100 posts
Martin Schultz is the new President of the European Parliament
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On 17th January, German Social Democrat Martin Schultz was elected as the new President of the European Parliament, with 387 votes out of the 670 cast, replacing Jerzy Buzek. He beat two British candidates, Nirj Deva and Diana Wallis. He will serve a...
Election not acclamation
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Important elections took place this month – a new President of the European Parliament was elected, as were the heads of its legislative committees. However, while they generated plenty of gossip and back-room political fixing in Planet Eurocrat, f...
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...
Parlamentarium’s first 100 days – over 64,000 visitors
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The European Parliament's new Parlamentarium visitors' centre – the largest of its kind in Europe – marks its first 100 days today. It has already welcomed over 64,000 visitors, and around 1,000 students haved played its "...
EU’s Terminal Parliament
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The European Parliament building in Brussels lacks only a few things found in a big airport terminal. Among them: airplanes and signs. The parliament could learn to give directions.
Priorities to be presented to EP committees
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Danish ministers present this week the priorities of Denmark's Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers to European Parliament committees. Notably, economic and interior affairs minister Margrethe Vestager underlines the role of the European Parl...
Party of European Left on how to tackle the crisis – statement
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To face up the financial markets and emerge from the crisis, unite the Left, strengthen the struggles and recover power to the peoples, the Party of the European Left says. More...
Socialist Schulz is elected President of the European Parliament
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German Socialist MEP Martin Schulz was elected President of the European Parliament in Strasbourg this week. His election comes at a particularly poignant time for socialism in Europe – both the heads of the European Commission and European Cou...
A stronger, more active European Parliament?
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Martin Schulz, the former leader of the Socialists and Democrats Group in the European Parliament has been elected the President of the Parliament for 2.5 years.* He's set out his stall for parliamentarianism: that he'll stick up for the EP within th...
No, we don't need to lose an other brilliant woman, open letter to Ms.Wallis
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Dear Ms.Wallis,I know, there a lot of brilliant and skillful women on this planet in general and in Europe in particular. Nevertheless something happens that we lose them by the way, without any apparent reason. Well, I am not talking about stat...
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.
A Compassionate Europe: open letter to Mr.Schulz
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Dear Mr.Schulz,a couple of days ago you've been elected as the President of the European Parliament. I have stated publicly why I don't agree with the non-written tradition which is developing around the European Parliament Presidency and why, as far...
MEP Girling posts her January vlog update and talks about her constituency at last!
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Conservative MEP Julie Girling has this evening released her January video blog from Strasbourg. In this edition she discusses the elections in Parliament of a new President and Vice-Presidents ("staged and stage managed; not exciting and not ma...
The EPP’s stance on Hungary criticised by Cohn-Bendit
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The European Peoples Party (EPP) in the European Parliament is more and more showing face. It votes collectively against more EU transparency. And it defends Victor Orban’s “new” Hungary arguing that all his government did was to ab...
Election6: The Council's President of the European Parliament: the Speaker for EU's UNDEMOCRACY
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The EU leaders are now repeating their mantra: the solution to the crisis is the Community method. The Community method involves open democracy. We haven't got it! We have the 'Council method' which involves a political cartel, a Politburo, ruling Eu...
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...
Rappel: Le parlement aura bientôt un nouveau président
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Le parlement européen est malheureusement très calme en ce moment et plutôt absent des médias. Mais les citoyens européens devrait être informés que leur représentant à Strasbourg éliront un nouveau président pour l’assemblée durant...
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.
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.
European Parliament Presidential Debate
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In less than a week, Jerzy Buzek will finish his mandate as President of the European Parliament. His successor will then be elected by MEPs in a secret ballot. At Debating Europe, we’ve already touched on this topic here. We also …...
In the Parlamentarium
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Together with Andy, I went to the Parlamentarium, the new EU Parliament visitors’ centre, yesterday. One day later I actually still don’t know what to think about it. It kind of feels like a cosy and fancy vision of the European Parli...
