Financial lobbyists ‘educating’ MEPs?
Both MEPs and banking lobbyists that participate in the European Parliamentary Financial Services Forum (EPFSF) claim that the EPFSF is not lobby group but a “forum for discussion”.Commenting on the recent call of more than 70 MEPs to counter th...
Communicating Europe: Reding’s revolution
How is the European Union responding to public opinion and media trends? Conducted during the triple crisis – financial sector, economy and eurozone - Eurobarometer 73, Public opinion in the European Union (First results) recorded sinking support...
Arguing with the "Facts".
I've already written why I think opinion polls are unhelpful due to the difficulty in interpreting them for policy formulation. But I want to write down a few ideas on the Eurobarometer poll. (If you're interested in Eurobarometer analysis, Grahnlaw...
EU as a Scapegoat
Since the first signs of crisis emerged in 2008, public opinion inside the European Union started to shift steadily, and the last report which has been recently revealed by EUROBAROMETER shows that people tend to become more and more ungrateful towar...
The State of the Union
A ‘State of the Union’ address is coming our way. The first ever for the EU. It will be given by European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso next Tuesday morning. Although, given the times we’re in, with everybody and nobody s...
Writing a book about lobbying : what a bad idea!
Me to client: “So are you OK with me mentioning you in my acknowledgments as you really helped me go to my limits in lobbying on your behalf”. Client: “Huh, well, I didn’t do much and you know, on this side of the Atlantic, we...
Coalition Goverment says no to EU Anti-Trafficking Measures
As regular readers of my blog will be aware, I have written before about the EU’s new human trafficking directive and also ran a campaign against the Metropolitan Police Authorities proposed closure of their specialised unit dealing with...
The Commission should be focussing on policies not personalities
Plans leaked yesterday, which seek to boost the effectiveness of European Commission communications, are a welcome acknowledgement that current EU simply isn’t getting its message across. Indeed the recent Eurobarometer survey showed EU support...
The Week in Bloggingportal: Europe’s New Hate Politics
MONDAY WAS the official European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Stalinism and Nazism. It was designated as such in 2009 by the European Parliament, with the specific date of August 23 being chosen to commemorate the day the Molotov-Ribbentr...
How ECHO delivers EU aid - a process illustrated in comic book form
Except for the regular invoices and ever-increasing bills, it’s always nice to receive some mail in your post box, and today I received a nice parcel from Luxembourg dispatched from the EU bookshop.At the heart of the protective cardboard shell was...
Eurobarometer findings on EU public opinion: Open Europe blew it
In God We Trust is the official motto of the United States of America, surprisingly for a country where the first amendment enshrines the separation of church and state. What do citizens of the European Union trust in? The UK based anti-EU lobby grou...
France's 'gypsy deportation' is becoming the EU's problem
The controversy over France’s deportation of Roma (gypsies) who are Romanian nationals continued unabated this week, as Sarkozy prepares to host what some are calling an “anti-gypsy summit” in Paris next week between 5 of the EU’s biggest pow...
Emilie Turunen on unpaid interns: ‘we risk losing our generation’
In her soon-to-be-adopted youth unemployment rapport, the 26-year-old Dane has surely rewritten the tune of an infernal chorus. At 26, who better than the youngest member of the current European parliament to discuss a disenchanted population?
The Moral Authority of Europe
Despite the rhetoric of the EU as the "EUSSR", a neo-liberal project or as some sort of Papist plot, Europe holds an - at times, surprising - amount of moral authority, even in the more Eurosceptic member states. This is probably because of the pract...
Wanted: EU chief scientist
It’s almost a year since Barroso told the European Parliament he would appoint an EU Chief Scientific Advisor but, so far, the €200,000 a year post has not even been advertised. It now seems certain that the chief scientist role will be a lit...
