100 posts
Shaped by social media? Not yet, but it’s coming!
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Number of View: 367A few days ago at the Commission’s first Digital Competence Day event, I issued a call to exchange best practices and experiences in the field of modern e-technologies. Neelie Kroes was the first to respond. No surprise...
Week in Bloggingportal: Eurosceptic Chic
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BY CC Euro Realist Newsletter Europe’s turned Eurosceptic, is the not-entirely-surprising conclusion of an examination of attitudes to the EU over the crisis. So Euroscepticism was big in the Euroblogosphere this week. We&rs...
The Week in Bloggingportal: Not in the Mood to Slaughter the Sacred Cows
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“What shall we do to save Europe and give a future to Europeans? We need to make a U-turn: slaughter the sacred cows, not the black swan.” (Filippo Addarii, Dating 4 Good) What’s your mood today? Looking for a helpless cry for a &ld...
Week in Bloggingportal: Exercises in Democracy
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BY CC FutUndBeidl It may be a year until the European elections, but with Croatia joining the EU in July, Croats are heading to the polls today to elect their representatives to the European Parliament. It’s not been the bes...
BM, now EU-approved!
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Well that was odd. Today's European Commission midday briefing ended with an extraordinary endorsement from presiding spokémon Olivier Bailly. A propos of absolutely nothing, he appealed to the gathered hacks and the literally several who tu...
EU summit: Malta’s Muscat calls for ‘common sense’
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Finally the Socialists are talking. Most of the early arrivals to the pre-summit gathering of the Party of European Socialist in Brussels said next to nothing. The only statement from Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt was a striking neon a...
Ecfin Sits Next To The King
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The 800 or so officials of the European Commission's economic affairs division have been moved to Schuman, reflecting their new-found importance in the EU bureaucracy.
Brussels blog round-up for 9 – 15 February: A reduced EU budget, the Anglo-German axis, and a transatlantic trade pact?
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Chris Gilson takes a look at the week in Brussels blogging. The EU centre Last week, the European Council agreed to a deal that would reduce the European budget in real terms for the first time (Open Europe has a good … Continue reading &...
Papal exit: The Van Rompuy Code?
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The politics and rituals surrounding the selection of a new pope are even more opaque and mysterious than the back-room negotiations over a long-term EU budget (a recent source of obsession at the Brussels Blog). Herman Van Rompuy, the European counc...
The Week in Bloggingportal: Show me the money, Jean Monnet and Margaret Thatcher!
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Dear Jean Monnet, dear Margaret Thatcher, we here at our idealistic European project called Bloggingportal.eu (that’s for you, Jean) that functions without any government money (that’s for you, Mararet), we hope you both had a modestly co...
Week in Bloggingportal: Money, Money, Money
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CC BY ppcv This week on the Euroblogopshere saw the scandal in Spain, where the ruling Popular Party and Prime Minister Rajoy are claimed to be part of a party funding and tax dodge. Meanwhile, the idea of a European Semester Off...
The Week in Bloggingportal: Leadership and unemployment in Europe
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In the week we turned 4, in the week Cameron held his speech on Europe, in the week Jeroen Dijsselbloem became head of the Eurogroup, in the week the EU adopted the Financial Transaction Tax, in the week the Franco-German friendship turned 50, the Eu...
Week in Bloggingportal: The Prime Minister’s Speech
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David Cameron, making a different speech CC BY DFID – UK Department for International Development The big buzz about the Euroblogosphere this week was the long-awaited speech of Prime Minister David Cameron. It was bound to be a car...
How the dominance of English kills the European debate
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Spanishwalker has already argued some months ago that one of the problems of the European blogosphere is the dominance of English. He sees the problem in English being the gatekeeper language between blogging and writing in most other European lang...
The Year 2012 in Bloggingportal: Post-Nobel and Pre-Apocalyptic
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Our children and grandchildren might remember this year as the year in which the European Union won the Nobel Peace Prize for its past achievements, a major topic in the euroblogosphere. It was a year in which, despite the Maya’s and the Euro...
