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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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national parliaments Archive
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Parliaments and the European Union – Representative Democracy after the Lisbon Treaty (6 July 2011)
Posted on 15/06/2011 | 1 CommentParliaments and the European Union – Representative Democracy after the Lisbon Treaty 6 July 2011, 2pm – 6pm, followed by a reception Mary Sumner House, 24 Tufton Street, London SW1P 3RB Programme: 13.45 – 14.00: Registration Session 1: The European Parliament 14.00 – 14.20: “The... -
Denis MacShane picks the wrong target on the European Parliament
Posted on 04/04/2011 | No CommentsA new pamphlet by Labour MP Denis MacShane, “Europe’s parliament: Reform or perish?”, published by the Centre for European Reform, worries about the decline of public interest in the European Parliament, and explores some ways in which it might be reinvigorated. For anyone who cares... -
Home truths about abroad
Posted on 01/07/2009 | 1 CommentThe judgment by the German constitutional court approving of the Lisbon treaty has been broadly welcomed by pro-Europeans in Germany. (See a commentary by Hans-Jürgen Schlamp on Speigel Online here.) One exception to this general rule, though, is that there has been some concern expressed... -
Parliaments strengthened by the Lisbon treaty
Posted on 30/06/2009 | No CommentsAnother hurdle in the ratification of the Lisbon treaty was overcome today with the judgment of the German constitutional court that it is not incompatible with the German Basic Law. Some Eurosceptics had placed a lot of hope in the possibility that the courts in... -
Is the European Parliament powerful or not?
Posted on 24/05/2009 | 1 CommentA combination of the expenses scandal in Westminster and the European parliamentary elections is producing a strange outcome in the newspapers. On the one hand, we are told that the European elections don’t matter much, that the turnout on 4 June will be low and... -
The Galileo project helps us navigate through the EU
Posted on 13/11/2007 | No CommentsA report published yesterday by the House of Commons Transport Committee on “Galileo: Recent Developments” has been widely reported because of its criticisms of the project’s cost-effectiveness. (You can find the report here.) The idea is that there should be a European satellite navigation system,... -
Yes to beat crime
Posted on 02/05/2004 | No CommentsBy Richard Laming Published in The Observer, 2 May 2004 Giving more power for the European Parliament need not be at the expense of national parliaments (Comment, last week). What about all those forces outside the scope of any kind of democratic control? Multinational corporations, international criminals... -
Parliament First – a lesson for Europe
Posted on 20/05/2003 | No CommentsBy Richard Laming Published in EUobserver, 20 May 2003 A new pressure group launched last week in London raises lots of important questions about the future of democracy, both in the UK and across Europe. Parliament First has been set up by a group of MPs... -
Parliamentary democracy in Europe
Posted on 22/04/2003 | No CommentsBy Richard Laming Political scientists and commentators specialise in looking for divisions among the members of the European constitutional convention: between large and small countries, between centralisers and decentralisers, between national parliaments and the European Parliament. But perhaps the most important dividing line is between... -
Europe needs influential national parliaments
Posted on 11/03/2003 | No CommentsA Federal Union paper for the European constitutional convention National parliaments should be given time to scrutinise legislative proposals The Council should meet as an assembly, not as a committee There should be no new stages in the legislative process Introduction 1. The European Union...
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