We are The European Network Media Vision Company, an independent Irish-incorporated media organisation limited by guarantee, registered company number 694454, at 36 Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin, D02 HX82, Ireland. Our contact email is info@theeuropeannetwork.eu

We’re a small, multi-disciplinary team of volunteer professionals, we provide a forum for citizens in Ireland, Europe and beyond to air and exchange views on current affairs in the world.

TEAM

Ken Sweeney – CEO and Audio-visual Director
Ken is a writer, editor and award winning podcast producer based in Ireland. A self-confessed Europhile, Ken is one of the founders and directors of The European Network. His extensive work for The European Network includes the ground breaking podcast series, The Moldovan Coffee Break, The Future of Europe Podcast and the Eurochat podcast. Outside of The European Network, Ken is the host and producer of The Comfortable Spot podcast and the fun-filled children’s book review podcast with his daughter, Lidia’s Booktastic Podcast

Frances Cowell – Finance Director
Frances has been an editor and occasional contributor since The European Network’s inception, having started with Europa United in Autumn 2018. Based in Paris, Frances sits in on a Master’s in Foreign Affairs at the University of Paris 2 Sorbonne-Assas. She is particularly interested in European Union history, its current geopolitical role and how it is now adapting to current challenges. This follows a long career in capital markets, managing large, occupational pension fund portfolios and then as head of investment risk for a major British insurer and asset manager. Various levels of competence in various languages. Dances tango. Loves cats.

Brian Milne – Editing Director
Brian has been contributing, first to Europa United and later to The European Network, since October 2016. He is an anthropologist, specialising in civil and human rights. His theoretical work began with migration; he has published on citizenship and the human rights of children, written several books, many articles and edited many more. Based in France he speaks English and German bilingually, French and Spanish fluently, some Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese and Gàidhlig.

Lennard van Otterloo – Communications Director
Lennard has been involved with The European Network since early 2022. Based in London via The Hague and Amsterdam, Lennard is a pan-European entrepreneur with three businesses across two countries and having consulted in many more. Occasionally ‘our man in London’ for Dutch media to explain UK politics, economy, and society. He speaks Dutch and English, a fair bit of German and some French.

Editorial policy

We recognise that English may be the first language of only a minority of visitors to our website, and we celebrate this mosaic of cultures, perspectives and languages, held together by a common commitment to liberal democratic principles.

While the lingua franca of this site is English, we welcome contributors from all linguistic backgrounds, which we believe encourages a rich mix of perspectives from all parts of the world. We seek to preserve each writer’s local character and integrity, including many of their linguistic nuances, which we believe would be muted or lost if proof-edited into perfect English.

Any questions can be sent to editorial@theeuropeannetwork.eu.

Images and graphic designs

All images stored on our website are either our own property, licensed under copyright of The Creative Commons or via the Pexels service. Our media and graphic designs are provided by the Canva service. For any enquires please contact us at info@theeuropeannetwork.eu.

Copyright

By accessing our website or by otherwise accessing any content found on that website, you acknowledge that its entire contents and design are the property of The European Network or are otherwise protected under Irish and international copyright and trademark laws. The website and its contents are intended solely for personal, non-commercial purposes and any other use, including, without limitation, reproduction, retransmission or editing, is not permitted, except with the prior, written permission of The European Network.All publications are © The European Network.All podcasts on this site are protected under Irish and international copyright and trademark laws. This includes podcasts produced by The European Network, which are the property of The European Network; and third-party podcasts, which are published on this site with appropriate permissions.Unless otherwise agreed with The European Network, users of this Podcast may save and use information contained in the Podcast only for personal or other non-commercial, educational purposes. No other use, including, without limitation, reproduction, retransmission or editing, of this Podcast may be made without the prior written permission of The European Network.

Privacy policy

Introduction

  1. We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of visitors to our website.
  2. This policy governs our role as data controller, in other words, it sets out what we do with any personal data shared with us by visitors to our website.
  3. When you visit our website, we will inform you that we use of cookies and how we use them.
  4. In this policy, “we”, “us” and “our” means The European Network. For more information about us, see “Our details” section below.
  5. The hosting facilities for our website are situated in the Republic of Ireland.

