"The European Citizen" - Four Today!

The European Citizen has been going for four years today! So, with the New Year just starting, what better time to have a look back at 2012? And what a year it was: fiscal treaties, continuing crisis, rows over the rule of law and national grandstanding - plus a Nobel Prize.

2012 started off with an explosion of blogging activity aimed at the Hungarian government of Viktor Orbán and its constitutional changes. Later on in the year, Romania hit the headlines for its power struggle between the President and Prime Minister (though it didn't generate as much online column inches on the Euroblogosphere). The continuing problems around the rule of law in the Member States led to a Justice Scorecard being set up; hopefully 2013 won't be as contentious for the rule of law.

Last year also saw the strangest treaty detour the EU has ever undergone (and techincally hasn't, since the Fiscal Treaty is outside the EU). Not designed to solve the current problems and pretty much law already (and not exactly good for political stability either), I had many complaints about this counter-productive waste of time and political capital, though I reluctantly supported a Yes vote in the Irish referendum. The whole idea of building a grand Eurozone bargain seemed to be hinted at, but the continuing grandstanding and reversals of negotiations have poured a lot of poison into EU summitry and lost opportunities to set the Eurozone on at least the way to the right track.

It was a good year for the European Parliament, with the ACTA treaty shot down following widespread protests in Europe over the treaty. However the acceptance of the EU-US PNR agreement - followed later by the realisation that the US is not holding up its end of the bargain - has meant that it hasn't been all good for MEPs. Legislation for a European PNR regime and plans for a SWIFT system means that the EU is continuing its anti-crime and terrorism policy in an illiberal way. On the economic front the EP is trying to flex some political muscle over the 2-Pack and with some reports and proposals of its own, but it hasn't been able to build a strong public profile on the subject yet.

The Commission had a mixed year - Reding was the stand-out Commissioner, delivering a draft data protection law and pushing for gender equality quotas for boardrooms (though the latter was eventually watered down). Commissioner Dali, on the other hand, was pushed out of the Commission in controversial circumstances under allegations of awareness of dodgy deals.

On the more theoretical side of things, I've debated the European "F-word" and about the left (or UK Labour) and the EU. This has spilled over on to the UK In-or-Out-or-Renegotiate debate, with arguments that the internal market is a political project and that there's a basic social contract to the EU.

We're now 18 months away from the next European elections in 2014. We've had elections in France and the Netherlands this year, and I've covered the PES Congress as well as a Relaunching Europe event on Youth Unemployment, but I'll try to focus more on the party political bent of the Parliament as well as its legislative output in the run up to the first Europe-wide election since the Eurozone crisis really blew up in our faces.

Have a great 2013 and thanks for reading!

"The European Citizen" - Three Today!

The European Citizen has now been going for three years! This year has been the quietest so far on the blog, even if it's been packed full of crises in the real world. Still, some of 2011 in the EU has been reflected here.

First, there was the long-awaited Irish election as the government collapsed over the need to go to the EU and IMF for loans to keep the country running. Along with Stephen Spillane, I helped follow it here and on MSN.ie with a blogging round-up series. The new governing parties have come up with a lot of constitutional reform ideas, and with the new constitutional convention coming up this year, delivery will be a key issue. Internationally, the EU was taken by surprise (like everyone else) by the Arab spring.

In the UK one of the most memorable debates was over prisoners' voting rights and (suggested from some quarters) withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights. I backed the loosing side in the AV referendum in April: British ethusiasm for First Past the Post is still confusing for me, though perhaps I just grew up in a different political atmosphere (Northern Ireland/Ireland), where the (proportional) Single Transferable Vote would have to be pried from voters' cold, dead hands (what voter would want to give up the power proportional representation gave them?). I also blogged about the debate on parliamentary sovereignty in the UK Parliament and what the difference is between a free trade area and the common market. But then it's sometimes hard to understand what kind of Free Trade the Tories believe in...

Citizenship was a big issue legally in the Court of Justice in Luxembourg - with the Zambrano case promising a new approach, before the law was cruelly reversed (if it ever had been changed) in McCarthy. This was probably the most legal I got all year! Old, more political chestnuts returned, like debates on European democracy and the values of referendums on the EU.

