100 posts
A New Article on Primary and Secondary Law-making in the EU in Trames
A new article J. Erne, “Primary and secondary law-making in the renewed EU” has appeared in the journal of the humanities and social sciences „Trames“, Vol. 14, Issue 3, 2010, pp. 250-270. Abstract The aim of the article is to explain the re...
The European Union's solidarity clause: Empty letter or effective tool?
Over seven months since the EU's Lisbon Treaty was ratified, the meaning of its 'Solidarity Clause' remains open to interpretation, write Sara Myrdal and Mark Rhinard of the Swedish Institute for International Affairs. READ MORE...
Farage is Right About One Thing: The EU’s Democratic Deficit Does Matter
One of those sinful pleasures that some young progressives (among others) secretly indulge in is watching the chairman of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy EP group, Nigel Farage, humiliate time and again the EU’s leadership. Yes, even with all t...
The EU: Viable or friable?
I should know better. I should only, only read books that generate immediate research outputs, the life blood of contemporary academia and never, not ever succumb to the temptation to read things that are simply interesting, But somehow this is one N...
Selective Summarizing Book Review: P. Birkinshaw, M. Varney (eds.), The European Union Legal Order after Lisbon. Kluwer, 2010
Enjoying the possibility to order EU law and international law books for the Tallinn University Library, one of the books I selected was P. Birkinshaw, M. Varney (eds.), The European Union Legal Order after Lisbon (Austin, Boston, Chicago, New Yor...
EU Energy chief under legal threat
The world of transparency has finally washed against the shore of Günther Oettinger, the EU's Energy Commissioner.According to Der Stern he is under investgation for lying about his declaration of interests. Which is a criminal offence in Germany.He...
What is it with EU construction?
Yet again, another EU building has a case of the wobbles, this time the vastly expensive Committee of the Regions headquarters building, the Jacques Delors.Part of a false ceiling in the Jacques Delors building in Brussels - shared by the European Un...
Of collapsing ceilings…
Like our counterparts in the other EU institutions, no doubt, Gerhard Stahl, SG of the Committee of the Regions, and I did a quick remote check on our e-mails this morning to make sure that all was well, only to discover this was decidedly not the...
The European Citizens Initiative: A Pandora’s Box?
As the rollout of the provisions in the Lisbon Treaty continues apace, eyes have turned to the Citizens Initiative, a unique provision for the EU which compels the European Commission to consider a legislative proposal should one million of the EU...
A President for Europe: How it could work.
So, here’s the thing: If people like me keep saying that the best way to deal with the EU’s democratic disconnect is an elected president of the EU, then it is incumbent upon me to try and explain how it would work, and how we deal with...
Is European Union really this complicated ?
Well, the honest answer is : yes, EU is f——ing complicated and anybody who will pretend the opposite is a liar. But you need to ask two more question : Is this complexity normal ? and Does this prevent me (or anybody) to get a grip of what’...
About Europarties, and other Political Foundations at European Level
Reading Grahnlaw, I found links to: Call for proposals IX-2011/01 — ‘Grants to political parties at European level’; OJEU 24.6.2010 C 164/12 – The total sum, subject to approval by the budgetary authority, is EUR 17 400 000, in order to be el...
See no citizens, hear no citizens, speak to no citizens – the institutional approach to the European citizens’ initiative (ECI)
A friend pointed me to the Working Document on a proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the citizens’ initiative from the European Parliament’s Committee on Constitutional Affairs. Rapporteurs for this...
Oireachtas Committee Report on National Parliament involvement in EU legislation
The Oireachtas (both houses of the Irish Parliament) Sub-Committee on Review of the Role of the Oireachtas in European Affairs has published its report (PDF) on how the Irish Parliament should adapt to the new European institutional setting after the...
To the Dunce’s Corner
There is a new nugget on the testy issue of how to punish budgetary miscreants in the euro zone.
Home truths
A great report on EUobserver today features some very revealing comments by a, disappointingly, anonymous EU official about the "mushrooming" cost of the EU institutions, and their total disengagement from the debates going on across Europe about the...
Development and Security: Will European Institutional Changes Help or Hinder Effective Action?
Transatlantic Taskforce on Development Blog Series. READ MORE...
Facebook Group to be accepted as a digital way to participate to Citizen Initiative
The new Citizen Initiative introduced by the Lisbon Treaty, has already been the object of intense debates. But the latest proposal from the office of Commissioner Sefcovic for Administration, joined by Commissioner Kroes in charge of the Digital A...
The war room
Bert addresses the issue of (de)centralisation of an organisation's communication.
If only you knew what really goes on in the European Parliament
One of the things I have found most frustrating in my 10 years as an MEP is the seeming impossibility of getting information on the EU and what we do as MEPs out to a wider audience. Indeed, one of the reasons I started this blog was to put forward...
Democratic Deficit or Surfeit?
Does Europe need more democracy or less? In the late-18th to mid-19th century, the grand intellectuals of the era, such as Voltaire and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, also felt that Europe needed to overhaul its creaking system of governance. However...
