Today on BBC News there’s an article about how the Environment Agency has issued new guidance about how low-energy lightbulbs should be disposed of. OK, fair enough, these bulbs need some care. But how the hell do you actually get rid of them in the UK? I posted about this […]
Good news as 2007 draws to a close – the year was the most successful on record for the European Commission’s work fining companies for behaving anti-competitively – 3.3 billion Euro in total, so more than 2% of the EU’s annual income. Handelsblatt has a good article about it (in […]
So the Reform Treaty (we’re supposed to call in the Lisbon Treaty now, just so citizens can confuse it with the Lisbon Strategy) has been agreed. But what have the Heads of State and Government actually signed? All of the amendments are listed here on the Council website. Yet no […]
As I argued in my previous post, the British media is getting into a bit of a lather about the enlargement of the Schengen border free zone. Can the media not get to grips with the benefits of something, instead carrying on about how ‘illegal migration will increase’? But let’s […]
BBC News Online has a good piece about the implications for tourism of the enlargement of the Schengen border free area in Europe, only one thing is missing: any discussion about Britain eventually joining the parts of Schengen that are actually useful to citizens. Essentially there are 3 elements of […]
Just a few lines, but they say a lot about the person: By Friday I had to get up to prepare for a dinner at home with Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden as one of the guests (!) She accepted gracefully the not so professional service (= […]
Gordon Brown manages to make the matter of signing the EU Reform Treaty a national disgrace, so what are the reactions? The eurosceptic papers unsurprisingly whine about signing away sovereignty (good piece from Political Betting). William Hague has a field day, accusing Brown of being rude and at the same […]
It makes me so sad, so disappointed. The UK cannot even be a diligent enough European country to manage to get its Prime Minister to Lisbon to sign the EU Reform Treaty on time. It’s a matter of such elementary organisation, respect and kindness – a clear two fingers in […]
So Gordon Brown boycotted the EU-Africa summit in Lisbon because Robert Mugabe was there. Yes, he’s gruesome and evil (Mugabe I mean), but a whole host of other African leaders were there too – it wasn’t an EU-Zimbabwe summit after all. Plus Angela Merkel has been very critical of Mugabe […]
Via Nosemonkey’s blog I came across this column in The Observer by Tim Adams from just over a week ago about the European Parliament. What a load of drivel. I’ll quote one paragraph: One of the problems with the European parliament is that it is not quite a parliament at […]
I’ve been a Labour Party member since 1996 – I joined before I could even vote – and EU politics is my major interest. I’ve worked on all kinds of EU matters for a decade and I’m 27 now and I’ve done my fair share of different things in the […]
If you’ve reached this page via Google looking for the allocation of the portfolios for the 2009 European Commission then see the latest information from European Voice here. The Barroso Commission is well past the half way point in its term – on 1st November 2009 a new European Commission […]
