Baltic Journal of European studies (Feb 2016)

Making a Mark—Time Changing Politics from Estonia: An Alternative Idea for the British, Bulgarian and Estonian EU Presidency

  • Fischer Dirk-Hinnerk

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1515/bjes-2016-0008
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 6, no. 1
pp. 175 – 191

Abstract

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Estonia is famous among politicians for its e-Governance policies. One core ingredient for this progress is the abolishment of outdated technologies and standards as this kind of legacy policy slows down the innovation process. This short paper adapts the Estonian approach towards legacy policy and proposes a political symbol initiated by the EU Presidency Trio of the United Kingdom, Bulgaria and Estonia. The entire topic was inspired by the motivation of the Estonian government to use the presidency to make a mark for Estonia. The twice-yearly occurring process of introducing and disabling the summertime, is not only annoying but has also almost exclusively negative impacts. Meanwhile, the summertime itself comes with many aspects of questionable impact and even opposing empirical results, but it also has some generally agreed upon positive influences. This paper takes side against the process of changing times, but does not take position for one of the possible solutions. This short article shall only inform and show the possibilities in regard to the summer time, the EU presidency and the political symbolism of celebrating the centenary of the First World War.

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