URL: Latest posts
This is called coverage of the EU?
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The UK's Daily Telegraph has outdone itself. Here is the latest example of why the "serious" press in the UK can't claim to be giving Brits the coverage of the EU that they deserve.The article seems not to have been written by a Telegraph corresponde...
Surprise, surprise
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So President Klaus has set a condition for his signature of the Lisbon Treaty - he wants to get an opt-out for his country from the Charter of Fundamental Rights. There's no way this concession will be granted. Is this the final curtain for the Treat...
Presidential Fantasy
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Just a thought - wouldn't it be funny if Václav Klaus were appointed President of the Council?
Don't bet on Klaus caving in
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The consensus out there (FT Blog, Daily Telegraph, the very interesting Seifert/Litobarski podcast, Centre for European Reform) seems to be that Czech president Václav Klaus will cave in to pressure from all quarters and complete his country's ratif...
Open Europe is failing
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I for one joyfully welcomed the creation of Open Europe, a eurosceptic think tank funded by leading UK business people. "At last", I thought, "a serious think tank, funded by serious people, taking an objective but critical approach to the EU, and ch...
“It’s anybody’s right and privilege to change their mind”
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So does the No camp in the Irish Lisbon referendum debate really believe that No means No? Just weeks after promising the Irish that he'd leave them alone if they didn't support his Libertas party in the European elections, Declan Ganley is singing a...
Privacy Wars
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Following up on my earlier post on the institutional battles taking place in the area of privacy policy, I have now read in the European Voice that Commission President Barroso has promised the Europan Parliament's centrist Liberal Group to split the...
Kuneva's Star Quality
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Today the European Commission made the kind of announcement that we should see much more often. Surely this is a perfect illustration of the kind of work that the Commission should be doing - co-ordination of action by national regulators on a single...
France Attacks Barroso
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The title of this post ascribes the attack to France, which may or may not be fair, since Francois Fillon and Nicholas Sarkozy are not the same person, and neither is fully analogous with the country they lead. But what has come out of Paris, apparen...
Anecdote on Liberation
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A short anecdote to complement my last post. My British grandfather was sent from his headquarters in Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon) by Mountbatten to Normandy for the D-Day landings to observe and take detailed notes that could be used to inform the...
OECD, Iceland the Euro
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Here's a question for all you OECD observers out there. I came across this report in the FT today about the OECD urging Iceland to adopt the euro, and it struck me that the OECD might be sticking its head pretty far above the parapet here.It's one th...
WWII and nationalism
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The anniversary of the start of the Second World War has been fairly extensively covered in the media and in the Brussels blogosphere. You can see some examples here, here, and here. As I get older and wiser, I am increasingly struck by the way state...
United Breaks Guitars, or How the Internet is Transforming the Economy
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Any readers who have not yet seen the United Breaks Guitars (+ associated statement) video and its follow-up on YouTube should do so. The artist, an amiable Canadian singer-songwriter called Dave Carroll, has also made skillful use of Facebook, and,...
A Private EU Battle
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Before you get too excited, this post is not about some highly secret European Commission insider gossip. It's about the EU and privacy policy. More specifically, it takes a look at some of the existing and looming institutional battles in Brussels a...
The ECR Group
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The big news from Strasbourg this week is that a Pole, the respected Jerzy Buzek, has been elected President of the European Parliament. This is supposed to be a watershed moment for the EU, since it's the first time that someone from a "New Member S...
Turnout
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The problem of voter turnout at European elections is debated ad nauseam every 5 years. And every 5 years, we get the same, tired old arguments. The fundamental problem with this debate is that there is no agreement on what the problem really is. In...
Hiatus
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I know at least one reader has noticed my absence since September, which is nice! Just wanted to let any readers know that I intend to be back soon - normal service has been interrupted by family developments...
Daniel Hannan MEP
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For English-speaking blog readers who love to engage in debate as much as read the postings by the author, Daniel Hannan MEP runs a very stimulating show on the UK's Telegraph Blogs site.Hannan himself, a British Conservative, is one of a rare breed...
Inevitably...Microsoft
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It's the hottest topic in Brussels right now - the shock judgement by the Court of First Instance against Microsoft in its long-running anti-trust battle with the European Commission. It's been analysed from all angles in the media already, but I thi...
Coulisses de Bruxelles
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Jean Quatremer's blog, Coulisses de Bruxelles is not award-winning for nothing. It's by far the highest-quality French-language EU blog that I am aware of, with insightful postings by the author and a lively, courteous, and serious debate by commenta...
