URL: Latest posts
Name Games... Part Deux
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In a bold ripost to BM, the decision to put Jacques Santer in charge of fundraising for the EU's new bailout fund seems almost poetic. Or perhaps just honest. The bailout fund has been endowed with the slightly tortuous appellation "Special Purpose...
Name Game
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Any clues how the European electronic identity interoperability platform is known?Not that you should care.Something chewy and literal such as the EEIIP?Or perhaps they'll play with the wording in order to get a better acronym, such as EPID?Or get co...
Shock as Barroso misses rent-a-quote opportunity
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Brussels is reeling after it transpired last week that EU commission president Jose Manuel Barroso missed a chance to blurt something inconsequential about a thing that has happened.Bozo is not usually shy to offer his congratulations or commiseratio...
EP resorts to blind hope to resolve euro crisis
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The European Parliament, it seems, has run out of policy responses to the debt crisis.Bailout funds, sovereign debt relief, and euro reform efforts appear to have been exhausted, leaving MEPs putting their heads between their legs and hoping for the...
YAWN
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[*stretches*]Goodness. What a snooze. Overslept by about a year.Did I miss much?More anon...BM...
Barroso praises Zombie journalists
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Rumours of their death have been greatly mispronouncedHats off to the Brussels Press Club, a new meeting point, press conference venue, and most importantly, bar for the international hacks at EU HQ.A committee of journalists and the Belgian politica...
Corporate colours
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Campest trademark battle ever reaches EU courtsDeutsche Telekom, owner of the T-Mobile networks, is continuing its ten-year legal battle to protect the colour of its logo with a case before the European Courts against its Scando rival TeliaSonera.The...
Happy Christmas, and HELP
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If your office is on fire, don't call the fire brigade, send a nice card... Someone might need to check on the poor souls at Hill & Knowlton's Brussels office.Have a look at their Christmas e-card...Do those people on the top floor look as though...
Google, whacked
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In BM's inbox this week:The EU giveth ....11:42 Munich/Paris, 30 November 2010 - European Patent Office and Google sign memorandum on translation of patentsAnd the EU taketh away ...11:45 Brussels, 30 November 2010 11:45 Antitrust: Commission probes...
Brussels gets window cleaners in
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Heralds new transparency drive (windows, transparent, geddit?)Dear World, the European Commission is having its windows cleaned. Did everyone get that?Almost everyone did.A memo was sent today to around 50 officials in one of the commission's Brussel...
Crayons: the new EU communication tools
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The European Commission clearly didn't have high expectations of the cerebral calibre of attendees to a 'stakeholder day' on the EU's telcoms and internet policies this week.In an agenda circulated in the run-up to the event, invitees were given a vi...
On the occasion of...
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Found on the floor of the Justus Lipsius building late last week:(click on image to enlarge)Officials close to the Council President report that he is closely monitoring the outcomes of Strictly Come Dancing, The Apprentice, X-Factor, So You Think Yo...
(In)Famous at last ...
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Finnish police are trying to track down a small-time conman said to resemble EU commission president Jose Manuel Barroso.BM's Finnish is sadly wanting, but the fraud in question appears to involve the exchange of money in return for clothing purporte...
France deports second-home Brits
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The French government has attracted the ire of Brussels and London, with a targeted campaign to repatriate hundreds of Brits with second homes in Provence, the Dordogne and beyond.Reacting to mounting political pressure, Paris has been shipping the o...
Mickey Mouse lobbyists
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It's a childish prank, but it made 'Monster chortle.Some wag this week has lodged 'Mickey Mouse Entrprises' [sic] as an organisation in the European Commission's public register of lobbyists (click on the image on the right to see a screengrab of the...
Reykjavik to call on BP to block volcano
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Iceland's government is to call on British Petroleum to help block the Eyjafjallajökull volcano. Following BP's resounding success in stemming the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, Iceland is hoping the company will act to stem the flow of volcanic a...
Let sleeping bears lie, says EC
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Killing bears while they're sitting ducks is like shooting fish in a barrel.Hunters in Russia, according to MEP Fiona Hall, "use dogs to dig and rouse bears from hibernation in their den and then kill them."The cubs are then left to die or sold to zo...
Libertas leftovers anyone?
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Lisbon nay-sayers and failed euro-election contenders Libertas left behind a veritable treasure trove of hi-tech hardware in their abandoned Brussels offices when they jumped ship last year.The multi-thousand euro stash of goodies is just sat gatheri...
With friends like these ...
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"President Basescu and Romania have already a good track record of support to the European Union"European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, 22 April 2010."European Union officials in Kosovo are investigating claims Romanian justice workers [...
Nudey pics update: It's like they never existed
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You can all stop trying to find them.The revealing photos of a senior commission official BM reported on last week (see below) have been removed from the social networking site in question.It took a day or so, but BM news clearly travels. Over the we...
