Image via Wikipedia As well as the appointments made by the European Council last night (more on that later), another recent appointment has come to my knowledge. Dick Roche, the current Minister for Europe, has been made a Vice-President of the European Liberal Democratic and Reform Party (ELDR) . From what I am hearing, a lot of people are not happy about this. Pat Cox, the former President of the ELDR is not a happy man from what I hear,...
Image via Wikipedia There was an article in last night’s Evening Echo (Not online) that basically suggested that it is a two horse race for the Irish Nomination to the new EU Commission in the Autumn. They are tipping Pat Cox or John Bruton to be the nominatee. The rationale behind this is that they are both heavy hitters. Cox is a previous leader of the ALDE Group of the Parliament as well as being a former President of...
Image via Wikipedia So the PES, which were going to be called ASDA ASDE decided to choose a different again. This time they have gone with Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats or PASD for short. Not sure what that looks like yet…. So the PASD will be the second largest grouping in the Parliament. It is the offical name change as now their website even has it. So the Groups in the Parliament will be the (in order...
It looks like the European Conservatives and Reformists Group is in a bit of bother today due to decision of Finnish MEP Hannu Takkula to remain in the ALDE grouping according to NewsRoom Finland. Jon Worth thinks “some people in the party must have applied pressure” on him to remain in the ALDE. This leaves the ECRG at the bare minimum of representation with MEPs from 7 member states. On Monday there were talks of other MEPs joining....
With the anouncement today of the new conservative grouping in the European Parliament, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECRG), we now know all the Groupings in the Parliament. They are (in order of size) (PS not sure im numbers are correct): European People’s Party – 266 Party of European Socialists – 161 Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe – 80 European Conservatives and Reformists – 55 Greens-European Free Alliance – 53 Union for Europe of the Nations – 35...
Image via Wikipedia The newly elected Parliament looks set to become deadlocked over the nomination of the next European Commission President. Jose Manual Barrosso has the backing of the EPP, and thats about it. The new European Conservative grouping could be persuaded to back him too. I doubt they could persuade Ind/Dem to back him publicly but they may vote for him. The other candidate Guy Verhofstadt has the backing of GUE/NGL, Greens-EFA, PES ASDE and ALDE. Unfortunatley neither...
Image via Wikipedia So the new European Parliament is going to be a bit of an Alphabet soup. According to The Lobby blog the Party of European Socialist Grouping in the Parliament is going to change its name to the “Alliance of Socialists and Democrats” or ASDE for short (Not to be confused with ASDA). So why the change? The name change is to suit the Italian Partito Democratico who in the last parliament where split between PES and...
I was giving out during the election campaign that the PES didnt have a candidate for Commission President. Despite the fact the PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen wants the job, its looking highly unlikely that he will not be the PES nominee. Instead the Greens, ALDE and PES look set to team up to try and get former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt elected as Commission President according to euractiv.com instead of José Manuel Barroso. Verhofstadt’s party the Vlaamse...
Negotiations are underway for the top jobs in Europe now that the results of the weekends elections are known. The European Peoples Party (EPP), which Fine Gael is part of, has emerged as the largest party in the European Parliament with 263 seats. For a majority in the parliament 379 seats are needed. The ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe), which Fianna Fail is part of, has 80 seats giving a combined ALDE-EPP link up of 343...
Image via Wikipedia Well I haven’t blogged since Monday and I apologise! But I may make up for it today! So I have found a few things relating to the EU elections. First up is VoteMatch. Now I think its done by the same crowd who had the tool for the London Elections last year. This is based on the European Political Parties rather then the National Parties. You get asked to agree, disagree, neither with 30 statements and...
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