EU Politics

28.04.2014 EU Politics

Live Stream: Europe Conference Copenhagen, 28 April, 1000

I am a speaker at the Europe Conference “This time it’s different” in Copenhagen today. There is no live stream by default, so I will use Bambuser to stream my speech. That, and my slides, are below. Your browser does

21.04.2014 EU Politics

The parties have their Commission President candidates. TV channels, it’s over to you: 15th May debate on prime time TV please.

I write this blog entry as a convinced EU democrat. By that I mean that, faced with the options about how to solve the many problems the EU currently faces, actually trying to make democracy work at EU level is

18.04.2014 EU Politics

Politics for people, or let’s bash the bankers?

With the European elections now just over a month away, every campaign organisation in Brussels is coming up with its demands for wannabe MEPs before the election. ALTER-EU, the campaign for lobby transparency, has released its campaign site entitled “Politics

14.04.2014 EU Politics / German Politics

The empty slogans of the ‘Volksparteien’ in the European Parliament election campaign in Germany

From its headquarters at the southern end of Stresemanstrasse as far as Potsdamer Platz, the SPD has filled the street with huge election posters for the European Parliament election campaign… and they are awful. The five main posters are shown

09.04.2014 EU Politics

At least 4 televised debates between Schulz and Juncker, more to come? (update: now 7!)

One of the supposed advantages of the European Commission top candidate / Spitzenkandidat process is that it gives some personality to the European Parliament election campaigns for the first time. I am hence very happy to see that televised debates

07.04.2014 EU Politics

How is David Cameron not going to be marginalised this summer in the EU’s political games?

I’ve previously written about how the UK is absent from the EU’s Presidential Election (otherwise known as the top candidate, or Spitzenkandidat process), and while the essential content of that earlier post remains valid, I have reflected further about the

07.04.2014 EU Politics / UK Politics

Non-legislative barriers to the EU Single Market in the UK

I was back in the UK for the first time in ages last week and was frustrated as a result of not being able to use two services I had grown to rely on – my Three Pay-as-you-go Data SIMcard,

27.03.2014 EU Politics

From a quick post on “More Europe” to more formed ideas about EU framing

Anyone who knows me well knows I am fascinated by the use of words about the EU. Since @europasionaria first got me to read Lakoff’s “Don’t Think of an Elephant”, I’ve been wondering how to apply his ideas to the

27.03.2014 EU Politics

“More Europe” – the next term to banish from the EU framing lexicon

The words “More Europe” are essentially used a shorthand for needing EU action in an area where the EU does not currently act, like current efforts to complete the Digital Single Market for example. But take a step back and

26.03.2014 EU Politics / German Politics

Time for some policy-based evidence-making – how the Jacques Delors Institut Berlin ought to work

Back in my days as a civil servant one phrase dominated UK government-speak: evidence-based policy-making. The essential idea was to gather adequate evidence about a problem, and how various solutions could work, and determine a policy choice based on that.

12.03.2014 EU Politics

I’m still an idealist when it comes to the EU. Surely that’s good?

I’m sat at a conference and there in front of me sits a diplomat from the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He’s here to present the UK’s positions on the future of the European Union. His suit is sharp, his