I’m Back and I’m Proud: Nigel Farage on the new European Parliament

On his first day back in Brussels, UKIP Leader Nigel Farage takes some time out from organising the new IND/DEM Group to talk to New Europe’s Andy Carling
You’ve come back with more members, against predictions and ahead of Labour. You’re looking more unified than five years ago, so what are the reasons for this success?

I [...]

Are The Brits Really Eurosceptic?

After the results, comes the number crunching and the statistics to tell a story. First of all, is the turnout, of just 34.27%. This is about average, compared to the elections since 1979. Almost two thirds didn’t vote. Although this is an obvious concern, the question must be asked about the non-voters; how eurosceptic are [...]

Think Tanks Look Through A Transparency Register Darkly

Commissioner Siim Kallas has asked think tanks to sign up to the Register for Interest Representatives at a meeting organised by the European Policy Centre, the only such
Brussels institution on the register. The failure to get this key group to join in the transparency initiative is raising eyebrows throughout the EU.
Although many describe the list [...]

A Field Guide To The British Eurosceptics

All fair minded people would surely agree that the British are revolting. The daily news shames an ever longer list of Members of Parliament who have been caught fiddling their expenses.
Some have gone wild and got the taxpayer to buy and furnish several homes, others have claimed for items that seem unrelated to their work, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]