100 posts
Schulz, new president of European parliament: Martin who?
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Do you know who the president of the European parliament is? If not, read on: Martin Schulz isn't afraid of courting controversy and is planning to shake up the way Europe is run...
Rest in Peace dear Theo. A tribute to Theodoros Angelopoulos
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In the Summer of 2007, Theodoros Angelopoulos attended our Cinema and Media conference at Istanbul Bilgi University Communication School… Rest in peace Theo… View the story “R.I.P. Theo Angelopoulos” on Storify Storified b...
The new face of the European Parliament
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Martin Schulz (S&D, Germany) was elected the 14th President of the European Parliament. EuroparlTV reportage comes here.
EU’s Barnier moving on?
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Rumours are afoot that EU Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier may be gearing himself up for a possible return to Paris after the French general elections. read more...
How Martin Schulz breaks stereotypes
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Yesterday, Martin Schulz, a bookseller from a small town in Germany, was confirmed as president of the European Parliament. He is a socialist, therefore not from the conservative majority in the Parliament, and a fervent supporter of Europe. Both fac...
European Parliament: Schulz to replace Buzek
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Martin Schulz will succeed Jerzy Buzek as the President of the European Parliament. The election is set for tomorrow. Questions: 1. How efficient, effective was Buzek in his position, what was his brightest hour and what about the biggest failure? 2.
Declan Ganley investigated on Primetime 2008 now he goes to court to silence press,( Again) Yawn
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Declan Ganley has finally issued a writ in the High Court in Ireland about the below show. Since then he has claimed all subjects therein are sub judice. In the last week he has recieved a great deal of publicity after co authoring a piece on Federal...
What Sarkozy says about peace in Europe is nonsense
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We always need to have a sense of proportion monsieur Sarkozy. Image Source: The Guardian In a joint press conference with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, French President Sarkozy said the following (by Reuters): We do not have the right to drop...
Cabris de l’année 2011 : Havel en or, Merkozy en plâtre
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Vaclav Havel succède à Daniel Cohn-Bendit en remportant le Cabri d’or de l’année 2011. Couronné en 2010 du Cabri de plâtre, Nicolas Sarkozy signe le doublé avec l’aide précieuse de son homologue allemande, Angela Merkel. Havel en or Sur...
The Bulgarian Barroso
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The Bulgarian BarrosoDuring the last days of the Annus Horribilis 2011 for the eurozone, our thoughts go to the eurocrats in Brussels, who have had to forsake even their cherished Christmas parties in order to keep the dream of a succesful euro...
Nick Griffin tells the nativity story
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With the British National Party hanging over a financial abyss, our opportunities to laugh at Nick Griffin may soon be rationed. Let’s squeeze one more into 2011, with a reprise of Nick Griffin’s bizarre rendition of the nativity story:...
2011 : qui seront les Cabris de l’année ?
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Pour la deuxième année, les Cabris de l’Europe organisent les Cabris de l’année 2011. De quoi s’agit-il ? Récompenser les acteurs politiques qui ont marqué la scène européenne ces douze derniers mois. Les nommés pour le Cabri d’or 20...
2011: the year of Polish leadership in the EU
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If last week was the week of Cameron’s walk out, this week has been the week of recriminations, with newspaper column inches full of talk of Nick Clegg involved in spats with Tories and France. While in some way it is good that EU politics is f...
Good-Bye, Friend
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Václav Havel, 1936-2011Děkuji to Instapundit!If you have a few minutes, you might want to reminisce about the time when Havel criticized Obama (in an affair involving three Nobel Prize winners) and how, when a member of the European élite became i...
Neelie Kroes meets K.T. zu Guttenberg: No dream team for European academia
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Faithful readers of PolSciEU will know that I’ve blogged about EU open data, useful EU websites and the proper use of sources in the past. And so faithful readers will understand that EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes was kind of at the heart of t...
Dear Neelie Kroes…
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… let me begin like this. I generally appreciate your work on the Digital Agenda. (although there are still a lot of obstacles in Europe that need to be tackled!) Your team is doing a great job in developing this important policy. You seem to...
