#fb meet the new MEP for the East Midlands.

How should the European Parliament institutionally use Twitter?

"Greek default would not be  Armageddon"!

Pete speculates about the crisis.

When it first came up in 2005, only Sweden voted against; when the renewal process began in February this year, five states refused to support it; that number has now risen to seven. And it still has to clear the European Parliament.

David Rennie, as ever, speaks sense about Greece and the Euro.

"Study finds that deal is not cost-effective and that agreement could break international law."

"The EU has paid too high a price to support its fishing fleet," said the 112-page report for the EU Commission.

I know Ciarán Toland vaguely, from email conversations many years ago; I know Diana Wallis rather better. I like them both very much as people. But on this one Ciarán was right and Diana, of course doing her job, was wrong, and I'm glad that the ECJ found for Ciarán.

Dissecting demands for an EU referendum.

"First of all there needs to be some honesty from Ashton, ideally presented in a set-piece speech. She needs to publicly acknowledge that there are very major challenges to overcome in European Foreign Policy. "Second, Ashton needs to ask for a pause of at least 6 months during which her focus must uniquely be on the administrative side …

"One of the most intriguing ‘fantasy politics’ games in Brussels is calculating when Cathy Ashton, the embattled European External Action Service head will return to Britain. While she has charm, this has not covered what has been described as a dismal performance in the new post-Lisbon position."

The headline slightly exaggerates - she was basically doing work experience with her MEP. And I'm aware of at least one professional interpreter at the European Parliament with a serious visual impairment - an Irish bloke who sometimes gets the same train as me - and would not be surprised if there are many others. But in any case it's a…

"A controversial fisheries partnership agreement between the EU and Morocco has provided very poor returns to the European tax payer, and failed to bring about tangible benefits in the north African country, according to a report sponsored by the European Commission."

My old friend Ivan Krastev on Turkey and the EU: "Until yesterday, the common-sense judgment of the EU-Turkey relationship could be summarised as “unpromising but stable”. The process of never-ending negotiations has seemed more closely to fit Germany’s dream endgame of “privileged partnership” than any other on offer, persuading Europeans th…

My good friend Nathalie Tocci: "The revolts in the Arab world have demonstrated the weakness of EU policy towards the region, particularly of what such policy had evolved into in recent years, through its lopsided emphasis on economic cooperation and migration management at the expense of democracy and sustainable development."

Journalist meets the next generation of lobbyists

Unfortunately the ludicrous article by France's Minister for Europe defending current arrangements is behind the European Voice paywall, but this sums up the arguments.

The maps of Europe.

The freedom enjoyed by EU citizens to live and work in each others' countries is a unique liberty. It is the basis around which European governments have tried to build a single border, a compensatory system of co-operation between police, judges and immigration officers and a common refugee policy. But hardening attitudes towards immigration…

large pluralities of the public in the surveyed Mediterranean countries of France, Italy, and Spain see increasing development aid to poorer countries as the most effective policy to reduce irregular immigration, more so than increasing national border controls... It’s time for the rest of Europe to listen to those on the front lines.

"The case concerns a child who was born in Denmark having, as well as his parents, only German nationality. The child was registered in Denmark – in accordance with Danish law – under the compound surname Grunkin-Paul combining the name of his father (Grunkin) and the name of his mother (Paul), who did not use a common married name. After mov…

...human rights for all kinds of groups across Europe have been improved thanks to the work of the European Court of Human Rights. The question would better be “Do you want human rights cases to be judged only in the UK, knowing this would endanger the human rights of other Europeans - including gay rights, the rights of women, the rights of minor…

"The Spanish government, and Minister Aguilar in particular, are effectively choosing plunder over principle, and tarnishing the EU’s reputation worldwide. "

Thoughts on what's up with the EU, from a slightly different set of angles to the usual.

Eurabia's fundamentally an ideology of revenge ... as well as an ideology of envy. Muslims, imagined by Eurabianists as beings somehow completely resistant to the influences of modernization and post-modernization etc., are imagined as perfect conservatives, retaining the superfecundity of old and maintaining the traditional family. Why them?…

"Europeans should devise a better way forward, based more on terms of incentives for peace, and less on penalties for the lack of it. They should set out a European ‘roadmap’ for peace: a graduated series of incentives that they are willing to offer both sides for progress, culminating with the prospect of NATO and EU membership if and when t…

Belgacom strikes again!

A vicious take on Catherine Ashton by Bruno Waterfield of the Daily Telegraph; not exactly an neutral source, but in this case he is much closer than usual to the Brussels consensus!

A long piece, with fascinating diversion into Bill Cash's revolutionary theory of the British constitution.