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November 20, 2012
By Chiara Masini The Italian economy is in recession for the fifth quarter in a row so is the medicine ordered by Brussels/Frankfurt/Berlin and executed by Mario Monti working? According to the Italian national statistics institute (Istat), GDP shrank by 0.2% in the third quarter and is down 2.4% year-on-year. But the third quarter decline […]
November 19, 2012
By David Gow Ed Miliband’s comments yesterday – in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph ahead of today’s speech at the CBI conference – have widely and cynically been interpreted as his response to the growing support for Ukip. Or, at the very least, as another stage in his campaign to drive David Cameron’s Tories […]
November 16, 2012
By Paul Meller Protests against painful austerity measures and rising unemployment brought hundreds of thousands of workers out onto the streets in cities around Europe on Wednesday. They came as Olli Rehn, the EU’s top economic official, disclosed that Spain need not impose extra austerity measures over the next 13 months to reach exacting deficit […]
November 15, 2012
By Quentin Peel Angela Merkel wants to keep David Cameron on board in European Union negotiations, above all to ensure that he does not try to block efforts to find a lasting solution to the eurozone crisis. That is her absolute priority. Although the two are miles apart in their vision of the EU’s future, […]
November 13, 2012
By David Gow The EU is hardly endearing itself to its 500m citizens with hypocritical brinkmanship and priggish posturing over the budget for 2012 and 2013. And there certainly will be no winners if today’s “conciliation” talks fail to reach a deal by the midnight deadline – and, instead, collapse as they did on Friday […]
November 8, 2012
By Peter Wilding Last night’s meeting between two leaders who fundamentally get on with each other demonstrated that the cigarette paper which separates them (budget freeze or cut) remains a diplomatic gulf. Trapped by his backbenchers and his own pledges, Dave is unable to deal with matters European without a megaphone to hand. So when […]
November 7, 2012
By David Gow You can hear the tumbrils rolling down Whitehall towards the Treasury: the French economy is in dire need of “shock therapy” and a “comprehensive programme of structural reforms”. Off with Hollande’s head. The IMF and Louis Gallois, former chief of aerospace/defence group EADS and the SNCF, have combined to deliver an Exocet […]
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English, EU Priorities 2020, Euro & Finance, Member States, UK in Europe |
November 5, 2012
By David Seymour Some hasty new lines had to be written into the speech which Nick Clegg delivered at Chatham House on the morning after the Government’s Commons defeat on the EU budget. They were the ones which naturally grabbed the headlines. But the Deputy Prime Minister used the occasion to set out the commercial, […]
November 2, 2012
By Paul Haydon Although the Commons vote on the EU budget isn’t binding, the Government is now under pressure to make demands that simply cannot be met. Calling for a real-terms cut in the EU budget would not only be unrealistic, but would undermine the government’s ability to negotiate effectively and reach a much-needed compromise […]
October 22, 2012
Johan De Rycker On 5 and 6 October, a gaggle of ‘Erasmus Mundus’ Masters and Joint Doctorate Fellowship students gathered in Roskilde for the second annual “Human[i]ties Perspective” Academic Conference, funded by the European Commission’s DG Education and Culture, on ‘Empowerment in a Globalized Society’. They were told by the powers that be that programmes […]
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English, EU Citizens and Media, EU Priorities 2020, Future EU, Languages & Culture, Member States, Social Europe & Jobs |
October 19, 2012
By Andrew Duff MEP This week’s European Council will have another go at trying to agree on a definition of a ‘genuine’ Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). In June the leaders refused to accept the first paper from their President Herman Van Rompuy on the matter, and asked for more work to be done. Now […]
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English, EU Citizens and Media, EU Priorities 2020, Euro & Finance, Future EU, Member States, UK in Europe |
October 12, 2012
By Chiara Masini Is London giving more to Brussels than the European capital gives to the British citizens? And, above all, what does Great Britain obtain from the European Union? While we hear statements and controversial debates on the 2014-2020 EU budget, the 10th European Week for Regions and Cities that has been taking place […]
By Joe Coney A few years ago on New Year’s Eve, a French comedy show filmed a video of a small French village that went on strike over the changing of the year. To protest against time, they rampaged through the village smashing clocks and ripping out calendars. Nothing could be a better analogy for […]
October 3, 2012
By David Gow A “new Colossus in Europe” is how the Guardian headlined this correspondent’s report on official celebrations for German unification 22 years ago today. Thousands stood in front of the Reichstag waving national – and European – flags. There was joy but also anxiety about the future: for Wessis and Ossis, still divided […]
By Andrew Duff MEP The prime minister can be expected to make some grisly anti-European noises next week when he addresses the Conservative party conference in Birmingham. The likelihood is that his overtures to his ultra-nationalists will be rejected: these guys are insatiable. The truth is, however, that Mr Cameron rather deserves the praise of […]
