URL: Latest posts
UKIP - Britain's protest party
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The United Kingdom Independence Party won 25% of the vote in the UK's county council elections two weeks ago. This level of vote share means that many voters, unhappy with how the EU now works, have listened to them and the motivation of these voters...
The Rhine at Bonn – Symbol of German democracy and the European Single Market
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The Rhine, where traffic moves in parallel by rail, road and water, felt like a symbol of the European Single Market on a warm early May weekend when a boat trip to see the “Rhine in Flames” festival ended in a spectacul...
The Netherlands – The return of the king
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Queen’s Day earlier this week in the Netherlands marked the occasion when the Netherlands crowned its first king for nearly 125 years. Queen’s Day will become King’s Day and may move to the new king’s actual birthday (27 April...
Croatia - On the brink of EU membership
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Just back from my fourth visit to Croatia in the last eighteen months. Rain for the first time in six visits and mist on the hills was very atmospheric before a ferocious storm.Croatia today is a different world from the Balkan wars of the 1990...
Signs from Paris of a new realism about Public-Private Partnerships
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Haven’t really spent much time in Paris for a long time. Had forgotten about how magnetic the Eiffel Tower is, how crowded the Champs Elysée and the Jardin des Tuileries can be on a warm weekend day and that walking is the best way...
Barcelona - A microcosm of Europe's challenges?
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Just back from a conference on regional policy priorities in the age of austerity in Barcelona. The underemphasised role of public procurement in promoting value for money was very much on the agenda, though - surprisingly, given the pressures on pub...
Ireland and NATO – Still beyond the Pale?
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Just back from a second visit this spring to the Republic of Ireland, including discussions with senior government officials of EU bailouts, the current politics of austerity (Croke Park II and what the Fianna Fail opposition might have done) and - w...
Leveson and press freedom - Time for a moment of reflection?
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In this European Reform blog I don’t usually comment on primarily UK issues.But current developments in the debate about media regulation (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21825823) for the background) have international resonances.And I have a...
Family illness and bereavement
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There will be a short interruption to my European Reform blog posting due to family illness and bereavement...
A Europe without borders - Can it survive? (Part 1)
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Thought-provoking piece from Roger Scruton recently about free movement of peoples within the EU, though written from a UK perspective and in the context of the opening of labour markets to Romanians and Bulgarians. http://conservativehome.blogs.com/...
David Cameron, Britain and the EU - What he said
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And here's what he actually did say... http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/jan/23/david-cameron-eu-speech-referendumA theme of "good for Europe/good for Britain", a positive and forward looking tone, raising issues such as competitiveness, lack o...
Britain and the EU - What David Cameron should say in Amsterdam on Friday
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“Europe is in a great crisis and period of change. It is time for all leaders in the EU to open their minds to new thinking and new solutions, and not to remain wedded to the ideas developed in a very different environment of the mid 20...
Britain and the EU - David Cameron's keynote speech
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David Cameron's coming speech on Britain and the EU really matters.You only have to look at what the different lobbies in the UK are saying to know that. And the influential centre-right web site Conservative Home have invited their visitors to sugge...
The need for a new EU Treaty - Hope for 2013?
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My hopes for 2013 amount in fact to the need for a new EU Treaty.The Lisbon Treaty based on the now outdated "community method" was not fit for purpose in a comepetitive global economy at the time it was agreed. It has been shown to be even more outd...
New Year Greetings 2013
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I have a few hopes for 20131. I want relationships between all EU Member States to be conducted openly and frankly but based on reasoned argument and not on emotion and political posturing. The future of Europe - and the current Eurozone crisis - is...
Operating effectively in the EU
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Excellent Open Europe paper published recently and written by Tobias Ellwood MP. Good practical advice on exercising influence in the EU - directed at UK audience but of wider relevance to allhttp://www.openeurope.org.uk/Content/Documents/Pdfs/upgrad...
The EU Budget - Behind the political theatre
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A key week coming up with yet another EU summit - new arrangements for EMU work, the proposed banking union, the MFF for 2014-2020 and the way the Single Market will work in future.Not much new - just a question of how to reach agreement.All are comp...
Telling the UK to hold an "In or or out" vote on EU membership won't play well in UK and won't solve anything
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I've admired Mario Monti for his role as EU Competition Commissioner, for his report on the Single Market and for how he has handled difficult politics and economics as Italy's Prime Minister.But he is wrong to call for the UK to have a referendum on...
Britain and the EU - On red alert
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Things have reached a dangerous situation when German politicians are saying that they don't want Britain to leave the EU (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2229420/Germany-tells-Britain-stay-EU-Merkel-says-Britain-happy-big-bad-world.html).Fir...
"Never Again" - The meaning of Armistice Day
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This year Remembrance Sunday falls again on Armistice Day itself, which always gives the church service at St Patrick’s church in Solihull a particularly poignant feel, especially when the names of the dead, of those who had died for our freedom,&n...
