EU treaties & institutions
Will other EU countries block any attempt by the UK to renegotiate its membership?
24 January 2013
City A.M
David Cameron seems to have made it his mission to frustrate other EU countries. This means his plea for renegotiation will be (largely) rebuffed. What has Cameron done to upset the others?
Brytyjski ekspert: Cameron w sprawie budżetu Unii postawi na swoim
23 November 2012
Gazeta Wyborcza
Brytyjski premier nie jest sam. Oszczędności chce Szwecja, Holandia i, co najważniejsze, Niemcy - mówi John Springford, analityk brytyjskiego think tanku Centre for European Reform
My state of the Union
05 October 2012
E!Sharp
President Barroso's team recently asked me to contribute to September's State of the EU speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. I thought the final product was rather good. Sadly, its main message – a purposely confrontational call for a 'federation of nation states' – was obscured on the...
Would Orwell be pro-European?
01 May 2012
E!Sharp
George Orwell devoted a lot of his writing to how the use of language is intimately connected to the abuse of power by politicians and officials. The final commandment in Animal Farm (“All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others”) and the “Newspeak” of Nineteen Eighty-Four...
One flew over the EU's mess
19 March 2012
The Wall Street Journal
Welcome to the European Union Home for the Economically Insane. We care for nations dealing with status anxiety, paranoia and low self-esteem, or those who are simply drifting into a senile old age. Please follow me on the guided tour.
Upstairs we have the Acropolis Room. This is where...
Upstairs we have the Acropolis Room. This is where...
Why European diplomacy is in decline
03 February 2012
E!Sharp
Critics of the EU's External Action Service (EEAS) agree that its creation will hardly be remembered as a high point in the annals of European foreign policy. Some say that the EU's quasi-diplomatic corps does not yet work well because its leadership, under Baroness Cathy Ashton, suffers from inexperience and...
Why the EU needs a migration organisation
01 June 2011
European Voice
A European Migration Organisation would help the EU develop clearer responses to migration. EU leaders will discuss reform of the Schengen area at their summit next week (23-24 June).
The rise of the Euro-punks
22 October 2010
E!Sharp
Recently I attended an off-the-record Brussels “think-in” where a very prominent European politician wondered out loud what the future would be for the EU now that his children’s generation were taking the reins.
“People talk about a lack of political leadership in Europe but there are deeper factors at work,” he...
“People talk about a lack of political leadership in Europe but there are deeper factors at work,” he...
Le G20 a manqué une chance de réformer la finance
24 April 2010
La Tribune
Vendredi après-midi, ministres des Finances et banquiers centraux des pays riches et émergents du G20 se sont réunis à Washington pour discuter des projets de régulation du secteur financier.
Tre getingar till Reinfeldt som EU-ordförande
29 December 2009
Sidan 4: Debatt
Statsministern och hans team var kompetenta förhandlare. Men de stora framgångarna lyste med sin frånvaro under ordförandeskapet, skriver Clara Marina O'Donnell.
Missing another EU opportunity
18 November 2009
The Guardian
When Britain's foreign secretary, David Miliband, made clear that he was not interested in being the European Union's new "high representative" for foreign policy, the UK lost a unique opportunity to craft the EU more in its own image.
Is Tony Blair the right man to be president of Europe?
25 October 2009
The Observer
Yes, says Charles Grant. His presence would improve the global credibility of the EU. No, says Henry Porter. He co-authored the Iraq war and is not a convinced democrat.
Blair would be a good choice for Europe
07 October 2009
Financial Times
If the Lisbon treaty enters into force, which seems likely, the European Union will appoint a president to chair the European Council, which brings together the heads of government.
Why Barroso deserves another go
09 September 2009
The Guardian
Next week the European parliament votes on whether to give José Manuel Barroso a second term as president of the European commission.
Economic liberalism in retreat
16 July 2009
The New York Times
Is the brief flowering of economic liberalism in Europe over? It is too soon to read the last rites, but the prognosis is not good.
The financial crisis, the subsequent discrediting of the Anglo-Saxon economies and the passing of the most economically liberal European Commission there has ever been have put liberal economic thinking on the defensive.
The financial crisis, the subsequent discrediting of the Anglo-Saxon economies and the passing of the most economically liberal European Commission there has ever been have put liberal economic thinking on the defensive.
The eurosceptic illusion
05 July 2009
The Guardian
Britain's Eurosceptics need to come clean. The media and political class have a right to be sceptical about the EU, even hostile to it. But they also have an obligation to be honest about the economic implications of a retreat from full membership of the union.
Their failure to do so...
Their failure to do so...
The Dis-Uniting Kingdom?
30 June 2009
The Wall Street Journal
Britain's European debate has gone septic. More than half of British votes cast in recent European elections went to euro-skeptic parties ranging from the mad, bad political fringes such as the British National Party to a Conservative Party promising to claw back powers from Brussels.
Guest column: Spain's muted EU voice
09 June 2009
Financial Times
There are several paradoxes about Spain’s global role. Its business leaders have built up many world-beating companies, but its politicians tend to be parochial.
Por qué pesa poco España?
08 May 2009
ABC.es
El papel de España en la UE encierra una extraña paradoja. Aunque se trata de uno de los Estados miembros más europeísta, es el que menos influencia tiene de los seis países más grandes. Pero esto no siempre ha sido así.
Defending European defence in partnership with NATO, strengthening the EU's military muscle is the right idea
09 December 2008
The Wall Street Journal
Ten years ago in St. Malo, Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac launched the European security and defence policy, or ESDP. They had the right idea: The European Union needs a defence arm if it is to play a global role, and with the demand for peacekeepers rising, ESDP could give a needed boost to the efforts of NATO and the United Nations. Or at least that was the theory.