UK Presidency website, July 2005

Participants at the EU Databases User Group meeting at the European Parliament Office in London on 21 June 2005 had a preview of the UK Presidency website before it goes live on 27 June 2005. Initial reactions were extremely positive. Unlike some of the Presidency sites, this one is clear and uncluttered with a restricted blue and gold colour palette, clear white space and a simple and straightforward menu at the top left of the page. The logo for the Presidency is swans in flight. The flight pattern of swans, where individual birds take turns to lead the group then hand over to another leader, while still maintaining their formation, is used as a metaphor for the role of the Presidency and the collaboration between the Member States.

The site is aimed at EU professionals, journalists and the general public and will be produced in English and French, so it will need to cope both with users who have a good knowledge of how the system works and know what they are looking for as well as users with little previous knowledge at all. Broadly the content will fall into two types: reference or background information and topical, which will be regularly updated with a record of the documents of the Presidency. The documents will be organised in nine categories including agendas, speeches, interviews, articles, press releases, CFSP statements, background notes, working documents and conclusions. For the static pages of the site, efforts have been made to provide basic background information where the expected level of knowledge of potential users is low, as well as detailed content and access to documents. For the background material the aim is to ensure that key facts are included within the first two sentences to ensure that a certain minimum level of information will be transmitted even at a cursory glance. A full calendar of meetings and events will be maintained. Plans are in place to ensure that all the relevant documents are available to load on the site in a standardised format and to keep the site up to date with news of latest developments. Consideration has also been given to archiving of the site and the intention is that, though not updated after 2005 it will remain accessible on the government server for the foreseeable future.

The site is not the work of a few days or even months. Planning has been in hand since as far back as 2003. Though no official launch is planned there will be publicity materials available and the site will be in full action from 1st July. While the real test will be the depth and accessibility of content, initial impressions are positive. Feedback or suggestions would be welcomed by those responsible for the site, using the feedback link once it goes live at http://www.eu2005.gov.uk.