Europe

Europe's economic and foreign policy government

Submitted by Anthony Zacharzewski on 1 March 2010 - 5:54pm

Herman van Rompuy is not known as a charismatic politician but, if you have time to read it, he gave a very thoughtful speech yesterday at the College of Europe in Bruges.

In it, he talks about the role of the European Council (rather than the Eurozone ministers or the Parliament) as Europe's nascent "economic government", and the difficulty of creating co-ordinated foreign policy among 27 state actors with different histories and outlooks.

On economics and the eurozone, van Rompuy said:

Not backwards to the Greeks, forward with the Greeks

Submitted by Anthony Zacharzewski on 11 February 2010 - 1:15pm

Tomorrow, I'll have time - I hope - to write something longer about the democratic implications of the Greek bailout, and any conditions that are imposed on Greece in consequence of its financial position and Euro membership.

Pretending to control interest rates

Submitted by Anthony Zacharzewski on 10 February 2010 - 11:52am

Conservative Home has the highlights of David Cameron's interview with the Express this morning.

One of the points Mr Cameron makes is that he will never allow the UK to join the Euro. He says:

"I was in the Treasury when we were in the Exchange Rate mechanism, and I said to myself: “Never again should we give up control of our domestic interest rates.” If I am Prime Minister and for as long as I would be Prime Minister, I would never take Britain into the euro, full stop, end of story."

This is an odd statement, not because of its dogmatic certainty (he is talking to the Daily Express, after all) but because when Mr Cameron worked for Norman Lamont, the Chancellor did control domestic interest rates. Since interest-rate powers are now with the Bank of England, Prime Minister Cameron will not be able to control them.

Eurabia: No such thing

Submitted by Anthony Zacharzewski on 8 January 2010 - 10:37am
The Brookings' Institution's Justin Vaïsse takes apart the Eurabia myth in this excellent short piece inForeign Policy. He points out the concept's stylistic links to fear of "Eurocommunism" in the 50s and general anti-European and anti-internationalist sentiments on the American right, and correctly positions Melanie Phillips as "on the fringe far right" in European debate. Here's some of the good stuff:
If these books insist so much on the future

Cameron and Europe

Submitted by Anthony Zacharzewski on 10 December 2009 - 1:47pm
No time for blogging today, but here's an interesting short paper (pdf) from Charles Grant of the Centre for European Reform, talking about how a Cameron government, and David Cameron himself, will handle European issues.

A day to remember

Submitted by Anthony Zacharzewski on 1 December 2009 - 5:53pm
Today is a day to remember - I'm serious. Here's Dan Hannan, MEP, on his blog this morning:
Britain is no longer a sovereign nation.

Democracy denied in Switzerland

Submitted by Anthony Zacharzewski on 30 November 2009 - 9:36pm
The news from Switzerland is bad, not just for the overwhelmingly moderate Swiss Muslim population, but also for democratic reformers in general. Anyone arguing against democratic reform can now say - "let the people have their say, and you'll get racism and discrimination, like in Switzerland". What's worse, a minority in British politics see such populist racism and discrimination as positive reasons for more participatory democracy.

Lock, stock

Submitted by Anthony Zacharzewski on 4 November 2009 - 5:01pm
David Cameron has promised a new "referendum lock" - a piece of legislation that will require referendums to be held under certain circumstances. Here's the relevant extract from his speech:
Never again should it be possible for a British government to transfer power to the EU without the say of the British people.

A disgusting use for a noble phrase

Submitted by Anthony Zacharzewski on 4 November 2009 - 4:26pm
Truly, the persecution complex of the Eurosceptic movement knows no bounds. According to his announcement today, David Cameron is going to make "Never Again" the slogan of his European campaign. Never Again? Never Again, over the breach of some pissant referendum promise that should never have been made on an issue that no-one cares about? Has David Cameron no sense or understanding of history?

Europe's birthers

Submitted by Anthony Zacharzewski on 3 November 2009 - 11:12pm
Charlemagne on his blog, says:
What are British voters meant to hear [from William Hague's remarks about loss of British vetoes today]? The same thing that Czech voters are meant to hear [from Pres Klaus's statement on signing the treaty]. That something very grave—the loss of Czech sovereignty, the “loss of British national vetoes” has taken place—but that their political leaders are powerless to prevent it.
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