Ethical Values?
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Today, Neelie Kroes, the European Digital Agenda Commissioner has " invited Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, a former Federal Minister of Defense, and of Economics and Technology, in Germany, to advise on how to provide ongoing support to Internet users,...
Grattis till utmärkelsen, Rick!
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Rick Falkvinge, som grundade Piratpartiet 2006, har blivit utsedd till en av världens 100 intressantaste politiska tänkare av den prestigefyllda amerikanska tidskriften Foreign Policy. Grattis, Rick, det är välförtjänt! Foreign Policy skriver i...
Van Rompuy's Delusions revealed in grammar
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Our president, the not so quiet 'assasin of Nations' that bag of charisma and foresight Herman Van Rompuy reveals all just by his use of tense in his speech today.The various instances of complete lack of self awareness, both on his own part and on t...
Alan Keen MP dies, aged 73
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LabourList is sad to report this morning that Labour MP Alan Keen has passed away. He was 73. He is survived by his wife Ann (a former MP). Lewisham-born Keen was the Labour MP for Feltham and Heston from 1992 onwards. The thoughts of everyone at Lab...
Seymour embraces Althusser
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Anyone foolish enouigh to waste their time reading the SWP anti-semite and Libya expert Lenny “Seymour” Tombstone’s blog, will have noticed how pretentious his language, and obscurantist his ’logic’ has become of lat...
In His Very Own Saintly Words, Part III
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"Mexicans are a band of illiterate Indians."- Ernesto "Che" Guevara...
Berlusconi has resigned! A setback for kleptocracy
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Tonight, with Berlusconi's exit, Europe is feeling a little bit safer. His resignation marks a symbolic victory in the struggle against kleptocracy which has so weakened the public finances of countries in southern Europe. Any of his likely succes...
A silent film…about Louis Armstrong!
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A new silent film about the greatest jazz musician of all time? At first blush, the most stupid idea since the chocolate fireguard. But the guy who thought of it, Dan Pritzker, is patently sincere: “I was listening to Armstrong, Duke Elling...
Pill-popping on an empty stomach: what Michael Jackson tells us about ourselves
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William Pitt the Younger is supposed to have expired with the immortal line: “I think I could eat one of Bellamy’s meat pies.” Michael Jackson’s last words, we learned this week, were: “Please, please, let me have some milk.” That’s muc...
End of an Era
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Tonight at midnight Mary McAleese finishes her Presidency after 14 years as President of the Republic of Ireland. While I do not remember much of her election or the campaign preceding it, I do have a memory of much of her years as President a...
Roger Hill, RIP
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I’ve just heard about Roger’s death: he was a great guitarist and lovely human being. He could play in the Django style as well as anyone I’ve ever heard. Here he is with the Chris Barber Band, demonstrating (on ‘Perdido Stree...
Finalmente e’ arrivato il conto: the smuggest photos of Berlusconi
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While bond markets may not love Silvio Berlusconi, the Scrapbook team have found ourselves lamenting the possibly imminent departure of the bunga bunga-partying septuagenarian. To commemorate his entertaining, if not entirely prudent stewardship of t...
Smokin’ Joe Frazier: another sad victim of this “sport”
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Above: Joe Frazier beats Muhammad Ali at Madison Square Garden in 1971. . A moving tribute at the the Guardian Sports Blog: “Both [Frazier and Ali] were subsequently reduced to peddling their past, with contrasting success. A preserved cigarett...
Anne Sinclair : Femme de tête, dame de coeur
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Le nouveau livre de Alain Hertoghe, avec Marc Tronchot, c'est Anne Sinclair : Femme de tête, dame de coeur.Le livre le plus connu de Hertoghe, c'est La guerre à outrances (Comment la presse nous a désinformés sur l'Irak).
Mario Sepi, 30.10.41-10.10.11
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I received terribly sad and shocking news just after I reached my office. Former EESC President Mario Sepi (2008-2010) passed away at 7 o’clock this morning, in Rome, after a short illness. Mario’s mandate as President coincided with the...
A visit to Berlin tinged with sadness – am I just doing everything wrong? Or everything by halves?
