In an otherwise good quality article about former Belgian PM Guy Verhofstadt’s role in determining the EU institutions response to bailouts by Joshua Chaffin there is nevertheless an issue – the terms the FT uses to explain the EU: Mr Verhofstadt, the energetic and outspoken leader of the centrist Liberal Democrats […]
OK, he’s a MP rather than a MEP now, but a piece by Jonathan Evans for Public Service Europe annoys me. There are some valid points in the piece on the way the EP and Westminster work, but this is the frustrating bit: The ordinary voter is used to the […]
In 2005 I went to France to campaign in the referendum on the European Constitution, making the case for oui. One thing about that campaign has been with me ever since: it was clear what oui would mean (France would ratify) while it was never clear what non would mean. […]
Today’s Guardian has the story that Denmark is to ban Marmite. As the FT’s Stanley Pignal quipped on Twitter, is this the next step (after new customs controls, despite Schengen) from Denmark’s populist Dansk Folkeparti to keep foreigners away by banning their foods? While the idea of Pia Kjærsgaard lobbing […]
I was a speaker yesterday at the Nordic-Baltic Youth Forum 2011 in Narva, Estonia. The slides from my presentation are here, but this post is about an issue that was on my mind all day – how Members of the European Parliament should organise their web presence. The 3 MEPs at […]
I stand accused of being a negative, complaining blogger. I have not been a fan of Cathy Ashton’s work as the EU’s High Rep, wrote that she should go as early as January, have analysed her current predicament, and have even raised a few smiles at her expense. While Ashton’s […]
German Green MEP Reinhard Bütikofer outlines his concerns about Cathy Ashton this week in Strasbourg, including that she’s a ‘sentence generator’: So it gave me an idea. Now you can have a go as well, thanks to the automated Ashton Sentence Generator…
I’m not the biggest fan of German liberal MEP Silvana Koch-Mehrin. She was involved with a spat with bloggers prior to the 2009 European elections and was not open and transparent at that time, and she’s the sort of ultra-professional, arrogant FDP politician I cannot abide. So I smiled when […]
“There are two main motivations for national leaders when nominating candidates for high positions in international organisations. Either send away a politician who could be a domestic opponent – for example Nicolas Sarkozy nominating Dominique Strauss-Kahn for the IMF – or choose someone with a low enough profile not to […]
Better than no-one – S&D group MEP Claude Moraes has issued a statement, on behalf of the group, defending Schengen and criticising Sarkozy and Berlusconi. Moraes – rightly – says: The Sarkozy-Berlusconi demand for stricter border checks is ironic. It betrays their mistrust in each other’s ability to deal with […]
So started an interesting exchange of views about the future of Schengen yesterday – my tweet, and then a reply from European Commisson spokesperson Koen Doens: Barroso you're a coward http://j.mp/jBBfEz Who is there in the Commission defending the integrity of the EU? Anyone? #Schengen — Jon Worth (@jonworth) May […]
“While Wills and Kate paraded along The Mall on Friday, a smaller story was developing online – reports that Facebook had purged more than 50 accounts of left wing and student groups emerged, at the same time as police were preemptively arresting eccentric anti-royal protestors.” Read the full piece at […]
