Latest posts
The new EU fiscal pact – the medicine that may end killing the patient
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A new international accord between the majority of the EU countries – a treaty on “Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union” – was born last night –Monday 30th January-. Presumably the bearers were 2...
Assesment of DURBAN COP 17 – from a model of league of nations to a Global Communitty for the Environment
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Yet another Conference Of Parties (COP) finished in Durban in December 2011 with yet another decision to postpone action. Like in any European Council summit, after more than a fortnight of multilateral negotiations most national and regional delegat...
Repeating mistakes? A reminder from Charlie Chaplin…
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Charlie Chaplin in the movie “The Great Dictator” (1940) gives a brilliant speech which surprisingly it can be applied in times of World War II as it can be used today. So little have we changed? Indeed, the underlining problem hasn’...
How the EU could end up breaking what it was supposed to unite
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Unless the macroeconomic diet imposed to southern countries it is complemented with fiscal transfers, it will asphyxiate economic recovery which in turn is going to break-up the already unstable countries. A new European Convention is necessary to bu...
Global Democracy – from utopia to necessity
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The US and the EU are going separate ways. And contrary to what it may seem, the room for political manoeuvre is smaller in the US than it is in the EU, despite the fact that the toolbox in the hands of the former is richer than the one in the hands...
MERKEL, SARKOZY… TIME FOR THE NEW FEDERALISTS?
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Or how reality forced a generation of realists to become federalists It is in times of crisis when the EU makes the biggest steps towards integration. This sole fact dismount all the theories that see in the EU a complot or a conspiracy. Once again i...
An EU seat in the Security Council as first step towards a democratic organisation of world security
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The reform of the UN Security Council (UNSC) is one of the ever-pending issues of world governance. Set up in 1946 , by the winners of the WWII, the UNSC represents a world order that no longer exists – that of France, UK, US, China and Rus...
Federalism and the future of Spain
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Spain is a Unitarian state like France and Italy. Its constitution defines it as “one and indivisible”. Since 1978 Spain has structured itself as Estado de las Autonomias, a state with 17 Autonomous Communities with an asymmetric decentralisation...
Why ousting Ashton won’t get it fixed – the need to rethink EU`s foreign and defence policy
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The last events in the northern Mediterranean, starting from Tunisia and ending in Libya have helped to define what EU’s foreign policy currently is and, more than that, what it is not. When it comes to foreign policy the EU was and continues to be...
Merkel, the hara-kiri of national sovereignties and the birth of the European Economic Government
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The front-page of today’s Spanish newspapers (4-2-11) joined the country’s main political actors in cheering the words of Merkel: “Spain is going in the right direction”. I almost fall off the chair: A foreign leader coming to Spain –a sove...
CLIMATE CHANGE – FROM AGONY TO EPIPHANY?
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“Cancún may have saved the process but it did not save the climate.” Said a Greenpeace activist at the end of the last Cancun Conference of Parties (COP) 16 Climate negotiations in December 2010. True. Broadly speaking, what was agreed in Cancun...
COP16 Cancun – All for one and one for all
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A communitarian approach is the only way to save us from Climate Change The expectations about the outcome of the COP16 in Cancun are low. A sad prospect if we think Climate Change is the biggest threat to our future and we have very little time to s...
Catholic church and child abuse – time to ask the right questions?
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Living in Belgium I’m observing the debate about the abuse from some members of the Belgian churchwith bewilderment. Why is it that every time religion appears in the media is not to discuss the religion as such but the wrongdoings of the -self...
State of the European Union speech: Something is terribly wrong
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Something is terribly wrong when pro-Europeans join the Eurosceptics at making fun of the president of the European Commission. Something is terribly wrong when in the toughest times since WWII we fight the crisis with nothing else but words. Somethi...
PHILLIPS ANTI-REUSE CAMPAIGN
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My Phillips razor is 15 years old and still perfectly working. When I bought it the only thing I asked for is that I wanted a machine that works and lasts, for this I paid some extra money which has been largely paid off by not having to buy a new ra...
Lebanon – tourism in a dump
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3 weeks touring around in Lebanon and one thing I can tell is that there is garbage everywhere. Coming from the west I thought Lebanon was one of the most advanced places in the arab world but the truth is that the reality does not match what the leb...
The Story of Cosmetics
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Another great contribution from Annie Leonard to help us understand the other side of “stuff”: Yet another fantastic contradiction of our times: the fantastic creams and cosmetics that are supposed to make us look better in fact they are...
TAX CAPITAL AND CARBON: THE ONLY WAY OUT OF THE VICIOUS CIRCLE
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Ok, we got what we what we deserved: a fully-fledged recession. But from bad things, good things someday come! The austerity plans of countries like Greece, Spain or Ireland –low investment and expenditure to reduce deficit- will hamper growth and...
Achtung! The Germans are back. Is it good or bad?
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“The germans are back” is a statement I’ve been hearing quite often in different spheres and from different nationalities in Brussels. This statement is made with a mix of skepticism and fear, is this justified? It is a fact that the current cr...
HOW I MANAGED TO REDUCE WASTE BY HALF
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Less than a year ago I participated in the 2h training course organised by Bruxelles-Environement in home vermi-composting and it really worked. Looking back to the time when I started to do home-compost, August 2009, I can confirm that the white bag...
