A retweet from @belitabrux drew my attention today to a Mostra e-book called Opinion Corner. Take a look – it’s well researched, looks smartly designed… but why does it exist? It’s not that different from the (paper) Shift>Mag published by Tipik in Brussels, a publication that I’ve written for a...
I’ve come across this little summary from PressEurop of an article from the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza which looks at comments within the EPP saying that anyone who formerly co-operated with “repressive regimes and undemocratic organizations” be denied the post of Commissioner. This is essentially a way of saying that...
“Right now in Brussels the heads of the 27 national governments of the European Union’s member states will be milling around. Gordon Brown will be lobbying for Tony Blair, Herman Van Rompuy will be trying to persuade people he is not as anonymous as many fear, and José Manuel Barroso...
If you’re looking for news about Baroness Ashton’s nomination for High Representative click here All of the analysis of Shriti Vadera’s move to some sort of G20 post has led to questions about what her departure means for Gordon Brown and for government. But what does it mean for the...
There’s an interesting article in Le Monde today speculating once more about a role for François Fillon as a possible candidate for the Presidency of the Commission. The story goes broadly like this: José Manuel Barroso secured the nomination of the Heads of State and Government in July Approval of...
The EP elections, the five year democratic interruption to the Brussels game, are long in the past. Everyone is back from their summer holidays, ready for a bout of jousting and positioning in that depressing and opaque game: how to put together a team of 27 Commissioners. The nomination of...
*** HIT REFRESH IN YOUR BROWSER TO SEE THE LATEST UPDATES *** Panel Ratings: -> Andre Sapir 7/10 – clearly sharp, spoke well, wish he had critiqued the politicians too -> Elmar Brok 5/10 – sometimes clear, other times clearly torn inside, cantakerous -> Poul Nyrup Rasmussen 8/10 – on...
There were a few messages on Twitter and a lengthy post from ResEuropa about the prospect of Baroness Shriti Vadera being appointed as the British member of the European Commission this autumn. The story stems from this article in The Times. Firstly, let me set the record straight from the...
As an alumnus of the College of Europe in Bruges I periodically get e-mails on the student e-mail lists. This one has recently reached me: Dear Alumni, Following the recent elections for the European Parliament, the nomination of the Commission’s President is now on the European Agenda. The European Movement...
I’m at the final event of the Th!nk About It project in Rotterdam. We havge people from just about all Member States of the EU here, all of them bloggers, and the EP elections are now over. So how about use the knowledge in the room to look at the...
One of the great things about the Twitter is that it allows you to be rather silly and flippant about serious topics – just look what we managed with @AtheistBus. But this post is about EU politics. For today, in a discussion with @JulienFrisch, @spiller2 and @kosmopolit, I managed to...
Before the EP elections I wrote a post expressing my exasperation at the PES when they stated they had a nominee for Commission President but would not state the name of that individual. Now Euractiv is reporting that there could be an alliance of the PES, Greens and ALDE to...