For many reasons the past weeks have been probably those defining the rest of the mandate of the current government under Prime Minister Janša. The most obvious reasons are three:
The Lisbon Treaty has interesting provisions for the new High Representative that will, similarly to the EU President’s post, take the spotlight away from the Member States chairing the EU. The new High Representative will sit both in the Commission and chair the Foreign Affairs Council. Just how schizophrenic will the person end up being, we’ll see. Continue reading “EU after the Lisbon Treaty: How to sort out the new institutions – High Representative”
One of the last posts was done live during the Lisbon informal EU Summit. I have done a bit of reflection in the period afterwards on how the institutional triangle will look like after the new Treaty comes into force. And it’s far from clear – something I guess every EU leader now realizes. Continue reading “EU after the Lisbon Treaty: How to sort out the new institutions – EU President”
I owe an apology to those scanning my blog randomly, I haven’t managed to write anything for ages. Blogging is a choice and it’s not an easy tasks. To make one thing clear: I was not quiet because there would be nothing to write about. Oh, there was. I was simply quite because in between a new job, freelance work, living between Ljubljana & Brussels and catching up on some reading, I simply couldn’t afford the time for blogging. I hope the next months will be different. But I don’t promise anything.
I’ll post something about the Slovenian Presidential elections later tonight and then write something about the vote of confidence that the Prime Minister Janša asked for last week.
Just watching the Press Conference of Luis Amado after the first section of the IGC in Lisbon. It starts with “There’s no translation I’m afraid”. Which is fine and the minister actually works out perfectly in both Portuguese and English. You can say that he’s a very skillful politicians, tries to avoid any concrete words during his presentation, keeps most for the Q&A sessions.
What is the situation before the dinner then? Continue reading “Reform Treaty live”
Le od kod se je vzel Tomaž Å vagelj? Kaj več kot njegov podpis pod “Peticijo zoper cenzure” tudi Google ne najde. In kaj gospod zapiše v današnjem delu?
V članku z naslovom “Božanski duh državnega poglavarja” (Delo, 18. oktober 2007) zapiše nekaj misli o morebitnih posledicah bolezni pri državnih voditeljih, kar je seveda (v kolikor na temo gledamo abstraktno) povsem na mestu. Pred kratkim je Tine Velikonja namreč povzročil manjši škandal s svojimi napovedmi o zdravju Peterleta in Drnovška. Ampak očitno ima avtor manjši problem z objektivnostjo in korektnostjo, v zaključku članka ga namreč pošteno zanese… Continue reading “DELO: Božanski duh političnega kvazi-komentatorja”
Not really a headline news anymore, but might become one of them again – Sarko’s idea of the “committee of the wise-men”. Here is what he suggested:
“I call on the 27 to create a Committee of Wise Men by the end of this year, made up of ten to twelve members at very high level, similar to the committees chaired by Werner, Davignon and Westendorp and the Delors Committee, to address this simple but no less crucial question: “What kind of Europe should we have in 2020-2030 and what should its missions be?”” Continue reading “EU: Committee of wise-men and its whereabouts…”
Besides the lack of time recently, I haven’t written a lot about the EU because I’m fed up. What is there to write about? That the Commission wants to liberalize energy markets internally, while preventing foreign takeovers? That the Polish remained stubborn about their attitude towards Death Penalty, while the Portuguese EU Presidency celebrated the day against it anyway? Perhaps I should have written about the last “Vision Paper“ of the Commission that emphasises the external dimension of the Lisbon Strategy…Or perhaps about the ongoings with the Reform Treaty? Continue reading “Europe: fed up”
This week has seen a, to my view, a major political happening on the Slovenian scene. The former strongman of the Liberal Democrats (LDS), the evermighty, omnipresent Gregor Golobic, who quit as Secretary General of LDS 4 years ago to go into business, is back. Not at the top of something already in existence. No, he was elected as president of the new political party “Zares – nova politika”, which in English would read “Seriously – new politics”. How new it really can be and why now? Continue reading “Slovenia: Serious(ly) about politics, a new political party”