How to say goodbye to Brussels - officially
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I am sad to say that I have left Brussels. I am excited to say that I am now in Paris and blogging here.I will keep posts at EUforUS as up-to-date as possible. Brussels is not quick to change, so, for the most part, I think you can trust the content...
Eurosphere roundup: Berlusconi attempts to be back, EU postpones reforms until 2013
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MAIN FOCUS: Berlusconi launches election campaign | 12/12/2012 from euro|topics Italy’s ex prime minister Silvio Berlusconi on Tuesday attacked the government of his successor Mario Monti and accused it of being “German-centric&...
Reading suggestion #11: Swedish snus and the “Dalligate”
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In a recent post on the blog Diritti Comparati (Compared Laws) Alberto Alemanno analyses the circumstances of Commissioner Dalli’s resignation, entitling his post “The Snus’ Trap“, published on 10 December (in English). He arg...
Week in Bloggingportal: A Piece of Peace
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BY CC Mediocre2010 It was the week we all officially became Nobel Laureates, with the award ceremony for the EU’s Nobel Peace Prize. The Euroblogosphere was a-buzz with the event, with a debate over whether the EU deserved the...
Three men and a Nobel
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On Monday 10th December, Herman Van Rompuy, José Manuel Barroso and Martin Schulz went to Oslo (Norway) to receive the Nobel Prize awarded to the European Union (EU). In addition to the Presidents of the main EU political institutions, some …...
Ad hoc EU nerds tweetup – blogup, Monday 26th November, 1830, Café des épices, Pl Jourdan
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After lots of tweets and e-mails exchanged it seemed best to summarise everything in a blog post… I’m going to be in Brussels for 48 hours 25th-27th November, and as I haven’t been in the city for a while it seemed like a good idea...
Week in Bloggingportal: Cyberpunk Culture
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BY CC Campus Party Europe in Berlin. Surprisingly, the internet was a theme on the blogs this week, with Commissioner Neelie Kroes blogging for fast European broadband, and a good round-up of digital and internet culture here. The...
Who is Captain Europe?
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For two years, Brussels has grappled with a mystery that has taken on a sort of legendary aura – who is Captain Europe? Tonight, I may finally be able to discover the answer.The caped crusader – pictured right – appears suddenly at various even...
Commissioners on Twitter: how are they doing?
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The European Commission, and Commissioners themselves, have progressively taken to Twitter over the past couple of years as a way of communicating with (at?) EU citizens. So how are they doing? This blog entry gives a quick summary. My starting point...
Echoes of Buttiglione as nomination of Maltese Borg draws criticism
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Back in 2004 the European Parliament made waves by preventing the Barroso I Commission from entering office, mostly due to the views of one nominee – Rocco Buttiglione. The problem was with Buttligione’s views on homosexuality and the rol...
The Week in Bloggingportal: Non-nonsense, disorder and big questions
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The end of 2012 is approaching and the euroblogosphere is starting to look into the future, asking big questions and providing big answers. We here at Bloggingportal.eu have spent our week deciding about a decision mechanism through which we will dec...
U.S. Election: Relief in Brussels
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The main issue in the Brussels-Washington relationship during Obama's second term is expected to be the economy.
Britain battling 'alone' against EU in Council of Ministers
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The UK's frustration with the EU is reflected in the voting records of the Council of Ministers, where David Cameron's government often battles alone against 26 member states. Not since the Margaret Thatcher era, if ever, has Britain been as Euroscep...
'Eurocrats' 5.5 per cent tax cut is 'out of touch'
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Officials in the EU will receive a 5.5 per cent tax cut in January - an object lesson on how to appear out of touch, arrogant and against the interests of all European citizens during these austere times - warns Derek Clark MEP...
A million thanks to our readers
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A little while ago this afternoon a very special little something happened in the IPKat's life: we welcomed our one millionth visitor to our weblog this year. This is the first time this has happened. Our previous best calendar year for receiving v...
How Tony Blair could be elected President of Europe.