Reimbursement for Members of the European Parliament
According to Article 223(2) TFEU, the European Parliament lays down regulations and general conditions governing the performance of the duties of its Members. It needs the consent of the Council and an opinion from the Commission. The main act is the...
Who the "£$%^ does he think he is?
The £$%^& ing jumped up arrogant w$@nker.Talking about the fact that the Polish version of the Lisbon Treaty nearly arrived in Rome functionally illegal, Andrew Duff, a British Liberal MEP and legal expert, said a dodgy Polish bill would have be...
The Brussels Lost Generation
There’s something striking about the British Foreign Secretary’s speech today. While the idea that this is one of a series of “repositioning” speeches is interesting, and the wider world politics are interesting, for EU geek...
European Electoral Reform
There is a draft report to the EP Committee on Constitutional Affairs on reforming European electoral law so there'll be a uniform approach throughout the EU (PDF).It goes beyond simply having the same PR system used in all member states (or, at leas...
An Occasional Guide to European Politics: The Leader.
She’ll come from one of the smaller, less offensive, less “march across your border in well-polished boots” countries. Denmark, Austria, Finland, maybe Ireland. She’ll be pretty, but in a way where other women admire her tast...
EU Commission proposes stronger economic governance
The discussion about economic governance in the European Union and the eurozone has been enriched by new proposals. On 12 May 2010 the European Commission published a communication Reinforcing economic policy coordination; COM(2010) 250 final (12 pa...
The Email Incident of 7th December 2007
The Activity Report of the Joint Supervisory Body of Eurojust for the year 2009 (PDF) was sent to the Council last week. I was taking a look through it to see if there was anything on preparations on data protection, particularly on anything SWIFT-re...
Hopeless new web comms plan from Reding
Via Twitter I came across this post in French by Michael Malherbe about a letter sent from Commissioner responsible for Communications, Viviane Reding, to Commission President Barroso. Euractiv managed to get hold of a copy of the letter that contain...
EU Concours 2010: EPSO in troubles?
If I'm reading Samuel's euroblog post (French) correctly and add this message* issued by EPSO (the European Personnel Selection Office) that concerns the same matter, EPSO could get into deep troubles with it's 2010 concours - if it isn't already. P...
Conclusive proof that Van Rompuy is now too powerful
I've just read conclusive proof that Van Rompuy has become so powerful that he has eclipsed the rotating presidency of the Council via Open Europe: apparently, neither he or Barroso thanked the Spanish presidency for its work during the last European...
Should bloggers get access badges for the EU institutions?
This question asked by the head of the European Parliament press unit earlier this month is as simple as it is difficult to answer (Stephen and The European Citizen have given their views already). It is difficult to answer because it is actually a...
The European S-Word
ub-si-dia-ri-ty[*,*,*] That’s the word… What does that mean ? The principle that government power ought to reside at the lowest feasible level The European subsidiarity principle is written in the Treaty of European Union at paragraphs 1...
Thanks for coming
Those who worried that the Lisbon Treaty and the creation of a permanent EU president would sideline the rotating presidency held by national governments have been proved right. Spanish Daily El Mundo notes that during a speech in the European Parlia...
The art of editing Wikipedia
Alenka looks into Wikipedia and the problems it can cause big organisations who want to correct misinformation.
Here We Go Again
The Spanish Presidency of the European Union on Wednesday will begin an Intergovernmental Conference to amend the Governing Treaties of the European Union to allow 18 MEPs to take their seats in the European Parliament under the Lisbon Treaty as elec...
The European Citizens' Initiative: Council amendments - updated
Some days ago, I've already reported that the Council has come to a general agreement regarding the regulation of the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI). Now I took a look back into the agenda of the Council meeting of 14 June and then into the Cou...
Creating synergies, avoiding overlap key to strengthening work of OSCE and Council of Europe
The OSCE and the Council of Europe should strengthen co-operation and avoid overlap to promote security on the basis of democracy, rule of law and respect for human rights, the Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe Minist...
EU's power grab
Marta Andreasen, the UKIP MEP and former European Commission chief accontant has a big piece in the Sunday Telegraph where she makes things pretty clear about what is coming over the hill from Brussels,What does the EU do best? Blame others and grab...
Procedure for Electing Judges at the Court
The secretariat of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly has issued a document on the 'Procedure for Electing Judges to the European Court of Human Rights'. It is a handy summary of all the rules and developmen...
Will the European Parliament move forward on EEAS?
As things stand, the member states and the Commission have accepted the EU foreign policy chief Ashton’s blueprint for the European diplomatic corps - the European External Action Service (EEAS). This institutional innovation is intended to be a st...
Presidency Paradox: The Problem with the new European Council President
By Scott James Now that the sense of anti-climax surrounding the appointment of Herman van Rompuy as the new President of the European Council has subsided, it is worthwhile casting a critical eye over the likely role and powers of the new permanent...
Internal decision-making of the European Commission – A quick guide
So you (think you) know everything about how the EU works? Mastered the intricacies of codecision? Ah, so you already know it is not called codecision anymore, but ordinary legislative procedure. Good. So you probably already know about all the chang...
