EU Politics

25.10.2013 EU Politics

Who owns a Commissioner’s Twitter account, and its followers?

2014 is the big change-over year in the EU institutions. A new European Parliament will be elected in May 2014, and a new European Commission will take office in late autumn 2014. Some Commissioners will stay on, but probably with

06.10.2013 EU Politics

Next #EUtweetup – the Brit-Europhile version – 14th October, 1800, London Calling (Place de Londres)

Everyone’s favourite Europhile with a British passport Anthony Zacharzewski (@anthonyzach) is in Brussels on 14th October. So we will run an #EUtweetup that evening, to show him that Brussels is not all just grey corridors and committee meetings. Anthony also runs

26.09.2013 EU Politics

Ideology, the state, legal process and bankers’ bonuses

So the UK has lodged a legal challenge with the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on new EU rules on pay in the banking sector, specifically about bankers’ bonuses (framed as “Osborne to take EU to court” (see FT for

18.09.2013 EU Politics

MyVote2014 – the European Parliament voting calculator based on data, not manifestos

I’m very happy to be sat today at the launch event of MyVote2014, a new voting tool for the European Parliament elections 2014. I’ve been working with Michiel, Joan and Doru at VoteWatch Europe, the folks behind the site, to

11.09.2013 EU Politics

Why it’s pointless to describe oneself as a pro-European

In response to Barroso’s State of the Union address today, leader of the ALDE Group in the European Parliament Guy Verhofstadt resorted to his tired old line. The pro-European forces should unite against Euroscepticism, he said, and this will define

07.09.2013 EU Politics

Addresses and mobile roaming: here’s an idea for Neelie Kroes

As discussion carries on about whether Neelie Kroes is going to actually manage to massively cut roaming fees for data across the EU, or not, thanks to a discussion with @JoeThorpe1963 on Twitter, here is an additional suggestion for Kroes

10.08.2013 EU Politics

If Gibraltar wants to solve its border headache with Spain, it should join Schengen

So the Spain-Gibraltar border dispute rumbles on. Queues at the land border to enter Gibraltar persist, and suggestions abound that Spain may introduce a charge to cross from Gibraltar into Spain. Meanwhile Tory MEP for the South West & Gibraltar,

22.07.2013 EU Politics

Systematic and free monitoring of news on UK-EU relations

My challenge this morning was to build a systematic, and free, way to keep an eye on breaking news about UK-EU relations. Of course I have had ad hoc ways of doing this until now, but for a project I am

22.06.2013 EU Politics

For Spiegel, Tempora is front page news. Apart from The Guardian the British press stays silent.

This is the current front page of Spiegel’s website: The top five stories are about GCHQ’s Tempora surveillance programme. Germany’s Justice Minster Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger has gone on the record to speak of a “Hollywood-style nightmare”. It’s top story on the

20.06.2013 EU Politics

Welcoming Croatia to the EU TweetUp – Tuesday 25th June, 1900, Brussels Place Lux

Croatia is joining the EU on 1st July, and everyone’s favourite Croat EU politics Twitter nerd, Dario Čepo, is in Brussels just before the accession. There’s even the be CROATive expo about Croatia next to the EP at the same

18.06.2013 EU Politics

The danger of over-hyping TTIP (the possible US-EU trade deal)

Yesterday is was David Cameron at the G8 summit, claiming that a US-EU trade deal (known as TTIP) could create 2 million jobs. The European Commission meanwhile has been using the figure of €545 per person benefit of a deal