I’ve just made presentation at the PES Activists conference in Vienna on how to campaign online. It’s all straightforward stuff if you’re a usual reader of this blog, but it might be a handy summary. The presentation can be downloaded here (4mb, ZIPped). If you want to use it for […]
Hell. If it’s not McCreevy saying he’s not read the Treaty of Lisbon then it’s French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner stating his ignorance. As reported by the Financial Times Kouchner today said: “No one understands the institutions and no one’s interested. No one understands anything, not even me.” What a […]
So the Polish President Lech Kaczynski is refusing to sign off the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon. Czech President Vaclav Klaus may do the same this autumn, even if the Czech constitutional court gives the Treaty the OK. It seems that the No vote in Ireland has given these […]
As the days go by after the No vote in the referendum in Ireland on the Treaty of Lisbon so more articles and statements emerge, asking questions about the future direction of the EU. Today David Marquand (in The Guardian) and Robert Kagan (in the IHT) have penned articles asking […]
Today’s the last day for almost 2 weeks that I’m sat at my desk in my office – I’m off to London teaching EU politics and to meet website clients, to Vienna for a PES Activists Forum where I’ll be presenting about the use of the internet, I have a […]
I keep an eye on the combined Blogactiv RSS feed and, aside from the posts about EU chemicals legislation (yawn) there are sometimes a few gems, like today’s downright strange post by a new blogger called ‘Ukridge’ about Hungarian Social Democrat MEP Alexandra Dobolyi. Among other things the piece claims […]
I had heard rumours on the Brussels grapevine that German broadcaster RTL had done an amusing (but serious) report on the behaviour of European Parliamentarians that involved German Green MEP Hiltrud Breyer running into a wall on the way into a lift in order to escape cameras. The report is […]
It’s one of the best known scare stories – that the EU legislates on the amount of curvature of cucumbers. Only José Manuel Barroso has hit back – the Commission wants to do away with the standards, but the Member States are resisting: “You all heard the story of straight […]
In whatever walk of life, when something goes wrong someone has to take responsibility. The Irish voted No to the Treaty of Lisbon on 12th June, it’s caused a big problem for the EU, and so now it’s time to play the blame game – who needs to take responsibility […]
Europe’s politicians are winding down for the summer, and plenty of them are watching parts of Euro 2008… and starting to wonder. Janez JanÅ¡a, Prime Minister of Slovenia and present President of the European Council, floats the idea of an EU football team in yesterday’s Independent. I’m not sure that’s […]
I invest a large amount of time keeping this blog up-to-date. Wherever I am, whatever I’m doing, I think up things I might write, most often matters with an EU-angle. But is it actually worth the effort? Since the No vote on the Treaty of Lisbon things have been hellish […]
I have been sent an advance copy of the publication “Democracy, Populism and Minority Rights”, published today by the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, on the basis of a common seminar with the Renner Institute in Austria. The book is edited by Socialist Group MEPs Hannes Swoboda and Jan […]
