URL: Latest posts
The involvement of the European Parliament: International agreements
http://www.flickr.com/photos/european_parliament/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Jerzy Buzek, the President of the European Parliament, has written a letter to José Luis Zapatero, the current President of the second legislative chamber of the EU asking for an in...
Rethinking creative rights for the Internet age
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is asking the 47 member states of the Council of Europe to rethink creative rights for the Internet age. In a report that was decided upon by the Standing Committee of the assembly uniting parliame...
Journalists in Brussels: Rats desert a sinking ship?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/european_parliament/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Journalists are fleeing Brussels, Michael from la com européene reports based on an article by the International Press Association (API). The API report was also taken up by...
Europe 2020 - USA 2015 - China Now?
It's not fair to compare the US and the EU system, but the world isn't fair. While the EU thinks in 10 year terms, US president Obama has proposed a five year plan to double US exports in 5 years. If Obama doesn't get his country on track over the...
New verbs in the EU: (to) lisbonise
http://www.flickr.com/photos/victornuno/ / CC BY-NC 2.0 Found in a Council document (page 2): "This text – already "Lisbonised" – was drafted taking into account the comments made by the delegations during the meeting of the Working Party [...].
The EU budget procedure under Lisbon
The Commisssion has issued the "Draft Interinstitutional Agreement between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on cooperation in budgetary matters" which, in its Annex (from page 14), contains a clear procedure for the setting-up...
Violence against women doesn't exempt MEPs
See also yesterday's European Parliament Facebook chat on gender equality with Eva-Britt Svensson. (via the European Parliament web editors on their blog and on Twitter)...
What is an EU legislative act?
The debate about what the Lisbon Treaty actually means continues. Now the conference of EU committees of member states' parliaments (COSAC) has raised the following question:What is a "legislative acts" when it comes to the involvement of national a...
The EU's accession to the European Convention on Human Rights: State of play
Worth reading: Today, the EU Council has published an information document from February issued by the Spanish Presidency regarding the state of discussions on the accession of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights. Very interesting mus...
Europe 2020 - Reform the system
Europe 2.020 keeps me busy, it makes me think about EU politics - something that only happens rarely in my life. The good thing with EU politics: Everything of political importance is dealt with by the intransparent Council or non-controllable execu...
Europe 2020 - Innovating politics?
After having watched a speech by the new European Commissioner for the Future, Ms Quingleding-Dong, about Europe 2020 for five minutes, I left Youtube. The only questions I have to her after watching her general statements about a better world, intr...
Spanish embassy in Berlin invites bloggers to breakfast
Europaeum has just blogged about it: The Spanish ambassador in Berlin invites bloggers to a breakfast next Tuesday to "inform" about the work of the Spanish EU Council Presidency. The move that appears to be a move towards transparency looks pretty...
Greece, boredom and representative democracy
I am so bored by news on Greece. I have understood that the country is in financial trouble and that this could threaten the Eurozone and the Euro. I have understood that Eurozone leaders aren't willing to give unconditional help but that some kind...
Visualising EU law
It's just a thought that I had a minute ago because I am working on images in politics right now: Why not try to visualise EU law? Earlier this morning, via the EU Law (Wordpress) blog, I came across the newly published Rules of Procedure of the Eur...
A flag
We were walking up a snowy mountain on this cold Sunday morning in a small town in western Germany. Half way up the mountain, there was a blue flag with 12 stars waving on a silver pole in front of a private home. The sun was shining brightly. And...
Europe 2020 - The missing points
I was born in a socialist country, so I am no fan of 10-year plans unless they come from the European Union. With the Lisbon Strategy, the EU has invented the internet. It has reformed its agricultural policy and made it greener, more efficient, and...
Is Greece a natural disaster?
Two years ago, Stephen Colbert wanted to convince the US to join the EU, but now he is happy "about the self-destruction of Europe". And he knows why P.I.G.S is a perfect acronym on our continent. The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Gree...
An honest voice: Kristalina Georgieva's blog
It is not natural that high level politicians keep their natural voice, but the new EU Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva seems to prove the contrary in her new blog. Georgieva has served as World Bank vice president before being nominated as EU Comm...
ACTA leak: EU positions on the internet chapter
On the blog of the German party "The Left" - a parliamentary party in the German Bundestag that also sits in the European Parliament among the GUE/NGL group - there is a leaked ACTA document prepared by the EU Commission on 12 February. The leaked d...
UPDATED: The database of EU internal jobs: From EPSO to SitCen
UPDATE (Tuesday, 16:50): After short but hectic visitors' activity from Lithuania on my blog the /files subpart of the webpage linked below is no longer accessible for the public. By accident - via Google - I came across a publicly available databas...
