URL: Latest posts
Brussels task-force exploring restoration of Greek monarchy
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This was originally intended to be an April Fool’s story for the EUobserver, but due to some editorial hiccups, it was never published. I’d planned on putting it up here … Continue reading →...
Eastern Europe and the push for ‘double genocide’ laws
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The European commission has rejected calls from eastern Europe to introduce a so-called double genocide law that would criminalise the denial of crimes perpetrated by communist regimes, in the same way many EU countries … Continue reading &...
EU raids ebook publishers in price fixing investigation
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The European commission has launched morning raids on several publishing houses suspected of fixing the prices of ebooks, as a huge battle for the future of the sector is fought within the publishing … Continue reading →...
Roma campaigners dismiss Brussels’ claim on evictions and expulsions
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A year after a succession of countries in Europe began breaking up Roma encampments and expelling hundreds of EU citizens back mainly to Romania, the European commission has claimed it is winning the battle to … Continue reading →...
EU bans GM-contaminated honey from general sale
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The European Union’s highest court on Tuesday ruled that honey which contains trace amounts of pollen from genetically modified (GM) corn must be labelled as GM produce and undergo full … Continue reading →...
The European roots of Somali piracy
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As global powers ratchet up the naval pressure off the coast of Somalia and the European Union this week prepares to play host to a major international conference on the … Continue reading →...
Ship Ahoy! Lobby firm buys up EU maritime officials
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Transparency campaigners are worried that a PR outfit that lobbies the EU on maritime issues has “bought up the top of the EU’s maritime department lock, stock and barrel.” The … Continue reading →...
Battling the ‘Multilateral Zombie’ – EU climate strategy after Copenhagen
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The rough hip-check Europe received in the Danish capital in December, sidelining the bloc during the eleventh-hour huddle between major powers that produced the Copenhagen Accord, has produced a wave … Continue reading →...
Bosses: want to know who’ll join the union? There’s an app for that!
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Imagine an app that would tell bosses which of his workers was most likely to want to join a union. Leigh Phillips writes on the creepier side of new technologies … Continue reading →...
The ninth art meets the fourth estate
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Tracing the emergence of comic-book journalism Traditional print journalism may be in crisis, with once‑mighty, agenda-setting oak trees of national and regional newspapers in fear of felling. But elsewhere, the … Continue reading →...
The state of democracy in Hungary: ‘The illness has advanced to a new stage’
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A gypsy girl of maybe eight, nine years old holds onto her little brother tightly. Looking out over the chicken-wire fence at the end of their mud garden in the … Continue reading →...
BNP attends international far-right conference in Japan
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The British National Party is taking part in a week-long conference in Japan organised by Nippon Issuikai, an extreme-right group that denies Japanese wartime atrocities. Adam Walker, the BNP‘s staff manager, is in … Continue reading &...
The EU’s ‘very odd’ atheist and freemason summits
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In 2010, under pressure to balance the EU’s treaty-required regular consultations with religious leaders with those without faith, Brussels launched an annual summit between the three Roman Catholic presidents of … Continue reading →...
The EU’s ‘techno party’ is hollowing out democracy
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Not everybody’s into techno music. Some folks are a little bit country; others a little bit rock and roll. But under what one Brussels wag recently called the EU’s ‘techno-party’ … Continue reading →...
‘New system of European governance’ demands deeper austerity
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The European taskmaster has cracked the whip. However much austerity has been imposed by EU member states, it is simply not enough. That is the overriding message from the European … Continue reading →...
Working the night-shift in the German austerity sweatshop – Part IV: The end of the eurozone
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But if what needs to happen cannot happen, what does Lord Skidelsky, a 71-year-old economic historian who has been witness to the full fifty years of European integration, think will? … Continue reading →...
Working the night-shift in the German austerity sweatshop – Part III: Back to the future with the Werner Plan
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So how do we get out of this mess? It’s relatively simple, really. All that has to happen is a rebalancing of competitiveness between the core and the periphery. “Of … Continue reading →...
Working the night-shift in the German austerity sweatshop – Part II: The China of Europe
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But how did we get into this mess in the first place? In the 1990s during the run-up to the single currency and throughout the 2000s, all European countries battened … Continue reading →...
Working the night-shift in the German austerity sweatshop – Part I
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Analysis originally appeared in the EUobserver 09.12.10. Part I: Dr Merkel’s fiscal enema There was a cheeky cartoon that made the Facebook and Twitter rounds a few days ago, posted by one of … Continue reading →...
Hurling democracy into the volcano to appease the market gods
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Originally published in the EUobserver, 16.08.11. Pacific islanders never actually threw virgins into volcanoes to appease angry gods; it was only ever a TV trope of bad American sketch comedy … Continue reading →...
