Tag Archives: lisbon treaty

Ireland: Post Referendum Research Findings

The long awaited report on the underlying causes of the No vote on the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland has been published.  You can read the complete report here: “Post Lisbon Treaty Referendum Research Findings (.pdf)” Here some key findings: The main reason for abstaining in this referendum was lack of understanding/knowledge (46%), which is far [...]
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Kosmolinks #17

The referendum: populism vs democracy The idea of the referendum as an instrument of the people’s will rests on pre-democratic foundations, says George Schöpflin. I certainly agree! A better way with referendums Interesting idea: Is it possible to introduce a more deliberative approach when holding a referendum? Does “deliberative polling” make citizens more knowledgeable? Instead [...]
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Cameron vs. Brown

Interesting how Gordon Brown defends the EU and the Lisbon Treaty: Conviction or tactics? [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uVFkzzLkL0]
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Wise words…

Jean-Claude Juncker, PM of Luxembourg made a few interesting comments at a conference that took place in Brussels just one day before the European Council: “Politicians give the impression that Europe is being built against their will. Governments always try to explain in their countries that they have won against Europe” And asked about a [...]
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Kosmolinks #16

The Irish ‘no’ and the EU’s “nuclear”option Daniel Gros (CEPS) argues for “a radical solution – the other EU members should propose to leave the old EU and create a new one with the Lisbon Treaty as its founding document.” So much for bringing Europe closer to the people Everyone is right and wrong at [...]
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The Irish ‘No’ – Problems and Dilemmas

The problems with the Irish referendum: In any representative democracy a document with 271 pages (479 pages in the consolidated version!) of legal text should never be put to a referendum. The method of EU treaty ratification should be the same in every member state. A very weak YES campaign and a quite strong NO [...]
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Kosmolinks #15

Public perceptions of the EU as a system of governance Good overview on the state of research… Is Europe doing any good in Chad? | Certain ideas of Europe Apparently there is not much to do in Chad. Sudan is far away, the local dictator feels more secure, and anyway, the EU mission has the [...]
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Kosmolinks #13

EU Common Agricultural Policy proposals 2008 – Wikileaks “Leak of latest European Commission proposals for reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, known as the ‘health check’. These proposals will form the basis of an internal Commission discussion on 14 and 15 May 2008. The agreed proposals are due out later in the month.” -  Is [...]
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One President of the EU

It is campaign time again! (the euro-blogoshpere seems to get into online campaigns…) “Who do I call if I want to call Europe?” is one of the best known quotes by Henri Kissinger. Now Jon Worth and Jan Seifert want to answer this question and launched the whodoicall.eu campaign that calls for one president of [...]
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Kosmolinks #11

Today’s main topic is of course Kosovo, the World’s Newest Country. DJ Nozem sums it up with a ‘pinch’ of sarcasm: Another Show of Unity I have been looking at some EU news services lately and as a result I created a EU universe (www.netvibes.com/eu) which brings together most of the available official EU – [...]
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Communicating the Lisbon Treaty…

… to the citizens seems to be a huge problem. One could assume that at least in Ireland, the only country that will hold a referendum on the Treaty, things are slightly different. But apparently this is not true! This article (What exactly are we reforming in this treaty?) shows us all the problems of [...]
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Kosmolinks #9

Goodbye 2007, hello 2008! So, what happened last year? … of course a non exhaustive list The Top 10 Stories You Missed in 2007 An Interview with the “Person of the Year 2007″: Putin and the Time Magazine Can it get any better? well, we have to wait and see: Awaiting us in 2008… The [...]
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Kosmolinks #8

Marko Bucik looks at Sarkozy’s wise men group that was transformed into a reflection group. The signing of the Charter of Fundamental Rights caused some turmoil in the European Parliament. This is the Treaty of Lisbon. And here is a useful collection of papers and studies dealing with the new treaty. ISN Security Watch reports [...]
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Kosmolinks #7

Some more commentary on the new Reform /Lisbon Treaty: “Here is what changes!” A new Euro referendum is coming up: Denmark is to hold new euro vote Educating Russia looks at the education reform in Russia: A new history book for example claims: “We see that practically every significant deed is connected with the name [...]
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