Overheard in Brussels II: “I was wrong about Spitzenkandidaten…”
“To be honest, I was wrong about the Spitzenkandidaten process. It is an important first step to give the EU a face – and it gives the public a buy-in to EU politics.” – Former UK cabinet minister This...
View ArticleOverheard in Brussels III: Writing for The Economist
What’s it like to write for The Economist? Who is your audience? And what do people in Brussels expect you to know? “There is so much noise and fog in Brussels, it is hard to identify the story that...
View ArticleOverheard in Brussels IV: The EurActiv mystery
Why is it that EurActiv never breaks a big EU story? They’ve been around for ages so why does nobody outside Brussels takes any notice of them? I mean, you never read in the FT, NYT or in the Guadian...
View ArticleWie man nüchtern und informativ über die Situation in Griechenland schreibt
Wenn es um Griechenland geht, dreht der deutsche (und internationale) Journalismus ja gerne durch. Robert Misik hat das sehr schön am Beispiel einer Geschichte im Spiegel aufgezeigt. Das Problem ist ja...
View ArticleOverheard in Brussels V: Pro-EU campaigning in the UK
All pro-EU organisations in the UK are old, ineffective and have no significant grassroot support – or to put it differently: nothing comparable to UKIP exists on the pro-EU side. Plus, nobody wants to...
View ArticleOverheard in Brussels VI: Putin and the EU
Strength in politics is measured by your ability to create problems. Unpredictability is Putin’s big strength – the EU on the other hand is the embodiment of predictability. Foreign policy analyst...
View ArticleOverheard in Brussels VII: Let’s Stick Together
What’s keeping us together in Europe? a) the fear of an expensive divorce? b) the status quo? c) the lack of imagination to see any alternative? (via @MarianCramers) d) the lack of political will to...
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The European Interest
I’ve just launched “the european interest” (@EUinterest on twitter) – a new weekly EU politics newsletter featuring a (hopefully) eclectic mix of EU analysis . ‘the european interest’ is about bringing...
View ArticleGünther H. Oettinger is a political liability for this Commission
Günther H.Oettinger has a rare skill: Give him a microphone and he gives you a scandal. His cabinet must be a fun place to work – if you are into damage control and crisis communication that is. The...
View ArticleWhat’s wrong with the “Erasmus Generation Survey”?
Imagine the following scenario: I would publish an online survey on my website – let’s say 15 questions about the future of Europe. Via social media and a couple of email newsletters I motivate all my...
View Article6 ideas for innovative EU journalism
Simple questions often make you think. Example: What is missing in EU journalism? What sort of innovative journalistic products do we need that would innovate and improve reporting about the EU?...
View ArticleOverheard in Brussels IX: The European Neighbourhood
“We wanted to build a circle of friends – now we are dealing with a ring of fire.” – EU official in DG NEAR This blog post is part of “Overheard in Brussels“. Tweet
View ArticleProject idea: Watching Trialogues
Trialogues have become one of the most used decision-making tools in the EU system. On the one hand they create a convenient shortcut for EU institutions to speed up lengthy decision-making procedures...
View ArticleHow to make the EU more confusing
Here is a quick guide on how to make the EU more confusing: Step 1: Name Take two institutions with entirely different roles and give them deceivingly similar names. “Council” sounds vague enough, and...
View ArticleProject idea: EU media watch blog
Recent events (ICYMI: part 1 & part 2 ) got me thinking: Who is watching the Brussels based EU media? Do we need a ‘EU media watch blog’? The EU media landscape is changing. It has become more...
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