About: Barroso
MEP Farage: ‘We are Europeans, and proud of it’
Britain's 40 years in the EU have been of great shame and sadness, but the British are European and proud of it, British MEP Nigel Farage told EURACTIV Germany.
Analyst: Barroso should discipline ‘loose cannon’ commissioners
Budget Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski, who promised in an election ad in his native Poland that his country would get €70 billion from the next EU budget, should be disciplined by the Commission President, or else the European Parliament may have to sanction the entire Commission, policy analyst Piotr Maciej Kaczy?ski told EURACTIV in an interview.
Duff: Look to transnational list for Barroso’s successor
Anti-federalists loathe the idea of introducing a transnational list of 25 MEPs in the next European Parliament, because they fear one of them would gain the legitimacy to claim to become the next Commission President, MEP Andrew Duff told EURACTIV in an exclusive interview.
Analyst: Barroso II needs ‘vision’, sense of ‘history’
With decades of EU institutional reform and eastern enlargement culminating with the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the European Union is now "as close to the final EU institutional balance as we are likely to get in our lifetimes" and leaders can focus on pressing issues like climate change, energy and food security instead, Tom Spencer, executive director of the European Centre for Public Affairs, told EURACTIV in an interview.
Crossick: Lifting arms embargo can break EU-China stalemate
Although the EU will enter today's (30 November) EU-China summit with a revamped outlook provided by the Lisbon Treaty, no major turning point should be expected from the meeting unless Europe commits itself to lifting its arms embargo against China, argues Stanley Crossick, founding chairman of the European Policy Centre (EPC), in an interview with EURACTIV.
Durant: ‘Our first priority is to make the assembly respected’
The European Parliament can no longer accept orders from EU heads of state and government, Isabelle Durant, a Belgian Green MEP and former minister who was recently appointed vice-president of the assembly, told EURACTIV in an interview.
Czech minister: ‘Time is tight, but we’ll deliver’
"We have climbed on board an express train, but we have no doubt about the train reaching the end of the line on time with a maximum number of goals achieved," Czech EU Affairs Minister Štefan Füle told EURACTIV.cz in an interview, referring to his country's stint at the EU helm.