Subsidiarity Is Good For You

The Assembly of European Regions, which represents 260 regions, one third outside the EU, has just released the results of a four year study into the economic effects of devolving decision
making to the regions in a report entitled “From Subsidiarity to Success”. The conclusions are that decentralisation does lead to a significant increase in economic [...]

The Towering Inferno – an investigation into the Berlaymont fire

As eurocrats scuttled away from the flames, apocalyptic preachers roamed around Schuman quoting the more excitable passages from the Book of Revelations but the emergency services
were feeling the pressure, as one senior policeman said, off the record, “We’ve got to hush this up, there’s a lot at stake”. Despite press releases trying to minimise the [...]

Commissioner Wallström discusses the European Citizens’ Consultation, 11 May 2009

Commissioner, I have some concerns about the organisation of the meeting but I was impressed by the quality of the discussions, one of the experts said “If you take people seriously, they respond seriously”.

Exactly

I also had several people tell me that, since they got involved in the consultations, they’re taking more interest in the news, [...]

The People Are Talking, But Who Is Listening?

The Europeans Citizens Consultations is a series of national online forums, set up to allow the public to discuss “What can the EU do to shape our social future in a globalised world?”.
After a series of national debates a series of 15 of the most popular resolutions were sent to Brussels, along with 150 randomly [...]

Who To Call When You Need A Diplomat Fast

Brussels is a key centre for diplomacy and a recent arrival to the scene is Independent Diplomat, set up in 2004 by Carne Ross, a British diplomat who resigned from Government service after giving evidence to Butler inquiry on intelligence and weapons of mass destruction that contradicted British government claims.

Nicholas Whyte has been running Independent [...]

Lisbon, Mon Amour

UK MEP, Andrew Duff, (ALDE) has just published a new book, ‘Saving the European Union; The logic of the Lisbon Treaty’, a robust defence of the Lisbon Treaty, cheekily illustrated with a photo of Gordon Brown grinning as he signed the Treaty.

MEP’s Dive Into Fitness

There have been cynical mutterings about the claimed 5 million euro swimming pool that the European Parliament is supposedly building, and some are describing this as an example of financial fecundity.
Of course, examination of the supposed cost would expose this untruth for what it is. Five million is clearly far too much for a swimming [...]