Barroso delivered his Commissarial Speech in September, showing just how much the EPP have shifted leftwards (or at least, how far their leaders have) - this was perhaps symbolised by the revival of debate around a Financial Transaction Tax. I also followed the PES and attended their Re:New conference (You can read my posts here, here, and here).

The year's end highlighted the two central questions we'll face this year: how many member states will join together and integrate further (sparked by the UK's veto and it's effects), and what kind of Eurozone do we want - and how will the left respond to the New Fiscal Compact?

This year I hope to be a bit more active - it looks like there'll be plenty to cover.

Hope you've a good 2012!

Back from the Grave

Don't worry - I'm not dead! Things have been very busy over the last month and a half, so The European Citizen has gone a bit quiet. I'm hoping to revive the blog and use it more regularly from now on.

I'm not sure how smooth the process will be, since the next few weeks will still be pretty busy, but I hope to squeeze in a few blog posts each week.

"The European Citizen" - Two Today!

The European Citizen is two years old today! It's been another big year of crises for Europe, and the first full year of the Lisbon Treaty being in force.

Blogging-wise, this year has been a bit more quiet than the first - I still don't know how I reached the 234 article mark in 2009! Still, it's been quite eventual. I somehow managed to win a short essay competition on communicating Europe, taken part in an International Criminal Court mooting competition, represented the S&D group for Romania in the Model European Union 2010 and wrote about My Europe Day as part of My Europe Week. 2010 was the year the question was raised: should bloggers be accredited to have greater access to European institutions, and, if so, on what criteria?

Civil and human rights remain important issues in Europe, whether it's banning veils, deporting Roma, access to abortion, or freedom of the press.

While the nature of blogging and blogging's place in society is still a big debate, including difficult questions over influence, I've tried to do something useful with this blog by analysing the records of the Northern Irish MEPs in their first year of this Parliament, taking a look at Barroso's big speech, and by covering the Oireachtas's (Irish Parliament's) report on how it could deal better with EU affairs. Although I also tried to compile strange EU rhetoric definitions, so it probably cancels out.

2010 saw a return of the old favourites of EU debate, what is the EU for, and what do the statistics mean? In August I moved to the Netherlands, so I took a look at the Dutch government's outlook on the EU. I was also lucky enough to be part of a trip around EU institutions and other international organisations in Europe, and the influence of the EU versus other organisations and the European Parliament is becoming more apparent.

For the next year, I'll try to continue writing about some other organisations, follow the Irish elections, and reach out to other Euroblogs and national blogs. As a co-editor of Bloggingportal.eu - which organised the great #EUuk event - I'm enthusiastic about the upcoming year, and it's bound to throw up some interesting events and it will remain the hub of the Euroblogosphere.

Thanks for reading!

The European Citizen: One of the most influential left-of-centre Euroblogs?

It turns out that The European Citizen has been nominated for a poll of the most influential left-of-centre Euroblogs in a Social Europe Journal poll. If you like the blog, and think I've been suitably left-of-centre enough, you can for me and 2 others (or even, theoretically, 3 blogs which aren't The European Citizen) here. The vote is open to 5pm tomorrow.

The (reader nominated) shortlist is 18 nominations long - I'm not entirely sure if that's due to the small size of the left-of-centre Euroblogosphere or the lack of nominations. I'm also not sure if I'm that "influential" (I've never even received a reply to the closest I've come to direct engagement with the EU instituions - though I wasn't really angling for a direct reply - and I doubt any shadowy Bilderbergers or Buchgemeinschaft der schwaebische Hausfrauen members read my blog). Nonetheless it's nice to be nominated.



UPDATE: Here are the results. I came in joint 9th place with the European Tribune. Thanks to those who voted for me!

The European Citizen's now on Facebook!

The European Citizen now has a page on Facebook! You can "like" the blog here.

Having the Facebook page for the blog is new for me, so if there are any tips on how to make the most of it, or requests for what you would want to see from it, just say, either in the comments or on the page.