Europe: Concilitation Committee grinds on...

The next meeting is now set for 4 November and agreement is needed by the end of the year - so expect the law to neatly be a 2010 date. The Conciliation Committee is squabbling over how much to push on Amendment 138/46 - but note that right-wingers won the 2009 elections so socialist-green-Pirate complaints will meet largely deaf ears. The chief negotiator is a right-wing Spaniard, so Telefonica territory.

That date has a nice symmetry with i2010, when we can celebrate the EU being the most competitive knowledge-driven economy in the world with highest broadband penetration, lowest unemployment and highest economic and civic participation.

Evidence-driven policy making, huh?