You are in:
- Contents » European Democracy
A Place In The Sun
The European Commission's Institute for Energy is studying proposals to build "solar farms" covering an area the size of Wales in the Sahara and Middle Eastern deserts, claiming that 0.3 percent of light falling on these regions could provide the EU with all its energy needs.
The scheme has the backing of Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy, it is reported. Combined with "EU windfarms" in the North and Baltic Seas, the continents energy needs could be met with natural energy alone: Some nations, like Britain and Denmark, could export power to needy countries further south.
It is costed at just under £36 billion (€45.5bn) and would involve laying cables under the sea between Morocco and Spain and Sicily and Tunisia. The "daunting" costs reported in the Guardian also include restructuring the entire infrastructures of "transfer" nations such as Greece and Turkey.
France Reveals EU Navy Plans
Here's one that got away - France is proposing a European Union "carrier group" and joint fleet of military transports in a bid to boost the EU military.
Turkish PM Takes On Secular State
It's a pity the media is not paying more attention to recent goings-on in Turkey, where the country's constitutional court struck down a law permitting headscarves in public buildings earlier this month.
The law was proposed in the name of "religious freedom" by PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan's mildly/formerly Islamist (delete as applicable) AK Party.
The court vetoed it, infuriating party activists; all seemed set for yet another clash between the popular AKP and Turkey's post Ataturk secular establishment (some courts, the army, many urban intellectuals). Secular Turks are uneasy that unelected courts, and, as a last resort, the generals, stand in the way of the "creeping Islamification" which has taken place since AKP came to power. Is the undemocratic state preferable to the Islam becoming a powerful force in public life?
The Secret State
What are they hiding?
The European Commission has come under fire for planning to limit access to policy documents - in some cases, denying that certain papers exist.
In what the Times describes as a "strongly worded attack", the European Ombudsman warned that the plans would break promises of openness and transparency due to citizens of EU member states.
Tables In Two Cities
Where is it cheaper to buy French-made groceries ? Berlin or Paris? The logical answer would be the capital of France. Wrong. Berlin is the winner.
CAP And Food Prices
Europe's Common Agricultural Policy sees farmers subsidised to the tune of €45-55 billion per year, a whopping 40 percent of the EU's total budget (France alone gets €9 billion from CAP). Despite endless calls for reform from governments with smaller agricultural sectors, including Britain, and criticism from NGOs that CAP subsidies harm developing world farmers, there is little chance that the system is likely to change soon.
Brown's Declaration Of Interdependence
For some reason the British media saw fit to ignore the keynote foreign policy speech Gordon Brown delivered at the John F Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston last month.
In the speech, the Prime Minister gave hints as to the future foreign policy of the UK, implying that the US too should join in its great endeavour to respond to global challenges by investing in international bodies. US critics have condemned Brown's speech as an attack on US sovereignty on a par with King George III's imperiousness.
The Other King Of England
EURSOC has spent much time discussing the constitutional vandalism carried out by the British government. Most of the repercussions of this tinkering and "modernisation" will be felt years or even decades hence, and few will end well for Britons.
The Act of Settlement - a 1701 law which prevented Catholics from taking the throne, ensuring it passed to the House of Hanover - is said to be high on the list of Gordon Brown's reforms. The Presbyterian PM is said to be stung by criticism that the Act discriminates against Catholics, and is said to be considering repealing it.
Belgium Gets Government (It No Longer Wants)
Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Nine months after the last general election, Belgian politicians have finally agreed on the shape of the nation's new government. Flemish Christian Democrat leader Yves Leterme will step up as Prime Minister on Thursday: He was expected to become PM shortly after his party came ahead in last June's election, but was unable to reach a deal with representatives from Belgium's French-speaking end.
Unfortunately, voters seem to have cooled on Mr Leterme and his "government" has slumped in polls, even before it assumes the position.
Party Politics
Devil's Kitchen points to Trixy who points to an article by UK IP leader Nigel Farage about reports that Portugal is banning political parties with fewer than 5000 members.
