Archive for category European Union
Book Review: Postmodern Citizenship
Posted by Nick Cowen in European Union, Foreign Affairs, Immigration, Multiculturalism, Social Cohesion on 06/02/2012
By David Conway
Title: Citizenship in America and Europe: Beyond the Nation-State?
Author: Michael S. Greve and Michael Zoller
Publish Date: 2009
Publisher / Edition: AEI Press, 2009
The collapse of the Soviet Union transformed the political landscape of the West no less profoundly than it did that east of the former Iron Curtain. Long moribund but virulent nationalisms were quickly aroused in the Balkans, as were equally intense tribal rivalries in several of the Soviet Union’s former client states in sub-Saharan Africa. Ensuing civil war and violent conflict led a large exodus of refugees from these troubled regions to seek asylum in the West, along with many economic migrants, whose numbers were swollen by the large international population flows that attended the sudden global expansion of capitalism also triggered by the Soviet Union’s collapse. In Europe’s case, foreign immigration was further augmented by the opportunity the Soviet Union’s collapse presented Germany to reunify and many of the Soviet Union’s former satellite states in East Europe to join the European Union.
Helmer’s Bad Heir Day
Posted by Natalie Hamill in European Union on 01/02/2012
By Lucy Hatton
A political stalemate has emerged in Brussels between the UK Conservative Party and one of its more outspoken members, Roger Helmer MEP, over the succession of the latter’s seat in the European Parliament (EP).
New President gives the European Parliament a new image
Posted by Natalie Hamill in European Union on 24/01/2012
By Lucy Hatton
Last Tuesday (17 January) German MEP Martin Schulz became the new President of the European Parliament (EP). He may have won a majority at the mid-term presidential election but his election is certainly not without controversy.
Environmentalists are undermining their cause by defending emissions trading
Posted by David Merlin-Jones in Economics, Environment, European Union on 06/01/2012
On Wednesday, the Guardian published an article in ‘Comment is Free’ dismissing the claims made in Civitas’ latest report, CO2.1: Beyond the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (available here). Damien Morris, the author of the article and senior policy advisor at Sandbag, described the report as ‘cynical’ and containing ‘remorseless pessimism’. What is the report’s crime? To argue that the EU’s flagship environmental scheme delivers no environmental benefit and is being manipulated by governments, businesses and bankers for profit and should therefore be scrapped. There was no discussion of the report’s positive messages of alternative ways to reduce carbon emissions, if that is what we must do, for much less cost while also reducing the future price of energy.
Read the rest of this article on The Commentator here
The rise of the Hungarian Viktator?
Posted by Natalie Hamill in European Union on 06/01/2012
By Lucy Hatton
There is suggestion that Hungary’s position in the European Union may no longer be tenable after the coming into force of the new Hungarian Constitution, or Fundamental Law, on 1 January. This controversial constitution has been heavily criticised for being overly right-wing and eroding the democracy so precious to Hungary since the fall of communism in the country in 1989. The contradiction between some of the provisions of the new constitution and those democratic values inherent in the treaties of the EU has led to the claim from a former US Ambassador to Budapest, that Hungary “won’t be tolerated if it no longer counts as a democracy”.
EU’s flagship green scheme siphons cash from consumers and employers to energy fat cats
Posted by Nick Cowen in Economics, Environment, European Union, Press Release on 04/01/2012
Emissions Trading System shrinks economy but not Britain’s carbon footprint
The EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) is siphoning billions from industry and consumers to plump up finance and energy fat cats, according a new Civitas report. The report reveals that, via the EU ETS, each EU citizen is effectively subsidising the power industry by £30 a year. [p. 13] In addition, the Government is adding more costs to UK families and businesses via the carbon price floor which sets a minimum price for carbon credits. This carbon price floor is expected to push another 110,000 British households into fuel poverty by 2016. [p. 61]
CO2.1, by David Merlin-Jones, is a comprehensive examination of how the EU ETS fails at its own goal of reducing carbon emissions. It details how carbon traders, banks, energy companies and the government are extracting billions from productive businesses and consumers via the EU ETS, while undermining the vulnerable UK economic recovery.