Tre segrar i halvtid i EU-parlamentet
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Nu har det gått två och ett halvt år sedan EU-valet 2009, då jag tillträdde som EU-parlamentariker för Piratpartiet. När parlamentet öppnar imorgon efter juluppehållet är det andra halvlek på mandatperioden som börjar. Så vad har Piratpa...
Utkast till Piratpartiets principer om EU
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Som jag skrev i mitt förra inlägg om Piratpartiets principer vad gäller EU, ska förslag på skrivningar i det nya Principprogram 4.0 vara inskickade till partiledaren senast den 15 januari. Här är ett utkast till ett avsnitt om EU, som jag tän...
Pirate Party Platform for the 2009 EU Elections
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Before the EU elections in 2009, we gathered representatives from an number of European Pirate Parties in Uppsala in Sweden, to formulate a basic common platform. In Sweden, we called this common platform Uppsaladeklarationen, and it served as the ba...
EP resorts to blind hope to resolve euro crisis
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The European Parliament, it seems, has run out of policy responses to the debt crisis.Bailout funds, sovereign debt relief, and euro reform efforts appear to have been exhausted, leaving MEPs putting their heads between their legs and hoping for the...
Евродепутатът Илиана Иванова се отчете за свършеното през годината
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Евродепутатът Илиана Иванова отчете най-значимите моменти от работата си през изминалата година в ЕП. Тя коментира важни нормативни док...
Is it uncool to say I love my job? WebCom in 2011
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What is it that really matters to most people about their jobs, once they have one that can keep body and soul together in a satisfactory manner, that is? I suppose it's about two things: (i) whether you actually believe you are achieving something,...
Europe: Thank you and goodbye?
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I currently work at the European parliament for a Finnish MEP. With the economic situation being what it is and every day bringing us more bad news and stories of high-level meetings in Brussels, people often think I’m in the centre of power an...
European Parliament delegation to Durban
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15 members of European Parliament delegation to the UN climate summit (COP 17) begin their programme in Durban, South Africa. According to the delegation Chair, Jo Leinen (S&D, DE), this week is crucial "in laying these vital building blocks towa...
European Parliament: All talk and no action?
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In the past year, we have witnessed countless demonstrations all across Europe. Millions of people have taken to the streets to protest against the austerity measures that most European governments have been forced to take to deal with the current ec...
New website: so that was the easy bit…
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It's blue, it's new and it's online - the redesigned official institutional website of the EU's directly elected democratic lawmaking institution! And, speaking personally, I now know why you don't do this kind of thing too often.
Eurocrisis, Democratic Deficit and the Re:New Conference
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Throughout the Re:New Conference references were made to that most European of monsters: Merkozy. Yesterday Sarkozy spoke, and today Merkel has spoken in the Bundestag about Europe and the Eurozone. While European integration - and a new treaty - was...
Re:New: Europarties and Primaries
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When I wrote about the Re:New conference and the lack of policy at the PES level on Friday, I wanted to find out more about the Europarty and how things are done. Luckly there was a workshop on Transnational parties on Saturday, which I attended (ann...
MEPs: Mario Who?
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A crucial summit next week, emergency swap lines put in place overnight, and a new ECB President taking over in the middle of a storm. Time for elected representatives to grill him? Not at the European Parliament.
MEP Awards 2011: who’s winning what?
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A number of MEPs will be rewarded for their achievements over the past year during the 7th annual MEP Awards which takes place on 29 November at the Stanhope hotel in Brussels. The awards, hosted by The Parliament Magazine...
ELDR Congress Palermo
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There has been a distinctively festive air at the ELDR Congress in Palermo, Sicily, over the past few days, not because the eurozone’s crisis has markedly eased — it hasn’t — but because the Italians are feeling a sense of hug...
PES challenges other Europarties in 2014 EP elections
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The Party of European Socialists intends to field a candidate for the presidency of the EU Commission in the elections to the European Parliament in 2014. The nomination and selection procedure is going to be based on ”consultation” of the member...
