2014 is the big change-over year in the EU institutions. A new European Parliament will be elected in May 2014, and a new European Commission will take office in late autumn 2014. Some Commissioners will stay on, but probably with new portfolios, and others will not return after 2014. Some […]
I’m moving to Germany at the end of this month, and – as ever with this sort of move – I need to work out how to get the best deal on mobile phones and home internet. But before looking at the available packages from different operators, what do I […]
Everyone’s favourite Europhile with a British passport Anthony Zacharzewski (@anthonyzach) is in Brussels on 14th October. So we will run an #EUtweetup that evening, to show him that Brussels is not all just grey corridors and committee meetings. Anthony also runs The Democratic Society in the UK, so people interested in […]
🚨 This blog post – and the guide “How to find a flat in Berlin” – are now over 6 years old. And I am now looking for a new flat in Berlin. You can read about that here. And a whole new guide will be written at the end […]
At 1747 on Saturday October 26th my train will pull into Berlin Hbf and I will be arriving at the place I hope I will be able to call home. Since a short period living in the German capital between October 2001 and March 2002 I have longed to return, […]
So the UK has lodged a legal challenge with the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on new EU rules on pay in the banking sector, specifically about bankers’ bonuses (framed as “Osborne to take EU to court” (see FT for example)). The Gov.uk news story about it is here. There […]
I’m very happy to be sat today at the launch event of MyVote2014, a new voting tool for the European Parliament elections 2014. I’ve been working with Michiel, Joan and Doru at VoteWatch Europe, the folks behind the site, to help them with some of the social media promotion of […]
“At the TUC conference this week in Brighton, RMT union boss Bob Crow asked his colleagues to back a British referendum on the EU. His call for a referendum was roundly rejected. On the internet, the group Labour for a Referendum has posted three times [1, 2, 3] on LabourList […]
In response to Barroso’s State of the Union address today, leader of the ALDE Group in the European Parliament Guy Verhofstadt resorted to his tired old line. The pro-European forces should unite against Euroscepticism, he said, and this will define 2014 European Parliament election campaign. Verhofstadt has been saying this […]
As discussion carries on about whether Neelie Kroes is going to actually manage to massively cut roaming fees for data across the EU, or not, thanks to a discussion with @JoeThorpe1963 on Twitter, here is an additional suggestion for Kroes and the Commission. Both Joe and I are regular travellers […]
Summer is over. Everyone is back to work tweeting about politics. So that means it’s time to get the political twitter nerds together to meet in real life. For those of you that have not been to one of these before (we’ve run at least three before), the idea is […]
I’ve lost track of the number of times people have defended the British First Past The Post (FPTP) electoral system with the argument that because the system generally produces a clear winner (a majority for one party), the system hence avoids the need for the complicated coalition negotiations and trade-offs necessary […]