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Tony Blair recently made a speech (here) where he spoke about the need for a directly elected President of Europe. Not surprisingly, as soon as he made the speech, the usual suspects made their remarks about how Blair was pretty much advocating a job...
Cyprus' EU budget deal rejected by Commission and Parliament
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On 30 October, the European Commission rejected the first proposals containing concrete figures for the EU's 2014-2020 budget presented hours earlier by the Cypriot presidency. The Parliament slammed the proposal for slashing spending on growth and j...
Russia: Blogging Conference Draws Regional Participants
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Regional bloggers convened at a Moscow conference organized by a state run news agency. Was it simply an overture aimed at new media, or an attempt to exert more control over the internet?
Kicking off a new Beyondbrussels.com
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Hi, and welcome to the new version of Beyondbrussels.com. In cooperation with the design-bureau can. we’ve made a redesign of Beyondbrussels.com, and we have made some changes on the way this site functions. Here’s a few. … Continu...
The EU law blogosphere
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We wanted to draw readers’ attention to a few other blogs dealing with matters of EU law. First of all, we are delighted to draw attention to a new blog, europaeuslaw, founded by our loyal contributor Professor Peter Lindseth (U.Conn.), wh...
Systemics and Dynamics Live NPthinking Blog, October 30, 2012
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Read from the bottom up to follow the flow: USA: Time for allegiance between people > Obama to the Rescue | The Big Dog Barks | No Time for Politics? http://t.co/bZw1okwP Nature is showing who is the real boss, and should make lots of people thin...
Systemics and Dynamics Live NPthinking Blog, October 29, 2012
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Please read from the bottom up to follow the flow: Schauble says EU needs the UK at Oxford: Or Schauble simply playing "good cop" on the UK to Merkel's "bad cop" on the UK? The reverse roles compared to Greece, that is! lol Maybe Schauble's call on...
Personal live blog, October 29, 2012
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Read bottom up to follow the flow: Vlogs: For fans: Have you watched: My Brunswick Vlogs (parts 1-3) http://t.co/TGd0B4EQ 3 vlogs total 10 minutes. Recorded: Oct. 1, 2012. 20+ yrs of monitoring and analysis: If your following my tweets is conditio...
Are you paying someone to do this?
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The IPKat spends a good deal of time, as has been mentioned in the past, deleting spam, junk, phoney comments, irrelevant and unsolicited advertisements and feeble attempts at search engine optimisation. He has just received yet another on...
EU draft budget shows €50bn in cuts
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A fresh draft of the EU’s long-term budget has shaved €50bn from the original proposal, in a partial concession to the UK and other member states determined to contain the bloc’s spending. The draft, circulated late on Monday night, marked the...
Malala Yousafzai: Trotskyist hero(ine)
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Malala Yousafzai: Trotskyist hero(ine) In Shiraz Socialist’s coverage of the cowardly shooting by Taliban fascists of this 14 year-old hero(ine), we have not so far mentioned the fact that she is a Trotskyist sympathiser. Here is a statemen...
Blogging in Solidarity's shadow
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Three decades ago in Gdansk, Poles rose up and created a marvel - an independent trade union Solidarity that, after a decade of non-violent struggle, threw off the shackles of communism. Today, the country is part of the European Union and has create...
‘Snusgate’ Spotlights EU Lobbying
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Real Time Brussels has been doing some old-school document chasing on the EU’s biggest corruption scandal in years.
Remembering Mike Harskin
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A dozen or so of us gathered in the Guest Room at the House of Lords this evening, courtesy of Lord (Chris) Rennard, to celebrate the memory of Mike Harskin, former editor of Liberal Demorat News, who died at a tragically young age 20 years ago. My...
The "family photos" at European "summits"
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The European Council meeting in Brussels in March 2011Always when European heads of state and government have their - mostly useless - "summits", we the citizens are invited to watch the nowadays compulsory "family photos". The choreography is always...
