Posts Tagged european parliament
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.
Rewriting History
Posted by Carolina Bracken in Education, European Union, Political Correctness, Politics on 07/04/2011
In 2008, MEPs gave the green light to a new museum, designed to showcase the “common historical memory” of the European Union and “bring Europe’s history alive”. Set to open in 2014, this Brussels-based “House of European History” (HEH) will sprawl over an acre and has an expected price tag of several million euro. However, while its construction has yet to begin, the project is already riddled with controversy.
La Résistance Française
Posted by Carolina Bracken in Environment, European Union, Politics on 16/03/2011
Faced with the possible merger of two of the 12 plenary sessions, France has launched a fierce resistance against the European Parliament. Member states should be able to defend their national interests against conflicting demands of EU membership. However, pandering to French demands would override the decision of the elected MEPs and continue to allow one member state to force all others to shoulder the burden of maintaining an unjustified and costly anachronism.
Let’s have a European parliament in Warsaw….!
Posted by James Gubb in European Union on 03/10/2006
Last Thursday a signature ceremony was held to celebrate the European parliament’s purchase of its own buildings in Strasbourg. The cost of the buildings? Just 136 million euros, of which approximately £10 million will come from British taxpayers held in escrow for such a noble purpose. Worth celebrating? On the plus side I guess 136 million euros is not bad as the cost of parliaments go, given that the Scottish one, for example, cost along the lines of £431m. Heh, we could buy a few more! At least then we could have a proper ‘travelling circus’; I’m sure MEPs must get incredibly bored of visiting just two parliaments.