Jon Worth's Euroblog

29.09.2006 Observations

Confused, and not very effective

I’m in a state of complete confusion at the moment. I seem to be spending far too many hours each day doing something but not with any plan or with any discernable results. I pottered off to an Italian lesson

28.09.2006 Observations

Political views challenge

Via Claes and Helena, I’ve been asked to answer a bunch of questions about what my political views are and how I come to believe in what I believe in presently. So here goes… 1. Your political ideology? Socialism (or

27.09.2006 EU Politics

More on Sweden, and political trust

Mats EngstrÃƒÂ¶m has written a good piece at Opendemocracy about the Swedish election result, and highlights some of the tensions that will appear for the Alliance when trying to manage to govern. In the meantime, European Commissioner Margot WallstrÃƒÂ¶m has

27.09.2006 EU Politics

EU banana regime – sometimes a native speaker (or a political mind?) might help

Thanks to this post from DJ Nozem, I’ve come across this amusing press release from DG Agriculture of the European Commission entitled ‘CAP Reform: Commission proposes new banana regime’. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry! With all the

26.09.2006 EU Politics

Jag heter Jon och jag talar lite svenska

OK, I’ve made a start – I’ve been to my first Swedish class. It was run by a very camp Croat – Casper – who learnt Swedish from peacekeeping troops in the Balkans before moving to Sweden to study… Oh,

26.09.2006 EU Politics

A very cold welcome to Romania and Bulgaria

As has been widely trailed [see EUObserver here], the European Commission is today due to give the go-ahead for the EU membership of Romania and Bulgaria. It’s not all good news though; for Bulgaria there are still areas of concern

25.09.2006 EU Politics

Hot air from De Villepin on energy policy

While Presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy has been in the limelight all summer, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has resurfaced to give a speech about – among other things – EU energy policy [story from EUObserver here]. De Villepin is

25.09.2006 EU Politics

Commission Concours support forum

I must admit that I have been astounded by the amount of people that have found this blog thanks to searches for matters relating to the European Commission concours. My original post about the issue has – by 25th September

24.09.2006 UK Politics

Southwark’s shoddy recycling

One of the things I have to get to grips with in my new flat is the change of borough – I’m now in Southwark having previously been in Lambeth. It’s hard to tell in London where one borough ends

19.09.2006 UK Politics

Getting all memorial – but should we?

I was walking along Horse Guards Parade beside St James’s Park in London today and happened to notice some men chipping away at a new stone wall (pictured). It turns out that this is the construction of a memorial for

19.09.2006 EU Politics

All you ever wanted to know about the CAP

Everyone criticises it, but how much do we really know about the Common Agricultural Policy? Now there’s no excuse – have a look at farmsubsidy.org, an excellent collaborative website about who gets what, and which countries just refuse to release

19.09.2006 EU Politics

Central Europe’s shaky politics

150 protestors have been injured in clashes over the last 24 hours in Hungary in light of a leaked tape of Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany in which he stated that Hungarian politicians had been lying to the population over the