"Extending the Schengen area...
Sarkozy's new love:)
The Story of Lisbon and Treaty Consolidation
Last Monday I went to a talk by Jo Leinen in the Humboldt University. Leinen is chairman of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs of the European Parliament. The topic was the Reform Treaty and the future of Europe. In due time, you should be able to find his speech here (it will be in German).Peripheries and borders in a post-western Europe
Europe is taking not just a post-national but also a post-western shape. The relation between the inside and the outside is complex and ambivalent; while often exclusionary, the periphery can also be viewed as the site of cosmopolitan forms of negotiation.
A man walks his dog alongside the river Nisse next to the Poland, Czech Republic and Germany countries' bordering triangle near the Czech town of Hradek Nad Nisou, December 20, 2007. The European Union's border-free zone will be extended to Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia on December 21. People from these nations can travel to the existing 15 states of the "Schengen" border-free zone without having to show their passports.
REUTERS/Petr Josek (CZECH REPUBLIC)
Security fear as EU drops borders
Celebrations are beginning to herald the enlargement of the Schengen zone to include nine more EU countries.DOSSIER: Extending the Schengen area | 20/12/2007
This Friday, border controls will be dropped for the new EU countries that have signed on to the Schengen Agreement. While most eastern Europeans are happy about the new freedom of movement, some Western European countries are filled with misgivings.
Village of Schengen symbolic of union
The village in Luxembourg is a slip of a place, with 560 people and a row of petrol stations selling cheap fuel. But Schengen, a few hundred metres from Germany and France, is a badge of pride to supporters of ever closer union.Germans warn of illegal migration
Unresolved security problems could mean increased crime and illegal immigration following the enlargement of the European Union's Schengen border-free zone, say police and senior politiciansSchengen enlargement - let’s start the debate in the UK too
BBC News Online has a good piece about the implications for tourism of the enlargement of the Schengen border free area in Europe, only one thing is missing: any discussion about Britain eventually joining the parts of Schengen that are actually useful to citizens. Essentially there are 3 elements of Schengen: no border checks at EU internal borders, a unified visa system, and a computer information database (the Schengen Information System - SIS) used to exchange data on border security and law enforcement. The UK does not participate in the first two, but does participate in the SIS, so Brits get all the oppressive bits but none of the useful liberal parts....
Fanfare for bigger border-free EU
Celebrations are taking place to herald the enlargement of the Schengen zone to include nine more EU countries.Eastward Schengen expansion to have 'minimal' impact on France
The extension of the Schengen zone to include the newest EU members from Central and Eastern Europe has not revived fears of a renewed influx of "Polish plumbers" in France, EurActiv France reports.Commission set to shift communication resources online
The European Commission will make a further step into the world of Web 2.0 by allowing users to upload parts of its webpages and progressively reallocating communication resources from offline to online publications, reveals a draft EU strategy for communicating via the Internet seen by EurActiv. The plan will be published in the coming weeks.Survey: Citizens lose trust in EU institutions, support membership
European institutions suffered a big loss of trust among EU citizens in the last six months, despite citizens' support for EU membership reaching the highest in over a decade, according to a Eurobarometer poll published on Tuesday.Putin named 'Person of the Year'
US magazine Time names Russia's outgoing President, Vladimir Putin, as its 'Person of the Year'.
The roadmap to better EU-NATO relations
by Tomas Valasek, December 2007
Key EU health report delayed
The EU delays unveiling controversial plans to give every citizen the right to health care across Europe.Belgium gets interim government
Belgium's Dutch and French parties form an emergency government, ending six months of deadlock.UN fails to break Kosovo impasse
UN Security Council talks fail to bridge the gap between the West and Russia over the future of Kosovo.WINEP The European View on Iran: Fallout from the New U.S. Intelligence Estimate
Much European ado about nothing in Palestine By Rami G. Khouri
Landmark European court ruling backs company in use of foreign labor The ruling by the European Court of Justice was the first to try to strike a balance in employment law as companies take advantage of wide pay differentials among EU countries.
UPI Walker's World: The bill for Europe By MARTIN WALKER The massive new bill for Europe is hitting Britain just as the storm grows over the government's refusal of a referendum on the new Treaty that enlarges the role of the European Union., sinking Prime Minister Gordon Brown into even deeper trouble.
Labor Markets in the EU New Member States IZA
This discussion paper documents the recent changes in labour market conditions in Europe's transition countries, offers tentative explanations and suggests policies to address the emerging challenges
EP moves to tighten rules on lobbyists
Today the European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee adopted the opinion of Diana Wallis MEP's (LibDem, UK) on a common framework for lobbyists working in the European Union. Some estimates claim that the number of lobbyists in Brussels is reaching Washington proportions.The Gypsies - a Romanian problem
The deportation of Romanians from Italy in the wake of a murder committed by an ethnic Roma has caused a stir in Romania. Yet whereas Romanians object to this discrimination abroad, they fail to see that at home the Roma are treated with nothing but hatred and disdain, and neither the Church nor the state is doing anything about it. By Mircea CartarescuDOSSIER: Yulia Tymoshenko heads Ukrainian government | 19/12/2007
About two years since her first government failed, Yulia Tymoshenko has been elected prime minister by the Ukrainian parliament, with a paper-thin majority. The representative of the Orange Revolution now wants to guide the country toward the EU and NATO. How stable is her government?
EU welcomes Tymoshenko's retake of Ukrainian premiership
Yulia Tymoshenko, a leader of the Orange revolution, was narrowly elected prime minister on 18 December, an outcome the EU hopes will accelerate Ukraine's drive to move closer to the West.
New Eurobarometer Poll: Citizens in Favour of EU Membership but less supportive of its Institutions
A new Eurobarometer poll published on Tuesday revealed an interesting connection: trust in the EU institutions is declining while support for EU membership has been rising to its highest level in ten years. Whereas the Centre for European Policy Studies seemed to struggle to interpret the results, there are some clear-cut explanations for this.
Government blogs: the person behind the political face
Just a few lines, but they say a lot about the person:
By Friday I had to get up to prepare for a dinner at home with Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden as one of the guests (!) She accepted gracefully the not so professional service (= me and my husband not always knowing from which side to serve our homemade food) and was a great guest!
Those words are from the latest entry in Commission VP Margot Wallström’s blog - a very personal sentence, heavy with political meaning for this centre-left politician, originally from Skellefteå in the far north of Sweden. While the words in themselves made me smile, the meaning for online politics is serious: if a political blog is nothing more than presenting government information and adding a comment function, then is it worth bothering at all? Wallström manages to convey a picture of her as a person, building a rapport of sorts with her readership.
EU member states call for increased industrial use of biomass
Germany, Austria, Belgium, Finland, France and Luxembourg are calling for a new EU action plan to promote the use of biomass for the chemicals, construction and packaging industries, which are concerned that excessive biofuels production may undermine their raw materials base.Basic wage idea gains momentum in Germany
The front in Angela Merkel's party that is opposed to a universal minimum wage for Germany is eroding after the Christian Democratic Union's pro-business wing endorsed...Russian stance ends UN talks on Kosovo
Western states yesterday said that Russian opposition meant the United Nations Security Council's role in determining the future status of the Serbian province of...Climate Sanctions Proposed Against the United States and the European Car Industry
Germany's Social Democrats are calling for sanctions on energy-intensive US export products if the Bush administration continues to obstruct international agreements on climate protection, writes The Boston Globe (HT: David).
EU sets 2012 for air emissions cap
EU environment ministers agree to include airlines in the emissions trading scheme a year later than MEPs wanted.