Worse Things Happen At Sea
The president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, had a cunning plan for a 'Mediterranean Union'. It was one of the key points of his victory speech on the night of the presidential election. Those nations with shores bordering the Med - including France, Italy and Spain but also Cyprus and Israel, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya - should bring their common historical and cultural heritage into a formal "Club Med".
Eurosceptic Targeted In Funding Scam?
Britain's most outspoken anti-Brussels Euro-MP has been accused of paying his son to work as an assistant, despite the 19-year-old being a full-time student.
The Times reports that the UK Independence Party's Nigel Farage is being paid via has father's EU expenses allowance. The newspaper adds that the revelation comes at an embarrassing time for Farage, as he has been "an outspoken critic of MEPs exploiting the EU “gravy train”".
UPDATE: Farage has denied the Times claim. See remarks from reader Trixy in the Comments section below for the UKIP Statement. Thanks to Trixy for sending this in.
Saying No To Blair
What unites far-right nationalists, swivel-eyed Eurofanatics, neolithic Communists and muesli-munching Greens? A shared determination to ensure Tony Blair is not crowned President of Europe.
Rod Liddle is excellent on this in the Spectator. As usual with Liddle, there's just too much good stuff to pull out the odd quote, read the lot.
From The Horse's Mouth
Former French Prime Minister tells it like it is
Here's a quote from former PM of France, Edouard Balladur, in an article castigating Tony Blair for imagining that he would make a good European President:
"The EU's president must fulfil two conditions in order to carry out the role properly and to be accepted by everyone: first, to come from a country that is completely in step with the EU's forward march and that participates in all its different forms of co-operation; and, secondly, to be determined to build the independence of Europe, notably in the diplomatic and military fields."
It Couldn't Happen Here
Richard Littlejohn asks why Britain can't have inspiring politicians like Hillary, Obama or McCain.
Le inventeur de franglais est morte
The inventor of the term 'Franglais', Miles Kington, is dead. But his legacy is beaucoup endurable.
Meet Your New Alien Overlord
Blair's bid for EU Presidency snuffed out as Eurocrats rally to veteran federalist
He might have the backing of France's President Sarkozy, but Britain's former Prime Minister Tony Blair appears to have failed to convince senior EU officials that he is the man for the job as the first President of the European Council.
Reuters is reporting that Blair's failure to bring Britain into the European mainstream during his ten-year premiership is one of the key reasons EU diplomats are opposing his candidacy. His support for the invasion of Iraq and his "divisive nature", because of his reputed affection for free-market principles, are also held against him in many European capitals.
Two Sides To Every Serbian Story
Yesterday, Serbs voted the "pro-western" "liberal" Boris Tadic a second five-year term, defeating what the Guardian describes as the "extreme nationalist" Tomislav Nikolic. Other observers variously describe Nikolic as "hardline" and "pro-Moscow."
Hot In Herre
Patio heaters and an unforeseen effect of the smoking ban
Commentators on the EURSOC threads on smoking bans claim thousands of pubs face closure because of the ban; French cafés and nightclubs have seen business drop by 20 percent. Anecdotal evidence by our roaming reporter EURSOC Three suggests that numerous café and bar owners in the Paris region have a gloomy outlook on their future.
This weekend, your correspondent discovered another unforeseen effect of the smoking ban, which has driven French smokers from the bars onto the streets. Staying with friends who live on a street lined with popular bars and cafés, his hosts complained that since the ban was introduced, they have barely had a decent night's sleep: Dozens of smokers congregate outside the bar on the ground floor of their apartment block, and the noise of their gossiping and partying keeps them awake into the early hours.
The Paymasters Of Brussels
"Is there anyone out there who just happens independently to come to the view that the Lisbon Treaty is a Good Thing? Without being paid to say that, I mean?", asks Daniel Hannan in the Telegraph blogs.
The wise and venerable Archbishop Cranmer reports that Foreign Secretary David Miliband has been claiming, to general mirth, that the Commission of Bishops has "come out" in support of the Constitution.
Well, they would say that, wouldn't they? Not least because this "Roman Catholic-led ecumenical body (...) is financed by the European Union to produce reports singing the praises of said union with all glory, laud and honour."
