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Latest News
- In this new book, Brendan Donnelly and Hugh Dykes, both former Conservative parliamentarians, critically review British attitudes towards the European Union, particularly those of the media and political classes. They...
- Federal Union held its AGM and annual conference on 17 March 2012. The morning session, entitled “Can the European Union be saved?”, looked at the European treaty agreed at the...
- By John Parry Review of “The Council of Europe” by Martyn Bond (Routledge Global Institutions Series, price £75 hardback) It was summer 1949. In the village of Le Hohwald, tucked...
Latest Blog Entries
- How the world turns - 20/05/2012It is not only the world of politics that is turned upside down by the European banking crisis and the ineffectual way in which political leaders are dealing with it. ...
- Authentic euroscepticism - 20/05/2012A very interesting article in the Daily Telegraph last Friday by Jeremy Warner (read it here) sums up the eurosceptic dilemma and reveals the perverse nature of the way they...
- Overwhelming - 18/05/2012This blog has described before the difficulties associated with Greek departure from the eurozone. It would reduce the Greeks to a cash or even barter economy for a while, and...
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Council of Ministers Archive
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I am still a pro-European
Posted on 31/08/2011 | No CommentsAn interesting post by Jon Worth arguing that framing the debate about Britain and Europe in terms of pro-European and Eurosceptic is not helpful. The European Union legislates everything from working hours to the price of potatoes, air quality to trade tariffs. There is no... -
A problem of rotation
Posted on 10/12/2010 | No CommentsAnother example of the problems caused by the rotating presidency of the Council of Ministers came into my in-box today. Federalists have long criticised the system of changing the chair of the Council every six months as leading to a lack of continuity and an... -
The wisdom of crowds
Posted on 11/06/2010 | No CommentsOne of the intellectual fashions of the moment is crowd-sourcing, that is the idea that good ideas and useful information can come from the population as a whole rather than from nominated experts. Its origin is a “guess the weight of the ox” competition in... -
Building European democracy
Posted on 22/09/2009 | No CommentsBy Richard Laming EUOBSERVER / COMMENT – You can tell a lot about a political system from the buildings it erects to house its decision-makers. They provide a literally concrete expression of the collective self-image of the politicians inside. Read more at 090922euobserver -
Symbol of a closed order
Posted on 22/09/2009 | No CommentsA news story in EUobserver last week on the plans for a new building for the Council of Ministers reminded me of the issues we raised the last time the Council moved to a new building. (Read the EUobserver story here.) That was in 1995,... -
Collapse of Czech government shows weakness in EU
Posted on 25/03/2009 | 1 CommentThe latest news from the Czech Republic, famously that faraway country of which we know little, is that its government has collapsed. In a vote in the Czech parliament yesterday, the government of prime minister Mirek Topolánek lost a confidence vote by one vote. Experts... -
Transparency works both ways
Posted on 30/01/2008 | No CommentsBy Richard Laming Published in EUobserver, 30 January 2008 The meeting in London on Tuesday between the government leaders of Europe’s biggest economies called for more transparency in the financial institutions, as a response to the current economic turmoil around the world. It is easy to... -
Representing Scotland
Posted on 22/01/2007 | 1 CommentA marvellous report on the BBC today that the Scottish Executive is being sidelined in the making of UK policy at European level. (Read the report here.) Of course, such an assessment – which originated in the Brussels office of the Scottish Executive itself –... -
Not enough openness in the Council, yet
Posted on 14/07/2006 | No CommentsBy Richard Laming Published in EUobserver, 14 July 2006 The broadcast of the ECOFIN meeting live on the web yesterday (Tuesday 11 July) was a welcome innovation in transparency within the EU, but there is some way to go before it becomes must-see TV. The agreement is... -
Efficiency agenda for Union of 25
Posted on 31/12/2003 | No CommentsBy Richard Laming Published in the Financial Times, 31 December 2003 Sir, In discussing the consequences of enlargement on the European Union’s marathon negotiating sessions, Tobias Buck neglects to mention the importance of voting by majority (“Brussels tries to call time on an overnight sensation”, December...
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