EU geek quiz: What is the Finalisation Written Procedure?
After officially becoming a EU Girl Geek, I decided to give one more try to our (very infrequent) EU geek quiz series. So, digging deeply, for mere academic purposes, into the Commission’s internal rules of procedure, as amended in February 2...
EU General Affairs Council 14 June 2010
The General Affairs Council (GAC) shall ensure consistency in the work of different Council configurations. It shall prepare and ensure the follow-up to meetings of the European Council, in liaison with the President of the European Council and the C...
EU patents and the monster treaty
This TFEU is a monster. I do commiserate with the Judges who are confronted with the inescapable duty to make sense of all that.said Axel H Horns in a post on EU patent litigation, in which he summarised some member states' positions in a hearing in...
The European Citizens' Initiative: Critical remarks in Committee of the Regions report - updated
According to a press release, the Committee of the Regions (CoR) - a consultative institution of the EU - has issued a critical opinion regarding the Commission's plans for the European Citizens' Initiative. In the press release it is said that the...
Paper on Effective Application of ECHR and EC Law in Cyprus
Nikolas Kyriakou of the European University Institute in Florence has just posted on SSRN an article on the national implementation of European norms. The paper is entitled 'National Judges and Supranational Laws on the Effective Application of the E...
Why I think social media are on the right way in the European Parliament
It's always interesting to see who's convinced by the use of social media for institutional communication purposes. We had a seminar with our whole directorate at the beginning of the week and it was very telling - not only because of what we said, b...
Tough Challenges Ahead as Austerity Measures Hit Europe
As Europe struggles to get to grips with the global financial crisis, we are seeing governments apparently determined to outdo each other in the severity of their austerity packages. Next in line will be the new British government, which later this m...
Finding official EU information & documents
The EU is a messy place. But: There is nothing better than the list of official document registers from EU institutions, agencies and other bodies on the Europa.eu website to start with when you are looking for the raw stuff, the originals, the back...
EU aim: Quality and sustainability of public finances
Despite the Brussels jargon, the ten ‘Europe 2020 integrated guidelines’ should make Europeans sit up and take notice. These policy aims concern the bread and butter issues for this decade. Success or failure decides our jobs, pensions, living st...
‘Agenturitis’
An interesting article in Die Welt today takes a look at how French Europe Minister Pierre Lellouche has broken a long standing taboo (shock horror) by openly criticising an EU body.The story begins in a Norman Rockwell-esque fashion – with Lellouc...
Belgium promises 'rupture' during EU presidency
In an exclusive interview with EurActiv, Belgian Secretary of State for European Affairs, Olivier Chastel, says Belgium will give the new EU bosses – Herman van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton – plenty of room for manoeuvre when his divided country a...
EPSeptical
That is how I have been feeling after participating in a competition to become EU official. I tried to prepare it seriously, and then you arrive to the test centre and you can’t avoid wondering if it really made a difference. The European Perso...
Relations between the EU Commission and national parliaments in 2009
The Commission has issued a report on its relations with the national parliaments and the activities of these parliaments vis-à-vis the Commission. Instead of starting to read the full text, I recommend starting with the Annex on pages 12-14, becau...
Sweden and eurozone: Optional treaty compliance?
Sweden is a unique case among the member state economies in the European Union: competitive and social and with healthy public finances. According to Wikipedia eight states are obliged to join the eurozone once they fulfil the strict entry criteria,...
The Democratic Deficit Flotilla
Israel’s capture of the Turkish ship the Mavi Marmara and its accompanying flotilla bound for the beleaguered people of Gaza has generated great debate around the world. Much still remains to be understood what happened and why; much may remain o...
The female Commissioners' communication under scrutiny
Journalist-blogger Prune Antoine is heavily complaining about the heterogeneous quality of the (female) EU Commissioners' press services. For her series "Drôles de Dames" (see my post), Prune wanted to have short interviews with all female Commissi...
European Parliament must drive integration
Guy Verhofstadt, president of the European Parliament (EP) Liberal Democrats and former Belgian prime minister, briefed the European Policy Centre today on his vision for Europe. In his view the main underlying issue at stake is whether the EU uses t...
Politics: the world of the unexpected
With all that is surprising us in the world of politics, my mind looks back at 1984. The French proposed Claude Cheysson as president of the European Commission. Margaret Thatcher vetoed the appointment and supported the candidature of Jacques De...
Details on the euPad regulation
Last month, the standard-setting EU news site Brussels Jungle has revealed that there will be the euPad, the all in one EU tablet with the best new features for the old continent. The EU telecommunication ministers now have asked the European Commis...
The 2010 renewal of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) - updated
In September, the members of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)* will be renewed for the next term from 2010-2015. EU member states have started to put forward their proposals, and the first are now published in the Council register.
European Parliament Consents to the Enhanced Co-Operation Procedure
Yesterday I blogged about the attempt by 12 member states the use the Enhanced Co-Operation Procedure in the area of divorce. This morning the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs committee voted to accept a report by MEP Tadeusz Zwiefka (EPP/PL...
