Friends of Europe
Guy Verhofstadt: The former Prime Minister of Belgium, Guy Verhofstadt, sets the international financial crisis in its historic context, depicts its far-reaching geopolitical corollaries and, above all, attends to the biggest challenge Europe ever faced: what should be the European Union’s answer to the financial crisis?
13/11/2008 Read more
Pascal Lamy: WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy reported on 12 November that his meeting with experts earlier in the day “confirmed that the market for trade finance has severely deteriorated”. He urged government action to close the liquidity gap in trade finance, adding that concluding the Doha Round “is even more desirable now”.
12/11/2008 Read more
Friends of Europe, its President, Praesidium and its Board of Trustees, respect the privacy of every individual who visits the Friends of Europe website. Friends of Europe reserves the right to alter this policy at any time and will post future amended documents at this location. 

Definitions
 
The Friends of Europe web site is defined as publicly accessible pages hosted under the domain "www.friendsofeurope.org" or any website, within the Friends of Europe IP address range, that is maintained by Friends of Europe employees or departments or units, acting within their respective scopes of employment.

Collection and sharing of supplied personal user information and data

Friends of Europe uses its website for business purposes and is committed to fostering and protecting the privacy of personal information. The Friends of Europe website will not collect personally identifiable information (personal data) about visitors, such as name, address, telephone number, or email address unless the information was provided voluntarily. Visitors should not voluntarily provide personal data if they do not want it to be collected. When collected, personal data may be used in the following ways: 
1.  To fulfill a request, registration or subscription;
2.  To assist with better understanding the needs of visitors, thereby allowing Friends of Europe to improve services;
3.  To reply to, or contact users.

Friends of Europe
will not sell, rent, or market personal data to third parties.
In some cases, information that is not personally identifiable may be automatically collected and/or logged. For example, information about the visitor's browser, operating system, IP address, and the domain name of sites that are linked to the Friends of Europe site allows Friends of Europe to accommodate the needs of the majority of visitors. It also assists with troubleshooting and diagnoses if there are problems with servers, and the information helps produce important statistics on how often pages are visited. Finally, this information can be used in the detection of security breaches and the safeguarding of Friends of Europe computing resources.

Use of the website is subject to all applicable Belgian and European laws, as well as all relevant Friends of Europe policies. It is Friends of Europe’s usual practice not to share any personal information with those outside of the organisation. However, when circumstances arise for the need to share information gathered from its computing resources within the Friends of Europe IP Address space, the organisation may share as:
1.  Authorised and/or mandated by law,
2.  Permitted under Friends of Europe’s policies,
3.  Authorised by a signed and approved Friends of Europe contract,
4.  Clearly stated on site that such information will be shared and the user clearly informed and has granted his/her consent by providing the information, or;
5.  When consent is otherwise given.

Information placed automatically on visitors' computers (Cookies)
When visitors view the Friends of Europe web site, some information may be stored on their computer. This information will be in the form of a "cookie" or similar file. Cookies help web authors tailor web sites to better match user interests and preferences. With most Internet browsers, users can alter user preferences to erase cookies from their hard drive, block cookies, or have it prompt the user to either accept or refuse to store the cookie. Most browser help files have detailed instructions on how to set user preferences for cookies.
 

Securing your energy future: Commission presents energy security, solidarity and efficiency proposals
The European Commission has proposed a wide-ranging energy package.
13/11/2008 Read more