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It’s 12:22 on Saturday 24th September 2011 and I’m sat in a friend’s flat in Berlin. At about this time 10 years ago I first set foot in this city, the start of a remarkable journey through European politics, work … Continue r...
Barroso Bullshit Bingo is back (economic crisis edition)
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Last year a bunch of EU blog nerds had a laugh when José Manuel Barroso made a State of the European Union address (more here). The very notion that Barroso would do this made us smile, and knowing he’s not a great … Continue reading &...
EESC plenary session – a sad start
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There was a sad start to the Committee’s plenary session this morning. Hours before the session got under way we learned of the sudden and untimely death of one of our ushers, Harri Ruusunen. He was just 48. Anyone who has worked with or in an...
Asked Whether He Might Think of Himself as American or as Partly American, George Soros Answers Proudly and Defiantly: "I Am European!"
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Vous êtes né à Budapest mais vivez aux Etats-Unis. Vous sentez-vous européen ? Je suis européen ! In an exclusive interview with Cécile de Corbière and Claire Gatinois, George Soros admits — or he doesn't admit, he states proudly, he states...
What does the EP do about an offensive e-mail? Delete it from staff inboxes remotely
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As covered by England Expects (in French, e-mail now removed) and Guido Fawkes (in English), the European Parliament has been full of gossip this week as a result of a remarkable resignation e-mail from a member of staff that was … Continue rea...
Ever-closer asylum
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The EU's asylum system isn't really working, as the Serbian experience shows...
The complicated balance between listening and leading, and how it applies to politics in Europe
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Look across Europe, and think of the calibre of its leaders. Merkel, Sarkozy, Cameron. Zapatero, Berlusconi, Tusk. Reinfeldt, Løkke, Pahor. Brussels with Barroso and Van Rompuy. This is not a quality lineup, not what one would classically call a sta...
What’s wrong with this picture?
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This is definitely part of a new series at the BJ: Hint: multiple answers allowed.
Final thoughts on Garret.
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Some of us gathered at the Mansion House to pay our respects to Garret. A number of things struck me. First, the mix of people, in age and geographical mix. There were some who said that Garret was very much just a representative of Dublin Four, but...
DSK Arrested
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IMF managing director and leader in the French presidential election polls is under arrest in...
Oh My
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Removed from a Paris-bound plane. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund, was removed from a Paris-bound flight on Saturday afternoon minutes before takeoff after a New York City hotel housekeeper accused him of sexual as...
IMF Head Held on Sexual Assault Charge
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Extraordinary news here in New York where the IMF’s Dominique Strauss-Kahn was this afternoon hauled out of the first class cabin of an Air France plane at JFK airport to be arrested for – allegedly – sexually assaulting the chamber...
Delightful irony as Koch-Mehrin runs an event on openness and suffers from it simultaneously
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Thursday 12th April and Dr. Silvana Koch-Mehrin MEP runs an event in the European Parliament entitled “The New Rules of Openness”, together with LibertyGlobal. The poster advertising the event is shown above. The very same day the Vroni-P...
oh fck, Erkan is 35.
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I now update the post when I had first produced when I was 34: Erkan has spent 27 years as a student (5 primary school+7 secondary and high school+4 college+ 3 MA+ 8 Phd). He has been teaching for 9 years in various levels at university (not inclu...
Sukhdev Sharma (1946-2011)
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Very sad news came in today of the sudden and completely unexpected death of Sukhdev Sharma, a much-loved and respected member of the European Economic and Social Committee (UK/Various Interests Group). ‘Dev’ as he was universally known,...
Commissioner Oettinger’s loose lips
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Beleaguered Japanese officials are already grappling with a humanitarian crisis wrought by a biblical earthquake and tsunami, and the prospect of apocalyptic meltdowns at a pair of stricken nuclear reactors. Add to their list of woes one European com...
Room by Emma Donoghue
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Jack is five. He lives with his Ma. They live in a single, locked room. They don’t have the key. Jack and Ma are prisoners. Room is that rarity, a truly original piece of writing tackling a subject no-one has … Continue reading →...
