100 posts
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
The contours of EU Council presidency in 2013
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This is a hurdle to a communication but is worth trying to explain in a simple way by listing main forthcoming challenges to European Union and to Lithuania, in particular, which now prepares in the second [...]...
GAC preparation for European Council 18-19 October 2012
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In customary manner, the preparatory and coordinating General Affairs Council (GAC) 16 October 2012 was practically useless for informed debate about the upcoming European Council. See item Preparation of the October European Council (page 9) to mak...
Leaked summit conclusions: A tweak at Britain?
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Britain's David Cameron meets EU's Herman Van Rompuy at Downing Street last year. Aides to Herman Van Rompuy, the European Council president, have circulated an updated draft of conclusions for next week’s EU summit and, according to a co...
EU Summit: Everyone is a winner... for now
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As is traditional, a leaked copy of the next EU Summit Conclusions has already been making its way around the media long before the summit has even commenced (due on 17-18 October).As it is still an early draft, little can be drawn from these 'c...
A joke
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(a rework of an old favourite, first overheard several EU reforms ago) David Cameron is trying to renegotiate Britain's membership of the EU. François Hollande and Angela Merkel are getting increasingly infuriated with their British cou...
Van Rompuy swings, and misses, for the ECB
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French MEP Sylvie Goulard said Van Rompuy's letter was "empty (and quite insulting)". The ongoing saga of the European Central Bank’s empty seat on its six-member executive board appears to be, well, ongoing. Senior members of the Eu...
A celebration of EU "successes"
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In his speech to EU Heads of Delegation, Herman Van Rompuy has highlighted the great successes achieved during his tenure as President of the European Council:First of all: we have come a very long way. In almost three years we have re-enforced rules...
7. Interview of His Excellency Kornelios Korneliou, Cyprus’ Permanent Representative to the EU
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Cyprus is a small country, member of the EU since 2004. As it will preside over the EU’s destiny during the next six months, it is the opportunity to get to know the Member State that is positioned most East. … Continue reading →...
ESM, TSCG and Article 136 TFEU ratifications
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Are you still suffering from delusions about being ruled by unelected Eurocrats? Perhaps this reality check may cure you from the spells of witch doctors: The new rules for the EU and the eurozone are instituted by intergovernmental treaties, among m...
4. The priorities of the Cypriot Presidency
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Between the 1st July and the 31st December 2012, Cyprus will hold the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union for the first time, taking over from Denmark and to be succeeded by Ireland. This article will outline … Continue rea...
Med ljusets hastighet – eller någonting: EU-rådet och ACTA
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Varde ljus, sade Europeiska unionens råd och offentliggjorde ett ACTA-dokument daterat den 29 februari 2008: Rekommendation från kommissionen till rådet om att bemyndiga kommissionen att inleda förhandlingar om ett plurilateralt handelsavtal för...
Cypriot presidency of the EU council is underway
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The first of July saw Cyprus' presidency of the EU Council officially begin. There were both positive remarks and criticism for the Danish presidency as it came to an end. On Tuesday 3rd July the president of the Republic of Cyprus, Demetris Christof...
Cyprus EU Council presidency work programme reflections
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Chairing the EU Council for six months is always an intensive project for the politicians and officials concerned, but especially when the presidency is run by a small country with limited manpower to handle the issues in more than thirty different p...
Cyprus EU Council presidency: Long term budget and citizens
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After the divided island, the invitation to eurobloggers and the Cyprus EU Council presidency in a nutshell we take a closer look at the six month work programme: Programme of the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the European Union 1 July - 31 Dec...
Cyprus EU Council presidency in a nutshell
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Here is a short presentation of the Cyprus presidency of the Council of the European Union from 1 July to 31 December 2012. Presidency trio We saw that the government of the Republic of Cyprus controls and EU law is applied in about 59 per cent o...
Cyprus: Divided island chairs EU Council
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In 2004 a politically divided Cyprus was allowed to join the European Union. In 2012 the problem is still there (Wikipedia). The membership negotiations of Turkey were not going much anywhere, but the Turkish decision to boycott the Cyprus presidency...
