Week of August 28th, 2010

Posted: August 28, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment

(Version Francaise)

After two weeks of vacations (for me), here are some elements of European news:

  • The Euro sharply fell during August, losing almost 5% since the beginning of the month , at $1.277
  • Europeans are mostly (about 75%) in favor of a stronger economic governance, according to a  Eurobarometer study realized in spring.
  • An other Eurobaometer study shows that European are losing confidence in the European Union[*]. Short of half of the European citizens think their country membership to the EU is a good thing.
  • The High Representative C. Ashton should be able to give a speech at the UN General Assembly[*]. The EU has a statute of observer there and do not have the right to speak under this statute ; which become a problem since the Lisbon Treaty created a High Representative for External Affairs.
  • The European Commissioner for economic and monetary affairs suggest to repeat the bank stress tests in a more frequent basis to boost the trust in the European bank institutions [*].
  • Finally, France is being criticized for its politic towards Romas [*,*,*]

The Union gets back from vacation next week with several meetings for European Commissioners. The Parliament has its come back in two weeks with a plenary session.

Semaine du 28 Aout 2010

Posted: August 28, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment

(English Version)

Après deux semaines de vacances, voici quelques éléments d’actualité Européenne.

  • L’Euro a fortement baissé durant le mois d’Aout, perdant presque 5% depuis le début du mois, à $1.277.
  • Les Européens sont majoritairement (environ 75%) en faveur d’une plus forte gouvernance économique en Europe d’après une enquête Eurobarometre réalisée au printemps.
  • Un autre sondage Eurobarometre par contre indique que les Européens perdent confiance dans l’Union européenne [*]. A peine la moitié des citoyens de l’Union considère que l’appartenance de leur pays à l’UE est une bonne chose.
  • La Haute Représentante C. Ashton devrait pouvoir s’exprimer à l’assemblée générale des Nations Unies [*]. L’Union Européenne ayant formellement juste un statut d’observateur à l’ONU, elle n’a pas de droit de parole ; ce qui devient un problème maintenant que les traité de Lisbonne a institué un Haut Représentant au Affaires Extérieures.
  • Le Commissaire Européen aux affaires économiques et monétaire suggère de répéter les stress tests sur les banques Européennes de façon plus fréquente pour renforcer la confiance dans les institutions bancaires Européenne[*].
  • Enfin, la France est fustigée pour sa politique envers les Roms [*,*,*]

L’Union fait sa rentrée la semaine prochaine avec de nombreux meeting pour les commissaires Européens. Le parlement fera sa grande rentrée dans deux semaines avec une session plénière.

365 days of tweeting

Posted: August 20, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: blogosphere | 2 Comments

Yep, today is a special day as on August 20th, 2009, a new twitter account was created : @gh_eu.

365 days later, I posted more than 6300 tweets, am following about 150 accounts and am followed by just a bit less than 400 people. Not much by twitter standard, but those numbers are steadily and slowly growing. And really good since, since an Harvard study shows that less than 50% of those signing up on twitter quit within a month[*].

Unfortunately, my first tweet is too old to be found, but it was probably some low interest re-tweet of a newspaper time line (like the BBC or New York Times) regarding – of course – Europe.

Twitter has been for me a gateway to the European world. Not that I didn’t felt part of Europe before, but it gave me the possibility to interact and debate, much more than by just reading newspaper of listening to the radio. Twitter is not only a great place of interaction, but also houses a welcoming community and that’s a real plus.

Week of August 14th

Posted: August 14, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

(Version Française)

Here is a summary of the European news this week.

Started last week, the debate about the website Citzalia is continuing among bloggers (and others) some are skeptical, some are waiting to see the developments, …The debate revolve around the project budget and the interest of it[*,*]. you can now register to take part in the test phase [here].

The US will start on September 8th to charge $14.00 to register to the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), a mandatory step to enter on the US territory without getting a visa beforehand for European Citizens. The registration to the ESTA was mandatory since January 2009 but free of charge so far. The European Commission will investigate to determine if the new measure are in fact a visa fee.[*,*]

In the Euro zone, the industrial production fell by 0.1% in June.[*,*]; the GDP in the eurozone and in the EU increased by 1% each [*]. The external trade is in surplus of 2.4 billion Euros in the eurozone and in deficit of 9.6bn€ in the Union[*]. The Greek economy shrunk by 1.5% in the second quarter[*]. The euro strongly fell this week down to $1.27 [*]

European Commissionner J. Lewandoski in charge of the budget suggested this week to create a European tax to finance the Union directly[*] (read my comments). Some members states are in favor of this measure [*], others are opposed to it [*]. Follow all on this topic and the reactions of euro bloggers on  BloggingPortal.eu.

