Group items tagged

My own hunch is that they will try to find a way to enforce the Lisbon treaty without the non-ratifiers. As a first step, they will try to offer the No-sayers a quit-and-rejoin deal. It would be the least divisive option of all, but unfortunately, it may also be one of the least realistic. It would obviously require their consent, which is far from assured. In Ireland’s case it may require a referendum to get out and another one to get back in.If this is not possible, there are several other options involving varying degrees of involuntary separation. For example, everybody would formally remain inside the EU on the basis of the Nice treaty, but the ratifiers would organise their areas of co-operation outside the EU and its institutions – on foreign policy, immigration, economic governance, maybe even on energy and the environment. They could do so using the provisions of Lisbon treaty or any other rules they choose among themselves.

News editors and experts from European, national and regional media will have their say about Vice-President Wallström's new Communication Strategy in a stakeholder conference in Helsinki next week.

German leader Angela Merkel has strongly defended the independence of the European Central Bank (ECB), saying she is "worried" about the debate over the euro in France. The German chancellor in a weekend interview with French daily Le Monde took a firm stance against the idea of increased political control of the ECB promoted recently by French politicians - including both top contenders for France's May presidential elections, Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal.

Member states and MEPs clinched an informal deal on the EU's REACH chemicals safety bill on Thursday night (30 November) in a text that tries to steer a middle way between industry and environmental concerns but is likely to draw fire from pro-green pressure groups.

Celebrations have already begun to mark Bulgaria's and Romania's accession to the European Union on January 1. But while plenty of fireworks may greet the day in Sofia and Bucharest, elsewhere there is not much sign of the display of pomp that greeted the "class of 2004". Instead of celebrating the achievements of two states that were ravaged by 50 years of communist rule and which have prepared themselves for membership in a short period, "old" Europe seems disinterested in their accession, beyond the threat (or promise) of cheap labour.

This timely, comprehensive and authoritative study provides much food for thought for European policy makers, particularly in the current situation of uncertainty about the Lisbon Treaty. The authors' basically upbeat findings - that, despite the arrival of twelve new member states in one big bang and one after shock, it has been pretty much business as usual for the EU's institutions - will comfort both those who worried about the EU's capacity to act in the absence of institutional reform and those who argued that such reform was unnecessary. But the editors identify a number of emerging dynamics that will be of concern to all who care about the Union's democratic future: increasing formalisation of meetings and procedures on the one hand, coupled with an increase in informal, pre-cooked deals on the other; increasing primacy of the administrative over the political; and a growing trend towards "presidentialisation" within the institutions, with continued efficiency requiring more emphasis on the "primus" than on the "pares". The editors conclude that, while the European Union's institutional system continues to function and might even become more efficient, the price to be paid could further distance the Union from the citizens it seeks to serve.'

The European Commission has praised the smooth changeover to the euro in the two newest eurozone member countries, Cyprus and Malta, while the effect on their overall inflation rates is to be evaluated later.

In comparison, the 2007 switchover to the euro in Slovenia was followed by higher prices for some services, such as restaurants and cafes. Meanwhile, figures late last year indicated a significant rise in overall consumer price inflation in the ex-Yugoslav country, with the commission predicting an average level of 3.5 percent in 2007 and 3.7 percent in 2008, compared to 2.5 percent in 2006.