EU Reporter

Sizing up Russian-NATO relations

June 30 2009
Needless to say, Russia-NATO relations have reached a crisis. Of course, relations between post-Soviet Russia and NATO were never really normal, and so we should take the term crisis with a grain of salt. Indeed, one might describe the current crisis as the new normal, a situation that reflects essential differences between the political and military visions and interests of each party. These differences become all the more clear when one considers Russia-NATO relations in strictly military term... Read more

Countdown to Copenhagen: Russia disappoints environmentalists.

June 25 2009
 Shortly after taking office, at a meeting in the Kremlin in June 2008, Russian  President Medvedev called for higher standards of environmental protection and for the state to finance renewable energy projects. In a rare comment on ecological concerns in Russia’s rapid-growth economy, he was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying “If we think only of the energy wasted in our heating networks, our country is first in the world: It is a bad record...with respect to energy efficiency, the... Read more

New Conservative group united

June 24 2009
Conservative Members of the European Parliament were today celebrating 'unity of purpose' for their European Conservative and Reform Group (ECR) in the face of rumours that at least two members were planning to stay in the European Peoples Party (EPP) group.  Roger Helmer MEP told EU Reporter that the Conservative MEPs had enjoyed a "first class constituency meeting" and were united.... Read more

New Group in Parliament Confident of Expansion

June 23 2009
  The new anti-federalist group in the European Parliament says it will continue to attract new members even after it officially declares its membership tomorrow. The new European Conservatives and Reformist Group, which will be dominated by the British Conservatives, who, in accordance of the plans of leader David Cameron and his tough-talking foreign spokesman William Hague, have finally broken away from the centre-right EPP, have come under much press criticism for not only marginal... Read more

Climate change and the Swedish Presidency

June 18 2009
Today in Brussels, the Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen outlined his hopes for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, to be held in Copenhagen in December. He spoke of the need for the international community to "develop targets, and to show real commitment"  to mitigating climate change. He also spoke of the need to ensure consistency between the pace that is set, and the time we plan to reach our goals. Read more

How independent is Europe's power generation capability?

June 17 2009
In January of this year, following the shutting off of gas supplies through the Ukraine, there were harsh words being spoken on both sides. At a meeting in the European Parliament, British conservative MEP Charles Tannock asked how the Russians could justify raising prices, the catalyst for the dispute,  given the plummeting prices of both natural gas and oil. "Gazprom seems to be a branch of the Russian foreign ministry", he said, echoing other comments about the political nature of the dispu... Read more

Brave men....

June 15 2009
There are some brave people in politics. Its always easy to identify the individuals, people like Zimbabwe's Morgan Tsvangirai for example. He fought a very dangerous battle against the Mugabe regime, and many observers might feel that he is lucky to be alive today. In fact, just weeks after being sworn in as Prime Minister of his country on February 11th 2009, he was involved in a car crash that took the life of his wife of 31 years, Susan, and left him seriously injured. Despite being hampered... Read more

Newspeak budgets

June 07 2009
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Taxpayers aid eurosceptics

May 18 2009
The way things are looking it is likely that the parliamentary accounts will be under close scrutiny in the autumn. Read more

War Games in Georgia: Bad Timing!

May 12 2009
     NATO exercises currently being conducted in Georgia are ill-timed and provocative, writes Gary Cartwright. Read more

A challenging time for Conservatives

May 07 2009
BRUSSELS –OPINION: The British media has a curious view of Brussels and even more so of the European Parliament and its coverage of the Conservative decision to break with the Christian Democrat allies the EPP is a classic example of misconstrued reporting. Read more

Did they hear the shot?

May 05 2009
  STRASBOURG, FRANCE: The differences couldn’t be greater: while Euro-Group president, Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, warns of possible social unrest and dangers of up-risings due to economic decline, EU Commissioners Danuta Huebner and Vladimir Spidla, responsible for social affairs and the labour market, praise the “cohesion policy” and the introduction of the hire & fire principle known as ‘flexicurity’ under the so called ‘Lisbon strategy’ as the �... Read more

Millions for wasting: recession for the rest of us

May 04 2009
As the European economic crisis continues to spiral downwards with jobs lost in almost every sector the European Parliament has ordered the contractors running EuroparlTV to allocate “stupendous sums” buying in professional talent to try to get its viewing figures up from a reported “abysmal 900 viewers”. The report to EU Reporter comes hot on the heels of a report that the EU economic situation will not allow it to help an increasingly ageing population. Also Monday Joaquín Almunia, EU... Read more

Tory resignation no surprise

May 03 2009
Conservative members of the European Parliament were dismissing the reported resignation of one of their delegation from the Conservative party as news broke. Christopher Beazley had let it be known that he was resigning from the Conservative Party over the decision to leave the Christian Democrat European People’s Party (EPP).But with only days to go until the final session of the parliament ends at Strasbourg senior Conservatives were shrugging off the news that Mr Beazley, who is not standi... Read more

Glacial melt - impending disaster?

April 30 2009
 The world's glaciers are continuing to melt away with the latest official figures showing record losses, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) announced last year.  Prof. Wilfried Haeberli, of Zurich University said: "The latest figures are part of what appears to be an accelerating trend with no apparent end in sight.""This continues the trend in accelerated ice loss during the past two and a half decades and brings the total loss since 1980 to more than 10.5 metres of water equivalent," s... Read more