EU Whistleblower Cleared
Remember Hans-Martin Tillack? He was the German journalist who investigated corruption in the EU, only to be rewarded with an EU-ordered visit from Belgian cops, who confiscated his laptop, searched his home and held him for ten hours without access to lawyers. His notebooks were seized, and police demanded to know who his sources were. Five years of work uncovering EU corruption was confiscated by the people he was investigating.
Tillack says the police, who were acting on orders from the EU's anti-fraud office, told him "I was lucky I wasn't in Burma or central Africa, where journalists get the real treatment."
This week, the former Stern correspondent was cleared of wrongdoing following a three year court battle.
Inside Europe
Who'd have thought that the best inside look at the workings of the European Parliament we've read for years would come from the Euro-friendly Observer?
There's More To Life Than GDP (But Not Much More)
A conference at the European Parliament has been told that GDP is an insufficient measure of a nation's overall health. Measures such as how far the nation goes in combatting global warming and social division should also be taken into account, the conference heard. One centre-right Swedish MP said that these indicators could one day become as important as the measurement of GDP is today.
Public Safety & The Human Rights Act
Here's a comment From a EURSOC reader "Know your Rights" originally posted following our report on Italy's expulsion of Romanian immigrants.
"Many EU countries routinely chuck out foreigners, like France who are currently deporting en masse.
"Britain's rulers like to hide behind the EU on this issue and to pretend that the European Convention of Human Rights prohibits the expulsion of terrorists and other criminals when this is clearly not the case."
Italy & Romania Meet On Expulsions
Italy and Romania's Prime Ministers will meet tomorrow to smooth relations soured by Italy's expulsion of Romanian citizens.
Following the horrific murder of an Italian woman, Giovanna Reggiani, Italy's authorities pushed through an emergency decree allowing for the immediate expulsion without trial of any immigrants deemed to represent a threat to public safety. A Romanian migrant belonging to the Roma ethnic group has been charged with Mrs Reggiani's murder.
The decree follows several years in which concerns have been voiced about the disproportionate number of crimes committed by immigrants in Italy: A number of high-profile cases have caused particular outcry.
The issue has complicated relations between the two EU nations (Romania joined the Union as a full member this year). While most EU countries (including Italy and Britain) have refused to relax working restrictions on Romanian and Bulgarian citizens, there is no law preventing EU citizens travelling to and settling in another EU nation. Up to half a million are thought to have migrated to Italy. According to EU law, however, ejecting those immigrants once they've arrived can be a tricky business.
Europeans And Globalisation
Some poll data suggesting that Europeans are becoming suspicious of globalisation published in the FT. The poll of 1,000 people (online) in Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Spain and the United States shows an increase in support for higher taxes for the rich - and even large majorities supporting pay caps for executives in Britain, France, Italy and Spain.
The most popular answer for whether or not globalisation is having a positive effect was "not sure." Only in Germany was globalisation popular, with nearly 40 percent of people polled believing it was a positive thing. Interestingly, globalisation is even less popular in the US than in France.
The Empire Strikes Back
Can you believe José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, describing the EU as "an empire?"
Here's a YouTube clip of his speech, courtesy of EUX.TV (we found it on the marvellous England Expects blog.
Sarko The Sceptic?
An odd article in the Herald Trib asks if Nicolas Sarkozy isn't the free market liberal he poses as, but is instead an old-fashioned Gaullist.
Human Rights And Wrongs
Following on from yesterday's EURSOC post on how Britain seems to be the only country in the EU that applies European legislation in its entirety, The Sun runs a feature on the most prominent abuses of the European Human Rights Act.
Little Europeans
Despite claims to the contrary, the British are the EU's model citizens
Following Blair’s questionable deal on the European constitution Mark II a chorus of lamenting Europeans asked "Why does Britain always drag its feet over Europe? Why can't perfidious Albion get over its past?” Valery Giscard d'Estaing, former French president and constitutional architect went further and called for Britain to be thrown out of the EU altogether for daring to negotiate against the ‘spirit’ of the Union.
This tired line has become so predictable. It is part and parcel of the recurring charade that comes every few years when a new treaty is dreamt up to further integrate European nations and put more power into centralized rule from Brussels. Britain pretends to negotiate an exception; the Europeans pretend to be horrified; the politicians pretend they will call a referendum and everything carries on in the same fashion until the next treaty, eight thousand directives later.
