June 24, 2010 | EU democracy instrument continues to cause headaches

It is meant to be the most clear democratising feature of the EU's new rulebook, the Lisbon Treaty, but implementation of the "citizen's initiative" is a political minefield and is prompting much discussion about the danger of the tool turning into a mockery of democracy.

June 22, 2010 | Trichet: EU needs automatic budgetary sanctions

The European Central Bank has waded into the ongoing debate on toughening up the EU's budgetary rules, saying a "quantum leap" is needed to ensure member state compliance in the future.

June 07, 2010 | EU Democrats (EUD) debate on the future of the EURO in Ljubljana

On Saturday, June 5, the EU-critical alliance of national parties, movements and parliamentarians (EUD) held a debate on the future of the EURO in the Slovenian capital.

June 07, 2010 | Sören Wibe re-elected President, Patricia McKenna elected Vice President

Sören Wibe was re-elected President of the EU Democrats and Patricia McKenna was elected Vice President on Saturday, June 5, 2010.

June 03, 2010 | Brussels sets out plans to regulate credit rating agencies

The European Commission has come forward with a list of amendments to revise EU rules on credit rating agencies, aiming to boost transparency and centralise supervision at the European level.

May 27, 2010 | European Council seen as winner under Lisbon Treaty

Not quite six months in place, the EU's Lisbon Treaty has already led to a significant shift in the Brussels power landscape, with many of its main actors still trying to find their feet in the new order.

May 25, 2010 | IMF calls for radical cuts in Spain

The International Monetary Fund has issued blunt warnings to Spain, calling on Madrid to implement harsh cuts and transform the country's labour market and pensions system, while also stressing the need for consolidation in the domestic banking sector.

May 17, 2010 | EU ministers to debate controversial eurozone reform

Eurozone finance ministers will discuss the parlous state of their beleaguered economies at a meeting in Brussels on Monday (17 May), after the bloc's recently agreed trillion-dollar support package failed to prevent the euro's slide last week.

May 10, 2010 | EU agrees massive support mechanism

After months of ever-increasing turmoil, the European Union has decided to set up a massive economic defence mechanism amounting to half a trillion euros to protect weaker eurozone nations from market speculation. EU finance ministers meeting in Brussels spent 12 hours on Sunday night (9 May) coming to an agreement to set up a multi-pronged "European Financial Stabilisation mechanism" after contagion from Greece's debt crisis threatened to infect countries such as Spain and Portugal. Its total volume will be up to €500 billion, with a further €220 available from the IMF.

April 22, 2010 | Bundestag to vote on Iceland EU membership

The Bundestag is set to hold a landmark vote on European affairs today (April 22), with the first binding EU recommendation for its government to follow in respect to Iceland's membership bid to join the bloc. The vote is a premiere in German politics, after lawmakers acquired a greater say on the government's EU policies. These extra powers were key for the Bundestag last year to approve the Lisbon Treaty, the EU's new legal framework, which the German constitutional court said did not provide enough parliamentary oversight.

April 13, 2010 | Icelandic report on the crash

A 2,300-page report by a Special Investigation Commission of Iceland's Althingi, the north Atlantic island's parliament, published on Monday 12 April is scathing in its criticisms notably of former prime minister Geir Haarde, the chairman of the central bank, David Oddsson (the architect of the privatisation of the banking sector in the 1990s), finance and commerce ministers, central bank governors and the chief financial regulator. A separate parliamentary committee is to now consider whether legal action is to be taken against those it alleges to have been responsible.

March 19, 2010 | Germany to support IMF aid for Greece

Germany has performed a dramatic u-turn and now says it would support International Monetary Fund aid for Greece, were it requested.

February 15, 2010 | EUDEMOCRATS unveil new report: The lowest of the low – the 2009 turnout some would like to forget

On February 15, the EU Democrats made public a new report on European Parliament elections in comparison with all other elections and referendums in the European Union between 1979 and 2009. The lowest of the low shows that turnout increased only in those member States in which local or national elections and European elections were held simultaneously and in those member States that innovated and somehow made voting easier and less time-consuming. For example: SMS and online voting in Estonia. Countries that did not hold local and EU elections on the same day experienced a lower turnout than in 2004.

January 25, 2010 | Former Le Monde Editor: Lisbon Treaty has made EU more complex rather than more simple

In an article in El País on 6 January Jean-Marie Colombani, former Editor of Le Monde, criticised the Lisbon Treaty for making the EU more complex, regarding the combination of the full-time EU President and rotating EU Presidency for member states. He writes, "What a strange thing, this two-headed presidency!" He continues, "Put ourselves in the place of European citizens, who were sold the idea that the Lisbon Treaty would simplify things...

December 01, 2009 | LISBON'S CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION BY STEALTH

With the coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty on Tuesday 1 December, members of the European Parliament, who up to now have been "representatives of the peoples of the States brought together in the Community"(Art.189 TEC), become "representatives of the Union's citizens" (Art.14 TEU). This change in the status of MEPs is but one illustration of the constitutional revolution being brought about by the Lisbon Treaty.

November 30, 2009 | LISBON TREATY COMES INTO FORCE ON TUESDAY

The Lisbon Treaty, which has 99% the same legal effect as the EU Constitution that was rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005, comes into force on tomorrow, 1 December.

November 27, 2009 | Barroso II line-up

European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso has unveiled his new team of commissioners putting new people in all portfolios, and giving the weightiest economic posts to a Finn, a Spaniard and a Frenchman.

November 27, 2009 | First balancing act for Van Rompuy

New procedural rules being considered by member states show that EU president-designate Herman Van Rompuy will have to manage a delicate power balancing act with the country holding the rotating presidency when he takes up his duties on 1 January.

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