Euro roundup: Newest Greek crisis, British elections, My Europe Day

Greek strikers hit Athens streets

Euroblogging journalist Prune Antoine wins two European young journalist awards

Sometimes people who actually deserve it win prizes, and this time it is fellow Euroblogger and Berlin-based French journalist Prune Antoine for her article “Pologne – Quand les parents sont partis” (English translation on page 28 of this booklet).

My Europe Week: Quadrivium of European integration: European Union

In the 5th century the seven liberal arts were set as the basis for the new school curriculum, with first Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric (later known as the Trivium), then Music, Geometry, Arithmetic and Philosophy (or Astronomy) (the later Quadrivium). (Source: Keith Sidwell: Reading Medieval Latin; Cambridge University Press)

My Europe Week: Trivium of European integration: Council of Europe at 61

In the 5th century the seven liberal arts were set as the basis for the new school curriculum. First came Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric (later known as the Trivium). (Source: Keith Sidwell: Reading Medieval Latin; Cambridge University Press)

My Europe (1): Trains

It is “My Europe Week” and instead of writing long articles I am looking for photos that make me remember my Europe.

In the early times of this blog I wrote a post titled “Talking to Europe” in which I told some stories I experienced while travelling though Europe on trains. Below are 11 train stations in 10 countries, many of them starting points or destinations of the stories told in the blog post.

Greek rescue plan leaves troubling questions unanswered

Europe Today

Very ambitious: Europe Today, a European newspaper not focused on EU institutions or financial issues.

My Europe Week: 61st anniversary of the Council of Europe

Call it low key ?

One line in The Week in Brief is what I found on the Council of Europe website by the time of writing:

5/05, Strasbourg – 61st anniversary of the Council of Europe

Europe Day Event ? Cork, Galway, Kilkenny and Dublin

This post is covering four events, all being organised by the European Movement Ireland. I know I have blogged about the Cork event, but this was sent out yesterday evening. So if you have some time to spare between 12:30 and 2:30pm on Friday and you are near Cork, Galway, Kilkenny or Dublin, do come along.

Hungarian disillusion boosts far-right party

Top German Liberal in EU parliament wants Europe-wide burqa ban

from EUobserver.com – Headline News

Restructuring activity in Europe declines but job losses still outweigh job gains
Source: European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions
From Press Release:

Large-scale restructuring activity in Europe continues its recent trend of decline, albeit one where job losses continue to predominate over job gains, according to the latest quarterly report from Eurofound?s European Restructuring Monitor (ERM). Unemployment continued to worsen during the same period, although the pace of decline has slowed. Between 1 January 2010 and 30 March 2010, the ERM recorded a total of 244 restructuring cases, of which 160 were cases of restructuring involving job loss. The number of announced job losses totalled approximately 80,000 in the quarter as against announced job creation of just over 30,000 new jobs.

Hungarian passports; or, dumbest Stratfor article ever

This sort of thing is why I have trouble taking Stratfor seriously.

Short version: the new, center-right Hungarian government is reviving the plan to offer Hungarian citizenship and passports to ethnic Hungarians living outside Hungary. (There are a couple of million of them. Most live in Hungary?s neighbors Romania, Slovakia and Serbia, with smaller numbers in Croatia and Ukraine.) Stratfor sees this as ?an insurance policy ? a way of broadening [Hungary’s] power and securing itself should its protectors, the European Union and NATO, weaken.?

European Company Survey 2009

Source: European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions

From Key Findings:
The ECS 2009 shows that companies in Europe apply a broad range of flexibility measures. Generally, these are not applied in isolation, but are combined with each other. Although none of the measures is exclusive to specific geographic regions or sectors of economic activity, some pronounced regional and sectoral differences emerge regarding their application.

Spain?s Unemployment Problem

Well, according to a popular urban legend, Spain?s unemployment rate – which is the second highest in the EU after Latvia – is currently running at something just a touch over 20%. Or is it? The unemployment problem I wish to address here is not the one of how to get to grips with actually putting all these people back to work, rather it is that of untangling what exactly Spain?s real EU harmonised unemplyment might be, since, to say the least of it, some strange things have been happening in recent months.

EU JHA: Stockholm Programme officially published

Justice and home affairs (JHA) was an area where the Lisbon Treaty brought about significant changes, introducing the ordinary legislative procedure into judicial cooperation in criminal matters and police cooperation. (See December 2009 summary by the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union.)

After Greece, the European Republic!

Europe?s governments have done it: the Euro Area is in shambles. Not because the euro was a bad idea, but because partial interests by member state governments prevent the design and implementation of good policies. Nation states damage the collective interests of European citizens. The present system of intergovernmental governance without a European government is unsustainable. Only full political union based on democratic principles can ensure that the interest of all Europeans can be served.

MAIN FOCUS: Neck and neck race in the UK | 05/05/2010

UK elections on 6 May: EU press discuss budget and coalition

As the British house of commons goes to vote, the statistics are putting David Cameron (conservative party) a little ahead of Gordon Brown (ruling labour party). Whoever wins might share power with Nick Clegg in a coalition with the liberal democrat party. The German, Spanish, British and Italian press say ‘balance the budget first’

The role of newspapers in the British general election

Ahead of one of the most closely-fought UK general elections in recent years, the Conservative party has support from the largest number of daily British newspapers. As Press Gazette reported yesterday, the Labour party is facing the election with “the unequivocal support of no national newspaper.”

UK election: Women Going Backwards, Laurie Penny

The General Election of 2010 has been a fusty gentleman’s club of stale argument and panicked triangulation. None of the major parties has paid much more than lip-service to ‘women’s issues’ on the platform, with both Labour and the Tories under the impression that one can substitute talking to women – always uncomfortable – with talking about ‘families’, because women’s needs and desires are really only important in a family context. For a feminist activist, tuning in to watch three middle-aged white men talk to each other about ‘families’ is enough to make one throw one’s (sensible) shoes at the TV.