How we use your personal data

  1. Here you will find:
    1. what types of personal data we may hold;
    2. what we do with those data; and
    3. the legal bases for those uses.
  2. We may process data about how you use our website and services (“usage data”), which may include your IP address, where you are, your browser type and version, your operating system, referral source, length of visit, page views and website navigation paths, as well as information about the timing, frequency and pattern of your use.
  3. We get these data from our analytics tracking system, and use them to analyse how our website and services are used. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely monitoring and improving our website and services.
  4. We may process information contained in any enquiry you submit to us about our goods and/or services (“enquiry data”) to improve the goods and/or services we offer you. The legal basis for this processing is consent.
  5. We may also use any of your personal data mentioned in this policy to establish, exercise or defend legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out-of-court procedure. The legal basis for this use is our legitimate interests, namely the protection and assertion of our legal rights, your legal rights and the legal rights of others.
  6. Similarly, we may use any of your personal data mentioned in this policy, where necessary, for the purposes of obtaining or maintaining insurance coverage, managing risks, or obtaining professional advice. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely the proper protection of our business against risks.
  7. In addition, we may also process any of your personal data, as necessary, to comply with a legal obligation or to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person.
  8. Unless we ask, please do not share anyone else’s personal data with us.

Retaining your personal data and sharing it with others

  1. We hold personal data only with your consent and in our legitimate interests or in order to comply with our legal obligations to do so, to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person.
  2. We retain these data only for as long as you consent to our doing so, is necessary for our legitimate interests or for as long as we are legally obliged to do so.
  3. We may share your personal data with our insurers and/or professional advisers insofar as reasonably necessary to obtain or maintain insurance coverage, manage risks, obtain professional advice, or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out-of-court procedure.
  4. We may disclose your personal data only where necessary to comply with a legal obligation, or to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person.

Security of personal data

  1. We take security of your personal data seriously and deploy appropriate technical and organisational precautions to secure them and to prevent their loss, misuse or corruption.
  2. Your personal data are stored on secure servers, personal computers and mobile devices, and in secure manual record-keeping systems.
  3. Data from your web browser to our web server, or from our web server to your web browser, is protected using encryption technology.
  4. You acknowledge that sending unencrypted (or inadequately encrypted) data over the internet is inherently insecure, and we cannot guarantee its security.
  5. You should ensure that your password is not susceptible to being guessed, whether by a person or a computer program. You are responsible for the confidentiality of any password you may use to access our website, and we will not ask you for your password (except when you log in to our website).

Amendments and updates

  1. We may update this policy from time to time by publishing a new version on our website.
  2. You should check this page occasionally to ensure you are happy with any changes to this policy.

Your rights

  1. Here we summarise your rights under data protection law. Should you want more detail about any aspect, we invite you to consult the laws and guidance from the relevant regulatory authorities where you live.
  2. Your principal rights under data protection law are:
    1. the right to access;
    2. the right to rectification;
    3. the right to erasure;
    4. the right to restrict processing;
    5. the right to object to processing;
    6. the right to data portability;
    7. the right to complain to a supervisory authority; and
    8. the right to withdraw consent.
  3. You have the right to know whether or not we hold any of your personal data, what sort of data we may hold, why we hold it, what we use it for and whom we may share it with.
  4. Providing the rights and freedom of others are not affected, we will provide you with the information mentioned in 3. above. The first copy will be free of charge, with additional copies subject to a reasonable fee.
  5. You have the right to have any inaccurate personal data about you corrected and any incomplete personal data about you completed.
  6. You have the right to demand that we delete any of your personal data without undue delay if:
    1. those data are no longer needed;
    2. you withdraw your consent to our holding your personal data;
    3. you object to the rules of applicable data protection law;
    4. we are using your data for direct marketing; or
    5. your data have been used unlawfully.
  7. You may not demand that your data be deleted if we need to continue to hold it to exercise our right of freedom of expression and information, to comply with a legal obligation or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
  8. You may restrict how your personal data are used if:
    1. you contest its accuracy;
    2. our use of it is unlawful but you oppose its deletion;
    3. we no longer need the personal data, but you require your personal data to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or
    4. you have objected to processing, pending the verification of that objection.

