Guy Verhofstadt

24.02.2021 Brexit

Brexit, coordination, leadership and accountability: questions for the EU side too

The elevation of David Frost to Cabinet, and him largely replacing Michael Gove as the UK Government’s coordinator of all things Brexit, understandably generated considerable debate. Jill Rutter penned a piece for UK in a Changing Europe about what we

03.09.2018 EU Politics

Candidates for Commission President 2019 (Spitzenkandidaten)

Prior to the 2014 European Parliament elections I examined all the runners and riders for President of the European Commission and other EU top jobs (2014 posts on President of the Commission: EPP, PES, Others | President of the European

02.12.2016 Brexit

The Brexit debate – flailing around in a pool of shit

Imagine you have just been thrown into a tank at a sewage treatment plant. It reeks like hell, you have nothing solid to grip, and you’re flailing around madly trying to grasp something firm to hold onto, but you never

26.11.2016 Brexit

Notes on Associate EU Citizenship for Brits after Brexit

[UPDATE 9.12.2016, 1515] Guy Verhofstadt has given some more detail about how important this associate citizenship thing is to him – see The Independent. However all the main issues with it I outline below still stand! There has been quite

25.01.2016 EU Politics

David Cameron, democracy and the European Parliament

At the height of the Eurozone bailout crisis, Alexis Tsipras went to address the European Parliament. Why bother with that? was the cry of sceptical journalists who have never paid attention to the European Parliament. 887000 viewers of Guy Verhofstadt’s

12.03.2014 EU Politics

Britain is absent from the EU’s Presidential Election

So the lineup for the first-ever Presidential Election in Europe, to select the Commission President 2014-2019, is complete – Martin Schulz for the Party of European Socialists (PES), Jean-Claude Juncker for the European People’s Party (EPP), Guy Verhofstadt for the

14.01.2014 EU Politics

Candidates for President of the European Commission – where we stand in January 2014

Back in the early summer of 2013 I wrote a detailed series of blog posts about the future President of the European Commission. There were posts about EPP, PES and other candidates. Overall those posts have stood up well over

11.09.2013 EU Politics

Why it’s pointless to describe oneself as a pro-European

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

15.05.2013 EU Politics

Best of the rest – candidates for President of the European Commission

Following my previous posts about likely EPP and PES candidates for President of the European Commission, what about other candidates not from either of the main political forces? With no party likely to achieve an overall majority in the European

17.06.2011 EU Politics

The European Parliament is being pro-EU, but not pro-EU democracy

There are two main issues at stake with the so-called ‘Six Pack’ of EU legislation designed to prevent eurozone countries overspending in future. The first is the amount of wriggle room to be given to states that break the rules,

08.06.2011 EU Politics

The FT’s imprecise EU vocabulary

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

23.07.2009 EU Politics

An end to pro-European stodginess

European Citizen has an interesting and thoughful post about why Guy Verhofstadt’s statement that “The three largest groups in the European Parliament announced today their commitment to pro-European values” is essentially the wrong approach. European Citizen’s critique is not too