Belgium’s Premier Blunderer
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Belgium’s former prime minister Yves Leterme made a fresh Twitter blunder Thursday morning when he accidentally sent a personal message to all his 55,100 followers. Mr. Leterme is so well-known for his gaffs that the Flemish coined a term in his ho...
UK need not be alone in capping EU budget
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Peter Wilding Thursday, 25 October 2012 David Cameron has threatened to veto the EU budget. The British media salivate at tales of isolation and 'inching towards the EU exit'. But is the UK alone? No. Jan Kees...
Thursday thingies
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We had so many junk comments that we neededa white van to take them all away ... Over the past nine and a half years, the IPKat's weblog has featured more than 7,200 posts and has attracted over 14,400 comments from readers. Sadly, the blog al...
Public affairs, sushi and dreams of England
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A little known fact about me is that for one dark summer I worked six nights a week over a ten week period making sushi for one of the UK’s leading supermarket chains. Yes, you’ve guessed it. I grew up in England’s sushi capital; Worksop, North...
A return to whimsy
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Following (justified) accusations of 'getting a bit serious' (from @hughbs on that-there twitter), here's something less weighty: The former commissioner Dalli Was said to be getting too pally, With a maker of snus So Barroso let loose And he bowed...
Franco-German Divide Evident at Summit
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Differences between French President François Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on resolving the euro-zone debt crisis were on display at a European Union summit which ended last week. WSJ’s William Boston assesses if this divide can be...
The Agreement to Do Nothing
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All media sources were buzzing on Friday that "a historical agreement" between the EU27 had been achieved, that " Merkel and Hollande both had to compromise" and most importantly that "an agreement for bank supervision by the ECB has been reached". W...
Erkan’s Berlin/Germany trip starts tomorrow (22-28 October)
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I will attend a workshop that I am really excited about. The first part took place two years ago in Istanbul, Boğaziçi University and now comes the part 2 at Humboldt University at Berlin, Department of European Ethnology and Collaborative Research...
The Week in Bloggingportal: Post-Nobel
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After last week’s noble surprise, this week was clearly post-Nobel. A last wave of blog posts on whether the prize was given for Europe’s boringness or whether this was a call for action rolled through the Euroblogosphere, but the more...
Europe without Europeans: a look at the summit
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Yesterday I used one paragraph of the conclusions (English version here) from the European Council 18-19 October 2012 to illustrate how the text builds on various documents and sources, not presented to the public in an accessible form. With a m...
Jerry Blaskovich M.D.
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Reblogged from Croatia Business Report: The great Croatian-American, Jerry Blaskovich passed away on 8 October. Born on 20 April 1934, Jerry was a humanist who served both the United States and Croatia. A Korean War veteran, he had studied medici...
Why not inform about European Council sources?
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Mandatory weekend reading for grateful EU citizens, who can enjoy the collected wisdom of a sleep-deprived European Council 18 to 19 October 2012 in 23 official EU languages (EUCO 156/12); in English here. In order to offer something fresh at the b...
Brussels blog round up for 13 – 19 October – EU summit, the Banking Union and who should collect the EU’s Nobel Prize?
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Chris Gilson and Stuart A Brown take a look at the week in Brussels blogging. The EU centre The European Council meet for their latest summit this week. Peter Spiegel at the FT’s Brussels Blog has a rundown of the latest developments through ...
Naughty David. Naughty.
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It could be he was just checking her badge several times. 'Helle Thorning-Schmidt' isn't the easiest of names. Talk to the face David TO THE FACE DAVID, TO THE FACE The glances are furtive and very quick. Almost unnoticeable. Unless, of...
October European Summit: The Calm Between Two Storms?
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By Léna Simon, translated by Danica JordenThis Thursday and Friday 18-19 October, heads of state and government has gathered at the European Council to discuss essentially questions about the economy.
Another Day, Another Summit…
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It might be glacial in its speed, but the European Union is changing before our eyes. Closer integration of economic and monetary union will be the outcome. At today’s EU Summit, Heads of State and Government will test the water on a roadmap to EMU...
