From The Guardian today: The furious international row over the publication of cartoons satirising the prophet Muhammad intensified today when Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, claimed it was an Israeli conspiracy motivated by anger over Hamas’ win in the Palestinian elections. Sorry, but this is just ludicrous. The cartoons […]
The Jyllands-Posten row goes on and on, and the trade and security implications for the EU in general, and Denmark in particular, are getting more and more severe. Newspapers in most European countries – with the notable exception of Britain – have now published the cartoons in some kind of […]
I have recently come across Eurotopics, a daily news bulletin put together in English, French and German by the Bundeszentrale f√?r politische Bildung. You can subscribe to the newsletter here. It’s a free, simple daily e-mail bulletin that scours Europe’s newspapers each morning, and e-mails concise summaries and links to […]
Things have gone from bad to worse with this row over the cartoons of Muhammad that first appeared in Jyllands-Posten last year. For an excellent and concise overview of what has been happening, see this blog entry from Robert Lindsay. Right, so let’s put a few things straight. The cartoons […]
Like many people engaged in EU politics work, I read EUObserver on an almost daily basis. What few people know is that its editor – Lisbeth Kirk – is married to Jens-Peter Bonde, chair of the Danish June Movement and leader of the IND/DEM (i.e. eurosceptic) group in the European […]
OK, so am I writing it off before it has even started? Sorry, but I just cannot see how the European Union’s Communication Policy, laid out today in Margot Wallstr√∂m’s White Paper [PDF] can possibly work. The issue is simple. When a poltical body tries to communicate what it does, […]
Now, as readers of this blog who have ever discussed European politics with me will know, I am no fan of Gisela Stuart. All started so well for any Labour voter – her beaming face, winning in Birminigham Edgbaston in 1997 was the sign that Labour was on course to […]
My reflections after the Sound of Europe conference in Salzburg have been continuing over the last few days. I still don’t have everything clear in my mind about what could or should be learnt from the conference – a better overview will appear here in a few days. One idea […]
The row over the Muhammad cartoons in Jyllands Posten shows no sign of going away, and Libya has today announced it is closing its embassy in Denmark and will aim to cut economic ties with Denmark as the Danish Government has refused to criticise the newspaper – see the BBC […]
Before the start of the Sound of Europe conference this weekend, I thought writing as many observations here would not be a bad idea. With free wireless in the conference centre, uploading things was quick and simple. Yet a quick search of Technorati (direct link to results here) or Google […]
The Sound of Europe is over, and I am sat in the relative silence of the press centre as the delegates leave the place. I can’t really write any profound analysis here and now. I am utterly gutted and drained by all of the events this morning. Barroso was however […]
The more I reflect on the speeches yesterday, the more disappointed I become. First of all: enlargement. De Villepin, Moisi and many others seemed to be obsessed by the borders of Europe, and stated so much how important the borders are for many European citizens. But is this actually true? […]
