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The Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Angel Gurría, called, on 26 November, for the early completion of the banking union in order to give "clear [...]

"Best friends" Nicolas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown have pledged to clamp down on bankers' bonuses and look into other measures - including a global financial transaction tax - to help [...]

European leaders, on 29 October, are to back a move by finance ministers giving the go-ahead to a new financial risk watchdog. At a European Council meeting that will be [...]

EU finance ministers reached what they are calling a 'broad agreement' on the setting up of a new risk council to oversee economic developments and predict future crises, during their [...]

Following the Irish yes' vote on the Lisbon Treaty, the European Parliament is resuming the debate on the implementation of certain aspects of the text. In first place is the [...]

As this issue went to press, the fate of the Lisbon Treaty was still in the hands of Irish voters, who were preparing for a referendum, on 2 October. If [...]

PRESIDENT The president oversees all the activities of Parliament and its bodies and has full powers to preside over Parliament's deliberations and to ensure that they proceed smoothly. He opens, [...]

Romanian Foreign Minister Cristian Diaconescu was highly critical, on 9 July, of the European Commission's 'bureaucracy,' which he says is preventing his country from limiting the impact of the economic [...]

The Council has completed its written procedure for the formal nomination of Jose Manuel Barroso as Commission president. Meanwhile, the Conference of Group Chairmen has not yet come to a [...]

When established in 1957, the European Parliament had neither duties nor responsibilities. In 1979, it became the only supranational parliament in the world to be elected by direct suffrage. As [...]

The European Parliament champions the Lisbon Treaty because of the advances it brings to democracy, citizens' rights and the effectiveness of the EU's action, but also because the new treaty [...]

The European Commission announced, on 25 June, the launch of infringement proceedings against two member states for failure to respect the principles of the free movement of services (Article 49 [...]

The EU institutions are the guardians and guarantors of democracy in the Union. Yet, distorted practices are numerous at all levels of the institutions. Distrust in the European Union is [...]

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has announced that he will be releasing a long-awaited master plan' for a new EU supervisory architecture, on 27 May. The package, which is [...]

Alexandr Vondra is remaining optimistic about ratification of the Lisbon Treaty by the Czech Senate. As Europe nervously awaits the crucial vote, on 6 May, the deputy prime minister for [...]

It is official: the Czech EU Presidency is over. Even Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, who will hand over his seat on 8 May to his little known successor, Jan Fischer, [...]

The Committee of Regions has had to struggle to secure the responsibilities and role it has today. Although the member states gave the nod to the creation of this body [...]

Fifteen years is obviously a good time to pause and take stock. How do you rate this period? What is certain is that we are the youngest of the EU's [...]

Following the strong support received from last week's informal meeting of the EU's foreign ministers in the Czech Republic for his initiative to mediate in the border dispute between Croatia [...]

In his remarks to the European Parliament, on 25 March, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek declared that he was prepared, if Parliament wished, to consider a one-week postponement of the [...]

Following a call for greater freedom of expression in Turkey issued by the European Parliament's plenary, on 12 March, in a resolution on Turkey's 2008 progress report (see Europolitics 3713), [...]

Following a six-month trial period', the EU's foreign ministers are expected to decide, at the Foreign Affairs Council on 16 March, whether a temporary suspension of the visa ban on [...]

The European Ombudsman, P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, has urged the European Commission to quickly set up a complete register of documents it produces or receives as the current one is inadequate. [...]

The Czech deputy prime minister for European affairs tried to reassure the European Parliament's Committee on Constitutional Affairs, on 22 January in Brussels, about the future of the Lisbon Treaty. [...]

On security, Barack Obama will be faced with an entirely different situation in Europe than that encountered by George W. Bush when he took office, even for his second term. [...]

The EU decided to strengthen its sanctions against Zimbabwe in order to increase the pressure against President Robert Mugabe, on 8 December in Brussels. The General Affairs and External Relations [...]

The EU defence ministers approved, on 10 November, the guidelines for the work of the European Defence Agency (EDA) in 2009, the objective being to 'identify and encourage cooperation programmes' [...]

'Deeply concerned' about the deteriorating political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the European Union has decided to take an active role in helping to break the current stalemate in the [...]

The European Parliament is tackling the revision of its internal regulation concerning the procedure for petitions, in order to remove some uncertainties and formalise standard practices. The link with the [...]

MEPs all acknowledged the 'energy' and 'determination' of the French EU Presidency in managing the crisis in Georgia and the financial crisis, during the debate with head of state Nicolas [...]

Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani supports Italy's request to put in place 'systematic monitoring' of progress made in the projects for Trans-European Networks (TEN). Italian Transport Minister Altero Matteoli made this [...]

Czech Vice-President Alexandr Vondra is in Ireland on 2 and 3 October. He will meet the head of diplomacy, Micheal Martin, and his counterpart responsible for European affairs, Dick Roche, [...]

The EU has been left puzzled about its future relations with President Alexander Lukashenko's regime after the 28 September elections in Belarus were called undemocratic by the international observers. In [...]

The European Commission sent, on 18 September, a reasoned opinion to Poland over its failure to fully implement Directive 2003/55/EC on the internal market in natural gas. At this last [...]

The raison d'etre of EU enlargement is to extend the area of liberty and democracy, peace and prosperity throughout Europe and, to this end, the Western Balkan countries have a [...]

The European Commission decided, on 18 September, to open a case against Italy on the effectiveness of the single European emergency number 112. In that country, call centres of the [...]

The EU has kept in place its sanctions against Zimbabwe despite the power sharing deal concluded between President Robert Mugabe and the leader of the opposition Morgan Tsvangirai, on 15 [...]

aThe Council of foreign affairs ministers gave the green light, on 15 September, to an EU monitoring mission in Georgia (EUMM Georgia), by approving the joint action and the concept [...]

What purpose does European justice serve? Among the multitude of European subjects in the field of justice, particularly in civil law, the French EU Presidency has decided to keep to [...]

Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn warned the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, on 4 September, that it has to step up its reform efforts if it wants to succeed in opening [...]

The European Parliament's Transport Committee voted in unison, on 4 September, on the Erika III package, which is meant to enhance maritime safety in European waters (see box). Members adopted [...]

The European Commission granted clearance, on 4 September, to the acquisition of joint control of Colbison SAS of France by French companies Abenex Capital and Natixis Private Equity. Abenex Capital [...]

French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to see the EU play a greater role in financial regulation, he said on 2 September, as he received the conclusions of a report on [...]

EU transport ministers will meet for an informal Council in La Rochelle (France) on 1 and 2 September, to be chaired by France's State Secretary for Transport Dominique Bussereau. EU [...]

The United Kingdom has formally completed its ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, announced a Foreign Office spokesman, on 17 July. The text has been approved by both Houses of Parliament [...]

This could well be the first faux pas by Nicolas Sarkozy as president-in-office of the European Council. The remarks made on 15 July in Paris by the French head of [...]

The continuation of guarantee schemes for working capital loans in the German Landers Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Sachsen-Anhalt and Thuringen has been approved by the European Commission after some amendments. The guarantee [...]

One more down: Belgium completed its ratification process for the Lisbon Treaty, on 10 July, with the Flemish regional assembly's approval. In total, the two chambers of the federal parliament [...]

The Business Forum for Multilingualism, set up by the European Commission in 2007, delivered its report to Multilingualism Commissioner Leonard Orban, on 11 July(1). The forum argues that Europe risks [...]

Meglena Kuneva, the European commissioner for consumer protection, wants to see the EU develop a harmonised way of dealing with complaints by dissatisfied consumers. She launched a public consultation, on [...]