Interesting new British weblog on matters European: Europhobia - “The musings of a one-time eurosceptic turned pro-European and his better informed friends”
September 29, 2004
September 27, 2004
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by Mrs TiltonCDU chief Angela Merkel’s strong opposition to Turkish EU accession faces criticism from her own side, reports the FT Deutschland. Volker R?he, the CDU chairman of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee and one-time defence minister, has lambasted Merkel’s position as ‘populism’, especially in its menacing vision of a Europe ‘flooded’ by Turks. ‘When Europe comes to Anatolia,’ say R?he, ‘Anatolia won’t need to come to Gelsenkirchen.’ Unless, of course, it wants to watch Schalke ‘04…
September 21, 2004
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by Nick BarlowBritish Conservative MP (and editor of the Spectator) Boris Johnson now has his own weblog. As a commenter somewhere else said, we can all give up and go home now.
September 20, 2004
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by Nick BarlowAnd in the end it wasn’t even closer - Europe win the 2004 Ryder Cup by nine points, the largest winning margin since 1981.
September 17, 2004
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by Tobias SchwarzThe German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Compagnia di San Paolo have released the 2004 edition of “transatlantic trends”, an extensive survey of public opinion on a range of foreign policy issues. Polls were conducted in the US, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Great Britain, as well as in Slovakia and Turkey. So if you’re interested in the latest update on “the rift” in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Slovak, or Turkish, click here (.pdf plugin required).
September 13, 2004
September 2, 2004
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by Tobias SchwarzWhile most people are still banging their heads against their respective walls trying to figure out how to make a penny and a half with their blogs, Crooked Timber’s Daniel Davies comes up with an interesting and appropriately unusual leveraging solution: Buying the UK - or at least some chunks of it. Here’s the plan…
August 28, 2004
August 27, 2004
August 9, 2004
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by David WemanRussian writers have long been honored as wise men and secular prophets, but by pioneering literary detective fiction here, Grigory Chkhartishvili has overturned some traditions of Russia’s literary world.
Chkhartishvili - who writes under the pen name Boris Akunin - is best known for a series of 11 thrillers set in late 19th-century Russia, each featuring the aristocratic detective Erast Fandorin. Since Chkartishvili began writing fiction seven years ago, publishers have sold 10 million copies of his detective books. [Two are already available in English]
The author himself doesn’t exactly hide his subversive ambitions: B. Akunin evokes the memory of Mikhail Bakunin, a 19th-century anarchist. And Chkhartishvili was once a Japanese translator. In that language Akunin means “bad guy.”
A delightful review in the Baltimore Sun (free registration required).
July 22, 2004
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by David WemanFistful commenters’ favorite MEP, Paul van Buitenen, gets big media coverage in Business Week. We knew him when.
July 21, 2004
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by David WemanPoker with Dick Cheney. “Colin Powell: Ladies and gentlemen. We have accumulated overwhelming evidence that Mr. Cheney’s poker hand is far, far better than two pair. Note this satellite photo, taken three minutes ago when The Editors went to get more chips. In it we clearly see the back sides of five playing cards, arranged in a poker hand. Defector reports have assured us that Mr. Cheney’s hand was already well advanced at this stage. Later, Mr. Cheney drew only one card. Why only one card? Would a man without a strong hand choose only one card? We are absolutely convinced that Mr. Cheney has at least a full house.” Lots more.
July 18, 2004
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by Nick BarlowGreek police have arrested Dejan Malenkovic, one of the chief suspects for the murder of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic
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by Nick BarlowIf you’ve got ?1.5m lying around, then why not consider buying your own Croatian island?
July 11, 2004
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by Tobias SchwarzAlright, here’s your joke for Sunday… if you can receive German ZDF television, you can enjoy your breakfast tomorrow making fun of me - Tobias - cycling on an ergometer for half an hour as a “surprise candidate from the audience”. Don’t ask me how I got into participating in a “Tour de Fernsehgarten” - a strangely popular “family oriented” (meaning entertainment without any real focus) tv programme I have never even watched in my enitre life - when I have to be on the set at eight on a Sunday and then proto-cycle while being forced to listen to “Overground” playbacks… (if you have to, ask my sister when she starts her blog eventually.) At least I did not have to rehearse 
July 3, 2004
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by Tobias SchwarzMore on Football and the European economy - Slate’s Daniel Gross explains why Europe’s favorite sport is more American than baseball. In a nutshell, it’s because “American sports are virtually all socialistic while the European soccer leagues more closely resemble the entrepreneurial capitalism we Americans fetishize.” (via papascott.de)
June 30, 2004
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by David Weman“I was covering Nikitin’s trial in 1999, and after one session in court I asked the prosecutor to comment on the progress of the case.
‘If I were you I would be very careful,’ responded the prosecutor, Alexander Gutsan. ‘Particularly since you have a little boy.’”
