EU foreign policy chief

One year on - what's the Lisbon treaty again?

Yes, you, Europe voted this constitutional document in and it came into effect on 1 December 2009. It's more institutions and regulations which doesn't really help to understand the burden of the EU and its thousand of details, so here's one option of an instant mini guide

by Jimena @ // 01/12/10

eu foreign policy chief, brussels, euweek, politics, society, lisbon treaty

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

• Read the special edition The plan, Sam? Europe on 9 May 2010
• French, Spanish, Czech and British youth on euroscepticism
• Catherine Ashton, Ashford or Ashley?
• Europe and PIIGS: bitchy politics