Maurice and St Lazarus of the Italian Dynastic House of Savoy" - will
be 48 a week on Sunday.
You can also see their speeches, questions, motions for resolutions and any reports they have presented to parliament.
But one curious feature of the old website is reproduced
in the new one - you still do not get MEPs' phone numbers, only their
faxes.
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