Europe

Tories didn’t table a single amendment to significantly cut EU budget

Labour MEPs voted against the overall call for a budget increase and against a host of outrageous calls to increase spending. But it gets far more interesting than that. For all their bluster Conservative MEPs failed to table a single amendment to the final budget package that would have resulted in a reduction in spending against 2010 levels. It was left to Labour members to propose cuts of more than €1bn to wasteful agricultural subsidies.

Farage is a “control freak” says fellow UKIP MEP

The front-runner in the UKIP leadership contest, Nigel Farage MEP, was on the receiving end of an astonishing attack from a fellow UKIP MEP today, who criticised Mr Farage for being a “control freak” and damaging the party by monopolising power.

G20 summit masks US-EU tensions on economic recovery

The G8 and G20 summits may have seemed a damp squib, but the final communiqué, always drafted so that everybody can go away saying that they’ve won, only masks the fundamentally different approaches to economic policy by the US and by European countries.

Hague’s actions on Europe not his words will show where he really stands

If we are to take something positive from William Hague’s speech yesterday, it is that senior Conservatives seem to have got the message that Britain’s role in the European Unioin is important. However, it has also exposed the emptiness of what the Cameron government has to offer on the international stage.

Cameron meets anti-Gay Polish presidential candidate

David Cameron is today meeting Polish presidential candidate Jaroslaw Kaczynski in Downing Street. Kaczynski, along with many of Cameron’s far-Right European allies – described as “nutters, anti-Semites and homophobes” by Nick Clegg – has long been accused of extremism.

Should prisoners get the vote?

The Council of Europe sets next year’s elections to Stormont, Holyrood and Cardiff Bay as the date by which it expects the UK government to allow prisoners to vote.