May 10, 2010 | EU agrees massive support mechanism

After months of ever-increasing turmoil, the European Union has decided to set up a massive economic defence mechanism amounting to half a trillion euros to protect weaker eurozone nations from market speculation. EU finance ministers meeting in Brussels spent 12 hours on Sunday night (9 May) coming to an agreement to set up a multi-pronged "European Financial Stabilisation mechanism" after contagion from Greece's debt crisis threatened to infect countries such as Spain and Portugal. Its total volume will be up to €500 billion, with a further €220 available from the IMF.

April 22, 2010 | Bundestag to vote on Iceland EU membership

The Bundestag is set to hold a landmark vote on European affairs today (April 22), with the first binding EU recommendation for its government to follow in respect to Iceland's membership bid to join the bloc. The vote is a premiere in German politics, after lawmakers acquired a greater say on the government's EU policies. These extra powers were key for the Bundestag last year to approve the Lisbon Treaty, the EU's new legal framework, which the German constitutional court said did not provide enough parliamentary oversight.

April 13, 2010 | Icelandic report on the crash

A 2,300-page report by a Special Investigation Commission of Iceland's Althingi, the north Atlantic island's parliament, published on Monday 12 April is scathing in its criticisms notably of former prime minister Geir Haarde, the chairman of the central bank, David Oddsson (the architect of the privatisation of the banking sector in the 1990s), finance and commerce ministers, central bank governors and the chief financial regulator. A separate parliamentary committee is to now consider whether legal action is to be taken against those it alleges to have been responsible.

March 19, 2010 | Germany to support IMF aid for Greece

Germany has performed a dramatic u-turn and now says it would support International Monetary Fund aid for Greece, were it requested.

February 15, 2010 | EUDEMOCRATS unveil new report: The lowest of the low – the 2009 turnout some would like to forget

On February 15, the EU Democrats made public a new report on European Parliament elections in comparison with all other elections and referendums in the European Union between 1979 and 2009. The lowest of the low shows that turnout increased only in those member States in which local or national elections and European elections were held simultaneously and in those member States that innovated and somehow made voting easier and less time-consuming. For example: SMS and online voting in Estonia. Countries that did not hold local and EU elections on the same day experienced a lower turnout than in 2004.

January 25, 2010 | Former Le Monde Editor: Lisbon Treaty has made EU more complex rather than more simple

In an article in El País on 6 January Jean-Marie Colombani, former Editor of Le Monde, criticised the Lisbon Treaty for making the EU more complex, regarding the combination of the full-time EU President and rotating EU Presidency for member states. He writes, "What a strange thing, this two-headed presidency!" He continues, "Put ourselves in the place of European citizens, who were sold the idea that the Lisbon Treaty would simplify things...

December 01, 2009 | LISBON'S CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION BY STEALTH

With the coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty on Tuesday 1 December, members of the European Parliament, who up to now have been "representatives of the peoples of the States brought together in the Community"(Art.189 TEC), become "representatives of the Union's citizens" (Art.14 TEU). This change in the status of MEPs is but one illustration of the constitutional revolution being brought about by the Lisbon Treaty.

November 30, 2009 | LISBON TREATY COMES INTO FORCE ON TUESDAY

The Lisbon Treaty, which has 99% the same legal effect as the EU Constitution that was rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005, comes into force on tomorrow, 1 December.

November 27, 2009 | Barroso II line-up

European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso has unveiled his new team of commissioners putting new people in all portfolios, and giving the weightiest economic posts to a Finn, a Spaniard and a Frenchman.

November 27, 2009 | First balancing act for Van Rompuy

New procedural rules being considered by member states show that EU president-designate Herman Van Rompuy will have to manage a delicate power balancing act with the country holding the rotating presidency when he takes up his duties on 1 January.

November 24, 2009 | Soon new powers for MEPs

MEPs are awaiting next week's entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty with impatience as the new institutional rules give the EU assembly a say in an array of new areas, including the EU's money-eating farm policy and its long-term budget.

November 17, 2009 | Decisions on EU top jobs could take time

A deal on the EU top jobs remains far from reach ahead of a special summit on Thursday (19 November) that could require a follow-up meeting the next day.

November 13, 2009 | Eastern member states against secret nominations for EU-posts

Eastern Europe is chipping away at the secretive nomination process for new EU posts created under the Lisbon Treaty, with Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves formally throwing his name into the ring on Thursday (12 November).

November 10, 2009 | Poland calls for job interviews for EU top appointments

Poland has made a bid to give smaller EU countries more power in the EU president selection process by calling for candidates to hold job interviews in front of the 27 EU leaders.

November 09, 2009 | Bittersweet feelings as Europeans celebrate end of Berlin Wall

The fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago changed the course of EU history. But many people in Europe are still waiting for the political and economic freedoms promised by the event.

November 09, 2009 | European minorities suffer more discrimination as crisis bites

Steph is in her last year of translation studies at the Superior Institute of Translators and Interpreters in Brussels, one of the more prestigious schools of its kind in Europe. However she has one "handicap".

November 05, 2009 | UK opposition leader to avoid 'bust-up' on Europe

David Cameron, leader of the UK Conservative opposition, has abandoned talk of holding a referendum on the EU's latest treaty but has promised to seek repatriation of powers in key European Union policy areas should his party come to power next year.

November 03, 2009 | Klaus signature completes EU treaty ratification

Czech President Vaclav Klaus has finally signed the Lisbon Treaty, ending a highly drawn out ratification process that left many wondering whether the document's provisions would ever see the light of day.

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