Richard

Author Archives

  • European Commission building

    Labour MEPs welcome Commission’s proposals for better regulation but warn against deregulation

    by Comments are off

    Labour MEPs have broadly welcomed the European Commission’s proposals for better regulation, but warned against deregulation of social and consumer rights and environmental measures. The Commission, responding to pressure from the European Parliament, today published its “Better Regulation” package: a proposal to revamp the EU’s legislative procedures to improve effectiveness and transparency and to subject […]

  • Open sign

    Response from the Commission on VAT

    by 0 Comments

    Readers of this blog will know that I’ve been providing regular updates on the work Labour MEPs are doing to address the so-called VAT-MOSS issue, where originally well-intentioned changes to cross-border VAT rules have ended up affecting small and micro-businesses severely and disproportionately. I’ve raised the problem in conversations with Frans Timmermans, First Vice-President of […]

  • courtesy Russavia via Wikimedia Commons

    Cameron’s difficulties start now

    by 4 Comments

    There will be no honeymoon for our returning Prime Minister. He can savour his moment of triumph, but governing over the next five years with such a slim majority — the smallest of any incoming Conservative PM since the 1840s — will leave him in hock to even the smallest of rebellions on his backbenches, […]

  • Le Bar de l'Europe

    At le Bar de l’Europe

    by 0 Comments

    An extended, light-hearted interview for French TV about British attitudes to Europe. It’s in French, so I’ve also provided an English transcript.

  • University of York

    Why universities need Europe

    by 0 Comments

    Later this evening, the Times Higher Education Supplement will publish its rankings of the top 100 universities in the world which were founded in the past 50 years. In previous years, British universities have been very well represented in the list. In 2014, no country in the world had more entries on the list than […]

  • Strong Baltic Sea plan marks important precedent

    by 0 Comments

    This clip is a contribution I made to the positive vote in plenary on the Baltic multi-annual plan — a key implementation of the newly reformed Common Fisheries Policy. Since this MAP marks the first of the new style plans, it sets important precedents for others to come, namely the upcoming North Sea plan. I’m […]

  • Speaking in plenary

    eCall: a measure with widespread support

    by 0 Comments

    A brief clip of one of my contributions to the debate about eCall.

  • courtesy Amada44 via Wikimedia Commons

    eCall

    by 4 Comments

    Yesterday, the European Parliament debated one piece of EU legislation that almost everyone considers a good idea — everyone, that is, except the Conservatives, the French Front National, and presumably UKIP, none of whose members bothered even to speak in the debate. The proposal is to include an inbuilt ‘eCall‘ mechanism in new car manufacturing […]

  • courtesy werner22brigitte via Pixabay

    Shaping transatlantic trade

    by 0 Comments

    The British Chambers of Commerce have just reprinted my column from a couple of months ago on TTIP and what’s at stake: The proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, is not all sweetness and light. Even as initial negotiations got underway between European and American trade representatives a couple of years ago, concerns […]

  • Fishing

    The EU’s fight against pirate fishing

    by 1 Comment

    The European Commission has today waved a yellow card at Thailand for not taking sufficient measures to fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU). The card follows an initial denouncement from the European Commission in 2011 and now marks the opening of a formal dialogue with the Thai authorities to ensure corrective measures are […]

  • Doorstep EU

    Put an EU expert in your pocket

    by 1 Comment

    From today, you can download and install my free mobile app, Doorstep EU, on both Apple and Android devices. Doorstep EU is very much more than just a copy of my website. It includes up-to-the-minute, detailed analysis of British EU media coverage — both explaining the background to each story, and assessing its reliability with […]

  • Screenshot key issues

    Key issues

    by Comments are off

    Authoritative briefing notes on hot topics linked to the UK’s membership of the European Union.

  • Conservative poster

    A few manifesto oddities

    by 0 Comments

    Business for New Europe, a campaign group which represents the voice of UK business on EU-related issues, is circulating an excellent graphic comparing key points on Europe from the manifestos of the main parties plus UKIP. Seeing everything laid out side-by-side highlights a few oddities which I couldn’t resist highlighting. So here’s my annotated version! […]