General Report

The 2009 General Report on the Activities of the European Union has just been published. Available in paper and online as pdf and interactive versions, the 132-page report is easier on the eye than previous editions, with plenty of images breaking up the traditionally dense text. The main sections are:
1 - Recovery from crisis
2 - Countering climate change and saving energy
3 - The EU as a world player
4 - A more efficient and more democratic EU
5 - More improvements for Europe's citizens

Whilst it is certainly a more attractive document that its predecessors, the new section headings and layout will make it very difficult for users to compare to previous editions, and hence to navigate.

More importantly, the provision of references - for which both the General Report and Bulletin are renowned - appears to have been treated almost as an afterthought. Appended to each of the five main sections is a page of 'endnotes', which in the electronic versions have clickable links for selected items. However, moving the references to the end of each section makes them far less accessible to those of us seeking access to original documents. There is not even a hyperlink from the text to the relevant endnote.

References which the reader would expect to find are also missing. For example, there is mention of 'An EU action plan for a more coherent and strategic approach to situations of fragility and conflicts', published in November 2009 - but there is no reference to the relevant document. That could well be because it was never published. But why say it was? If it was, give the reference; if it wasn't, don’t mislead people.

There are other disappointments too, with far too many documents being cited in the endnotes, but not linked to. It's surely easy enough to provide a link to the Green Paper on a European citizens' initiative (COM (2009) 622) and the Treaty of Lisbon (OJ C 306, 17.12.2007). Why not do it? 

Publication of this new General Report looks like a case of dumbing-down. There are plenty of pretty, superficial-level brochures about the EU and its activities. That this important document might now be numbered amongst them is, on this evidence, a real possibility.

2009 General Report

(Added 6 March 2010)