The Finns take over the EU’s rotating Presidency in one month, and now they have the logo and website of the Presidency up and running. While the logo will not draw the ridicule that the UK’s flying swans attracted, I think it looks a bit drab. OK, it’s smart and […]
OK, here’s an idea. EU needs money. EU can raise money using a tax. Why not tax something that so far has not been taxed? eCommunications! This is the solution to the EU’s budgetary future as proposed by Alain Lamassoure, MEP from Chirac’s UMP Party. Read the story about it […]
I’ve always had regrets about the months between October 2001 and March 2002 I spent in Berlin. First and foremost is that I did not manage to stay there longer. Second, that I really did not make close to the most of the – admittedly meagre – job opportunities I […]
The results of the concours for administrators are now out, and – surprise, surprise – I did not manage to pass. Here’s the extract of the letter: The selection board for the above competition has now finished marking the pre-selection tests in which you participated. I regret to inform you […]
The sheer number of comments at the main post ‘So I Won’t Be A Commission Official‘ has been causing problems, so all the old comments are here instead, and hence searchable.
OK, I’ve done some damned cool things with technology in the past, but this evening must more or less beat it. I am currently sat at a table in a hall in Ocquier, a village in rural Wallonia, somewhere south of Namur. I’m here DJing for Kat and Charles’s wedding, […]
It’s 2225 on Wednesday 17 May. I am sat, as I am so many evenings, at my computer in my room at 32A Aristotle Road. The blind is open, and the drops from the evening’s rain are still strewn across the window panes. In that pane I see my reflection. […]
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 […]
OK, so we have known for months that Tony Blair has favoured nuclear power in order to keep the UK’s CO2 emissions down. Last night, giving a speech to the CBI, he gave the clearest statement yet that he backs a new generation of nuclear plants (Guardian article here). This […]
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 […]
Once in a while something super-positive happens with this blog, and today seems to be such a day. The journalist Mats Engström on the Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet has set up a Europablogg to discuss various issues of EU politics. He currently has 6 links there – to Margot Wallström, Carl […]
