EU summits/meetings

EP reports on Turkey, nothing more than self-satisfaction for EP MEPs…

by

YAVUZ BAYDAR – One minute, European Parliament!

from Today’s Zaman by YAVUZ BAYDAR

What do a Turkish and a Greek Cypriot journalist do when meeting over dinner in Marrakech? Without a doubt, risking torment over the subject, they talk about the fate of the settlement talks between the two leaders of the divided island.

Envoys to warn Turkey: Update Constitution or forget EU

Turkey disappointed with EU report on accession progress (People’s Daily)

from Yahoo news
Turkey on Thursday said it was disappointed with a European Union (EU) report on the country’s progress in 2009 in its accession bid to the 27-nation bloc but reiterated commitments to EU membership. The European Parliament (EP) adopted the report on Wednesday, which urged Turkey to start prompt withdrawal of troops from Cyprus, a Mediterranean island divided into the Turkish north and Greek …

Read more

looks like Obama skips Europe…

by

MAIN FOCUS: The US President skips Europe | 03/02/2010 from euro|topics US President Barack Obama will not be attending the EU-USA summit planned for May. The official explanation given is that he wishes to devote himself to domestic problems. The European press, however, suspects that he doesn’t want to waste time in Europe, which still … Read more

A good read on Euroscepticism (and a Euro roundup)

by

Nosemonkey interviewed: On euroscepticism from Nosemonkey’s EUtopia Forgot all about this, as the interview was originally conducted back in October, but it?s in the latest issue of Shift Mag, which focusses on Euroscepticism. Have a gander at the whole lot here or, below the fold, check out my responses to the following: To fix the … Read more

Davos summit continues without the Turkish state

by

here is a twitter hashtag for Davos summit: #WEF

The international dimension: Turkey should use, not lose, Davos

by KLAUS JURGENS
How long should ?one minute? really last? Let us travel back in time. I remember all too well where I was writing my analysis of last year?s events with regard to Davos 2009.

Read more

“The top 100 most costly EU regulations” and more

by

Cold weather, post Copenhagen blues etc and more from the European agenda…

The top 100 most costly EU regulations

by Open Europe blog team

Open Europe has today published a list of the top 100 most costly EU regulations, detailing the annual cost of the laws, the cumulative cost of them by 2020, and the article base in the Lisbon Treaty for each regulation . We estimate that these laws will in total cost the UK economy a staggering £184 billion by 2020. To put that figure in context: for the same amount, the UK Government could abolish the country’s entire budget deficit and still leave the Exchequer with some £6 bn. All cost estimates are based on the UK Government’s own impact assessments so the figures are instructive.

Read more

Copenhagen Summit ends…

by

Nothing much concluded, it seems…

UN says Copenhagen deal ‘a start’

from BBC News | Europe | World Edition
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says a US-backed climate deal is a good beginning, but critics dismiss it as a failure.

Activist-Journalists Bring Citizen, Pro Media Together at COP15

from MediaShift

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK — This past Saturday, on a crisp afternoon in Copenhagen, Jacob Wheeler and Rick Fuentes, two amateur journalists with the non-profit media start-up the UpTake, walked alongside a mostly peacefully stream of demonstrators. Roughly half of the total police force in Denmark followed in step. Conspicuous among the crowd were the hundreds of ad hoc reporters with serious-looking digital SLRs slung around their necks.

The Copenhagen Failure shows: There is no effective Global Politics!

from Social Europe Journal by Henning Meyer

4178695384_81ddf77672In the early hours of this morning the news of the failure of the Copenhagen summit on climate change hit the news wires. I won?t repeat the individual disappointments as the papers will be full of it today. But I would like to comment on the political implications of this disaster. It shows that there is no effective global politics, only global problems.

Read more

NGOs not so happy with the Copenhagen summit

by

NGO fury after Copenhagen ban

from cafebabel.com by Dave Keating

Yesterday?s decision by the UN to ban a large number of NGO delegates from the main summit venue for the Copenhagen climate change talks was, to say the least, unpopular on the ground.

Copenhagen climate talks: Main issues and state of play

from EurActiv.com
About 120 world leaders and 193 countries are meeting in Copenhagen to agree a new global climate deal, the basis for a full climate treaty next year.

Photos from Copenhagen protests

from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow:Treehugger photographer Matt McDermott happened to be in the right place when the massive climate demonstrations in Copenhagen broke out, and the site has a great gallery of shots of the action.

