Second Irish referendum expected next spring
14 July 2008
The FT has an article on the expected timeframe for reviving the Lisbon Treaty following the Irish no vote. The paper notes that “The expectation elsewhere in
The Irish government last week announced the commissioning of an opinion poll to find out why its citizens voted the way they did. The report is expected to be completed by early September. EU leaders are due to hold a summit in October, although Irish officials told the paper it is unlikely the government will be in a position to present an action plan. That may have to await the December council.
The intention to revive the Treaty within this timeframe is echoed by the Spanish Europe Minister López Garrido, who is quoted in El Pais as saying, “The ideal would be a ratification of the Lisbon Treaty with sufficient time for it to be applied in the European elections.”
Irish Taoiseach Brian Cowen (in
Polish Radio reports that Polish President Kaczynski, also attending the meeting in
Prague Monitor reports that over one half of Czechs are of the view that their Parliament should not ratify the
Irish Times Irish Independent FT Rachman El Pais Prague Monitor Polish Radio FT RTE
European Parliament approves military use of Galileo satellite
Deutsche-Welle reports that the European Parliament has approved the military use of Galileo, by 502 votes to 83. The bill, proposed by German MEP Karl von Wogau, Chair of the Security and Defence sub-committee, aims to create a space surveillance system to watch out for space debris and other threats. Changes to the bill proposed by the Greens to use the system purely for civilian purposes were rejected. The text of the bill said: “The EU and NATO are expressly called upon to start up a strategic dialogue on the politics of space and missile defense.”
Comment: The British Government has repeatedly insisted that Galileo is a purely civilian project. Last year, then Transport Minister Stephen Ladyman said “Galileo remains a civil programme under civil control. This has repeatedly been confirmed by the EU Transport Council; most recently in its October 2006 Council Conclusions.”
Deutsche-Welle Hansard Theyworkforyou
Sarkozy’s plans for European army
The News of the World looked at the French proposals for a 60,000 strong EU army. It noted that Nicolas Sarkozy wants
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Irish government fears EU’s MiFID directive could damage Irish stocks, say leaked documents
According to "high-level briefing documents" seen by the Sunday Business Post, Irish officials are worried that the EU’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) may encourage Irish investors to buy stocks abroad. "Foreign investors may move away from Irish shares, given that
France has adorned the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels with a giant globe covered in the flags of the different member states, reflected in a giant mirror, but has misrepresented the Finnish one. Usually a blue cross on a white background, the French have used a white cross on a blue background.
In the Sunday Telegraph, Christopher Booker and Richard North looked at the “Great Biofuel con”, arguing that “Rarely in political history can there have been such a rapid and dramatic reversal of a received wisdom as we have seen in the past 18 months over biofuels.”
Economist Blog Sunday Telegraph
Brown aims for tougher EU Zimbabwe sanctions
The Independent and the Times report that Gordon Brown is aiming to toughen EU sanctions against
Mr Brown, speaking at the Mediterranean Union summit in
Sarkozy confirms
The French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, was quick to reaffirm, during the first meeting of the Mediterranean Union, that it will not be used to hamper or distract from
Mediterranean
Following the grand opening of the Mediterranean Union yesterday in
This approach was confirmed by Sarkozy’s speech at the summit. He said: "The goal of the summit is to learn how to love each other in the
The Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, said after the meeting that the two sides had "never been as close to the possibility of reaching an accord as we are today", despite not talking or meeting the Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad, who disappeared during Mr Olmert’s speech. On the relationship between the EU and the
With the composition, size and location to be decided by foreign ministers in November, few concrete policies came out of the meeting other than the plan for a
The Sunday Telegraph reported on disagreements over where the headquarters should be located, and the fact that the Commons EU Scrutiny Committee has questioned the added-value of the project.
Guardian Independent Telegraph leader IHT Irish Independent Focus EUobserver EUbusiness EUbusiness 2 Focus Die Presse EUbusiness 3 BBC euronews Sunday Telegraph Irish Times Le Figaro Mark Mardell 1 Mark Mardell 2 Mark Mardell 3
Writing in the Irish Times Tony Kinsella has defended the size and expense of the European Parliament arguing that, “Democracy is slow, frequently cumbersome, and therefore expensive, and all the better for it”.
In the Sunday Telegraph, Christopher Booker looked at the ‘metric martyrs’, one of whom is facing prosecution before a jury on 13 criminal charges arising from the EU laws which imposed compulsory use of metric weights and measures.
Economist: Peter Sutherland is wrong on British rapprochement with
The Economist blog looks at an article in E!Sharp written by former Commissioner Peter Sutherland. The blog notes, “The former commissioner asserts, I think correctly, that
Silvio Berlusconi has threatened that
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The Sunday Times looked at the French
El Pais looks at