Before closing this post, dear readers, let me inform you that next week, I’ll be in vacation. No weekly update then. To follow the EU news, go to  BloggingPortal.eu

Semaine du 14 Aout

Posted: August 14, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment

(English version)

Voici le résumé de l’actualité Européenne cette semaine:

Commencé la semaine dernière, le débat sur le site Citzalia se poursuit parmi les blogueurs, certains sont assez sceptiques, d’autres attendent de voir, … Le débat tourne entre autre autour du budget du projet et sur l’intérêt de celui-ci  [*,*]. Vous pouvez dès à présent vous inscrire pour faire parti de la phase de test [ici].

Les Etats-Unis commenceront le 8 Septembre à facturer de $14.00 les enregistrement au Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), une étape nécessaire pour l’entrée sur le territoire Américain sans obtenir préalablement de visa pour les citoyens Européens. L’enregistrement à ce système était obligatoire depuis Janvier 2009 mais était gratuite. La Commission Européenne va évaluer ces nouvelles mesure pour déterminer si elles s’apparentent à des frais de visa. [*,*]

Dans la zone euro, la production industrielle a chuté de 0.1% en Juin[*,*]; le PIB de la zone euro et celui de l’UE dans son ensemble sont en hausse de 1% [*]. Le commerce extérieur de la zone euro est en excédent de 2.4 milliards d’euro en juin, pour l’ensemble de l’Union, le commerce extérieur affiche un déficit de 9.6 milliards € [*]. L’économie Grecque s’est réduit de 1.5% au deuxième semestre[*]. L’euro a fortement chuté cette semaine jusqu’à $1.27 [*]

Le Commissaire Européen J. Lewandoski en charge du budget a proposé en début de semaine l’instauration d’une taxe Européenne pour financer directement l’Union [*] (lire ma réaction) . Certains états membres sont favorables à cette initiative [*], d’autres moins [*]. Suivez toutes les réactions des euro-blogueurs sur BloggingPortal.eu.

Avant de cloturer ce billet, je vous informe, chers lecteurs que la semaine prochaine, je serais en vacances. Donc pas de bulletins hebdomadaire. Pour continuer à suivre l’actualité de l’Union, allez voir ce qu’il se passe sur BloggingPortal.eu

Time to tax

Posted: August 10, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: opinion | 2 Comments

It seems it’s time to think about a EU-wide tax… Or is it ?

Let’s get back to the beginning :

On August 9th, Commissioner J. Lewandoski, in charge of the budget, announced he will present a plan in September for a direct EU tax. This move would reduce the transfer from member states budget to the Union. [*,*] The tax would be on Aviation, Financial Transactions and Carbon Emission Trading.

The EU budget for 2010 amount for just under 123 billion Euros, three quarters of it coming from member states contributions. Of this budget, about 40% goes to agriculture and about the same to structural funds.

Germany is the most important contributor, the UK is also an important contributor and the British opinion is generally in disfavor of this contribution. In France, this contribution to the EU budget is virtually never mentioned. I cannot tell how big this is a deal in other member states, but as far as I know, this is mostly a no-subject.

However, at a moment when austerity – re branded smart spending in France – is one of the favorite policy among EU countries, being able to reduce the EU budget line is a big psychological plus; the sort of thing some government would be delighted to announce. Of course, this wouldn’t really reduce the contribution from a country, it would just be paid directly and not via the government.

Let’s now discuss the possible advantages of a possible EU tax.

  • Firstly, this tax is not a direct tax on citizen. It is not a for-EU-only part of the V.A.T, it is not a income tax on EU citizen. In his blog, Jon Worth argues that a EU tax could get citizen more involved in European Politics; that is technically true and I would absolutely agree, however this might not be a tax direct enough to influence citizen – It actually would probably influence big companies like banks or air travel companies to get more involved in EU politics, which would reinforce the idea that Europe is on the side of Big Corporations.
  • France and Germany did already spoke about applying a tax on financial transactions, but so far it was all about getting it the money in the government cash box. At least, with a EU tax, everybody will have the same tax and Brussels will get some benefit from that.
  • Such a tax is a big step toward more Europe and a greater Union. But this is just the beginning. I would really appreciate taking this step, but that might not be enough. If one day I can choose between filling a French tax form or a European one, that would be so much great – but there are some progress to make in a lot of domains between we can get there.

To conclude: this proposal has not brought about a lot of enthusiasm but at least, we can say that now: the elephant is in the room.

(Read all the developments on this topic on BloggingPortal.eu)

La démocratie est-elle un jeu ?

