The plan, Sam? Europe on 9 May 2010
9 May 2010 marks the sixtieth anniversary of the Schuman declaration, which led to the eventual creation of the European Union. It’s an understatement to say the EU’s been suffering some tough times, in between the Belgian government dissolving (before taking over the six-month rotating presidency of EU), the British foreign policy chief of the EU ‘quitting’ and the Greek financial crisis (forcing the EU into financial solidarity). Across the playground, their Portuguese, Irish, Italian and Spanish neighbours (making up the so-called PIIGS) finger the same troubles. Whilst 27-year-old Swiss MP Lukas Reimann sounds out his euroscepticism, we jump on the bandwagon to cite those famous sentences of 9 May 1950: ‘Europe will not be made all at once or according to a single plan. It will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity’. Word, Schumi
Catherine Ashton, Ashford or Ashley?
Never mind that she went to earthquake-stricken Haiti six weeks late, or that she missed a ministerial conference, or that she's not David Miliband, or that she can't speak French. Let's begin with the fact that some struggle to remember even the name of the first ever EU foreign policy chief. Maybe it's the title 'baroness' which throws everyone
brussels, media, eu foreign policy chief, european media, common foreign and security policy, european commission, politics, development, diplomacy, catherine ashton, jean quatremer
French, Spanish, Czech and British youth on euroscepticism
Unpaid interns, taxes, recycling, the parliament in Strasbourg...you name it, our contributors from across the cafebabel.com network have something to say about what irks them most about Europe. 9 May marks sixty years since the Schuman declaration was signed, when it was agreed that France, Germany and others would work together as a federation
common agricultural policy, money, environment, internships, brussels, mep, identity, vox-pop, politics, youth, enlargement, euro
Europe and PIIGS: bitchy politics
The acronym 'PIIGS' seems to have characterised the five eurozone losers as that nasty group of girls that everyone hated in school. Since things turned sour on Europe’s financial front, the EU community has shown its bitchy side - a sentiment which is hardly emblematic of the shared vision that the EU was founded on. Rant