It's official: Sir Graham Watson elected new ELDR party president
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It's official: shortly after 5.30pm local time, Sir Graham Watson, the sole Liberal Democrat MEP for the South West, was declared the new President of the European Liberal and Democrat and Reform party (ELDR), elected unopposed with massive support b...
Sir Graham Watson MEP elected President of ELDR party
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Liberal Democrat MEP for the South West of England and Gibraltar and the former leader of the Liberal ALDE group in the European Parliament Sir Graham Watson MEP has today been elected President of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform party. ELDR...
Re:New Conference in Brussels - Renewal for the European left?
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The plight of the European left is well known by now: despite the victory in Denmark a few months ago, the left has lost Spain, and now doesn't hold any of the 6 major Member States (the big 3 plus Italy, Spain and Poland). So does it have the abilit...
PES candidate for EU Commission president through ”consultation”
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The Party of European Socialists (PES) has taken a step forward with regard to the next elections to the European Parliament, by adopting a resolution on the selection of the PES candidate for president of the European Commission: PES Resolution: Se...
PES Council 2011 adopts selects resolution
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PES Council has just adopted major resolution establishing democratic selection process to choose PES candidate for President of the European Commission at next Euro-elections.Process will be open and democratic but flexible for national parties to c...
SW MEP only formal candidate for ELDR presidency vote - but it's no done deal yet
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Twelve months ago we learned that South West Liberal Democrat MEP Sir Graham Watson was to stand as a candidate for the presidency of the European Liberal and Democrat and Reform party (ELDR).This week, the ELDR bureau, members, and associates have c...
Basic questions about democratic European Union
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When people speak about democratic legitimacy at the European level, the so called community method seems to be the maximum most of them have in mind qualitatively, although materially some do not exclude a widening of the scope. As long as the membe...
PES from Poul Nyrup Rasmussen to European Parliament elections 2014
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For European level democracy to get off the starting blocks, the Europarties (political parties at European level) need to get going. The Progressive Convention of the Party of European Socialists (PES) meets in Brussels 25-26 November 2011 to discus...
”First Pirate MEP: We expect party to grow”
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- Pirate parties in EU countries are expected to grow, because they address issues of high importance in the modern society that is based on digital information, Christian Engström, Swedish Pirate MEP, told EurActiv Germany in an exclusive interview...
The next President must call for an end to the European Parliament's costly "travelling circus" - and so must David Cameron
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This week was another busy week in Strasbourg, Parliament's second seat. Due to a stipulation in the Treaties which govern the European Union, all 736 MEPs and many hundreds of staff members must decamp from Brussels to the Alsatian capital for the P...
Time for More Europe?
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A group of nine Spanish Bloggers have come together and written a Manifesto on things to improve Europe. There isn’t any political slant to this apart from trying to improve democracy within the European Union and improve the EU itself.
More Europe Manifesto calls for European Electoral Act
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After my latest post about a single seat for the European Parliament, we return to More Europe. In order to overcome the crises in the eurozone and the wider European Union, a group of Spanish eurobloggers has launched an appeal for More Europe.You c...
More Europe Manifesto: single seat for European Parliament
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After my latest post about the More Europe Manifesto I wanted to compress the conclusions about EU or eurozone level democracy into Twitter mode: #Euro crisis Everything else has failed - why not try EU #democracy#Euro Alternatives are #Merkozy ...
Graham's Newsletter 11th November 2011
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Greetings, UK Liberal Democrat MEPs naturally turned out in force to hear Nick Clegg speak in the European Parliament on Wednesday. He laid out the UK's belief that competitiveness depends on eliminating barriers to trade, both within the EU single m...
A German decision that sets back Europe
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News reaches me of a rather strange decision by the German constitutional court regarding the elections to the European Parliament. The ruling is forcing a change in the way in which Germany elects its MEPs. The decision is strange not because it is...
