Europe
Apart from a few years in the middle-east, I've lived my whole life in europe; the great majority in britain. I am a european, both from conviction and pragmatism. Europe, of which the uk remains a part, is helping forge a new way forward for the world. It is a lighthouse of how old enemies can become not just new allies, but so closely bound and integrated that their future prosperity depends on them hanging ever closer together. At its best, europe brings real benefits from bigger and freer flowing markets, economies of scale, the circulation of best practice and safety in numbers. I have written a lot about europe, mainly in my guise of new europe, and you can read it all here. Watch the clip, by oscar-winning producer alice doyard
breaking up is so hard to do (October 2007)
Sunday 14th December 2008
The Scots can do their arithmetic: not so long ago, Ireland, a similar Celtic nation of six million, received six pounds for every one paid into the EU budget. Scotland, as part of the wealthier UK, received just 66p...
europe – 50 years young
Sunday 14th December 2008
As published in the Wall Street Journal's US edition...
boarders to borders – eu enlargement policy (July 2007)
Sunday 14th December 2008
Fears of social dumping, délocalisation, the EU losing itself as a political project, and Turks finally breaking down the gates of Vienna, have slowly eroded public support for enlargement…
parliament of bores ? (April 2007)
Sunday 14th December 2008
[with Julia Bläsius] National Parliaments are no longer the central actors in the shaping of national legislation. If any Parliament can claim that role, it sits in Brussels...
europe- 50 years young (March 2007)
Sunday 14th December 2008
[Jean-Claude Trichet] Is there today a better symbol of a peaceful European unity and friendship than a single currency shared by 13 countries and 317 million fellow citizens and a single market across the whole continent...
powerless europe - the complete article
Sunday 14th December 2008
[Lorenzo Bini Smaghi] Attached is the full version of this journal article about why the euro area, or even the EU, needs to get its act together in terms of single representation on the world stage.
powerless europe: why is the euro area still a political dwarf ? (September 2006)
Sunday 14th December 2008
[Lorenzo Bini Smaghi] Unified European representation can be achieved only in exchange for the Member States’ own seats. Otherwise, the number of European representatives would unacceptably increase. As the Member States tend to believe their participation in international institutions and fora such as the IMF and G7 provides them with prestige, they tend to oppose unified European representation...
the future of Europe (October 2006)
Sunday 14th December 2008
[with Katharina Gnath] The British delegate at the conference that agreed the EU’s founding treaty left early, saying “I leave because you will never agree, and if you agree you will never implement it, and if you implement it, it will be a disaster”. Wrong, wrong and - yes - wrong again...
a directive at whose service (December 2006)
Sunday 14th December 2008
[with Wouter Coussens] Whereas the creation of a single market for goods took decades and several hundred pieces of legislation, the Commission essentially tried to establish a single market for services with just one directive, and without too much of a fuss...