Meanwhile, Britain has become the most European of all European nations.
For Better, For Worse
Europe's richer regions are getting fed up with paying for their poorer neighbours, the Guardian reports.
The European Exodus
If Europe is so great, why are so many Europeans leaving?
Europe is a continent of migrants. This was always so: Its geography, as a fertile, temperate peninsula sandwiched between desert and arctic; its history, torn by war for a millennium; and then a haven of relative peace and prosperity in the shadow of Soviet totalitarianism and African colonial struggles saw to that.
People have always left Europe, too, fleeing poverty, famine, then Nazi or Communist oppression. But for fifty years, Europe has been a continent people migrated to, rather than from. Now, however, there are disturbing reports that hundreds of thousands of Europeans are leaving the continent. What's more, they tend to be its most educated and dynamic people.
Is Cameron The New Chirac?
Sarkozy's victory makes a mockery of David Cameron’s Tories and European centre-ground politics
France’s presidential landslide victory for Nicolas Sarkozy, an unabashed radical conservative who campaigned on the basis of “sweeping away the legacy of 1968” (the emotional and intellectual icon of modern Socialist France), shows that the French public is totally sick and tired of the ruling establishment’s permanent drift to the left.
Having It All
Where's the best place to find serious conservative commentary in the British press? We're thinking that the Telegraph's Political Blogs are picking up stories that the newspaper edition chooses to ignore.
Yesterday, we were impressed by Damian Thompson's look at the liberal elite. Today, Tory Euro-MP Dan Hannan reports on the shocking double standards of left-wing members of the European Parliament.
Good Governance
Two good articles on government worth looking out for. In Prospect Magazine there's a fine examination of how a light but deft government touch revived London's fortunes as a financial capital and world city. The feature offers a few questions on how the city will cope with challenges arising mostly from its own success: Housing, transport, resentment from London - and Britain's - have-nots.
Meanwhile, blogger Tim Worstall comments on different, and often opposing views of Americans and Europeans on the role of government.
UK Votes Lords Reform
British MPs have voted for wholesale changes to the way the country is governed, with a large majority of parliamentarians supporting a 100 percent elected upper house.
Jack Straw, the Commons Leader, has said that he can't "put the genie back in the bottle" and will press ahead with change.
Brussels Knows Best
The European Commission has decided that this is the moment to intervene in the presidential race in France.
Jacques Barrot, France's European commissioner and the EU's transport chief, has told correspondents in Brussels that he wants France to "resume its leadership in Europe".
The FT reports that Barrot chided his countrymen for their "arrogant" isolated position in Europe, and that France had to shake off its "whingeing, pessimistic and defensive" attitude.
Le Pen Excluded?
Le Pen rails against electoral skullduggery - his party accused of buying votes
France's far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen is struggling to collect the 500 sponsors required to seal his presidential bid.
The deadline for applications is in two weeks; M Le Pen is still 100 signatures short. A quirk of the French presidential election system is that candidates must persuade 500 elected officials to sponsor their candidacy. As there are 42,000 elected figures in France - many the mayors of small communes and often not affiliated to a major party - finding 500 for a politician of Le Pen's stature shouldn't prove too difficult. Hard to imagine that a politician who can command 12-14 percent of the opinion polls might be excluded from the presidential vote.
However, this year he says that many officials who promised their support have been intimidated into withdrawing.
Overcoming Democracy
EU federalists plot means to avoid a vote on the Constitution
As the BBC reports, European governments are meeting behind closed doors to discuss how best to re-introduce the European Constitution without provoking a referendum in one or more nations.
The treaty was rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005. Tony Blair promised Britons a vote on the document before Britain ratified it - a vote polls indicated he was all but certain to lose. Ireland's constitution demands a referendum, too, and the Irish have previously rejected the Nice treaty in 2001. The Irish were then asked to vote again and the following year came back with the "correct" reply.
Germany, currently holding the rotating EU presidency and desperate for a Euro-achievement after a run of presidencies which have ranged from disastrous to acrimonious and then to boring, is concentrating its efforts on pushing the treaty through.
