Anyone who vaguely follows EU politics may have heard of the so-called Vaxholm case, a dispute between 2 Swedish trade unions and a Latvian firm that was carrying out work in Sweden and not respecting collective wage bargaining agreements there. The issue cuts at the heart of the Nordic labour […]
From The Guardian today: The furious international row over the publication of cartoons satirising the prophet Muhammad intensified today when Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, claimed it was an Israeli conspiracy motivated by anger over Hamas’ win in the Palestinian elections. Sorry, but this is just ludicrous. The cartoons […]
The Jyllands-Posten row goes on and on, and the trade and security implications for the EU in general, and Denmark in particular, are getting more and more severe. Newspapers in most European countries – with the notable exception of Britain – have now published the cartoons in some kind of […]
Things have gone from bad to worse with this row over the cartoons of Muhammad that first appeared in Jyllands-Posten last year. For an excellent and concise overview of what has been happening, see this blog entry from Robert Lindsay. Right, so let’s put a few things straight. The cartoons […]
Like many people engaged in EU politics work, I read EUObserver on an almost daily basis. What few people know is that its editor – Lisbeth Kirk – is married to Jens-Peter Bonde, chair of the Danish June Movement and leader of the IND/DEM (i.e. eurosceptic) group in the European […]
OK, so am I writing it off before it has even started? Sorry, but I just cannot see how the European Union’s Communication Policy, laid out today in Margot Wallstr√∂m’s White Paper [PDF] can possibly work. The issue is simple. When a poltical body tries to communicate what it does, […]
Now, as readers of this blog who have ever discussed European politics with me will know, I am no fan of Gisela Stuart. All started so well for any Labour voter – her beaming face, winning in Birminigham Edgbaston in 1997 was the sign that Labour was on course to […]
My reflections after the Sound of Europe conference in Salzburg have been continuing over the last few days. I still don’t have everything clear in my mind about what could or should be learnt from the conference – a better overview will appear here in a few days. One idea […]
Before the start of the Sound of Europe conference this weekend, I thought writing as many observations here would not be a bad idea. With free wireless in the conference centre, uploading things was quick and simple. Yet a quick search of Technorati (direct link to results here) or Google […]
The Sound of Europe is over, and I am sat in the relative silence of the press centre as the delegates leave the place. I can’t really write any profound analysis here and now. I am utterly gutted and drained by all of the events this morning. Barroso was however […]
The more I reflect on the speeches yesterday, the more disappointed I become. First of all: enlargement. De Villepin, Moisi and many others seemed to be obsessed by the borders of Europe, and stated so much how important the borders are for many European citizens. But is this actually true? […]
The afternoon panel of the Sound of Europe conference?? Wallström is back, but looked a bit nervous and had negative body language, Plassnik looked serene and calm, Danskeckguber looked smug, and Moisi too. The best quote at the start came from Geremek: “Mozart is what we want, Wagner is what […]
