It’s pleasing to see that there are finally some high level politicians voicing their critique of José Manuel Barroso with the determination that he should not get a second term of office as President of the European Commission. Anyone But Barroso lives! First of all the European Greens at their […]
My discontent about the lack of choice about the future President of the European Commission is well known. But it seems – bizarrely – that the choice of the President of the European Parliament might actually become a bit more interesting. President of the EP is a largely symbolic role, […]
The Onion has done an ace spoof on modern airports – Prague’s Franz Kafka Airport. For anyone that has had the misfortune to pass through Terminal 3 at London Heathrow some of this is just a little too close to the truth… and it’s also very close to the truth […]
Sorry to go on about the Czechs again, but they provide so much ammunition. Topolánek: your government has just fallen in the middle of the EU Presidency, the very same Presidency that has already stumbled from gaffe to gaffe, and then you make an all out attack on the President […]
So the inevitable has happened – the government has fallen in Czech Republic. 101 of the 200 deputies voted against Topolánek’s administration, as reported by PA. So what happens now? According to Czech left-ish daily Právo (part translated by euro|topics), basically nothing. 3 attempts to form a new administration have […]
EUObserver has an article today entitled “Think-tank blasts EU commissioners’ pensions package“. The ‘think tank’ in question is, of course, Open Europe, and the article quotes their press release on the Commissioner pay issue: Taxpayers around Europe, whose pensions have been swallowed up in the recession, will rightly question why […]
Who says you can’t have a chuckle about EU politics? Cédric Puisney has produced these spoof European Parliament election posters – CC License / Flickr. I especially like the Barrosloth one! 🙂 The original, serious posters are here.
Euractiv is today reporting that the Czech government might be on its last legs, with 2 rebel MPs threatening to bring down Mirek Topolánek’s administration. One of the rebels, Vlastimil Tlusty, said the government had made errors and it was time for it to quit. Not sure if he means […]
In the sometimes dreary world of EU politics a rich Irish bloke coming along and trying to rock the boat is one of the few things that can make life a bit interesting around the Rond Point Schuman. Yes, it’s Declan Ganley and Libertas (more on Wikipedia here) that have […]
So David Cameron is finally starting to make good his pledge to take the Conservatives out of the European People’s Party in the European Parliament, as covered by the FT Brussels blog, Richard Corbett and Iain Dale. There’s of course a lot of bluster about the whole thing, and plenty […]
In the 6 years since I was last in Pristina, Kosovo, everything has changed yet nothing has changed. In 2003 it was a UN Protectorate, now it’s an ‘independent’ country. Then it was emerging from a post-conflict situation, now it’s generally stable. Before everything felt temporary, now the investments feel […]
Presidency logos are always worth a chuckle and the Swedish Presidency for the second half of 2009 is no exception. As was astutely pointed out to my on Twitter my Magnus Ljugkvist the logo of the Presidency (above right) bears a striking resemblance to the logo of Sony Ericsson (above […]
