Really I realise I have been remiss in another important sense. I have long assumed that in fact the decision to reduce deficits was taken due to the coming fiscal pressure from ageing. This certainly was the background to the discussion. However now I look at the details of the SPG this area is not [...]

Brian Paddick, assistant deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan police has just explained to a press conference that the bomb which exploded on a London bus in Woburn place may have gone off early.
“British police said a bomb that blew the roof off a London double-decker bus on Thursday morning may have been destined for [...]

The EU Observer reports on the labours of the Commission in producing a report on social models and sustainability, and the efforts they are making to try and de-politicise it. It seems our ageing societies and their implications will form the cornerstone of the report. This, at least, will mark a step forward. The October [...]

Italy’s Finance Minister Domenico Siniscalco is in defiant mood. ?The times of creative finances are over,?, he told a parliamentary committee in Italy today. By ‘creative finances’ he means a cost-cutting exercise. He means any serious attempt to bring the Italian deficit into line this year. What he is in fact saying is that [...]

From Malta Today:

The European Commission is asking the Maltese government to explain its policy of banning journalists from immigrants? detention centres in response to a petition signed by 100 journalists and editors last February.
European Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security Franco Frattini told the European Parliament that the Commission was demanding information from the Maltese [...]

This week promises to be another ‘busy’ one. Today the EU finance ministers (Ecofin) are meeting in Luxembourg, to discuss the condition of the common currency after last week’s ‘battering’ in the press and in the financial markets. Also headed for Luxembourg is EU Economics Commissioner Joaquim Almunia. Amongst other items he will have one [...]

We’re still all waiting really. Waiting to know what the next move really in the saga is going to be (Iceland isn’t in the community yet, if I remember correctly). Staring into the tea-leaves and casting a wary eye over towards Brussels, looking desperately for clues.
What this continuing lack of definition really does is make [...]

Looking forwards rather than backwards, I can’t help trying to imagine what the world will look like on Monday. (We may all be in for a surprise, but the latest poll seems to put the ‘no’ at 55%, which is quite a large margin of error if it’s wrong, *and* Le Monde today makes the [...]

Teekay was looking forward to the Venice Commission’s report on Bosnia-Herzegovina last week. (The Venice Commission, for those of you who don’t lie awake at nights in excited anticipation of its next publication, is the constitutional reform advisory body of the Council of Europe, which in turn is not to be condused with the European [...]

Update: (Nick - 1730CET) The official announcement has been made, declaring Yanukovich the victor. More ASAP when I’ve rounded up the reactions.
Maidan are reporting preparations for a state of emergency are being made at Yanukovich headquarters. Victor reports official results are 49.5% to Yanukovich, 45.5% to Yeschenko, though he already has reports of fraud. At [...]