Antonio Tajani Information
Antonio Tajani (born 4 August 1953, in Rome) is an Italian politician. He is the current European Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship and has also been a Vice-President of the European Commission since May 2008.
Political career
Tajani was a Member of the European Parliament for Central Italy with the Forza Italia political movement from 2004 to 2008 and sat on the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs. He was a substitute for the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and a member of the Delegation for relations with Israel. He also holds the position of Vice President of the European People's Party (EPP).[1]
On 8 May 2008, he was appointed as Italy's EU Commissioner by newly elected Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Tajani received the Commissioner for Transport portfolio. He was officially approved in his post by the European Parliament on 18 June 2008 with a vote of 507 to 53 with 64 abstentions.[2]
Tourism as a right
On the 15 April 2010 a headline in the British newspaper, The Sunday Times, proclaimed that European Commissioner Antonio Tajani had unveiled a plan declaring tourism a human right. According to the article itself: Tajani's view is that pensioners, youths and those too poor to afford it should have their travel subsidised by the taxpayer. Tajani's program will be piloted until 2013 and then put into full operation. In introducing his plan, Tajani stated, "Travelling for tourism today is a right. The way we spend our holidays is a formidable indicator of our quality of life." His spokesman added, "Why should someone from the Mediterranean not be able to travel to Edinburgh in summer for a breath of cool, fresh air; why should someone from Edinburgh not be able to travel to Greece in winter?"[3] The characterization of Tajani's position as advocating an expansion of human rights was repeated by other media such as the conservative Canadian newspaper National Post[4] and Wikipedia. According to Euractive it proved impossible for the Commissioner's office to correct the misleading impression created by the Sunday Times headline in the Wikipedia articles on tourism and Antonio Tajani as the Sunday Times, in the view of Wikipedia editors, is a "reliable published source" while the actual text of the Commissioner's speech is only a "primary source".[5]
EurActiv, an independent media portal, criticized the article by The Sunday Times as an example of misleading information about the EU which appears in the British press and is then picked up by other Anglo-Saxon media and blogs, and Wikipedia. EurActiv notes that "the article on The Sunday Times never quotes the Commissioner as having made such a statement. Nevertheless, it pursues the argument under the headline "Brussels decrees holidays as a human right," underlining the alleged "hundreds of millions of pounds" that pursuing the idea would cost taxpayers." EurActiv criticized Wikipedia on the grounds that it proved impossible for Commissioner Tajani's team to correct the wrong information in the encyclopedia, and echoed European Commission spokesperson Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen's statement that "ethics in digital communications is definitely a subject which deserves to be addressed."[5]
Career
References
- ^ "Barroso II: 13 EPP Commissioners receive key portfolios", European People's Party, 27 November 2009; accessed 28 November 2009
- ^ Round-up of Tajani and Barrot hearings
- ^ Pancevski, Bojan (18 April 2010). "Get packing: Brussels decrees holidays are a human right". The Sunday Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7100943.ece.
- ^ Laidlaw, Katherine (19 April 2010). "Vacationing a human right, EU chief says". National Post. http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2923469.
- ^ a b "UK-born euromyths echoed by Wikipedia". EurActiv. 18 May 2010. http://www.euractiv.com/en/infosociety/uk-born-euromyths-echoed-wikipedia-news-494082. Retrieved 30 June 2010.
External links
| Persondata |
| Name |
Tajani, Antonio |
| Alternative names |
|
| Short description |
|
| Date of birth |
4 August 1953 |
| Place of birth |
Rome, Italy |
| Date of death |
|
| Place of death |
|
Categories: 1953 births | Living people | People from Rome (city) | Italian European Commissioners | The People of Freedom politicians | Forza Italia MEPs | MEPs for Italy 2004–2009 | MEPs for Italy 1999–2004
|
The above information uses material from Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Some facts may not have been fully verified for accuracy. [Disclaimers]
This page was last archived by our server on Wed Aug 17 04:38:59 2011.
Displaying this page or its contents does not use any Wikimedia Foundation's resources.
The owners of this site proudly support the Wikimedia Foundation.
|
|
