April 21, 2007
by Nosemonkey
2 Comments
DK has the best roundup and overview of this latest EU-wide attack on freedom of speech from our dear German chums (60 years on still not realising that you don’t fight fascism by banning things), with the International Herald Tribune … Continue reading
April 5, 2007
by Nosemonkey
1 Comment
From the Financial Times: The European Union yesterday offered to open its huge market fully to poor countries that signed bilateral trade deals this year. Brussels is proposing to scrap tariffs and quotas on sensitive products such as beef, corn, … Continue reading
April 3, 2007
by Nosemonkey
1 Comment
It’s not just in Ukraine that things are happening. All around Europe’s eastern fringe, people seem to have become a tad unsettled by the onset of Spring. In fact, the most stable country on Europe’s eastern edge seems to be … Continue reading
March 28, 2007
by Nosemonkey
15 Comments
How much happier is it possible to make our anti-EU chums than this little story, just a few days after the EU’s damp squib birthday celebrations? Mass dawn raids over EU ‘Mafia links’ More than 40 dawn raids were carried … Continue reading
March 22, 2007
by Nosemonkey
4 Comments
I know that as a good pro-EU type I should find this pathetically awful farce depressing, rather than amusing, but it’s tricky. The Berlin Declaration, for those of you who are lucky enough not to know, is the agreement German … Continue reading
March 21, 2007
by Nosemonkey
Comments Off on “The French have lost much” and become “the sick man of Europe”
So, at least, thinks Maurice Faure – France’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs 1956-8, and the last surviving original signatory of the Treaty of Rome. In an interview with Spanish paper El Pais, as the 50th anniversary of the … Continue reading
March 20, 2007
by Nosemonkey
9 Comments
2007 Inflation 2.8% Unemployment 5.4% 25 years of solid economic growth (the longest sustained period of economic growth for 150 years), currently at 2-3% 5th or 6th largest GDP in the world 1973/4 (the year Britain joined what is now … Continue reading
March 18, 2007
by Nosemonkey
1 Comment
(A quicky, as I’m still insanely busy…) With the overdue exit, stage centre-right, of Chirac it looks like France could have its first change in forever of fundamentally shifting its relations with its fellow EU member states. Pretty much since … Continue reading
March 10, 2007
by Nosemonkey
5 Comments
1) A handy short explanation of why I’ve been writing about the EU constitution here a lot recently. 2) A new bilingual blog aggregator type thing from new(ish) French news channel France 24, designed to provide an insight into the … Continue reading
March 8, 2007
by Nosemonkey
4 Comments
You thought David Cameron’s EU vision was full of platitudes and meaningless phrases? Check out those of Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett – oddly published in a Romanian newspaper, far out of sight of the British public… (via) Lots of guff … Continue reading
March 8, 2007
by Nosemonkey
2 Comments
Looks like Dave’s finally making vague moves to lay out his approach to the EU in somewhat more clear terms than “we don’t like the EU much, but we won’t tell you quite how much” and “We’ll quit the biggest … Continue reading
March 5, 2007
by Nosemonkey
2 Comments
Alternative headline: Contentious issue on which no presidential candidate has any answers is largely ignored in presidential election debates shocker! Yep, it’s not just me who’s noticed the lack of any concrete EU policies from any of the French presidential … Continue reading
March 2, 2007
by Nosemonkey
6 Comments
Centre-right French presidential candidate Nicholas Sarkozy (currently the front-runner) has been doing a bit more to set out his attitude towards the EU. He’s already announced the that he thinks (fairly sensibly) that the existing EU constitution should be heavily … Continue reading
March 1, 2007
by Nosemonkey
2 Comments
After his little upset Italian PM Romano Prodi’s managed to get through the vote of no confidence (winning by five votes – which considering how close in numbers the two main coalitions are is actually not quite as tight as … Continue reading