About: The Brief
The Brief, powered by ECPC – When words become deeds
Europe has to break the social networks' hatred-based economic model, it has to implement efficient regulations that can dry up the revenue flows generated by the dissemination of hatred on the Internet. The savage assassination of Samuel Paty, who died for exercising his profession as a teacher, shows the extreme urgency of taking effective action. It shows words can become deeds.
The Brief, powered by ECPC – Is Biden or Trump better for the EU?
The answer seems obvious. The election of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the US would be great news for the European Union, as it would hopefully herald a return to the “normal” in transatlantic relations, after a terrible...
The Brief, powered by ECPC – And the band played on
If you still haven’t seen ‘A life on our planet’, Sir David Attenborough’s latest (and quite possibly last, given his advanced age) documentary, please find the time to do so. It will give you pause, regardless of whether you are...
The Brief, powered by logos – Faltered carbon
EU leaders will talk climate policy at today’s Council summit, but the big moment will come at December’s meeting when they will likely agree on new emissions-busting measures. It is worth asking: is the EU fundamentally equipped to tackle climate breakdown?
The Brief, powered by logos – Back to square one?
The COVID-19 crisis is back at full speed, with a steady stream of incoming news about new risk areas and regions, new quarantine measures and curfews. We’ve been there, done that, but is there anything new in all of this?...
The Brief, powered by logos – The watchdogs of democracy
European Commission Vice President Věra Jourová has called journalists “the watchdogs of democracy”. She was speaking at a conference dedicated to the media situation in Bulgaria – the most problematic country in terms of media freedom in the EU.
The Brief, powered by logos – Have ID, can’t travel
“My policy is to be able to take a ticket at Victoria station and go anywhere I damn well please!” So said Britain’s post-war Foreign Secretary Ernie Bevin in 1951. Bevin, though not a Europhile, might well have been talking about freedom of movement across Europe, a cherished freedom currently on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Brief, powered by CEN-CENELEC – The triumph of the jargon
Last night the European Parliament delegation walked out of talks on the EU budget. Although the main dispute is over MEPs’ demands for extra cash for some projects, lawmakers and some EU governments also insist that there must be a strong link between the rule of law and the disbursement of EU funds.
The Brief, powered by CEN-CENELEC – Clear and infectious danger
Europeans tend to devote too much headspace to following US politics and not enough bandwidth to what is going on over on this side of the Atlantic. But this time around, it pays to keep an eye out, as this White House race has an existential element to it.
The Brief, powered by CEN-CENELEC – We’re struggling too
Like so many institutions these days, the European Commission has taken its press conferences entirely online. While understanding the challenges this creates, we cannot help feeling that press relations seem to have generally started going downhill.
The Brief, powered by CEN-CENELEC – Against a Christian Europe
Tomorrow, the European Parliament is set to back Mairead McGuinness as Ireland’s new Commissioner responsible for financial services. However, during her hearing in the Economy Committee last week, MEPs failed to press the Parliament’s vice-president on perhaps the one thing...
The Brief, powered by CEN-CENELEC – Sleepwalking into a Caucasus war?
War is disastrous. Even for the big nations. The US feels nothing but terrible regret for having embarked onto the Vietnam War, the former Soviet Union for its Afghanistan disaster. On European territory, we suffered the Yugoslav wars in the...
The Brief – Clutching at straws: the low hanging fruit of pointless plastic
A ban on plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds was welcomed in the UK yesterday, prompting praise as a win for the environment and a signal that the government means business when it comes to plastic.
The Brief – Rule of law proxy war
The European Commission's rule of law assessment could increase the drive to tie the distribution of EU funds with adherence to rule of law. Yet under the surface of that discussion, a sinister storm is brewing that could threaten the EU's coronavirus recovery hopes.
The Brief – Don’t forget about the fish
A golden rule in politics is that the most belligerent rhetoric presages a climbdown. As lawmakers in Westminster passed a bill that would break the Withdrawal Agreement with the EU, accompanied with the usual bellicose statements about ‘taking back control’,...
The Brief – Penny pinchers
Plans to ditch one- and two-cent euro coins have moved forward, as the Commission starts to crunch the numbers on new minting and pricing rules. Should the eurozone banish its two smallest denominations of currency?
The Brief, powered by ESA – China’s climate gift
EU climate diplomacy is mostly geared towards convincing big polluting countries to go green. This week, that partly paid off when China pledged to go carbon-neutral by 2060, which may even help Europe be more environmentally ambitious.
The Brief, powered by ESA – A dose of reality on migration, or kicking the can
The EU migration pact announced on Wednesday (24 September) may not be remotely close to the “entirely new architecture” promised by the von der Leyen Commission but at least it offered a dose of reality. Altruism, or that much abused...
The Brief, powered by ESA – The undemocratic habit of the democratic game
The unwritten rule of 'cordon sanitaire' has struck again. One more time, the far-right was prevented from taking a key post in the European Parliament.
The Brief, powered by ESA – Europe’s next Pandora’s Box
Deep divisions have long been threatening to turn the EU’s foreign policy into a toothless tiger. Nevertheless, abolishing the principle of unanimity is not necessarily the solution. With 27 players in one room, of course there are divisions, stemming from...
The Brief, powered by ESA – Always look on the bright side of EUCO
The EU needs to be more courageous in its diplomacy, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said in her first State of the Union speech a couple of days ago. Some said her lengthy speech was bold. Others complained that there was too much wishful thinking. Others remarked that foreign affairs are not exactly her remit.
The Brief, powered by Eurogas -The art of breaking the law, legally
We may have been free from parliamentary melodrama in Westminster for almost a year but for Brexit masochists, there’s yet another act in this seemingly endless Wagnerian saga, courtesy of Boris Johnson’s Internal Market Bill.
The Brief, powered by Eurogas – SOTEU’s hidden gems
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s SOTEU speech hit all the main points expected of her but there were also less obvious yet still interesting ideas, hidden between the lines.