"New directives, same old directions...
New directives, same old directions
By Ruben Andersson
It’s been a terrible month for migrants. In South Africa, they have been hounded, lynched and necklaced in pogroms that have left more than 50 people dead. In Italy, vigilante attacks on Roma have accompanied the new government’s xenophobic rhetoric and promise to deport even fellow Europeans. In France, Sarkozy has flagged a hardline EU-wide ‘pact on migration’ – including provisions on ‘European values’ – for when his country assumes the Union presidency. And to top it off, the European Parliament is set to vote tomorrow on the ‘return directive’, an initiative deplored by Amnesty that will allow member states to detain migrants for up to 18 months before deportation.
EU warned: No treaty, no growth
French President Nicolas Sarkozy says the EU will not be able to expand without ratification of the Lisbon treaty.Mandelson hits back at Sarkozy criticism
Peter Mandelson, European Union trade commissioner, has responded to an attack by President Nicolas Sarkozy with a robust defence of markets in farm trade.Time to focus on Europe's success
Enlargement has been a fantastic success story. If that positive story is not told, there is a real danger of a backlash that will tie the region up in nationalist knotsWhat dream will Europe dream now?
The French, Dutch and Irish voted No to Europe because they have no other means to express displeasure with the way it is being run. European citizens would be less cynical if they were regularly invited to choose the people who run its affairs, says Charles WyploszThe Lisbon Treaty: Why so unpopular?
It’s the single most important question - because without an answer, how can the EU progress? Brian Barder has a good stab at providing an answer - well worth reading in full:Which way now?
European citizens react to the Irish No voteEconomic Prospects for Central, East and Southeast Europe
Domestic factors are more likely to inhibit economic growth in the EU's new member states than external ones, argue a group of scholars from the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies in a February 2008 paper.EU treaty delay proposal defeated
The government defeats a last ditch attempt to delay the ratification of the EU Treaty for four months.
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Peter Ludlow: Merkel can lead the EU out of the crisis
The key figure to find a way out of the crisis following the failed Irish Lisbon Treaty referendum is Angela Merkel, the founding director of the Centre for European Policy Studies and the director of the European Strategy Forum, Peter Ludlow, told EurActiv in an interview.Juncker blames EU leaders for 'speaking badly' of Europe
Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker has accused EU leaders of tarnishing the EU image in their countries, blaming them for the negative results in EU referenda.EU leaders to ponder Commission's future
The EU summit, which starts in Brussels today (19 June), was meant to give EU leaders the opportunity to discuss their first full-time president. But following the 'no' vote in Ireland, they now face the less pleasant prospect of having to reduce the size of the European Commission as currently required by the Nice Treaty.Commission U-turn on anti-discrimination law
MEPs and trade unions' persistent lobbying in favour of comrehensive EU anti-discrimination legislation has eventually born fruit as the Commission informally announced on Monday (16 June) that it would put forward a proposal aimed at outlawing all forms of discrimination beyond the workplace.EU rules on illegal migrants anger human rights groups
After almost three years of tedious negotiations with member states, the European Parliament yesterday (18 June) endorsed new EU-wide rules on returning illegal immigrants back to where they came from. But tough clauses, including permitting the detention of people for up to 18 months before their expulsion, have infuriated human rights groups.The Irish vote
The debate about the Irish referendum continues. Yesterday the European Parliament discussed it during a long and lively session. Today it is the turn of the European Council.
It is not disrespecting the No vote to want to find out more, as was done after the French and Dutch votes on the Constitutional Treaty. The Commission will be very soon publishing the results of the survey of voters carried out immediately after the referendum. I have been reading many interesting articles and analysis on the web and in the press. I would like to hear more from Irish people about the No vote.
Poland
Poland's politicsLooking nice but doing nothing
From The Economist print edition
Is one of the best governments in Poland's history good enough?