Where use has been restricted on this basis, we may continue to store your personal data. However, we will otherwise use it only: with your consent; to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; to protect of the rights of another natural or legal person; to comply with a legal obligation to do so or for reasons of important public interest.

  1. You have the right to object to our use of your personal data on grounds relating to your particular situation, but only to the extent that the legal basis for that use is neither essential to the public interest, in the exercise of any official authority vested in us; nor in our or a third party’s legitimate interests. If you make such an objection, we will stop using the personal information unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for its use that override your interests, rights and freedoms, or that its use is to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
  2. You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes (including profiling for direct marketing purposes). If you make such an objection, we will stop using your personal data for this purpose.
  3. You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data for scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes on grounds relating to your particular situation, unless that use is essential to the public interest.
  4. To the extent that the legal basis for our processing of your personal data is:
    1. consent; or
    2. that the use is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are party, or at your request prior to entering into a contract, and such use is automated.
  5. You have the right to receive your personal data from us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format. However, this right does not apply where it would adversely affect the rights and freedoms of others.
  6. If you consider that our processing of your personal information infringes data protection laws, you have a legal right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority responsible for data protection.
  7. To the extent that the legal basis for our processing of your personal information is consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of processing before the withdrawal.
  8. You may exercise any of your rights in relation to your personal data by written notice to us, as well as any other methods specified in this section.

Third-party websites

  1. Our website may include hyperlinks to, and details of, third party websites.
  2. We have no control over, and are not responsible for, the privacy policies and practices those of third parties.

Personal data of children

  1. Our website and services are targeted at people over the age of 16.
  2. If we have reason to believe that we hold personal data of a person under that age, we will delete that personal data.

Updating information

  1. Please let us know if the personal information that we hold about you needs to be corrected, completed or updated.

About cookies

  1. A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.
  2. Cookies may be either “persistent” cookies or “session” cookies: a persistent cookie is stored by a web browser and remains valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date; a session cookie, on the other hand, expires at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed.
  3. Cookies do not typically contain any information that personally identifies a user, but personal information that we store about you may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies.

Our use of cookiesWe use cookies to:

  1. identify you when you visit our website and as you navigate our website;
  2. store information about your preferences and to personalise our website for you;
  3. help secure and protect user accounts, including preventing fraudulent use of login credentials, and to protect our website and services generally;
  4. help us analyse the use and performance of our website and services; and
  5. store your preferences regarding the general use of cookies.

Cookies used by our service providers

  1. Our service providers use cookies and those cookies may be stored on your computer when you visit our website.
  2. We use Google Analytics to analyse the use of our website. Google Analytics gathers information about website use by means of cookies. The information gathered is used to create reports about the use of our website. Google’s privacy policy is available at:  https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/ Managing cookies
  3. Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies and to delete cookies. The methods for doing so vary from browser to browser, and from version to version. You can however obtain up-to-date information about blocking and deleting cookies via these links:
    1. https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647?hl=en(Chrome);
    2. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-and-disable-cookies-website-preferences(Firefox);
    3. http://www.opera.com/help/tutorials/security/cookies/(Opera);
    4. https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies(Internet Explorer);
    5. https://support.apple.com/kb/PH21411(Safari); and
    6. https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10-microsoft-edge-and-privacy(Edge).
  4. Blocking all cookies will have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites.
  5. If you block cookies, you will not be able to use all the features on our website.

More information

If you would like to learn more about how your personal data are processed, free movement of those data and how your rights are protected, you can find it in Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation), OJ L 119, 4.5.2016, p. 1–88.