How to get round a vote this time? Italy's PM Romano Prodi and Spain's Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero are cheering the rejectionists on. In an open letter Zappo and Prodi declared that they were committed to "the greatest level of integration" the text allowed. They added "We are confident we can give a hand to those countries... in order that they can overcome their own difficulties and join the goals and aspirations of the Treaty."
There you have it: Democratic rejection of EU integration is just a "difficulty".
The Party's Over?
UK Independence Party faces bankruptcy; judge rules "impermissible donations" of £367,697 must be paid back
The UKIP's leadership has described the ruling, handed down by the Electoral Commission, as "wholly disproportionate." Party Chairman John Whittaker said that the party is guilty of nothing more than "a simple clerical error which could have been easily rectified had it been known."
The UKIP claims that the anti-EU party's major donor, businessman Alan Bown, was not on the Electoral Register between December 2004 and January 2006. Under the The 2000 Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act, parties are forbidden from taken money from people or organisations not registered in the UK.
Israel In The EU?
Three quarters of Israelis would like to see Israel join the European Union.
According to a poll carried out for Germany's Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung organisation, this surprising figure is down to a variety of factors, including a new found closeness between Germany and Israel. 32 percent of Israelis describe themselves as "strongly favourable" to the idea of joining the EU: Only 17 percent opposed joining.
67 of Israelis have a favourable opinion of Germany, the poll shows, perhaps demonstrating the KAS institute's work to improve German-Israeli relations has been successful. Germany ranks as Israel's favourite EU nation after Britain, which has an 80 percent approval rating. France ranks as the least favourite European nation - 61 per cent of Israelis dislike France, with Jacques Chirac ranking as the most unpopular leader.
Quote Of The Day
"What do you expect if you put Trotskyites in parliament? This is the least that could happen."
Massimo D'Alema, Italy's Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, quoted in the Independent after hard-left votes forced PM Romano Prodi's resignation.
Italy: Prodi Quits
Italian PM resigns following vote on US base, Afghanistan
Romano Prodi, Italian Prime Minister and former lead contact for the KGB in Europe president of the European Commission, has tendered his resignation following a defeat in parliament.
He has served only ten months in office since defeating centre-right PM Silvio Berlusconi in a knife-edge election last year.
Prodi's resignation came after a motion to expand a US military base in Vicenza and extend the stay of Italian troops in Afghanistan was defeated.
The left-wing coalition Prodi has led looked shakier than Britney Spears after a night on the tiles since the outset. In order to assemble a narrow majority in Italy's senate, Prodi has had to rope in all shades of leftist opinion, from liberal Christians to hard-left unreformed Communists. His programme, which was designed to make timid steps towards economic liberalisation while re-aligning Italy with Europe's mainstream Social Democratic movement, was threatened at every step by quarrelling coalition partners. Such is the way of Italian politics. However, up to last night, it seemed that the left preferred to grudgingly follow Prodi's lead, as long as it meant keeping their despised opponent Berlusconi from power.
EU Democracy: A Good Idea?
EU Constitution back on agenda - MEPs still on the fiddle
Those Eurocrats. To use an old Irish expression, you couldn't be wise to them.
First comes confirmation that the EU Constitution is on its way back, in slimmed down form. Federasts pondered how to change the document and push it through without provoking the new round of ratification votes that would be required for a revised document - and, more importantly, avoid trying to sell the French and the Dutch the treaty in referenda.
One bright spark hit on the idea of taking an eraser rather than a pencil to the document, MEP Daniel Hannan reports in the Telegraph. The treaty, shorn of excessive phrasing and clauses judged to be unnecessary, will not require approval by the people: Indeed, a conference of all 27 national heads of government is being called next month in order to pass the new-look constitution.
British ministers have already dismissed calls for a referendum on the new document.
This is all happening terribly quickly. But then, that's the idea.
EU Eyes Swiss Tax Law
The European Commission has fired a warning to Switzerland over "tax breaks" offered to the increasing number of companies who locate their head offices there.
Google, Kraft and IBM are just three of the big companies to have opened offices in Switzerland, taking advantage of laws which grant exemptions from tax on profits earned abroad.
