What do you think?
-
Join our mailing list
What this site has written about recently
accountability - borders - Britain and the EU - Britain and the euro - coalition government - Conservatives - death penalty - democracy - demos - economic policy - electoral reform - euro - European foreign policy - European Parliament - eurosceptics - eurozone governance - financial crisis - fiscal compact treaty - Germany - global parliamentary assembly - Greece - history - House of Lords - human rights - IMF - Ireland - Labour party - languages - Libya - multi-level democracy - national identity - national sovereignty - nature of the EU - political parties - referendum on Europe - rule of law - Scotland - single market - social Europe - sovereign debt - subsidiarity - Switzerland - tax - tax havens - transport policy-
-
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...
Federal Union on Twitter
- Twitter is loading...
president of the European Commission Archive
-
Gordon Brown turns his back
Posted on 19/03/2009 | No CommentsPublished in EUobserver, 19 March 2009 British prime minister Gordon Brown opened a press conference in Downing Street on Monday, with European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso at his side, with a resounding declaration that: “I want to make absolutely clear that we will support him... -
What would democracy in the EU look like?
Posted on 10/03/2009 | 4 CommentsIrish entrepreneur Declan Ganley launched his new eurosceptic political party Libertas in the UK today. He intends to have candidates in each of the 27 member states, apparently, but on what platform remains to be seen. Mark Mardell writes about on this on his blog... -
Reasons for the Socialists not to nominate a candidate for president
Posted on 12/02/2009 | 4 CommentsI’ve written a few articles lately on why the Socialists should nominate a candidate for president of the Commission in the run-up to the European elections this summer – here, for example – and have been asked why they might not do so. The case... -
Do the Socialists have vision and principle?
Posted on 11/02/2009 | No CommentsBy Richard Laming Published in EUobserver, 11 February 2009 The Party of European Socialists will launch its European election manifesto in Brussels today (11 February). In preparation for the elections in June, the PES has prepared its position on the European issues of the day. And... -
Why parties should nominate candidates for president of the Commission
Posted on 06/12/2008 | No CommentsBy Richard Laming An enquiry comes in: why should political parties nominate candidates for president of the European Commission in the elections next summer Here are three reasons: 1. Honesty MEPs have the right to approve the nomination of a candidate proposed by the European... -
A president for Europe
Posted on 05/04/2008 | 4 CommentsA campaign has been launched to merge the post of president of the European Commission with the new post of president of the European Council created under the Lisbon treaty. The argument is that the Commission president is more legitimate but the European Council president... -
Europe’s leaders should copy Bush?
Posted on 14/06/2007 | No CommentsJanet Daley wrote in the Daily Telegraph earlier this week (read it here) that the British people will not “accept rule by unelected continental bureaucracy and ministerial fiat, which is alien to their history.” Quite right, but who is asking them to? Taking “ministerial fiat”... -
Shortcuts
Posted on 01/05/2007 | 3 CommentsIf anyone out there is puzzled by the complicated nature of the European Union institutions, this latest report by the BBC isn’t going to help. Referring to the Commission as the “EC” is confusing to start with: that abbreviation came into use for the European... -
Roy Jenkins (1920-2003)
Posted on 21/12/2006 | No CommentsWith the death of Roy Jenkins we have lost one of Britain’s greatest Europeans. As for so many of his generation, the experience of the Second World War left him convinced of the need to find a better way of handling relations between states. It... -
Months and not years
Posted on 30/07/2006 | No CommentsThis blog has reported before on the commitment by the Conservative party to leave the EPP in the European Parliament, and also on William Hague’s recent speech on his party’s view of Europe. Since then, the bid to leave the EPP has reached a conclusion....
Loading ...
PDF 
