Archive
Year: 2009
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Iceland’s Path to EU Membership may be a Rocky One
July 27, 2009
I see that the EU Council of Ministers has asked the European Commission to deliver an opinion on Iceland’s application to join the EU, just 10 days after Reykjavik submitted its formal request for membership. The Swedish presidency wants the report by the end of the year, and foreign minister Carl Bildt has implied that Iceland’s status as an EEA country could speed the process of the application, in contrast to the slow progress for...
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Frustrating start for Sweden’s presidency
July 13, 2009
Image by infomatique via Flickr What a frustrating time this must be for Sweden’s EU presidency! Stockholm’s ambitious plans to demonstrate its dynamic management of the Union are becalmed. Two days after confirming the Council’s candidacy of Barroso, prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt was obliged to announce that the European Parliament had postponed until mid-September its vote on renewing the Commission president’s mandate. Urgent decisions relating to climate change and the economic crisis could well be...
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Frustrating Start for Sweden’s Presidency
July 12, 2009
What a frustrating time this must be for Sweden’s EU presidency! Stockholm’s ambitious plans to demonstrate its dynamic management of the Union are becalmed. Two days after confirming the Council’s candidacy of Barroso, prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt was obliged to announce that the European Parliament had postponed until mid-September its vote on renewing the Commission president’s mandate. Urgent decisions relating to climate change and the economic crisis could well be delayed. No institutional navel-gazing was...
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Public affairs views from around the world
July 9, 2009
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et9PzV18KTk&feature=player_profilepage] As part of our recent global public affairs practice meeting here at Fleishman-Hillard, we managed to catch a minute or two to camera from some of our colleagues from around the world. Struggling for a place to put the clips, we created a YouTube channel all of our own here. Amongst those contributing to our discussions on the challenges facing companies around the world was former European Commissioner and current member of our International...
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What is Public Affairs? Some thoughts from a global perspective
June 28, 2009
This last week saw our latest Global Public Affairs Leadership meeting here in Brussels. In attendance were public affairs practitioners from global centres like Beijing and DC, major European capitals such as London, Berlin and Paris and a host of other places from Latin America to Canada. It just goes to show that wherever you are, the public policy agenda is likely to have an impact on your business. It was great to participate in...
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Barroso’s Future in Parliament’s Hands
June 28, 2009
Who’d be leader of the British Conservatives in the European Parliament? No sooner had the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR) been formed, with representation of eight member countries, than Finland’s Hannu Takkula decided not to join the group after all. He has chosen to remain with the Liberal ALDE group in deference to home party loyalty. So the ECR is back to seven countries, the minimum number necessary to form an EP group and...
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From Rome to Tehran: democracy goes online
June 17, 2009
In one of our last posts we helped you understanding the apparently complicated Italian political scenario (we hope we succeeded). Now, your burning passion for the Peninsula’s politics will find other tools to better follow what happens in the ‘boot’. A brand new web site to track down Italian MPs’ activities in the national parliament was launched yesterday. The web site has been created by a non-profit organization (Openopolis) which already launched in the past...
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Ordinary mortals are more than welcome
June 17, 2009
The new AER superhero is not required to be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound - Image by Garu_ via Flickr Whilst checking that our own advert for a new intern* was on the EuroBrussels website I noted that the Assembly of European Regions is currently advertising for applications to become their new Subsidiarity Superhero. [Full disclosure - I was an intern with the AER in Strasbourg about 10 years ago. At...
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Regulators, consumers or industry – Who will be the future privacy king?
June 15, 2009
As you might have seen from a recently published note by FH , privacy is Brussels’ new catch phrase. Few are disputing that search engines, social networking sites and other Internet related technologies offer huge opportunities for consumers and the digital economy. However, some are concerned that increasing the collection and processing of personal data on Internet jeopardizes privacy. EU Commissioners, NGOs, companies and MEPs – everyone wants to defend European citizen’s right to privacy...
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Barroso on the Spot Before European Council Nomination
June 15, 2009
People have been grumbling over the last year or so that Barroso’s presidency of the European Commission has been too much influenced by hope of a second term, and that he has leant over backwards not to upset the big member states. I’m not convinced of the evidence for that, but the Commission president has certainly been put on the spot now. The European Council is expected to give its provisional endorsement for Barroso’s reappointment...