In 2014 the race to become President of the European Commission – using the new Spitzenkandidat process – was a two-horse race, and months ahead everyone knew who would likely win – Jean-Claude Juncker (EPP). Martin Schulz (PES) put in energy and determination, but the EPP emerged as the largest party after […]
Tag: Jean Claude Juncker
Ultimately the rest of the EU doesn’t really mind what happens in the UK’s general election – it just wants decent negotiation partners
Here we go again. Following on from the Juncker dinner leak a week ago (and May’s subsequent accusation that the EU is trying to influence the UK’s General Election), today Brexit Minister David Davis has told The Telegraph that Jean Claude Juncker is trying to get him sacked. Politico has a […]
The EU is preparing for the UK to leave. Really. Somehow the UK side still fails to see this.
In the period immediately after the Brexit referendum I often heard the line from pro-Brexit people in the UK that it would only be a matter of time before the EU would be begging the UK to somehow stay in the European Union, or at the very least that the […]
Where does the Brexit vote leave the cause of an independent Scotland in the EU?
tldr; “…it is easier for an independent Scotland to join the EU, than for the UK to leave it…” – thanks @odtorium on Twitter. But if you do want the detail, read on! Back in 2012, prior to the Scottish Independence Referendum, I wrote a blog post entitled Answering how […]
#SOTEU is back on 14th September. So print out those bullshit bingo cards!
“Was it really a year since the last one?” you’re perhaps asking yourselves. Yes, just as Brussels eases itself back to work after the summer break, Jean Claude pops up to tell everyone why everything is going swimmingly (or not) depending on your point of view. This year Juncker’s State […]
Salami slicing TTIP
Oh TTIP. That great hope to rescue the transatlantic alliance. Or that scary fear of deregulation. Or both. Or neither? Juncker is worried, apparently. The Commission is putting pressure on the USA, supposedly. New Austrian President Van Der Bellen says he is against it. Merkel and Obama say they are […]
European Commissioners seem to have missed the social aspect of Twitter and use it for one way, bland PR instead
In Gartner’s hype cycle, users of a technology encounter a trough of disillusionment after the initial peak of inflated expectations. The use of Twitter by the 28 Members of the European Commission (Twitter list here) feels like being in such a deep trough that it’s almost as if this is […]
Will the Commissioner trying to solve the EU’s migration crisis please stand up?
South Tyrol – at the request of Germany apparently – has promised to check all passengers trying to travel north towards Germany over the Brenner Pass, but Schengen has not been suspended (officially). Refugees in Budapest are being rounded up and put onto trains to who knows where? Hungarian PM […]
#JunckerBullshitBingo rules for #SOTEU on 9th September
Barroso Bullshit Bingo had alliteration as good as José Manuel’s buzzwords. #JunckerBullshitBingo might not have quite the same ring to it, but with our beloved Commission President getting ready to make his first “State of the European Union” speech on 9th September, we in the EU blog and Twittersphere are […]
Big on the big things, small on the small things – Brussels bullshit meaning ‘deregulation’
Back in 2013, José Manuel Barroso in his State of the European Union speech stated that the “EU needs to be big on big things and smaller on smaller things” (speech text here – phrase 3/4 of the way through). Since then this phrase has become some sort of mantra […]
Candidates for the new European Commission – where we stand 15.7.2014
So Juncker is now certain. 26-2 in the Council, 422 of 751 in the European Parliament. I have analysed the High Rep and President of the European Council positions at the LSE EUROPP blog here. But who has been nominated by the 27 other countries? (Luxembourg’s Commissioner is Juncker) Austria […]
How Juncker shines the light on Britain’s problematic, unitary pro-Europeanism
I am not a fan of Jean Claude Juncker, the person and the politician. I am a lefty, he is a christian democrat, and he – ideologically – stands for a future of the European Union that I, as an individual person, do not agree with. Yet I am also […]