The Foreign Minister of Bulgaria, Ivailo Kalfin, has just started a blog.
What I find interesting here is the “about” section:
With this weblog I would like to enter a discussion about some of the issues that are on the top of the agenda of Bulgaria’s foreign policy, the developments in the European Union, the major challenges of today’s world. I really appreciate the opportunity to use the democratic web space for such a discussion. I expect various comments. My intention is to write as often as possible. The languages? Your choice using English, French, Spanish, Russian or Bulgarian. Please be generous if you find any typing or grammar mistake, especially if this is not in my mother tongue. Nobody’s perfect…
I find that rather sweet.
Foreign Minister Kalfin is 42 years old; he’s an economist who identifies as a Social Democrat; he has a Masters degree from Loughborough University in Leicestershire.
— Bleg: are there any other European Ministers with blogs? And if so, are any of them remotely worth reading? I would expect any such blogs to be rather bland and feeble, but Europe is a big place. Are there any surprises out there?
Sweden’s minister for foreign affairs, Carl Bildt, blogs. But he hasn’t posted anything since October 7, the day after he was appointed. The social democats had an election blog where some ministers posted from time to time, though not very interesting.
David Miliband….and don’t go saying he’s not European.
Dutch finance minister Gerrit Zalm has been blogging regularly for years. You can find his blog (in Dutch) here:
http://www.minfin.nl/nl/organisatie/ministerzalm/weblog
David Miliband, UK Secretary of State for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, has a blog, here.
There’s a bunch of Finnish ministers who’re blogging, including the prime minister (the one who in the EU group photos looks like a butler), but only the foreign minister Erkki Tuomioja writes in English -at least during the EU presidency.
http://formin.finland.fi/public/default.aspx?nodeid=34772&contentlan=2&culture=en-US&page=1&listMode=1
[Troll wishes to refer to Margot Wallström’s blog, unfortunately invokes Godwin’s Law.
http://weblog.jrc.cec.eu.int/page/wallstrom%5D
I think Slovenia’s president had one. He’s a pretty eccentric guy, but I don’t think it came across there.
Does the vice-president of the EC count?
Dutch prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende has a blog as well: http://www.janpeterbalkenende.nl/ in Dutch of course.
Most of his message sounds a bit generic like a press release but he also seems to have a slight since of humor, which really makes for a good blog, particularly if it will center around politics. Lets see where this goes.