Keep talking
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There's been some buzz about instituting 'summit curfews' to stop euro-crisis meetings going on until the early hours. Tis rot, one fears. The EU has a long history of the toughest issues being negotiated late into the night. Even mini...
Council Transparency and VoteWatch
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BY CC DrabikPany.Last week I was at the (re)launch of the VoteWatch website, which now covers Council votes as well as European Parliament votes. The Council votes on display are put together using information already publically available, though it
Voting NO
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Much as GeenStijl and I are getting along splendidly this week (here’s why), I have to take issue with their analysis of the VoteWatch stats on Council voting. The tenor of their post, which was also the implication of the general news wire s...
Cyprus: Official Opening Ceremony of EU Presidency
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On July 1, 2012, Twitter users commented on the official opening ceremony of the Cyprus Presidency of the EU Council under the hashtag #cy2012eu. Meanwhile, Peter Spiegel tweeted a photo of a Turkish Cypriot protest poster reading “EU what are...
Post-Council, what next for the eurocrisis?
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(Sorry for blogging silence – I’ve been asked to write a book on the eurocrisis and European integration, so have been deep in research working out if I understand the current situation enough to do so.) It’s been a bit … Cont...
EU Council transparency improves one notch
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Great! The country-specific recommendations from the EU Council to the member states regarding public finances and growth-enhancing reforms are becoming more transparent in one respect. Eurogroup and ECOFIN The latest European Council 28-29 June...
European Leaders Cling To Ideal Of Integration
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video By Tom Gjelten German Chancellor Angela Merkel talks...
Neither Grexit, Nor Spexit, It’s Fixit or Fexit
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The aftermath to last weeks EU summit has certainly proved to be a damn sight more perplexing than the actual summit itself. Contrary to earlier experiences, this time round the more the details have been “clarified” the mo...
Anti-democratic misrepresentation from Hannan and Farage
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The directly elected MEP Daniel Hannan says that the EU is undemocratic, since it vests supreme power in 27 unelected officials. In Britain, as in much of Europe, we fought for 300 years to establish the principle that lawmakers should be answerabl...
EU Summit: the hidden agenda
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The big story at the latest crunch EU summit was a new growth pact promoted by new French President Francois Hollande. The mood music was supposed to be upbeat – EU politicians were finally doing something for the common people of Europe, rathe...
Problems to Resurface for the New EU Presidency
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Cyprus' recent economic difficulties, combined with its long-lasting dispute with Turkey, are reason enough to expect that its EU presidency will indeed be challenging.
Eurozone politics should not be a game of football
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It was a tense summit last week, but it had a clear result: 1-0 to Hollande. Or was that Merkel? Maybe Monti?After last week's summit the German papers have turned to rage - how could Merkel give in to Hollande on banking union?! - to pride - aha! of...
BM latches on to 'Keep Calm' campaign a bit late to save Euro
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Tepid on the heels of the popularity of a British wartime ministry of defence poster, which has now been remodelled many times over for all manner of publicity campaigns and post-modern witty mugs and t-shirts, it's time for an EU version. So here...
”No United States of Europe”
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Almost every politician or media pundit will kindly explain to you that the United States of Europe is impossible because of our history. Since the challenges and events have overtaken the capacity of the nation states, the leaders have come up wit...
The Cypriot EU Presidency kicks off: Will it live up to its global duties?
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Over the last decades, Cyprus has evolved from an aid recipient to an aid donor country helping those most in need in the developing world. However, despite getting off to a good start, going above and beyond its overseas aid target for 2010, Cyprus...
Madrid view: Totem and taboo
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Twenty-four summits after the crisis began, the EU machinery is back in motion for a day, generating such a degree of uncertainty that observers differ as to whether Europe is on the edge of theRead more…...
Who won at the European Summit? Monti, Merkel or Europe?
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In the aftermath of the European Council summit of 28-29 June opinion leaders throughout Europe have been striving to name the winner between the Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Mr Monti managed to bring ho...
And the winner of last week's EUCO is ....
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I have been silent (in terms of blog posts, not in terms of tweets) for the last 2+ weeks, watching developments in the EU and the Eurozone, observing, thinking, pondering, on the road to last Thursday's and Friday's session of the European Council (...
