A quick round-up of some of the odder European and EU stories of the day… First of all Nicolas Sarkozy has declared that he’s in favour of Moldova eventually joining the European Union (link: Thomas). This comes from the very same leader that has solidly opposed Turkey’s eventual membership of […]
Daniel Hannan was expelled from the EPP-ED group in the European Parliament last night. It’s not known how decisive the vote was as the numbers are not stated in the EPP-ED’s press release. Reading between the lines I imagine it was all the MEPs of the EPP-ED in a group […]
So Gordon Brown is finally making a trip to Brussels to meet people in the EU institutions, including Barroso. The visit will take place next week sometime (news from EUBusiness, link thanks to Kosmopolit). But then Brown has had problems regarding Eurostar before (Telegraph, last paragraph). Overall Brown’s visit is […]
As part of the Yourspace online consultation prior to the European Parliament elections the PES invites social democrat bloggers to write on their site for a week – following Eric last week, it’s my turn this week. I’ve posted already about online campaigning for 2009 and common branding for European […]
Thanks to Erkan I’ve come across this excellent guide about how to blog for a cause. As well as the original blog post there’s also a handy PDF to download. The guide is written from the perspective of a campaign against an injustice (human rights, imprisonment etc.) but the suggestions […]
It was a crisp, sunny Sunday in Brussels, with families walking in the parks and the low sun making St Josse feel less drab. When leaving home I passed a couple of cars with Kosovo flags hanging out of the open windows. I wished the driver ‘felicitations‘ for independence as […]
Incredible. Absolutely incredible. It would have been reasonable to assume that the European Commission (or indeed any other EU institution) would have thought a bit about the impact of .eu domain names, considering the fanfare with which these domains were launched back in 2006. It then would not take a […]
It’s not a fun time politically in the two central European neighbours. Both are suffering a series of political travails. I blogged back in 2006 about Robert Fico’s unpleasant alliance in Slovakia – now the opposition are using the Reform Treaty as a tool against him, and making Brussels nervous […]
A few lines from a typical conversation when I’m asked what I do in Brussels: “I work as a website designer and write a blog about EU politics.” Response from whoever I’m talking to: “Oh, I don’t read blogs.” Rather than the rather simple answer – well, yes you should […]
Sometimes you come across something that sets all of what you’ve been writing in stark relief. I regularly lament the standard of the UK’s representation in the EP. So my jaw dropped when I came across the website of Finnish EPP MEP Alexander Stubb – how the hell does he […]
Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell drew a whole series of images of John Major during the 1990s with underpants over his other clothes. In one particular cartoon Major – presumably after recycling some dead policy – puts the pants in the dirty washing only for him to don the same pair […]
Plenty of EU leaders breathed a sigh of relief when José MarÃa Aznar was ousted as Prime Minister of Spain in April 2004. The Blair-Berlusconi-Aznar triumvirate was broken and as Spanish troops left Iraq by June 2004 it looked like a new era of Spain-EU relations would be ushered in. […]