Posted: August 9, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: blogosphere, opinion | 3 Comments

En tout ca, la démocratie Européenne va le devenir… Un projet de jeu en ligne nommé Citzalia – combinaison astucieuse du Citoyen et de … euh, je sèche – est annoncé et a déjà largement fait parlé de lui la semaine dernière – mais j’étais absent, donc je réagis en retard. Je vous conseil une visite sur BloggingPortal.eu pour avoir tous les liens utiles sur le sujet.

Mon point de vue est plutôt mixed :

  • C’est original, on ne peut pas reprocher à l’ESN (société qui développe ce site) de mettre sur le tapis quelque chose de neuf dans le paysage de l’euroweb… Il y a beaucoup de point de vue différents sur les institutions de l’Union, mais on fait rarement le rapprochement avec un jeux.
  • C’est peut-être cher: En fait je n’en sais rien. La facture de 275k€ n’est pas une petite somme, mais je n’en sais pas assez pour comparer à d’autres jeux de ce type, ou à d’autres campagnes de public relation de l’Union. Il faut quand même que cela reste un investissement solide, à ce prix, pas question de fermer le site dans 6 mois…
  • Sera-ce un lieu virtuel de plus pour les aficionados de l’Europe ? Si oui, l’intérêt est faible. Il faut une véritable valeur ajoutée et une ouverture à un large public.
  • Pourquoi pas s’essayer aux institutions… Je sais que la probabilité que je me retrouve en comité à Brussels ou Strasbourg est de l’ordre de 0 ; pour autant je suis bien curieux de savoir comment ça se passe là dedans. Alors pouvoir participer, même virtuellement, cela a un certain attrait.
  • La question des législations virtuelles reste posée : pourquoi faire jouer les citoyens sur des textes sans conséquences – Quoique je viens de penser que c’est l’occasion de lancer une Politique Agricole Commune dans FarmVille – Je suis pour plus d’interaction réelle via le web entre citoyens et institutions (c’est aussi un peu pour cela que je blogge) et tant qu’à trouver des projets web originaux, autant les mettre directement au service du citoyens [*].

Pour conclure: j’attends de voir. Je dirais même “Pourquoi pas”. J’espère que ce projet saura attiré un public large et nouveau; et également être un outil pédagogique pour permettre aux citoyens de comprendre par l’exemple et simplement, le fonctionnement des nos institutions.

The Euro-bubble never sleeps (but eurobloggers do)

Posted: August 7, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: blogosphere | Leave a comment

As I was writing in my last weekend news round-up, I have been kept away form the European news for the last days while attending to lectures and seminars in Tennessee. I will now try to catch up with what happen in my absence – on BloggingPortal.eu among others .

A good surprise is that the euro went up from just $1.30 to about $1.33 in five days, following the scientific principle that water does not boil while you are watching.

Hopefully I didn’t miss much this Brussels is on vacation, but that is also a good time to go a little deeper in the stories and provide a bigger picture. I will try to do so as much as possible in the next week – because after that, I’m leaving again, for real vacations this time.

ITER: need a little more cash, please

Posted: August 6, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: opinion, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

We have been hearing for a few weeks now that the ITER project (Read an article I wrote about it for Le Taurillon) need extra cash.

The experimental reactor is not much than a hole in the ground so far, but it is already over budget. From about 6 billions euros, the project price tag now amounts for 15 billions, 45 % of which are paid for by the European Union.

Some people argue that it is a huge price to paid, at a time when Solar and Wind power are taking off and offering much more potential in the short term. However, one should notice that, first, however good and extended those source can be, they won’t be able to support a power grid anytime soon; and second, those technologies are well advanced by now and their development is effectively continued by commercial companies.

Nuclear fusion, on the other hand is promising in replacing nuclear fission, coal, and oil power plants and sustain a large electric grid that would be complemented by solar and wind energy ; but the research still need public funding. Scientific joke that fission has been 30 years ago for 30 years, but if we stop the funding, we’ll never see it.

I understand that the economic situation is not the most favorable for long term and expensive projects like ITER, and I would understand if the funding for the project gets slow down a little bit in the next years, but it would be a monumental mistake to put a virtual/economic stop on it.

Book Review: L’opinion européenne en 2010

Posted: August 4, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: review | 1 Comment

Sous la direction de D. Reynié, «L’opinion européenne en 2010» est publié par la Fondation R. Schuman.

Vous y trouverez le portrait de l’opinion publique en Europe à travers des sujets Européens, ou des thèmes plus spécifiques à certains membres – notamment un décryptage de toutes les élections nationales ou législatives qui ont eu lieu en 2009.

Ce livre est évidement bien fourni en statistiques, qui seront d’une grande utilité pour analyser les différents évènements d’actualité.

Un ouvrage à garder sous la main lorsque l’on veut mieux comprendre ce qu’il se passe dans l’Union.