The EU might as well go down the drain if foreign meddling corrupts May’s elections

The EU elections will take place in about two months’ time but anti-European together with foreign parties are most likely going to try to exert influence on the upcoming outcome. Anti-establishment parties are expected to change the current balance and status quo if the two mainstream parties, the conservative EPP (European People’s Party) and the […]

First seat projections for the next European Parliament

This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. Parliament released today the first seat projections, based on a cross-section of national polls, for the composition of the next (9th) European Parliament The European Parliament has published a first set of projections on how the next chamber would look like based on national […]

Pro-EU forces won a 70% triumph in the European elections

Today, Monday 26 May, the morrow of the EU elections, Eurosceptic and extremist newcomers in the European Parliament finally won’t be able to turn the European Union into a different and worse place. At the time when those lines were being typed, reliable result albeit partial, had already confirmed that Eurosceptic and extreme right parties […]

Will Europe be a different place this Monday?

According to the latest projections, the four traditional and clearly pro-EU parties or rather Parliamentary groupings, that is the center-right European Peoples Party (EEP), the center-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D), the centrist Alliance of Liberals & Democrats for Europe (ALDE) and the ecology group Greens-European Free Alliance (G/EFA) are expected to win a clear victory […]

The Parliament defies a politically biased Banking Union

The European Parliament prepares for the fight which is about to begin with the Council, over the negotiations on the creation of the Single Resolution Mechanism and Fund to deal with failing banks. This will be the last step towards the completion of the European Banking Union, the major EU project after the introduction of […]

Parliament asks for the termination of EU-US bank data deal

The European Parliament finally voted in favour of the suspension of EU-US bank data deal, in response to NSA snooping. “The EU should suspend its Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP) agreement with the US in response to the US National Security Agency‘s alleged tapping of EU citizens’ bank data held by the Belgian company SWIFT”, […]

The Council unblocks all EU budgets

The Permanent Representatives Committee of the European Union (COREPER) approved yesterday an increase of the 2013 EU budget by €3.9 billion in order to cover outstanding payment needs. This amount complements the €7.3bn of the draft amending budget no. 2 approved by the Council on 9 July. The Council’s position on this draft amending budget […]

EU Budgets: Europe hoping for Xmas gifts

The Lithuanian Presidency of the European Union’s Council is now under pressure over the approval of EU’s 2014-2020 budget regulation, referred to as the EU’s Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF), planned to support EU’s expenses for the next seven years amounting to €1 trillion. The problem is however that the approval of the first EU budget […]

Commission challenges Council over EU 2014 budget

Another €460 million should be added to the 2014 EU budget spending said yesterday the European Commission. This is a direct challenge to the Council’s position presented last week in the European Parliament shaping a severely cut down 2014 EU budget. The Commission asks additional funding exactly for those programmes that the Council wants to […]

Can the EU last long if it cuts Cyprus out?

The latest and most important rhapsody in the Cyprus tragedy was performed yesterday morning by the twenty-three members of the European Central Bank’s governing council. The text issued by them was very brief and went like this: “The Governing Council of the European Central Bank decided to maintain the current level of Emergency Liquidity Assistance […]