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Europe: More Centralisation, More Flexibility

Recently, the Spinelli Group – a group of federalist MEPs – published a text on a new ‘Fundamental Law’ for the EU. In a recent blog, MEPs Guy Verhofstadt and Andrew Duff called for a more federal Europe, with the Commi...
by Gilles Pittoors
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Clearing the Smoke, Part III: Monkeys Throwing Nuts

For this last part of my threefold contribution I will try to clarify what exactly is meant by populism, nationalism and independence. In my previous contributions, I have been rather harsh on both populism and nationalism, and...
by Gilles Pittoors
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Clearing the Smoke, Part II: Federalists and Europhiles

In the first article of this series, I explained how the lack of conceptual clarity surrounding today’s political discourse is thoroughly annoying. For that reason, these contributions aims to clear some smoke and clarify som...
by Gilles Pittoors
2
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Budget Negotiations and Inter-Institutional Relations

The recent EU budget negotiations have been subject to quite some debate and media attention, mainly because of their first-time-ever smaller total capacity and the row between Northern European states urging for more cuts and ...
by Gilles Pittoors
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Clearing the Smoke, Part I: Confederwhat?

Belgian political life is currently embroiled in a debate on the concept of confederalism, which the Flemish nationalists pose as a solution to the ‘Belgian problem’ – which seems to me as as merely a badly disguised st...
by Gilles Pittoors
1
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What’s Next? Europe and the World in 2013

It is impossible and thus totally pointless to try and predict what the world will look like in 2013. Only a few weeks ago we were not even sure there would still be a world – luckily the Mayas rephrased their prophecy just i...
by Gilles Pittoors
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Subsidiarity, or the Conflict between Scale and Community in the EU

A while ago, I read an article saying that we should reconsider the division of tasks in the EU. It was a good article. The author essentially proposed to apply the principle of subsidiarity, which says that each policy area sh...
by Gilles Pittoors
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Europe and the Bull, or the Failing Politics Behind the Crisis

The mythological princess Europa was recently chosen to become the new face of the euro. Fitting, after all, because it is she who gave her name to the continent. The story goes as follows. Zeus, the king of the gods, was enrap...
by Gilles Pittoors
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Over-Capacity, or what does the closing of Ford Genk teach us about Europe?

On Wednesday October 24th, the employees of the Ford factory in Genk, Belgium were given the news that the factory will be closed, and all employees will have to find another job by 2014. This obviously directly affects the 4.2...
by Gilles Pittoors
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