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 […]
Something a little bit more light-hearted about the EU… In the margins of the resent EU-Latin America summit in Vienna, a special football match was staged: European Commission vs. Austrian Presidency of the EU. The Austrian broadcaster ORF has a 3 minute video of the ‘highlights’ of the match here. […]
It looks like Romania and Bulgaria are still not going to get a final yes or no to 2007 accession to the EU in the Commission report due to be released today – see this from EUObserver. There are apparently enduring concerns that need to be addressed, so both countries […]
I’m stuck. Really stuck. The more time goes on, the more Blair’s reputation gets battered, the more he comes up with more silly policies, the more I want him to stay as Prime Minister! Or, let me correct that, the more time goes on, the more I get scared and […]
The first parts of a sensible debate have just started in the Labour Party about the future of its website, and its presence on the web more generally. This stems from Labour’s relatively poor local election showing on 4th May, and subsequent comments made by Tony Blair in a letter […]
I winced when I read this article in The Guardian that veteran crooner Cliff Richard felt so sorry for Tony Blair in the aftermath of going to war in Iraq that he let Blair go and stay in his summer house in Barbados for free. I don’t know what makes […]
Following on from my recent post about the European Parliament and Strasbourg, I am very happy that one MEP is doing something about. Swedish Liberal Cecilia Malmström has launched www.oneseat.eu – an online petition calling for one seat of the European Parliament, and for that seat to be in Brussels. […]
I might often bemoan the British approach to the European Union, but the Brits – in London and the South East at least – have really embraced EU enlargement. This was confirmed with a small advertising flyer posted through my door this week: RISING POINT Team of Polich Builders Martin […]
Tony Blair’s decision to change the composition of his cabinet has generally been termed a reshuffle – the same term as from card games. You get your cards – your ministers – and you mix them up. Yet when you look at today’s changes, it’s actually more of a case […]
