Author Archives: Nick Barlow

About Nick Barlow

Nick is on hiatus from AFOE. A Brit who lives in Colchester. Member of the Liberal Democrats. More here. Writes What You Can Get Away With, also contributes to The Sharpener.

Europe’s happy because it eats lard

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Blood and Treasure informs us of a pressing matter caused by EU expansion – a shortage of lard in British supermarkets. But it may not represent all bad news:

But when you think about it, lard is a great metaphor for the European Union. Wherever you go there?s the same bland, white, fatty mass. But each country brings something special to this bland, white, fatty mass, something that takes it and transforms it into literally heart-stopping comfort food. ?Out of many, one? say the united statespersons. ?Out of one lump of lard ? many pies? respond the Euros.

Mmm, pie.

Lithuania is the Delaware of Europe

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The US state of Delaware uses the name ‘The First State’ because it was the first of the original 13 states to ratify the US Constitution and today, Lithuania earned itself the possible title of ‘First Country’ in years to come as it became the first country to ratify the European Constitution. Unlike the battles in other countries, this was a comparatively easy, and perhaps even popular, decision:

The Lithuanian parliament approved the treaty by 84 votes to four, with three abstentions.

The opposition and some civic groups said the vote was purely political and was approved without any significant national debate, reports Steven Paulikus in Vilnius.

Thursday was the final day of the parliament’s term, raising suspicion that current MPs wanted to take credit for the ratification before leaving office, he said.

Former French President Giscard d’Estaing, who oversaw the drafting of the constitution, sent a message of congratulations to Lithuania.

“This is a brave and a bold step… Thank you, men and women of Lithuania,” he said in a letter read out in parliament.

European Commission spokesman Reijo Kemppinen said: “We congratulate them wholeheartedly for that. It is a very positive development indeed.”

One down, twenty-four to go.

Memories of the Wall

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I suspect that I’m in a minority of AFOE’s writers and readers in that I actually saw the Berlin Wall in place pre-1989. We were on a school trip to Germany in 1987 and had actually been given permission to travel to West Berlin, so we naturally went to see the Wall. Strangely, though, it’s not the Wall that sticks in my memory from that trip – like most people my chief mental image of it is it being toppled in 1989 – but the journey between Hanover and Berlin, travelling by coach across East Germany on a long autobahn that had been effectively sealed off from the rest of the country, large embankments to either side of the road making it impossible for us to see any of the GDR – and, indeed, for anyone in the GDR to see any of us. I still have my old passport from that trip, complete with a GDR stamp within it.

Fifteen years after that, I saw some of the Wall again – in Rapid City, South Dakota, all of places, where two sections of it are on permanent display downtown. The one thing I do remember of seeing in West Berlin – the layers of graffiti covering the Western side of the Wall – aren’t really shown by the sections Rapid City acquired but then that’s merely a reminder of just how long it was.

26?

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Following on a bit from Scott’s post below, here’s an interesting EU-related development following the US elections (via Blood and Treasure):

The reelection of US President George W. Bush could push Norway closer to joining the European Union, Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik said on Wednesday.

“If the distance expands between the two sides of the Atlantic I think that many people in Europe, including myself, will see a need for a closer foreign policy and security cooperation” between European countries, said Bondevik, who figured prominently in the “No” camp when Norway rejected EU membership in a 1994 referendum.

That was the second time Norway, a NATO member, rejected joining the Union after a first referendum in 1972.

“This debate (about Norway joining the EU) could be introduced if the US continues to pursue a policy in which little importance is given to its alliance with Europe,” he told Norwegian public television station NRK.

Election night

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For those ofyou interested, there may be some election blogging here later on (especially if Blogger goes down) but I’ve also set up a chat room for anyone interested. It’s #UKBloggers on the nightstar.net IRC network (if you have mIRC, it’s one of the regular networks on the list and if not, you should be able to access it here.

Turkey recommended for EU accession talks

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The European Commission has recommended that accession talks for Turkey should begin, but hasn’t laid out any dates for the process:

Commission officials are reporting on the progress Turkey has already made, along with Bulgaria and Romania.

The final decision on Turkey rests with the leaders of all 25 EU member states in December – with accession years off.

The Commission’s recommendation is a milestone in an increasingly impassioned debate.

The decision was reached by a “large consensus” among commissioners, one EU official said, but no vote was taken.

There was also no recommended date to start negotiations with Turkey.

More from The Scotsman/PA, EU Business, Reuters and EU Observer.

Update: The full text of Romano Prodi’s speech can be found here and I’ve copied it below, so you can click on the ‘continue reading’ link to see it as the English HTML link on the site doesn’t seem to be working (pdf and doc links are).
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