Social Networking sites were put on the agenda at the recent European Commission Safer Internet Forum in Luxembourg.

According to an eGov article in the past year, “the use of social networks has grown 35% in Europe. 56% of the European online population visited social networking sites last year and the number of regular users is forecast to rise from today’s 41.7 million to 107.4 million in the next four years. In 2007 9.6 million British belonged to the country’s social networking community, with 8.9 million in France and 8.6 million in Germany”.

The article goes on to say that on average in 2007 UK individuals spent 5.8 hours a month using sites such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube etc. That doesn’t seem so much until you see the figure for Italy which was only 1.8 hours!

The commission see that their are some great benefits to social networking sites such as:

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Ever wondered where all the European Funding actually ends up? Well you can now find out as the EU have just launched a website and search engine  “Financial Transparency System” where you can get free access to all of the details of who receives EU funds. Currently the website houses about 28,000 entries on commission run programmes in areas such as education and culture, research, energy and transport and aid to third countries.

Through the website you will be able to analyse and compare information on beneficiaries and policy. European Commissioner Siim Kallas said: “We have always claimed that EU programmes benefit individuals, companies, and civil society across and beyond the 27 Member States. But this new part of the European Transparency Initiative enables any EU citizen to check what and when they want, and this allows for a very effective form of accountability – at the Commission’s level, but also for programme managers throughout the EU”

 Take a look at the Financial Transparency System.

photo by indi.ca

The government set up the office of the Third Sector in May 2006 to recognise the important role that the third sector plays in our society and economy. The amalgamation of the Home Office’s Active Communities Directorate and the Department of The Trade and Industry’s Social Enterprise Unit, the Office of the Third Sector now has the responsibility for driving social enterprise in the UK.

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