Jon Worth Euroblog

OK, it’s up and running: PES Activists. The idea is that members of political parties that belong to the Party of European Socialists sign up there, give a small donation, and access a range of online services. It’s a good idea, and it looks very pleasant – clearly they paid […]

I remember wondering back in those days at the start of this decade whether – after all – some of the then accession countries would join the Euro before Britain did. The European Commission’s announcement yesterday that Slovenia has the green light to join the Eurozone in 2007 proves those […]

I suppose it’s the closest thing that we have to European ‘culture’ – the Eurovision Song Contest. OK, we have other events like the European Championship soccer, but other areas of the world get involved in that game too. Eurovision, and its dodgy line up of strange pop acts is […]

Something a little bit more light-hearted about the EU… In the margins of the resent EU-Latin America summit in Vienna, a special football match was staged: European Commission vs. Austrian Presidency of the EU. The Austrian broadcaster ORF has a 3 minute video of the ‘highlights’ of the match here. […]

It looks like Romania and Bulgaria are still not going to get a final yes or no to 2007 accession to the EU in the Commission report due to be released today – see this from EUObserver. There are apparently enduring concerns that need to be addressed, so both countries […]

Following on from my recent post about the European Parliament and Strasbourg, I am very happy that one MEP is doing something about. Swedish Liberal Cecilia Malmström has launched www.oneseat.eu – an online petition calling for one seat of the European Parliament, and for that seat to be in Brussels. […]

I might often bemoan the British approach to the European Union, but the Brits – in London and the South East at least – have really embraced EU enlargement. This was confirmed with a small advertising flyer posted through my door this week: RISING POINT Team of Polich Builders Martin […]

It’s every MEP’s nightmare. It’s every MEP’s assistant’s worst nightmare. It makes the European Parliament horribly inefficient, and it costs European taxpayers a load of cash. Oh, and it keeps the hotel and restaurant business in a certain part of France very happy. I am of course talking of Strasbourg, […]

Sometimes things just go so well with the design of a new website. You get in the groove, the design is fun, and the programming doesn’t get you down. This was very much the case for the new website that I was proudly launched today for a friend and member […]

1st of May. Workers’ Day. Tends to be a day in the UK for a bunch of anti-globalisers to cause a fuss in central London, and not much else in the UK. The Labour Party has tended to steer clear of the day in recent years, wishing to avoid being […]

David Cameron and the Tories are trying to portray themselves as green. They have been heavily criticising Labour’s record on protecting the environment, and on greenhouse gases. I reckon they have a decent case – Labour has not done as much as it should have done – but then again […]