A PREDECESSOR which outsiders regarded as rude, silly and incompetent is always a bonus. But the Polish government headed by Donald Tusk has two other big advantages: a booming economy and a lack of serious opposition. So despite its rather scanty record, the ruling coalition is popular at home and abroad.
Whither the European Union: Where now after Ireland votes down the Lisbon Treaty.
Some of the media’s analysis as to what lay behind Irelands no vote against the Lisbon Treaty was pretty thin gruel. Even pro EU progressives seem to have completely lost the plot, one prominent commentator claimed those devious Shinners and their colleagues in the No campaign acted in the most clever way when they advised voters, “If you have not read or understood the treaty it would be safer to vote 'No’.
Bettina Rudloff
European Agricultural Reform and WTO Negotiations in Parallel
Mutually Impeding or Reinforcing Processes?
SWP Comments 2008/C 14, June 2008, 8 pages The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union (EU) is today
subject to a double pressure: an internal one, arising from the reform
debate caused by the CAP's "Health Check", and an... more …
David Shambaugh (ed.) | Gudrun Wacker (ed.)
American and European Relations with China
Advancing Common Agendas
SWP Research Paper 2008/RP 03, June 2008, 144 pagesEU losing world role, says Italy PM
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi attacked the European Union yesterday, saying it had lost influence on the world stage and its leaders were weaker than when he was last in office two yearsMAIN FOCUS: The controversial EU Returns Directive | 19/06/2008
The European Parliament has approved a new EU directive on the return of illegal immigrants. For the first time, the Returns Directive sets down minimum humanitarian standards such as a maximum six month custody period pending deportation, and school education for minors. But the directive has also met with criticism, among other things for establishing a Europe-wide reentry ban for deported migrants.
MAIN FOCUS: France back in NATO | 18/06/2008
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced a radical restructuring of France's armed forces. Among other things, France is once more to become a full member of NATO. How does Europe's press view the modernisation of this European nuclear power?
E.U. Moves to Standardize Immigrant Policy
PARIS, June 18 -- The European Parliament approved new rules Wednesday designed to standardize the dramatic differences in member countries' treatment of illegal immigrants, whose presence is one of the most heated political issues in Europe today.Tough choices to avoid euro-paralysis
by Hugo BradyThe Irish did the wrong thing for the right reasons in their referendum on the Lisbon treaty. Voters rejected an international treaty, the benefits of which did not seem to merit a change to the country's constitution. Their politicians, on the other hand, failed outright. They ran a flaccid campaign and were out-thought and shouted down by a colourful assortment of scaremongers. By polling day, opportunists had convinced 70 per cent of No voters that the Lisbon treaty was wide-open for renegotiation and that Irish sovereignty and identity was in danger under the current text. In addition, the public were promised a No vote would be pro-European and have no negative consequences.
Cowen’s wish list
Mark Mardell has a list of the Irish population’s 8 concerns about the EU as perceived by Taoiseach Brian Cowen, and presumably each of these is a factor in the No vote in the referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon. These 8 issues are:
How the 2002 Nice Treaty vote came to haunt the EU in 2008
Ireland voted No to the Treaty of Nice in 2001, and was made to vote again in 2002 - with clarifications guaranteeing Irish neutrality. So if you vote No, you extract concessions, and hence you can manage to get what you want. 2008 - repeat performance. Or that’s at least my interpretation of the results of a Eurobarometer survey of 2000 Irish voters conducted after the referendum - see all the details in French in this post from Jean Quatremer. While ignorance of the contents of the Treaty (sadly) figures high among the reasons for voting No, loss of an Irish member of the European Commission and tax harmonisation are concrete concerns cited. Grounds for accommodation of those Irish views?
40 years of the Customs Union: a European success story
A message of optimism was sent today by the European Parliament, during its plenary session in Strasbourg, through the huge support for a report commemorating 40 years of the Customs Union, which is seen as a true European success story. " From 1968 to 2008, customs borders were a example of reactivity and adaptation.
