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BRUSSELS | It’s here. Fifty years after the launch of the European project, the first pan-European political party has been born and christened Libertas by its father, Declan Ganley. The Irish businessman started Libertas as a lobby group in 2006. Now he has registered the name as a European political party and applied for European Union funding. He recently opened an office in Brussels and is hiring staff to help recruit Libertas lists in several countries for the European Parliament elections next June. His ambition is to secure Libertas IE, Libertas CZ, Libertas UK, Libertas PL and so on.

Since nearly all EU states have already voted yes to the Lisbon Treaty, that call translates as: “Vote for politicians who are against the treaty but who are at the same time ‘pro-European.’” Ganley repeatedly underlined this point in his Brussels appearance: “This is a pro-European platform and I don’t want that message to be diluted. I’m not a euroskeptic.”

Do the traditional tools of governance make sense in the decidedly nontraditional political entity that is the European Union? Or are the realities of the unique EU system generating new, and sometimes eclectic approaches to policymaking? Responding to these questions, "Innovative Governance in the European Union" explores the emergence and development of governance approaches in a wide range of policy areas.The book's strong conceptual framework coupled with extensive empirical studies allows systematic comparison across EU policy areas. It also sheds light on the politics of policymaking in the context of the incentives and constraints set by the EU's institutional structure. Taken as a whole, it provides a comprehensive and authoritative overview of the forms of governance now emerging in the European Union.It also explores the emergence and development of innovative governance approaches in a wide range of EU policy areas.

EU member states have begun talks on who could be the next Special Representative of the bloc in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with five countries having declared official candidates for the job. The UK, Greece, Estonia, Austria and Italy had put forward potential candidates by Monday (9 February), diplomatic sources told EUobserver, not excluding the possibility of more candidates emerging in the next days.

Once member states complete the list of candidates to replace him, it is to be submitted to EU high representative Javier Solana who is to make a final proposal to the Political and Security Committee (PSC) – a key EU foreign policy body. The final candidate will then be endorsed by EU member states.

Final approval by the Peace Implementation Council – the body regrouping all countries engaged in supervising the peace process in Bosnia – in March would mark the end of the process. EU member states at the end of last year expressed their readiness to "step up" the EU role in Bosnia and Herzegovina and to work to achieve a "transition from the Office of the High Representative (OHR) to a stronger European Union presence." However, Bosnia's slow pace of reforms could put in doubt the closure of the OHR (planned for June) and consequently the reinforcement of the EU's role.

A large majority of Serbs still want their country to join the EU (63.9%), although the figure has dropped compared to last October, when 71.5% voiced their support for EU accession, reveals the poll, which was released yesterday (9 April).  However, 71.3% of Serbian citizens consider it unacceptable that the possibility of EU membership is made conditional on Serbia's recognition of its former province's secession. 

Serbia's Kosovo Minister Slobodan Samardzic added that it would be interesting to see whether the EU would continue the stabilisation and association process now that Kosovo is an independent state.  "Should the EU happen to do that, and does it only with independent states, that would automatically mean that the EU was breaching Article 135 of our agreement on stabilisation and association with the EU, where Kosovo's position is clearly defined," the minister explained. 

Governments Kosovar Constitutional Commission: Kosovo's Constitution Press articles B92.net: Poll: Serbians want EU, but not without Kosovo B92.net: Tadić speaks against interference in elections BBC: Kosovo adopts a new constitution

French president Nicolas Sarkozy will today (16 June) fly to Prague for emergency talks on the Lisbon Treaty with the prime ministers of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, with Czech president Vaclav Klaus declaring the treaty dead after the Irish No vote. "The project is over in its entirety," Czech president Vaclav Klaus said after the rejection of the EU pact by Irish voters last week, AFP reports. "It makes no sense to continue the ratification of a dead document."

The Czech Republic will take over the EU's rotating presidency from France on 1 January 2009. So far, parliaments in 18 EU member states have approved the Lisbon treaty. The UK has also indicated it would proceed with the document's ratification.

Meanwhile, an adviser to Polish president Lech Kaczynski – who still has to complete Poland's ratification by signing the document – has said that Mr Kaczynski should know whether the Lisbon treaty exists before he goes forward. "For now, there is a strong suggestion the treaty may have ceased to exist as it was rejected by one [EU] country," the presidential aide, Michal Kaminski, told Polish daily Rzeczpospolita. The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, is strongly pro-ratification, however. A TNS OBOP opinion poll over the weekend said 71 percent of Poles would back the treaty if there was a referendum in Poland.

The international community has pledged to invest €1.2 billion toward the rebuilding of Kosovo, with the European Commission alone putting aside €508 million to fill in the gaps in Pristina's financial needs from 2009 to 2013.

Kosovo, which seceded from Serbia in February of this year, is one of Europe's most under-developed economies and is highly dependent on foreign subsidies. From 1999 to 2007, when under the direct administration of the United Nations, Pristina benefitted from over €3.5 billion in reconstruction assistance. However, the official unemployment rate remains a worrying 43 percent, with youth unemployment estimated even higher, at around 60 percent. Kosovo's economy grew by 4.4 percent in 2007, with an inflation rate of 13.6 percent as of April, 2008. The largest chunk of money for Kosovo is to come from the European Commission, followed by an American contribution of some $400 million. Beyond the EU's own funds, member state Germany has pledged €100 million, and the UK has confirmed an aid package worth £23 million.

Europe will this week try and pick up the political pieces following Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon Treaty, but the relatively high turnout at the ballot box, the wide margin and the jumble of reasons for the No vote mean an exit strategy will be hard to find.

Scrambling for a solution The next few days are likely to everyone "scrambling" for a legal solution to the quandary, an EU diplomat told EUobserver adding that there is no answer stored away in a "vault" somewhere. Germany's foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said "[The question is whether] Ireland for a certain time can clear the way for an integration of the remaining 26 [member states]." But all countries need to ratify the Lisbon Treaty for it to come into force. UK liberal MEP Andrew Duff and constitutional affairs expert said attempts to find some sort of legal half-way house are "nonsense."

The European Commission has called for ratification of the Lisbon treaty to continue, despite the No result in Ireland's referendum. "This vote should not be seen as a vote against the EU… [It] has not solved the problems which the Lisbon Treaty is designed to solve," commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said in Brussels on Friday (13 June).

"The ratification process is made up of 27 national processes, 18 Member States have already approved the Treaty, and the European Commission believes that the remaining ratifications should continue to take their course," he added.

In a joint statement later on, France and Germany also called for the ratification of the Lisbon treaty to continue. "The ratification procedure has already been achieved in 18 countries. Therefore we hope that the other member states will continue the process," the Franco-German declaration reads. Britain has already said it would press ahead with the ratification, according to the BBC.

EU leaders on Monday (1 September) agreed to postpone talks on a new EU-Russia partnership until Russian troops withdraw from Georgia following the insistence of a bloc of member states.

The talks on a new treaty defining the EU relations with Russia were scheduled to take place later this month, but pressed by the demand of several member states, it was decided this would be tied to Russian withdrawal from Georgia. The postponement modifies a previously circulated draft version of the summit's conclusion that took a softer stance on the issue of talks.

Poland – one of the countries pushing for the suspension – hailed the final declaration as a victory and insisted its position was not isolated. "We were not alone, we were acting within a group," including also the Czech Republic, the Baltic States - Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, the UK and Sweden, Polish President Lech Kaczynski told journalists.