Switzerland argues that there is no agreement on tax harmonisation between the EU and Switzerland, so no agreements are being broken. The Commission claims that not only do the Swiss have "privileged access" to the EU market, but that the low tax regime offered by cantons like Zug breaches a 1972 agreement promising that Switzerland would not offer unfair competition in the shape of subsidies.
First of all, it is rich for the EU to accuse others of using state aid to distort the market: The EU has been unable to prevent its own members from bailing out failing companies. Interference between states and their national champions is endemic. The Common Agricultural Policy, moreover, may be the biggest and most unfair subsidy of them all.
Second, as the EU Referendum blog points out, the complaint is not about unfair subsidies, but about tax competition (something Ségolène Royal has promised to stamp out should she win the French election this spring).
If the European Commission wants to prevent companies moving their business to Switzerland, it can call for Europe's borders to close. It can make it illegal for companies to move their offices outside the EU while continuing to trade their. Drastic? Ridiculous? Draconian? Maybe: But demanding that countries outside the union change their laws to suit the demands of high-tax Europe amounts to economic imperialism.
The Age Of Lead
"Assassination" plots against Tony Blair and Silvio Berlusconi revealed
Two men, both affiliated to an extremist political grouping, one known to be something of a religious maniac, are found with one of Britain's largest ever hauls of chemicals that could be used to create bombs. A bomb making manual, air rifles and "nuclear protection suits" (sic) are also discovered on their property.
An entry in one of the men's diary reads: "Thought for the day - the easiest way to save the country is to assassinate Tony Blair and when (John) Prescott takes over shoot that fucker as well."
Meanwhile in Italy, 15 suspected terrorists are arrested on suspicion of planning to attack a television station, a newspaper and the nation's biggest oil company. They are also believed to have planned to murder government advisors and - most shocking of all - to have planned to kidnap and possibly assassinate former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Why aren't these stories plastered all over the front pages? Less than a month ago, Britain was gripped by the news that a group of terror sympathisers planned to murder a British soldier. Last summer was dominated by hysteria - as yet unsubstantiated - surrounding claims that up to a dozen jumbo jets were about to be blown out of the sky with explosives smuggled in shampoo bottles and baby milk cans.
If Muslims were behind the above plots, we can't help but believe that the papers would be whipping up a frenzy of speculation. But they're not: The men in court in Britain on explosives charges are affiliated to the far-right British National Party. The fifteen Italians are thought to be members of the Red Brigades, far left extremists who terrorised Italy in the 1970s.
"None Of The Above"
The disconnect between voters and their representatives is getting wider, according to a poll in today's Daily Telegraph. Over a quarter of voters interviewed said they would look outside the three major parties in the next general election, while over two thirds of all voters do not feel that their views are being represented by the political parties.
Voters say that not only is it no longer clear what particular parties stand for, there is little to choose between Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats: Two-thirds of voters supporting one of the big three claim that the parties are "much of a muchness." Among voters the Telegraph describes as "disaffected", the figure rises to over three-quarters.
The Telegraph concludes that the left-right divide in British politics has been replaced by the split between the people and the political class.
So, is Britain ready for a new political alternative?
Far-Right Wobbles Already
Well, that didn't last long. The far-right group in the EU parliament that everyone was getting their knickers in a twist about yesterday might crumble before it gets off the ground. The only British member of the Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty Group, Ashley Mote, has criticised his 23-year-old Bulgarian colleague, Dimitar Stoyanov, over Stoyanov's anti-semitic remarks.
EU Far-Right Rallies
One unintended consequence of the EU's recent expansion into Bulgaria and Romania is the arrival of six new extreme-right members to the European Parliament - allowing far-right parties to band together and demand full parliamentary status for the first time.
It's Sarkozy vs Royal
The British papers are all over the news that as expected, Nicolas Sarkozy won his party's presidential nomination at a UMP rally yesterday. Some note that the shine was taken off Sarko's Saddam-like 98 percent of the vote by news that only 69 percent of the centre right party bothered to vote for him, but by most accounts the interior minister seized the day with a rollicking speech outlining his vision for France.
