In whatever walk of life, when something goes wrong someone has to take responsibility. The Irish voted No to the Treaty of Lisbon on 12th June, it’s caused a big problem for the EU, and so now it’s time to play the blame game – who needs to take responsibility […]
Europe’s politicians are winding down for the summer, and plenty of them are watching parts of Euro 2008… and starting to wonder. Janez JanÅ¡a, Prime Minister of Slovenia and present President of the European Council, floats the idea of an EU football team in yesterday’s Independent. I’m not sure that’s […]
I invest a large amount of time keeping this blog up-to-date. Wherever I am, whatever I’m doing, I think up things I might write, most often matters with an EU-angle. But is it actually worth the effort? Since the No vote on the Treaty of Lisbon things have been hellish […]
I have been sent an advance copy of the publication “Democracy, Populism and Minority Rights”, published today by the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, on the basis of a common seminar with the Renner Institute in Austria. The book is edited by Socialist Group MEPs Hannes Swoboda and Jan […]
The new Eurostar terminal at St Pancras is great, and indeed I’m a big fan of Eurostar overall. But what about the old terminal at Waterloo, vacated by Eurostar in November 2007? I passed it for the first time today (en route to Sunningdale with South West Trains) and things […]
Denis MacShane is an unusual character. Rather a loose cannon as Europe Minister, he’s undoubtedly one of the most pro-EU MPs in the Labour Party. But his article on Comment is Free about European Commissioner for Trade Peter Mandelson is wide of the mark, although the main gist of the […]
Preachers on street corners, ads in the underground and on the sides of buses – you can’t spend a day in central London without being confronted by some sign that religion should be your only salvation. In frustration I’ve had a rather sporadic go at this in the past – […]
Mark Mardell has a list of the Irish population’s 8 concerns about the EU as perceived by Taoiseach Brian Cowen, and presumably each of these is a factor in the No vote in the referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon. These 8 issues are: World trade talks. Suggestions of tax […]
Ireland voted No to the Treaty of Nice in 2001, and was made to vote again in 2002 – with clarifications guaranteeing Irish neutrality. So if you vote No, you extract concessions, and hence you can manage to get what you want. 2008 – repeat performance. Or that’s at least […]
Jean Quatremer (original French, Google translation) has a strongly worded critique of José Manuel Barroso’s role in the process of drafting the European Constitution, and his (lack of) reaction as Commission President during the 2005 No votes in France and Netherlands, and then the Commission’s flat reaction to the goings-on […]
The new version of the Firefox browser is now available. If, like me, you’ve been using version 2.0.x then you’ll know it’s a good browser, but version 3.0 will be even better. Plus there are a whole load of other reasons to download it today (in the 24 hours between […]
In London yesterday morning an eerie calm fell over Whitehall. No traffic, not even pedestrians. George Bush, leader of the free world, was in town. So, ordinary people, get out of the way. Returning to Brussels yesterday evening I find razor wire barricades already set up at Rue Joseph II […]
