I’ve already had my say on the Spitzenkandidaten-process-debate. Yet, over the weekend, I had to laugh about the absurdity of one quote in Simon Nixon‘s Wall Street Journal blog post “Blame Merkel, not Cameron, for Juncker Mess“. Here’s what he wrote “Mr. Juncker is being foisted on the European Council by the European Parliament as a […]
In the article “Classifying Secrets in the EU” (paywall, JCMS 53(3)) by EU Council official David Galloway, the world of secret EU documents has found its way into mainstream EU-related political science. And in “Overseeing Secrets in the EU: A Democratic Perspective” by Prof. Deirdre Curtin (also JCMS 53(3)), this world of classified EU documents has been […]
After having read the minutes of the European Commission meeting of 14 May, I feel so, so sorry for the European Commission. In their discussion about the (then) upcoming European elections, all the Commissioners and the outgoing President Barroso seemed to think about was how unfairly they are treated (p. 16): “Turning to the European […]
On the last day of the European elections, I wrote that the post-electoral period will not be about the actual results but about how they are interpreted. And seeing the debates of the last week or so, I feel kind of confirmed. A heavily retweeted article from Jan Techau published today is just the last […]
Tonight, tomorrow, and Tuesday will be less about the results of the European Parliament elections, it will be all about spinning messages around the results of the European Parliament elections. If the pre-electoral polls are only roughly right, there may be a party with the largest number of seats, but there will be no clear […]
The European Commission has a gender balance problem. The EU institutions’ leadership has a gender balance problem. And 2014 doesn’t seem to be the year where this will change. Bruxelles2‘s research has shown that, so far, only 5 out 28 EU member states have female candidates lined up for the next College of Commissioners, and […]
If you have been following European politics and media, online and offline, for the past 5-6 years, you cannot but notice the genesis of a European Public Sphere . This sphere may be more or less evolved depending on national media, but it is clearly there – much more than it was before the last […]
Watching the ARTE documentary on video games earlier this week, seeing @notch – a Swede with 1.4 million followers, take that @carlbildt (240k followers) or European Parliament (1.08 million Likes on FB) – appear on the Late Late Show on Thursday, and remembering the failed attempt to create (i.e. bring to active life) Citzalia, I wondered whether there was an […]
Little slip by the European Parliament President on Twitter tonight, or by whoever writes his Twitter account. The tweet was online for 10 minutes, and then disappeared. Just before it was erased, it had 130 retweets, and so I thought I’d preserve that. Many seemed to think that this was Schulz’ comment ahead of next […]
The leaders of states and governments of 28 European countries (Croatia included) are able to agree over a long-term budget worth 959 988 000 000 Euros (in commitments) 11 months before this budget period starts. The leader of the directly elected European Parliament involving 754 members from 27 European countries (plus the Croatian observers) is able […]