The European Union has agreed to accord Ukraine market economy status, a move that recognises Ukraine’s reform programme and will obviously mprove the trade relations with the 25 EU member nations.:
The agreement, which will help Ukraine’s steel producers gain access to European markets without being subjected to anti-dumping measures, was announced at a meeting [...]
One of the many reasons I continue to support the Turkish EU accession process is because I think it will be good for human rights and democracy in Turkey, and good for the Kurds. This latest spat between Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan and his Danish hosts, is simply another good example of this at [...]
According to the EU Observer this morning:
“The new German government plans to use its 2007 presidency of the EU to revive the ratification of the EU constitution, according to a coalition deal struck on Friday (11 November).”
“We pledge to continue the ratification of the European constitutional treaty after the first half of 2006 and to [...]
Well following my speculation yesterday that the suggested de-coupling of the UK rebate issue from agricultural reform might be connected to the implications of the Doha round, news is in today that France last night called for an emergency meeting of European Union ministers to discuss “growing concerns in Paris that Europe will concede [...]
EU Politix is reporting UK Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott as telling a plenary session of the EUs Committee of the Regions that London is strongly committed to finding agreement on the EU budget before the end of 2005. He is quoted as saying We can not change agriculture in the short term. and We [...]
MEPs are soon scheduled to debate a new ‘Common Circus Policy’. This is following the publication of a report: “new challenges for the circus as part of European culture”. Apparently MEPs agree that circuses should be referred to as part of Europe’s cultural heritage, but tend to disagree on whether they should include presentation of [...]
As we all know raising the participation rates of older workers is both essential and a core component of the Lisbon Agenda, so here’s a timely report from the Anglo-German Foundation for the Study of Industrial Society comparing policies directed towards older workers in the UK and Germany. More salacious material to stimulate all you [...]
The EU Observer reports today on how some states are decidedly tardy in producing their Lisbon Agenda action plans:
Embassies are due to hand in their national plans, consisting of 30-40 page dossiers with statistical annexes, by the weekend, with EU experts flying back and forth to member states in the past few weeks to help [...]
What is happening right now in Ceuta and Melilla is shameful, it brings no credit to any of us. The anomolous position of these two Spanish North African enclaves should have been resolved long ago. As an urgent interim measure some sort of dual-sovereignty agreement between Spain and Morocco (such as that which was [...]
This is the opinion of Hamburg State Interior Minister Udo Nagel, as interview for an article which appears in the English version of Der Spiegel today. The context for the quote is the implementation of a decision taken at a conference of German state interior ministers last November which determined that Afghanistan was now [...]
Feed: A Fistful of Euros