How exciting. Last time was 2005, when I did singularly poorly in the face of tough competition. This time I’m up against the usual suspects of Dale and Guido (each with a daily readership that this blog would struggle to get in half a year, by their own accounts), mentalist lefty Neil Clark (who won [...]

La Présidence Française de l’Union Européenne prend fin ce 31 décembre. On peut globalement la qualifier de succès. La tâche n’a pas été simple car les crises nombreuses et successives jusqu’à la crise israélo-palestinienne qui réunit ce mardi les ministres des Affaires étrangères des 27. Le travail de l’équipe française, menée par monsieur [...]

We recently spoke to Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle, Executive Director of The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which was set up by the European Union in 2002 as an “an independent source of scientific advice and communication on risks associated with the food chain”. Ms Geslain-Lanéelle told us about EFSA’s remit, workload and resources; and went on [...]

First – apologies for delay in getting to this post – my trip abroad was longer than planned and then got into the Christmas holiday period… Second – I am a ‘lay’ person intersted in eurozone goverance but am not an expert in all of the fine print of EU law so I may get [...]

X-mas news from Bosnia were a bit confusing. The directors of Sarajevo’s day-care centres, kindergartens and pre-schools banned Santa. I personally detest Santa – especially its Coce version – but if someone likes him it’s up to them. More serious however is if this event reflects something more about today’s society in [...]

CNN was wrong to use Anderson Cooper as a host for its Heroes gala. Anderson Cooper is a tough reporter. That is his trademark. Using him as a host of a tv gala is usurping his credits. Anderson Cooper hosted CNN’s Heroes show on 24th of December. It was classic tv -gala with pop stars [...]

Sarah Pettitt, a farmer based in Lincolnshire in the UK, who is also Vice Chairman of the Board for Horticulture & Potatoes at the National Farmers Union, spoke to us very passionately about her fears concerning the pending revisions to the European regulation governing pesticides (91/414). Hear what she had to say in the video [...]

On Spring 2008 Serbia signed two strategic agreement. The one was a Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with European Union and the second one was a preliminary energy deal with Russia. The first is since then suspended but the second one got some flesh on the bones on Xmas-week. Both deals are implementing Serbia’s European [...]

That’s my excuse for the lack of posts, and I’m sticking to it… And as we head to 2009, it seems we’re in for more of the same, as Russia once again starts playing politics with Ukraine’s gas supply. Yay. (More at Siberian Light)

I was reading Laurent’s post What does it mean to become human?, but it was so long that I skipped to the end, illustrating exactly the point I wanted to make in this post. Laurent writes, amongst other things, about interiority: the capacity to reflect upon ourselves, others and the world, the whole of reality [...]

About 150 participants followed our invitation to the Committee of the Regions on 11 December for an ERRIN panel debate on “European Cluster Policy – What’s in it for the regions?”. The event was designed to launch a debate within the ERRIN network but also with the wider policy community on issues and questions surrounding [...]

A German driver has successfully sued Daimler for overestimating the fuel efficiency of his Mercedes E-Class. The driver bought a brand new top of the range E-Class in 2005, which the manufacturer claimed would achieve a fuel consumption of 10.2… Original post by Debra

In the end, only one amendment matters: number 146. In a departure from normal Parliamentary procedure, ALL the changes to the new directive, both by Council and by Parliament, are bundled into one single compromise amendment. The same applies to the other elements of the package, but unless requested I shall not post here. While last moment [...]

Nul ne peut plus se leurrer: la crise est là pour plusieurs années. Toute crise est malheureuse. En général, elle est payée par les plus pauvres. Mais toute crise est aussi une opportunité de voir les défauts d’un système. L’histoire du monde nous apprend également qu’il faut une crise pour déclencher les réformes.  De quel [...]

“Booming Global Obesity Drug Market”, our latest research on the obesity market, states that the prevalence of obesity is increasing globally at alarming rates. Obesity drugs market has shown a radical growth in recent times but in contrast, the market for weight loss drugs has failed to match this growth. By 2012, it’s expected that [...]