Latest posts
#MyEurope blogging – Part two
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From a chance encounter on social media to active European engagement, Jakub Jermář tells his story. #MyEurope New tweets with messages on substance continue to appear under the Twitter hashtag #MyEurope, while new #EuropeDay tweets h...
Hollande's EU proposals in media
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The second most populous country in the European Union and in the eurozone, France (65 million) is big enough to matter. French leaders have a tradition of casting themselves as great Europeans with grand plans, but then refusing to hand over the n...
Empty phrases from the Elysée Palace
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If France wants better outcomes, it needs to make its universal republican values a reality at the European level. Citizenship, democracy and human rights are the values and practices needed as foundations for sufficient and legitimate powers, the 's...
Democracy in Europe (19 May 2013): Citizenship, democracy, human rights
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Citizenship, democracy and human rights are the 'sine qua non' of sufficient powers and tolerable outcomes in the eurozone and the wider European Union. You don't need to be a Hamilton to understand that in a more rational world this would lead to...
European Federalist Paper number six: Secession and EU referendum
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It is easy to locate the articles in the series, because the blog entry about the European Federalist Paper number five offers links to the six earlier blog posts. You can follow @europafederatie (Leo Klinkers) on Twitter and the European Federalis...
The real engine of European integration: Jon Worth
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Forget the European Council, the Euro Summits, Eurogroup templates, EU referendum breakaways and Brexit, as well as the ”indispensable” Franco-German tandem cycling off in two different directions. The real engine of European integration...
Socialist and Green primaries for European elections 2014
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After the latest post on Eurofoundations, Europarties and the public, we turn to the pre-election plans of two political parties at European level: the Party of European Socialists PES and the European Green Party EGP. PES primaries I followed...
Eurofoundations, Europarties and the public
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Earlier this week I tried to find signs that the Europarties, which met during the weekend, communicated openly with the public about their preparations for the elections to the European Parliament in May 2014. Article 10(4) of the the Treaty on Eu...
Mass desertion from European Union
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The European Union of, by and for the heads of state or government and their governments is facing mass desertions. Naturally a trifling matter such as a democratic EU is not on the draft agenda of the May European Council (7623/13), the umpteenth EU...
Value for money? Europarties prepare for European Parliament elections
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With only a year and some days to go, the Europarties have started their warm-up exercises ahead of the campaigns for elections to the European Parliament in May 2014. Some of these Europarties, officially political parties at European level, were...
Democracy in Europe (12 May 2012): France's republican values at European level
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Alexis de Tocqueville, the author of De la démocratie en Amérique (Democracy in America), inspired the headline for these recurring if random observations about European democracy. Earlier columns can be found here, here, here and here.
European Federalist Paper number five: United States, federal or republic?
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On Europe Day, 9 May 2013, I collected a series of recent blog posts about the challenges of democracy at the European level and fundamental rights guaranteed in the whole union in one #MyEurope entry: Europe Day for democracy, unity and diversity.
#MyEurope blogging on #EuropeDay – Part one
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In the spirit of the blog post Speak your mind on Europe Day, 9 May 2013 numerous of EU citizens seized the opportunity to tweet their expectations for the European Union using the traditional Bloggingportal.eu hashtag #MyEurope, in the spirit conden...
Europe Day for democracy, unity and diversity
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If the 9 May 1950 Schuman declaration was the first concrete step in the federation of Europe, this Europe Day should sound the death knell of intergovernmental and undemocratic European integration and the awakening call for a quantum leap to democr...
”Anything goes” for Daniel Hannan MEP
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Anything goes, as long as it is against the European Union, seems to be the message of Daniel Hannan MEP. Anti is not sceptic 'Scepticism' conveys the meaning of doubt or questioning of accepted opinions, but not for the anti-EU campaigner @DanHa...
One notch closer to Brexit: Queen's Speech
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”The first step in the federation of Europe” was the lasting message of the 9 May 1950 Schuman declaration, which led to the first concrete step, the European Coal and Steel Community. ”Ever closer union among the peoples of Europe&...
François Villon on Europe Day
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Forget the inroads made by anti-immigration, anti-establishment and anti-EU sentiment, fueled by nostalgic nationalism wrapped up in the [insert] flag (see BBC, FT €). Forget that the European Council of Foreign Relations (ECFR) was wringing i...
Speak your mind on Europe Day, 9 May 2013
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The 9 May 1950 declaration by the French foreign minister Robert Schuman laid the first concrete foundation of a European federation indispensable to the preservation of peace. Thursday 9 May 2013, Europe Day is an excellent opportunity to commemor...
Democracy in Europe (5 May 2013): a Citizen of Europe
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Following local elections in Britain, both the BBC and the Financial Times (€) paint a wider picture of anti-establishment parties defying domestic government politics and the European Union. Many of these protest parties offer their followers f...
European Federalist Paper number four: USA
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Look at the texts, which introduce the Articles of Confederation, in force before the US Constitution: Ultimately, the Articles of Confederation proved unwieldy and inadequate to resolve the issues that faced the United States in its earliest year...