An Expensive Rubber Stamp
British MPs are demanding a pay rise - up to £100,000 (€148,000/$198,000) a year.
This, they say, brings them into line with senior civil servants and doctors. The current salary is around £60,000 pa, which forces some poor souls into other jobs. Former MP Michael Portillo says that if salaries don't rise, MPs will take second or third jobs, and this will make voters even more unhappy.
Of course, any rise would be hugely unpopular with hard-pressed taxpayers. Two million households are having difficulty paying their council tax, for example. And besides, the average MP is getting £140,000 in expenses and allowances.
But what do MPs do to command such high salaries, never mind merit a 66 percent rise? EU Referendum Blog has a characteristically scathing post on the subject. Worth reading in its entirety, but here's a key quote:
"Do you legislate? Well, not in the eighty per cent of the legislation that comes, one way or another from the European Union and is passed on the nod because you do not have the right to reject or amend it. Let’s face it, you do not even bother to read most of it."
Power Grab
Europe suffered one of its worst ever blackouts on Saturday night, blamed variously on chilly Germans turning up their heaters, lack of investment in electricity supply infrastructure, poor cross-border coordination of supplies and a Norwegian cruise liner sucking dry the Deutsche national grid.
Though the power cut was traced to Germany, its effect was felt as far away as Spain and Italy. Train lines across Europe were halted by the power cut. In France, 5 million were left without power and fireman were called to rescue around 40 people stuck in lifts.
It's shocking that Europe can be hit by blackouts like this - but does it really justify demands for a EU power grab from France's Socialist contender Ségolène Royal and Italy's PM Romano Prodi?
Mass Appeal
A poll carried out for You Gov shows that an overwhelming number of Britons support calls for a referendum on "whether powers over fishing, farming, rules and regulations, law-making and borders (should be) returned to the British Parliament from the European Union."
77 percent say they're in favour of such a vote - only 12 percent oppose it (11 percent don't care). Support for this theoretical referendum, which is being promoted by Speak Out is strong across the political spectrum. Nearly 90 percent of Tory supporters like the idea of a referendum, but even among Europhile LibDems support runs at around 70 percent.
Hat tip: EU Serf
Dodgy Diversity
The EU has come up with a new logo to celebrate its 50th anniversary (never mind that it's only been a union for 15 of these, or that no-one asked anyone if they wanted to join a union in the first place).
That's the new logo on the right: It was designed by a Polish student in response to an EU-wide competition. The organisers say it "Gives a graphic interpretation to the voice of all Europeans, especially the new generations...these Europeans look for peace, stability and prosperity without taking anything away from their rights of individuality and diversity."
Hmm... looks to us like one of those arse-achingly PC playschool logos public bodies have to come up with to show how on-message they are - like this one, from the Devon and Cornwall police, below.
Ségo Speaks
If she becomes President, Socialist contender Ségolène Royal will seek to end Britain's opt-out from the European Union's 48-hour working week. Speaking in an interview with The Times, she singles out the British exception as one of her few concrete European policies.
Just why Mme Royal should be so offended by British working practices is one issue; quite another, much more important one, is how we have reached a state of affairs whereby a French presidential contender can scheme to change laws affecting other nations.
Sarko's EU Tax
France's centre-left presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy outlined his Euro-vision in Sunday's Telegraph. In the column, he calls for a revised "mini constitution", the removal of national vetoes on sensitive security-related issues and, perhaps most controversially, an overhaul of the EU budget to allow the union to be funded by a Euro-tax.
Bloc Party
The UN's deputy secretary general Mark Malloch Brown has told the EU Observer that in future, the European Commission is likely to take a single European seat on EU bodies. The end result of this, of course, would be France and Britain surrendering their permanent seats on the UN Security Council in favour of a single EU seat.
English Affairs
Conservative blogger Iain Dale enters enemy territory with a column on the Guardian's Comment is Free pages. Dale's subject? How to solve the ancient West Lothian Question on Scottish devolution.
The Big Opt-Out?
Have British Conservatives voted to make "parliamentary sovereignty" a manifesto promise? That's how some Eurosceptic MPs are taking last month's vote on regulatory reform, and an statement slipped into the amendment by veteran Euro-warrior Bill Cash.
