I went to a very interesting event today, and as there was quite a bit of tweeting going in, I had a go at Storifying it. I can’t publish the story here directly, but do follow the link, if you’re interested. It was my first go, so don’t be too harsh on me, constructive criticism welcome.
Category Archives: UK politics
Statement by EU Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard on UK’s long-term carbon target
”I welcome the ambitious goal announced by the United Kingdom’s government today to reduce emissions 50 per cent under 1990 levels by 2025. This is an outstanding example of strong willingness to act despite difficult economic times. It also confirms that clever climate policies are not only about climate alone; they are also about improving energy security, stimulating innovation, raising competitiveness, and creating economic growth and jobs. With this decision, the UK seizes a huge economic and innovation opportunity that will make its economy more competitive in the future”
Filed under EC in UK, UK politics
#EUuk event, 10 December 2010
Friday was the culmination of several month’s work with Eurogoblin, Cosmetic Uprise and others, the bloggingportal event on EU and UK political blogging. I was rushing about sorting out the Wifi and making sure people were there, so you should head to Eurogoblin, Walaa Idris or Dick Puddlecote (any I’ve missed?) for a sense of how it went.
Anyway, better than reading what someone else said, you can watch it for yourself – we videoed both panels and are uploading them to the Rep’s YouTube site. They’re huge files and are going up in parts, so please bear with us.
Update 16 December 11am: I’m adding Jon Worth to coverage of the event. Though it’s not a report, it reflects what we conceived the event to be about – how to link the EU and UK political blogospheres, and mentions our event.
Update 10 January 15.45 And here’s the European Citizen’s post on it. He’s Bruno Waterfield’s favourite Euroblogger, dontcha know 🙂
Filed under Digital/social media, EC in UK, Europe House, Media, UK politics
Coalition on Europe
It’s amazing what you find if you read everything in your inbox! An e-mail with the coalition’s reponse to comments on its programme has languished in there all day, and I just got round to reading it. Pretty interesting stuff! Of course my main interest was the Europe section and it’s good to see a pretty straight-down-the-line defense of our EU membership. Also glad to see it wasn’t with foreign affairs, but was a stand-alone issue. I’m looking around to digging about in some of the other sections. Haven’t watched the video yet, I must admit.
Here’s the full set of links (let me know if you have any problems making them work – it may not all have made it with the cut-and-paste!):
The Coalition: Our programme for government
http://programmeforgovernment.hmg.gov.uk/response/
Our response
We thank all of you who engaged with this historic Coalition agreement by taking the time to read and comment on our programme. We promised government departments would read and respond to all comments that fall within their policy areas, and they’ve now done so.
Below you can find a response to each section of The Coalition: our programme for government. These responses focus on the main themes raised in each section.
You can also watch a video of Oliver Letwin and Danny Alexander discussing your feedback on the homepage.
Links to responses
These links take you to the websites of different departments, where the responses have been published.
Communities and local government
Culture, Olympics, media and sport
Filed under UK politics
Women in UK politics
The Robert Schuman Foundation have recently published some research which compares the level of ministers and members of parliament across the EU and show how many are women. The UK comes in below the EU average on all three indicators that they use:
Women ministers – EU average: 25.75% // UK: 17.39%
Women in national parliament – EU average: 24.32% // UK: 21.88%
Women in European parliament – EU average: 34.92% // UK: 33.33%
Which countries came top? You won’t be surprised to hear it was Finland for ministers, Sweden for national parliamentarians and Finland for women in the EP. Bottom? Hungary for ministers, Malta for the national parliament and Malta again for the EP.
Filed under European news, UK politics
I want to break free
Libertas have launched their UK election campaign today. It’s an interesting one. There are various things about it that strike a chord with me – a pan-European political party, aiming to respond to (or create?) a European demos, rather than focussing on national issues; a call to ensure that European institutions work effectively – it may be a surprise to some, but that’s something that pretty much all of us would want. But I do wonder where Libertas are going to fit. They say they’re pro-reform not anti-EU, but that’s a pretty limited audience in the UK. The people who are going to vote for a party with an EU platform are more likely to be anti. That’s one of the things here – the people who really seem to care are the ones who don’t like it. I did have to laugh (hollowly) at one line in their press release: “Almost 80% of laws that change the daily lives of Britons come from Brussels, and those laws are drafted by unelected, unaccountable civil servants. ” What, as opposed to the elected, accountable civil servants that draft laws everywhere else?! I have no issue with criticism, but at least let’s be fair about it!
Writing this made me think about what it is that stimulates European Commission proposals for legislation. I know from my time in policy DGs that often we are asked to propose something by the Council (national governments) or European parliament. So I just did a very quick and admittedly non-academic test. I looked at all proposals from the Commission in the last month (9 February to 9 March) which propose legislation (Decision, Directive or Regulation). Of the 27 proposed in that time:
5 amend or correct existing legislation, 2 repeal existing legislation, 4 implement international agreements and conventions (i.e UN level), 3 are administrative (members of committees etc), 1 applies to 1 member state only, 9 implement bilateral agreements with non-EU countries, 1 is part of the legislative proposal (taking into account the Parliament and Council amendments), 1 is at the request of the European Parliament (and inspired by the European Council) and 1 is at the Commission’s own initiative.
Now I accept that this is one month and is hardly scientific, but it does show that this idea of all legislation that comes out being a result of fonctionnaires sitting around in offices wondering what they can do now is a crude and inaccurate caricature.
Filed under European elections 2009, UK politics