Gary Gibbon
Decoding Mandelson on Europe
Peter Mandelson’s piece in the Financial Times today is a veiled warning to EU Commission boss Manuel Barroso.
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UKIP Manifesto 2010: expelling foreign criminals
UKIP Manifesto gets it wrong on the claim that the UK can’t expel foreign criminals from the another EU country.
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Gary Gibbon
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Gary Gibbon
A 50-50 chance Blair’s EU bid folds before Thursday
Three days before a special European summit, the odds are still that the EU leaders will appoint a non-English speaking former communist from Italy to represent it on foreign affairs and a low-key Belgian Prime Minister as President.
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Gary Gibbon
Cameron’s ‘realistic’ plan B for Europe
Gary Gibbon blogs on David Cameron’s latest policy over Europe.
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Gary Gibbon
Will the Tories change their EU referendum policy?
The Czech court just decided that the Lisbon Treaty is in line with Czech law.
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Gary Gibbon
Cameron wouldn’t start from Blair on EU president, but where will he end?
The Conservatives may, by default, end up supporting the sort of compromise, low-impact, low-profile, Europhile Benelux candidate that often ends up winning top European jobs and who Tories normally try to keep out.
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Jon Snow
Will Blair supersize the EU presidency?
McDonald’s pulls out of Iceland as the country eyes European Union membership. Tony Blair EU presidency rumours continue.
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Jon Snow
The Blair 'which job?' project
Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow asks why there was such a strong reaction to the idea the Tony Blair could become president of the EU.
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Jon Snow
Has Iraq sunk Blair's presidency hopes?
The presidency of Europe is slipping rapidly from Tony Blair’s hands. My sources in Brussels and elsewhere report a rapid sea change in the former prime minister’s fortunes as ratification of the Lisbon treaty creeps closer (the Czech president could reluctantly sign it within a week). Those sources tell me that Blair’s candidacy has been…
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Gary Gibbon
Iraq Inquiry could hear mountains of evidence
The Iraq Inquiry looks like being unveiled soon – maybe next week. Folk close to it are talking about mountains of evidence. Word is that the inquiry may have decided against those saying “get a lawyer.” The Hutton Inquiry used a barrister, James Dingemans QC, to question witnesses in the first round of evidence sessions.…
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France: blockades leave a dying industry
BOULOGNE, FRANCE – I’m sitting surveying the docks in Boulogne-sur-Mer – which, I’m told, is France’s premier fishing port. Not for much longer. Fishermen from Boulogne, Calais and Dunkirk have, after two days of blockades – which disrupted ferry traffic across the channel – thrown in the towel in the face of threatened fines which none…
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Jon Snow
Don't call the EU president 'moroso'
The EU President Jose Manuel Barroso is a boundless optimist. Most of our intersection yesterday was satisfactorily off the record. I say “satisfactorily” because, of course, you learn far more, and can eventually drip-feed what you learn subtly into succeeding perspectives as the months go by. But what I did learn whilst I was at…
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Does the euro answer the Eastern Question?
Europe seems to be moving into gear on the “Eastern Question” – how to stop the financial crisis in Latvia and Hungary from coming back to haunt us. EU finance ministers, meeting in Brussels ahead of a G20 summit in Sussex this weekend, say they want to double the size of IMF funds to $500bn (£362bn).…
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Meeting a PM who 'must have a death wish'
RIGA, LATVIA – I am sitting in the Latvian parliament in downtown Riga, waiting for the new Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis to show up for an interview. And the words of a local economist are ringing in my ears. “Anyone who wants to run this country must have a death wish,” he told me on the…