Organized crime in Bulgaria, EU 2020 Strategy… What else in Europe? A Euro roundup

The euro pact and Germany: Triumph or a coming bust-up? by Open Europe blog team The Telegraph‘s Ambrose Evans-Pritchard describes the weekend deal at the EU summit as a “total German triumph”. He paraphrases Chancellor Angela Merkel saying that “whoever wants credit must fulfil our conditions”. 2011-03-18 Bulgarian Organized Crime Uncensored from WL Central by … Read more

Euro roundup: The EU won the Olympics, the World Cup, an Oscar … but still in pain

The EU won the Olympics, the World Cup…and now an Oscar by Open Europe blog team The EU won the 2006 and 2010 World Cups in football (at least according to Romani Prodi and Jean-Claude Trichet, so it has to be true). Interview with Olivier Roy on ‘Islam in Europe’ by Reflection Cafe New Perspectives … Read more

by the way, Belgium has a record

photo source Belgium beats Iraq from Brussels Blog by Stanley Pignal Belgium sets a dubious record on Thursday when it overtakes post-war Iraq as the country that has gone longest without a government. It?s a surreal achievement greeted with a mix of amusement and quiet despair in the streets of Brussels. (I speak of ?Brussels? … Read more

Euro roundup: A woman leader for French fascists, end of ETA, Hungarian media law?

Ms Le Pen looks set to be a genuine contender in the 2012 presidential elections Far right anoints Marine Le Pen from BBC News | Europe | World Edition France’s far-right National Front confirms Marine Le Pen to succeed her father Jean-Marie as leader following a party vote. End of an ETA from FP Passport … Read more

European personalities of the year from Cafe Babel

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Italy: Nichi Vendola, future leader of Italy?

Catholic, homosexual, communist and ecologist, the Bari-born politician is the only credible alternative to Berlusconism. The problem is that the democratic party (the main opposition party PD) doesn?t like the 52-year-old or his Sinistra, Ecologia e Libertà (?left ecology freedom, SEL) party. Nor has Vendola any representatives in parliament. But the young generation see hope for the future via the left in him. The BBC is dubbing him Italy?s Obama whilst the Italians call him a ?left-wing Berlusconi? (?Berlusconi di sinistra?) (Federico Iarlori, cafebabel.it/ Image: (cc) GhostSwann/ Vincenzo Fiore/ Flickr)

check out the rest which includes a Turkish one!

and a Euro roundup:

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More of Sarkozy’s ugly face: “Sarkozy to journalists: ‘See you tomorrow, paedophile friends’

Sarkozy to journalists: ‘See you tomorrow, paedophile friends’ from FP Pasaport by Joshua Keating Sarko’s temper flares again in response to a reporter’s question about allegations that he took kickbacks from a weapons deal with Pakistan to fund his presidential campaign: Access to scientific data: European Court of Human Rights judgement from Ideas on Europe … Read more

Historic defence pact between France and UK- Euro roundup…

France and UK to sign historic defence pact from EUobserver.com – Headline News The Moroccan girl, the president, the dental hygienist, and the ‘bunga-bunga parties’ from FP Passport by Joshua Keating Here’s Italian President Silvio Berlusconi’s underaged girl scandal #4,080: At the heart of it all is a Moroccan girl nicknamed Ruby, who turned 18 … Read more

Euro roundup: Hungarian sludge disaster…

Hungarian sludge disaster darkens mood from Wash Post Europe by George Jahn KOLONTAR, Hungary – The disaster that buried three Hungarian villages in caustic red sludge last week is deepening the gloom of a country gripped by recession, polarization and the near-ubiquitous feeling that its people are doomed to be victims of calamity. Hungary: Chemical … Read more

Euro roundup: British elections aftermath, Project Europe 2030, ?500 bill,European financial stabilisation mechanism and more

Project Europe 2030: reflection and revival (part one), Kalypso Nicolaïdis

from open Democracy News Analysis – by Kalypso Nicolaïdis

It seems ironic that a report on the future of the European Union – Project Europe 2030: Challenges and Opportunities – is issued at the very moment when the continent?s leaders have been meeting in a desperate effort to contain the reverberations of an epic financial crisis. The flames in burning Athens, and the decisions taken in Brussels to seek to douse them, highlight both the dangers and capabilities of 21st-century Europe. But the wider context of the grave emergency in the eurozone also confirm that Europe needs much more than short-term management: it needs a larger sense of the critical choices facing it over the next generation.

Did Sarkozy threaten to pull out of the euro?

from FP Passport by Joshua Keating

Granted, this is the Guardian, quoting, El Pais, quoting anonymous sources, quoting Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, quoting Nicolas Sarkozy, but it still has to raise some eybrows at the European Central Bank:

The startling threat was made at a Brussels summit of EU leaders last Friday, at which the deal to bail out Greece was agreed, according to a report in El País newspaper quoting Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Zapatero revealed details of the French threat at a closed-doors meeting of leaders from his Spanish Socialist Party on Wednesday.

Germany’s worst nightmare?

by Open Europe blog team

The Commission has today presented plans to tighten up budgetary supervision and oversight in an attempt to avoid a repeat of the current eurozone crisis in the future (i.e. making up for the obvious and fundamental flaw of the eurozone, which is that monetary union cannot exist without economic and political union). ?We want governments to send their budget outlines to Brussels for review before they are approved by their national parliaments,” EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said today. “We can then see early whether a country is adhering to the Stability and Growth Pact. If not, we would intervene.”

Report on EU?s Long-term Future says: ?Reform or Decline.?

by Reflection Cafe

May 11, 2010


With all eyes on Europe?s last-ditch efforts to save the eurozone from collapse, it is hardly surprising that a thoughtful, 46-page report on the European Union?s long-term future has gone almost completely unnoticed. But the study, commissioned by EU heads of state and government in 2007 and published last weekend, is worth taking a look at.

European financial stabilisation mechanism: Open Europe accuses: ?Profound dishonesty?

by Grahnlaw

In the 11 May 2010 post on the eurozone rescue package They Said It Wouldn?t Happen, the Open Europe Blog makes these specific allegations with regard to Article 122 TFEU:

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"EU agrees on key immigration pact

EU agrees on key immigration pact

EU ministers agree on a plan to curb illegal immigration while easing the rules for highly-skilled workers.

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