Swiss minaret ban goes to court

An appeal against a decision by Swiss voters to ban minarets is submitted to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Read more

live blogging from the Copenhagen protests and…

by

more from the EU agenda…Our neighbor, Greece is having real economic problems, aftermath of Berlusconi attack and more…

Reclaim Power Cop15

Danish police abuse climate-change demonstrators

from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow

Zoran sez, “Earlier this week (12th Dec), a massive, peaceful protest of 100,000 people — the largest demonstration for climate justice in world history — was met with a heavy-handed response by the Danish police. Thousands of riot police swarmed the march route, blocked off streets surrounding large groups of protestors, and arrested almost 1,000 people. Arrestees were cuffed and forced to sit in rows for hours, as the temperatures dipped below freezing; numerous people urinated on themselves after being denied use of toilets.”

climateflood1

Dispatch from Copenhagen: Demands for Climate Justice

from Global Voices Online by Saffah Faroog

Read more

Copenhagen Summit and EU agenda roundup

by
Arrested demonstrators sit on the ground as they are surrounded ...

Arrested demonstrators sit on the ground as they are surrounded by police during a rally outside the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen December 12, 2009. REUTERS/Christian Charisius

Hot topic

from BBC News | Europe | World Edition
Climate pressures cloud two-day EU summit

Read more

Copenhagen Summit and Euro updates

by

1

#147 | Photos / videos from tonight in Athens:

apopsi_poreias

In pictures

Athens police clash with youths

Copenhagen Climate Change

All eyes in the world should be on the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference as we wait with a stuttering heartbeat to learn about the policies that will guide humanity through the next great evolutionary bottleneck. The topic I will be keeping an eye on is overpopulation.

Read more

Copenhagen Climate Summit begins…

by

I?m sorry, we could have stopped catastrophic climate change #COP15

from Osocio Weblog by Marc

I'm sorry, we could have stopped catastrophic climate change? We didn't

Next monday, dec 7, the COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference finally start in Copenhagen. All visitors who came by aeroplane (…) will see these billboards at the Copenhagen Airport. They campaign from Greenpeace shows our world leaders in 2020.
The leaders: Sarkozy (FR), Merkel (Ger), Obama (USA), Tusk (PO), Lula (Br), Zapatero (Es), Brown (UK) and Harper (Can). See them all after the break.

Copenhagen sees pros and cons of host role

from FT.com – World, Europe
As the eyes of the world focus on Copenhagen, there is reputational danger in attaching the Danish capital’s name to a conference that could end in failure

Read more

"EU's Lisbon Treaty comes into force

by

EU’s Lisbon Treaty comes into force

and more from the European agenda…

Read more

Swiss minaret referendum today.

by

Swiss Minaretxia

from tabsir.net


Cows will no longer give milk in Switzerland if minarets are allowed to stand.

The rightwing political parties in Switzerland are up in arms, preparing for a vote on Sunday to save their alpine paradise from the dreaded cultural eyesore of mosque minarets. This proposed ban on minarets comes from the same friendly yodelers in the nationalist Swiss People?s Party that has previously campaigned against

Read more

Barroso II Commission announced

by

Copenhagen: the next Seattle?

from FP Passport by Joshua Keating

Some environmental groups are planning disruptive protests for the upcoming climate talks in Copenhagen, taking cues from the anti-globalization movement:

“We feel that right now in Copenhagen there is a real opportunity for things to come together a little bit like they did 10 years ago at the World Trade Organization protest in Seattle,” Müller told SPIEGEL ONLINE….

Read more

Turkish suspicions continue on the new EU president…

by


[Note: The latest book by Anouar Majid, We Are All Moors: Ending Centuries of Crusades against Muslims and Other Minorities (University of Minnesota Press, 2009) provides a provocative thesis, suggesting that we examine the issue of Muslim minorities in contemporary Europe through the prism of history, specifically the treatment of the Moors (los Moros) in Spain. Here is a sample of his argument (from pp. 3-4).] FOUND IN We Are All Moors

EU president: Herman Van Rompuy no friend of Turkey

Mavi Boncuk
EU president: Herman Van Rompuy opposes Turkey joining
The poetry-loving favourite to become the first president of Europe, Herman Van Rompuy, is also a hard-line opponent of Turkey’s bid to join the European Union because it is an Islamic country. Speaking five years ago, as an opposition politician, Mr Rompuy, a Christian Democrat, argued that Muslim Turkey could not be considered a candidate for EU membership.

Read more