June 26, 2004
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by Nick BarlowImagine what’ll happen if they get to the final…big parties in Athens as Greece head to the Euro 2004 semi-finals
June 24, 2004
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by David WemanOne of the choicest paragraphs, from a choice review of Bill Clinton’s autobiography: “That somehow a long, dense book by the world’s premier policy wonk should be worth that much money is amusing, and brings us back to Clinton’s long coyote-and-roadrunner race with the press. The very press that wanted to discredit him and perhaps even run him out of town instead made him a celebrity, a far more expensive thing than a mere president. Clinton’s now up there with Madonna, in the highlands that are even above talent. In fact, he and Madonna may, just at the moment, be the only ones way up there, problems having arisen with so many lesser reputations.”
If the Times link has expired, try here.
June 22, 2004
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by Nick BarlowAt the risk of turning this column into ‘what Henry Farrell’s written recently’, he has a good piece on CT about the role of the European Parliament in international affairs.
June 19, 2004
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by Nick BarlowAmongst all the other decisions made at the summit, Croatia is now an official EU candidate state. Talks are scheduled to begin next year with an aim of the Croats joining alongside Romania and Bulgaria in 2007.
June 18, 2004
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by David WemanThe Washington Post doesn’t think much of Europe’s efforts to get Iran to cooperate with international inspection of its nuclear programs. “So far, only carrots have been offered — and they have produced no results.”
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by Nick BarlowOver at Crooked Timber, Henry Farrell assesses the candidates for President of the European Commission
June 13, 2004
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by Nick BarlowThe 2004 European Football Championship has kicked off with a shock in the opening game as the hosts Portugal were beaten 2-1 by Greece. Elsewhere, Spain began the tournament with a 1-0 win against Russia.
June 2, 2004
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by Nick BarlowSupermodels, astronauts, porn stars and journalists: BBC News looks at some of the famous (and infamous) candidates standing in the European Parliament elections
May 27, 2004
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by Nick BarlowAfter Porto’s victory in the European Cup last night, their coach Jose Mourinho has announced he is leaving the club to work in England. He hasn’t said which club he’s joining yet, though.
May 18, 2004
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by David WemanRussia and the Baltic republics, and now the EU. A fraught relationship, not least because of suspicions of bad faith on both sides. What is to be done? Some thoughts from a key Munich think tank, in German.
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by Nick BarlowIf you’re finding it a drag to write new posts for your blogs, then Matt’s new keyboard may be able to cut the time it takes
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by David WemanMay 17, 2004
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by Nick BarlowBBC News has launched its site covering June’s elections - there are local as well as European elections in the UK on June 10
May 15, 2004
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by Nick BarlowItalian-born Sonia Gandhi seems set to become India’s next Prime Minister after the Congress Party’s surprise victory in the recent elections
Update: She has now turned down the post
May 14, 2004
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by David WemanContinuing our wall-to-wall coverage of this event, here is a reasonable approach to coping with it. Commentary one year when Spain gave Germany an inordinate number of points: “I see Mallorca has just cast its votes.”
May 13, 2004
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by Nick BarlowAnthony Wells looks at some of the fringe candidates standing in Britain’s elections to the European Parliament
May 12, 2004
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by Nick BarlowThe Guardian’s Euroblog - a record of the European election campaign written by three British MEPs - Roger Helmer, Richard Corbett and Sarah Ludford (found via Doctor Vee)
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by David WemanHUDDERSFIELD, England (Reuters) — Seven men who enjoyed duck and caviar at more than 22,000 feet in the Himalayas pitched a claim Tuesday for the record highest altitude formal dinner.
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by David WemanGreat title for a blog post, “If the past is another country, how about a declaration of independence?” Interesting cogitation behind the title, too.
May 11, 2004
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by Nick BarlowVia the Young Fogey, here’s an amusing website that ranks and grades the various flags of the world. What grade does your country get?
May 9, 2004
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by Nick BarlowKen Macleod has an interesting post about his attendance at an SF convention in Croatia
May 8, 2004
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by Nick BarlowGeorgian President Saakashvili has disbanded the Adjaran parliament and installed direct rule in the province after the departure of Aslan Abashidze. Living with Caucasians has an interesting on-the-ground perspective on the events before the flight of Abashidze
May 7, 2004
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by Tobias SchwarzOn April 5, Siemens AG’s CEO Heinrich v. Pierer talked to the UN Security Council about The Role of [multinational] Business in Conflict Prevention, Peacekeeping and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding. I suppose the perspective of cross-country hierarchies on these issues should be given more public attention.
May 6, 2004
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by David WemanA decent overview of Poland and the EU, from a business and economic perspective.
April 30, 2004
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by Nick BarlowIf you’re not out celebrating, BBC News are covering the accession celebrations live. A streaming feed of their broadcast should be available from the website.
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by Tobias SchwarzRussel Arben Fox is already going on Summer holiday, blogwise, in order to catch up on other (more?!) important things. Looks like a good opportunity to check his archives and do some catching up ourselves…