Inside The EPP
Should Conservatives care about their party's links with the EPP? The glorious leadership, is trying to convince them to look the other way. Tories who voted for leader David Cameron on the basis of his promise to withdraw from the ultra-federalist grouping think otherwise. Trouble is, the European Parliament is so inconsequential that few Brits really know what the EPP is, who it represents and what its values are.
So a big thanks to blogger Iain Dale, who has published an email from a "Brussels insider" with a few thoughts on the EPP. The Tories' links to this group - whether under fiercely Eurosceptic previous leaderships or the current lovin' liberal bunch - look more bizarre every day.
Here's One I Made Earlier
That EU scheme to create a foreign diplomatic service just won't go away. While we've reported previously on how the absence of a constitution has not prevented Eurocrats from creating an EU diplomatic corps, the strategy was given a greater boost yesterday when the European Commission called on governments to share its diplomatic and consular services.
Swinging Votes
France's Socialist Party's new agenda is a mixed bag. Along with a controversial set of measures designed to appease the hard left, it includes a series of authoritarian anti-crime proposals which demonstrate that Ségolène Royal's populist rhetoric is having an effect on the party's mainstream.
Another New Agenda
How quickly ravenous wolves become cuddly puppies. Britain's Conservative Party, which briefly tantalised Eurorealists with the promise of a break from the swivel-eyed federalists in the EU's EPP party, has reverted to type with a "New Agenda." Outlined in a speech by shadow foreign secretary William Hague, the Tories' new approach seems designed to assuage Europhile fears that the party wants a deeper split with Europe.
Get Out Clause
Will David Cameron ever carry out his pledge to pull the UK Conservatives out of the federalist EPP grouping in the EU parliament?
Here's a new group that hopes to hold him to his promise - and gives plenty of good reasons why the Tories are better off outside a bloc that plots a federal Europe as its final destination.
The Congress Of Brussels
On Tuesday, British MEP Daniel Hannan hosted a meeting in the name of the Alliance for an Open Europe. The "Congress of Brussels" was planned to help create a new political grouping in the EU parliament dedicated to free markets, national sovereignty and a reversal of the EU's anti-democratic, centralising tendencies. Predictably, the sixty-odd delegates from thirty nations (including 18 MEPs) did not make the headlines in the mainstream media.
The New Puritans
France scored a minor cultural victory against the United States yesterday when the UN's cultural arm UNESCO voted overwhelmingly to support a Paris-backed convention protecting national cultural practices.
Out-Foxing His Critics
Conservative contender Liam Fox dropped Europe in the centre of the party's leadership race by declaring that if elected, he would sever links between the UK Tories and the European Parliament's EPP grouping.
Bangs And Whimpers
What happened to the British presidency of the European Union? Few could forget its startling opening - the EU constitution lay in tatters, a budget meeting collapsed amid bitter recriminations and prime minister Tony Blair delivered a fiery speech to the European Parliament, demanding that the union reform its grotesque budget and prepare to face the realities of the 21st century.
Wake-Up Call
Melanie Phillips has an excellent and comprehensive riposte to Friday's keynote address by EU Vice-President Günter Verheugen. Do check it out.
Closed For Business
In a development widely regarded as populist and protectionist, France has outlined a list of industries to be "ring-fenced" and shielded from foreign takeover. The plans, to be delivered to the European Commission in the next few days, represent France's latest attack on one of the key principles of European integration - the free movement of goods, services and capital.
France Will Block EU Reform
The scale of Tony Blair's fantasy of reforming the EU became clearer yesterday when France indicated it would not accept "root and branch reform" of Europe's institutions.
Don't Believe The Hype?
Is it just us, or has the democratic rejection of the EU constitution left Eurocrats sounding even shriller and more sinister than usual? Here's Louis Michel, the EU's development commissioner and a former Belgian foreign minister: "As long as the British do not understand what the European model and the European project really are, we will have a certain number of problems." The trouble for M Michel and his fellow Eurocrats is that what he defines as the "European Project" ("more Europe and deeper integration") has been comprehensively rejected by the people of Europe.
