European Commission

The next Commission President?

April 24, 2012
By Stephen
The next Commission President?

European Commissioner Viviane Reding (Photo credit: Wikipedia) According to Euractiv jostling for the nomination for the next European Commission President has begun. As the next President will be picked based on the who is the largest party in the next European Parliament, elected in 2014, it will be a contest between European People’s Party, EPP, (currently the largest party) and the Party of European Socialists ,PES, the next largest party, who sit as the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and...

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Gay Blood Ban Against EU Law – EU Commissioner

September 8, 2011
By Stephen
Gay Blood Ban Against EU Law – EU Commissioner

John Dali, the European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, has stated that a blanked ban on Gay and Bisexual Men giving blood is against EU law. In an answer to Glenis Willmott (S&D) and Michael Cashman (S&D) he explained that EU law warranted the deferral of those “at high risk of acquiring severe infectious diseases” due to their “sexual behaviour”. Mr Dalli underlined that “‘sexual behaviour’ is not identical with ‘sexual orientation’”. The Commission also noted that when...

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Irish influence in the EU

September 19, 2010
By Stephen
Irish influence in the EU

Something on the European Movement Ireland page twigged my interest towards the end of last week. On Wednesday the Catherine Ashton, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs announced 27 new Heads of EU Delegation and 1 Deputy Head of EU Delegation. Of these 3 were Irish. That was the second highest number awarded to any country in this rotation. The full break down was as follows: Spain 5 Ireland 3 France 3 Germany 2 Netherlands Italy 2 Poland 2...

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Germany 2011

May 31, 2010
By Stephen
Germany 2011

On Saturday night, European Televoters and Juries voted Germany the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. This is the second time in the History of Eurovision that German of won the contest, see a history on escireland.com. It now falls to the German broadcaster ARD to host the contest next year. Throughout the voting on Saturday night many comments were passed about the fact that Europe was rewarding Germany for bailing them out and to the fact that...

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Explaining the European Union to Students

May 12, 2010
By Stephen
Explaining the European Union to Students

Image via Wikipedia Today I had the joy of joining members of the European Movement Ireland in part of their schools roadshow on the European Union. Today we visited Colaiste Mhuire in Crosshaven. Leading the show was Andrea Pappin, the Executive Director, and she was joined with by Billie Sparks, the Education and Advocacy Director. I stood quiet in the coner! We were dealing with transition year students. Andrea started off the workshop by explaining about the history of...

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The 17th Member of the Eurozone: Estonia

May 12, 2010
By Stephen
The 17th Member of the Eurozone: Estonia

Image via Wikipedia Estonia is set to join the Eurozone on the 1st of January 2011 according to the Irish Times. Estonia was given the all clear by the European Commission. Estonia will be the fifth of the 2004 intake to join the common currency following Slovenia in 2007, Malta and Cyprus in 2008 and Slovakia in 2009. Plans by Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic are still not on track, so they will not be joining the currency...

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FG Complain to EU about NAMA – Its a bit late?

January 21, 2010
By Stephen
FG Complain to EU about NAMA – Its a bit late?

Image via Wikipedia So Fine Gael’s Senator Eugene Regan made a formal complaint to the European Commission about NAMA. He claims the ‘scale and scope’ of the scheme is disproportionate to the size of the Irish economy, transfers too much risk from the banks onto the Irish taxpayer and does not contain sufficient safeguards that Irish depositors and borrowers will not be forced to pay for the huge mistakes by Irish banks. Now I think most people would agree...

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Home Choice Loans

January 8, 2010
By Stephen
Home Choice Loans

Image via Wikipedia Remember the complaints about the Home Choice Loans and possible infringements of state aid and that? Well the EC has responded to the complaints. Here is the response I received: Brussels, 08/01/10*D/5031 COMP F3/BS/JVG/lc A(2009)21897 / D(2010)1 Subject: State aid complaint CP 300/2008 – Ireland Home Choice Loan Dear Madam/Sir, I am writing to you because you sent a complaint to the Commission concerning the granting of alleged state aid through the above measure. The Commission...

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The Hearings!

January 5, 2010
By Stephen
The Hearings!

Image via Wikipedia Next week the hearings for the New European Commission will get under way. They will start on Monday 11th and continue until the Tuesday 19th. Each commissioner will be questioned for three hours by a committee responsible for the area they are nominated. Each committee will then vote on the nomination, before the Parliament as a whole does. The line up is as follows (Committees also listed, main committee in bold if more then one in...

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Euroblog round-up #2

December 15, 2009
By Stephen
Euroblog round-up #2

Image via Wikipedia Heres another round up of issues making the rounds in the eurobloggerosphere at the moment, with thanks to BloggingPortal.eu Swedish Presidency The Swedish Presidency of the European Council is coming an end, and Spain gets ready to share the reins. A number of blogs look back at the 6 months of the Swedish Presidency. Mats Engström calls the Presidency “Effective” but it wasn’t exciting. (then again name one that was!) The Swedish Europe Minister (and Commissioner...

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