January 14, 2010
Over on his Brussels blog, the FT’s Tony Barber contrasts the lively and through hearings of presidential appointees in the US Senate, to the European Parliament’s dull and far-from-rigorous confirmation hearings of would-be commissioners, which are ta…
Posted by Open Europe blog team
January 13, 2010
The Hungarian nominee for EU Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner, Laszlo Andor, has had his European Parliament today, and it was not quite as dull as some other hearings – Mr Andor seemed willing to share his views on several issues and actuall…
Posted by Open Europe blog team
|
european parliament, laszlo andor, opt-out, working time directive |
January 12, 2010
As the European Parliament ‘confirmation’ hearings for incoming EU Commissioners rumble on in the background, we thought we might take a look at Cathy Ashton’s hearing yesterday. It received a fair amount of press coverage (see here, here, here and her…
Posted by Open Europe blog team
|
catherine ashton, council of ministers, eu foreign minister, EU foreign policy, European Commission |
January 8, 2010
Over on Comment is Free we take a look at the simmering EU pay dispute, which took a new turn yesterday when the Commission decided to take all 27 EU member states to the ECJ over their refusal to increase their offer of a 1.85% pay rise for EU officia…
Posted by Open Europe blog team
Few things represent the absurd and outdated nature of the EU’s budget as well as the weird butter and grain mountains. These mountains consist of surplus produce that Europe’s farmers have been unable to sell on the market and that is instead bought u…
Posted by Open Europe blog team
January 7, 2010
Iceland’s President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson appears to be a giving a rather strong ‘two fingers up’ to Britain and the Netherlands at the moment, by refusing to sign the ‘Icesave’ bill, sending it to the Icelandic people for a referendum instead. The bi…
Posted by Open Europe blog team
January 6, 2010
We had been forced led to believe by the powers that be that the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty (by hook and by crook) was meant to signal the end of the EU’s internal wrangling and launch the EU into a new decade more outward looking and firmly foc…
Posted by Open Europe blog team
|
conflict of interest, ECJ, EU hypocrisy, EU waste, European Commission |
January 5, 2010
With the news that Mr Bean briefly replaced Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero last night as the face of the Spanish EU Presidency’s website, courtesy of an intrepid hacker keen to point out the Spaniard’s resemblence to the British comic character, we thoug…
Posted by Open Europe blog team
January 4, 2010
In October EU ministers and heads of state met under the Swedish EU Presidency to discuss how to fight global poverty and combat climate change.The Swedish press reported over Christmas that the participants in these so-called European Development Days…
Posted by Open Europe blog team
January 1, 2010
Happy New Year – some thoughts on 2009 and the new year ahead from us over on Conservative Home.
Posted by Open Europe blog team
Open Europe is an independent think tank contributing bold new thinking to the debate about the direction of the EU.
