Politics & Public Policy

As Gallup have reminded me today, it’s only a year until the next European Parliament elections. At the moment, that looks like it will be a red-letter day for eurosceptics. This is evident at a number of levels. Firstly, Gallup found that a third of French and Germans and a fifth of Poles would vote […]

After an eventful few weeks in the life of David Cameron’s EU policy, some of the heat has gone out of matters, albeit only in the sense that the heat shifted to the question of gay marriages. Interesting then, how much more willing Cameron has been to engage backbenchers on the latter issue than the […]

Another week, another car-crash of public policy. After last night’s vote on the amendment to the Queen’s speech – with more than half of all Tory backbenchers voting in favour of the motion – it is hard to see how today’s ballot for private member’s bills won’t result in the draft bill on a referendum […]

As you are all doubtless aware, today is Europe day, the 63rd anniversary of Robert Schuman’s declaration on the creation of a coal and steel community that was to become the precursor to the current European Union. Everyone knows that, right? That I even pose the question suggests that the answer is not in the […]

Today The Telegraph published a story about two foreign criminals, jailed for their part in the English riots, who successfully appealed against deportation because of their ‘right to family life’ under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. In response, I posted this comment: Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights […]

Today I posted pro-EU arguments under a Daily Telegraph article about the number of Romanians and Bulgarians coming to the UK.  Clearly, my comments were unwelcome by DT readers.  They called me ‘a moron’, an ‘utter idiot’ and told me ‘to get medical help.’ So much for elevated debate. This was my comment: All UK […]

Fighting my prejudices, I went to a seminar about CFSP yesterday. In my defence, I was a) tired and b) knew that both speakers would be well worth it. And indeed they were. Just to be clear, my prejudice is that the EU’s foreign and security policy is much more an object of academic study […]

In one of those odd coincidences, I have been thinking about Margaret Thatcher recently.  I got an email a couple of weeks ago, about a chapter on her that I had written for an edited collection three years ago: The editors have just got around to final proofs for publication later this year, so I […]

Welcome to Jon Danzig’s new ‘EU ROPE’ blog, where the links between the UK and Europe are explored and discussed.  Stories so far: BBC’s John Humphrys got it wrong about Europe Why did UKIP win in Clacton? Press Complaints Commission: Daily Mail breached The Editors’ Code A country called Europe? Europe Moves – The ‘EU Earthquake’ […]

“Despite speeding up the legislative process, trilogues allow the Council to negotiate directly with majority party leaders in the European Parliament at the expense of committees and minority parties”. Dr Raya Kardasheva is a Lecturer in European Politics at King’s College London The establishment of the co-decision procedure in the EU legislative system led to […]