The fickleness of football
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In tonight’s European Championship match at Lviv between Germany and Portugal, in the so-called ‘group of death’, the word ‘Chelsea’ was much on our French commentator’s lips. This was because, despite having such...
London bus workers vote to strike
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Thousands of London bus workers have voted to go on strike over extra payments for working during the Olympic Games. 94% of those that voted in the Unite ballot have backed industrial action and dates could be announced as early as next week –...
London bus workers vote to strike
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Thousands of London bus workers have voted to go on strike over extra payments for working during the Olympic Games. 94% of those that voted in the Unite ballot have backed industrial action and dates could be announced as early as next week –...
The Economist Scolds Merkel's Obstructionism
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http://www.economist.com/node/21556577Half-Baked Rescue Plans, Overwhelming Focus on AusterityIn mid-June of 2012, the Economist ran a piece scolding Angela Merkel for Germany’s obstructionism in the face of organized efforts to address the rapidly...
Try These Wines From Portugal
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Every once in a while I taste a wine that redefines how I view a certain region or grape variety. Portugal, deservedly renowned for Port, has nothing of which to be ashamed. But in spite of a lot of improvement in its three important red wine regions...
A permanent European mechanism for bank restructuring
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The recent news about Spain negotiations on bank restructuring seem encouraging. From my point of view the outcome of today talks signals that there is room to start separating the function of restructuring troubled banking system from the other func...
Tens of thousands march in Portugal against austerity
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30,000 portuguese marched Saturday in Portugal’s second biggest city of Oporto demanding a change in the right-wing government’s austerity policies. The demonstration was organised by the CGTP union, which has 600,000 members. General Sec...
France to get a new MP for northern Europe
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As well as the legislative elections on the 10th and 17th June, French citizens in the UK will also get the first ever opportunity to have an expat represent them in overseas constituencies. The northern Europe constituency seat created by Sark...
China's Tryst With The Xerox Machine
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I was recently in China for the Beijing Auto Show. Having roamed around the New Delhi Auto Expo a number of times, the Beijing show is a pleasant surprise in the sense that it is housed in about one-fourth the area of the New Delhi show. At the same...
Legal in the EU? UEFA Continuous Onscreen Flash Inserts so Disturbing that We Will Watch no More UEFA Football on TV Until this Attempted Brainwash Practice is Stopped
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The continuous onscreen "brainwashing" flash insert of what appears to be a UEFA "football flower?" or God only knows what during the game of Germany vs. Portugal in the European Championships was so disturbing to our watching the game that we sto...
With No Cat In The Hat To Be Found, European Financials Turn World Banks Lower … And The See Saw Destruciton Of Fiat Wealth Commences As Bonds Fall On As Stocks Rally
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Financial Market report for Friday June 8, 2012; this is the tenth week of entry into the Second Great Depression, The bonfire of the the world banks continued today, .with a slow burn as European Financials, EUFN, traded lower, (yet up 7.5% for th...
‘The Eurogroup supports the efforts of the Spanish authorities…’
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Or, up to €100bn in EFSF and/or ESM loans channelled to the bank recap fund (with conditions on structural and bank reforms but without specific fiscal demands), while Spain...
The eurozone on the brink: Spain asks for invitation to beggars´ banquet
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Spain has now declared that it will join the not anymore so exclusive club of eurozone beggars: Spain indicated during a conference call of the euro zone's 17 financeministers that it wanted aid for its banks but would not specify the...
Syria: The Weapon that Assad Fears Most
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Plantu's take on Syria• UN soldier: Bashar! If you keep being naughty, we'll bring in Bernard Henri-Lévy!• Assad: Oh no!! Not that!!
Bristol presents its case for European Green Capital title before a Brussels jury
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A team from Bristol were in Brussels on Friday where they presented the city’s final bid for the European Green Capital Award 2014 prize. The presentation and Q+A session, lasting an hour and a half, took place in the Committee of the Regions befor...
EU Business and research issues (competitiveness)
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The Europe 2020 strategy and the Single Market Act, as well as research, development and innovation (RDI) efforts are crucial for European competitiveness, growth and jobs. We already glanced at some internal market (Single Market Act SMA) issues a...
New report: Taking environmental limits seriously: The need to reshape environmental policy
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“Despite this large untapped potential, a sufficient degree of decoupling may not be achieved. As part of a precautionary strategy, policy and society should therefore also reflect on conditions of social and political stability under conditions of...
Digital public affairs latest presentation
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I gave a presentation to a number of smart and lively communications professionals last week as part of the “EU Federation Knowledge Programme”, organised by EurActiv for their trade association / federation partners. The theme was my u...
The “Sell in May, come back in October” effect and its equivalent for the SNB
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The “Sell in May, come back in October” effect It is the same seasonal anomaly nearly every year: The statistically flawed (see here and here) Non-Farm Payrolls (NFP) report delivers some good winter readings with 200K new jobs,...
Children and (safe) medicines
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It is a sensitive topic, isn’t it? When it comes to children, special rules applies. That is why all (EU) institutions – without any exceptions – are obliged to increase the transparency of procedures for ensuring that children can benefit fro...
The failure of European centrism: Towards a hypothesis of historical recurrence
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Likely the first of many posts on this – as a fairly hardcore centrist (arguably a stupid concept in itself, that, if you ask most people today) with a dogmatic refusal to align myself to any one political party this … Continue reading &#...
The nasty party just got even nastier
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I’ve blogged about this before, but the UK Coalition government’s proposals to restrict the immigration of spouses of British nationals just came a step closer to being enacted. Though packaged as a measure against forced marriage, this i...
Bankia, Spain and the Euro Zone
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Bankia in Spain has become the next institution to require a bailout in the euro zone, and as is now a familiar pattern, Bankia has been declared too big to fail. 40 billion are needed immediately, and 80 billion eventually. The IMF has already sugge...
#NoEsUnRescateEsUnSaqueo
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Trending, rápidamente in Spain on Saturday…It means “Not a rescue, it’s a looting.” H/T @pdacostaAnd here, to cheer us all up, is a group of partying...
Double the secrecy for half the transparency in the Council
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Yesterday, the Working Party on Information of the EU Council discussed the Council mandate for the informal negotiations with the European Parliament for the reform of the EU access to documents law (agenda). On the agenda of that meeting, there wer...
For richer, for poorer? The European Union that never was
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Lyric Hale discusses the European Union’s economic troubles and how they compare with the early crises of the US’s federal system. In both cases, she argues, political unity is invaluable to ensure the success of these overarching economic proje...
The eurocrisis as a continental-scale game of chicken
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Good pessimistic (realistic?) piece from Der Spiegel: “The next stage in the crisis will be blatant blackmail. With their refusal to accept money from the bailout fund to recapitalize their banks, the Spanish are not far from causing the entire...
