How to go to war with Syria
Parliament has been recalled tomorrow for a debate on the crisis in Syria. The use of poison gas in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta appears to have crossed a line, …
veto
A bit off
If a future British government wants to renegotiate membership of the EU, the Fresh Start group of Tory MPs has published its view of what that renegotiation should achieve. The …
Poland is the right place to hold a summit seeking unanimity
The finance ministers of the eurozone member states will gather in Wroclaw, Poland, on Friday for a meeting to discuss the financial crisis. Poland is the right place to hold …
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The Irish vote today
The Irish people vote on the fate of the Lisbon treaty today: British eyes are looking west to see what they will decide. One of the founding principles of the …
Conservative policy on Europe becomes clearer
For some time now, the Conservative policy on the Lisbon treaty is to hold a referendum on it if it is yet to come into force, but if it has …
Do the eurosceptics really want the veto?
Tory eurosceptic MP Daniel Kawczynski suggested, in the House of Commons yesterday, that Greece should not be allowed to veto the accession by Macedonia to the EU while the issue …
The path of agile decision-making
How should international organisations take decisions? The case for Qualified Majority Voting has just signed up its newest recruit, John Craddock. General Craddock is Supreme Allied Commander Europe, which makes …
The case against unanimity
The phenomenon of the tragedy of the commons is well-known: a resource common to all is over-exploited to the disbenefit of all because there is no means of restraining individuals …
After Lisbon, a coalition of the willing
Thoughts this summer are turning to how to continue with the Lisbon treaty or, alternatively, how to continue without it. A reader of this blog suggests that the proposal for …
The retention of the veto
A rather clumsy statement in the House of Commons today by Gisela Stuart, opponent of the Lisbon treaty, on the subject of the location of the European Parliament. It is …