EU Politics

22.01.2006 EU Politics

‘Safe pair of hands’ personified: Olli Rehn

Now, if there is one issue that tends to get people motivated, it is EU enlargement. Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn was in London on Friday and, among other things, gave a speech at LSE about his work. Yet his speech,

20.01.2006 EU Politics

Wallström’s White Paper: you can’t separate communication and democracy

Commissioner Margot Wallström is due to release her White Paper on EU Communications at the start of January, and – surprise, surprise – the whole thing is getting quite messy and complex. This line in an article in European Voice

16.01.2006 EU Politics

Wealth inequality, working hours, and happiness?

There is an excellent post on the New Economist blog (read it here) that discusses a recent study about whether there is a correlation between working hours and income inequality – simply put, the need to ‘keep up with the

12.01.2006 EU Politics

Guardian tempers its analysis of Sweden

After Polly Toynbee’s “The Most Successful Society” piece in the autumn, The Guardian has tempered its tone about the Nordic model in this piece by Nicholas Watt. The analysis is not too bad – Sweden does, without doubt, have a

11.01.2006 EU Politics

The Dead Constitution Sketch

Have we not been over this ground before? Immediately after the French and Dutch No votes, everyone started to debate whether the European Constitution was dead or not. Then the Brits came along with their Presidency and put the lid

30.12.2005 EU Politics

What criticism of religion is acceptable?

The row over cartoons of Muhammad in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten goes on and on. Arab Foreign Ministers yesterday condemned the Danish Government for not doing anything about the cartoons, so no surprise there then – article from the BBC

27.12.2005 EU Politics

Europe, wake up and feel good

I have just finished reading an extremely pleasant and gratifying book: T. R. Reid???s ???United States of Europe??? (buy it from Amazon here). Reid was the Washington Post???s correspondent in London from 1998 until 2002 and his book details how

22.12.2005 EU Politics

Is Blair changing his position on EU taxation?

There’s a really interesting quote buried away in Mark Mardell’s column on the BBC News website – read it here. Mardell asked Tony Blair whether an EU tax was a way out of nasty negotiations on the budget every few

20.12.2005 EU Politics

EU Budget: time for the EP to stamp its feet? [Updated, 20.12.2005]

Everyone has assumed that’s it: the Heads of State have agreed the Financial Perspectives at the summit at the end of last week. But Monday comes and the European Parliament is signalling its wish to push for better. MEPs –

19.12.2005 EU Politics

A theory of Brussels flat rental prices

I was asked a tricky question today after work: if Brussels is the capital of Europe, and lots of people are moving there, why are flat rental low in comparison to other western European capitals? Here’s a wild guess of

19.12.2005 EU Politics

NationStates: Cheese Exports

The game Nationstates that I mentioned here a few days ago is getting more and more bizarre. The main industry in Ventotenesis, my country, is the pizza delivery industry but they were on strike. So, with the future of the

17.12.2005 EU Politics

I was wrong – they have managed a deal. But why?

I cannot quite believe it, but we actually have a deal on the EU budget this morning. I have just read some of the analysis and – to be honest – I cannot work out why anyone but the British