EUrogenous zone

Well, the year comes to an end and the British presidency of the Union comes to a grinding halt. Tomorrow morning, Austria takes over the presidency, complete with a hangover from New Year's Eve!!!!

To accompany this occasion, the Austrian government commissioned a Spanish artist to design a poster and the two he came up with were displayed on several Viennese roads, but have since been pulled for being to pornographic. The other picture is of the Queen of England, Jacques Chirac and George Bush in a rather interesting position. According to the "25peaces" group of artists behind the event, the posters were meant to "reflect on the different social, historical and political developments in Europe." I'll let you decide. For the full story, check out Deutsche Welle.

Happy New Year

Christmas turkeys fly no-frills

It is often said that queuing orderly is a very British thing. Indeed, I have been with many a continental European who has derived much mirth from the spectacle of nice straight line along the side of the road waiting for the number nine bus to pull up.

This has two exceptions. One is the London Underground in rush hour, where normally civilised London commuters scramble for that all important last square inch of breathing space on the Circle line, so as not to get to work late.

The other is at Stansted Airport, from where I had the dubious pleasure of catching a plane yesterday. It is one of the worst designed airports I have been to. Part of the problem is low-cost airlines trying to cram as many passengers into a small space, but there is no room to do it. Each of the check in desks has too little space. It is not so much a queue, but a herd of cattle waiting to be branded.

And for those people who've been checked in last, by the time your bag has been through the x-ray, you've got about three minutes to dash across to the other side of the airport to board the plane. Only to sit on the plane for half an hour before take off. I realise that for the price you can't expect wonderful service, but it surely doesn't have to be such of a mad panic, does it?

And the best thing was that we weren't told that they had no sandwiches on board until we got to 2,000 ft.

But at least we arrived ahead of schedule. It's funny that budget airlines have generally better punctuality that the national carriers. Maybe it's because what is normally a two-hour flight is scheduled to take 2.5 hours. Or maybe I'm just a cynic.

Yeah, but no, but yeah, but...

Have been doing some work for the dissertation, and came accross quite a nice quote from that greatest of Britons, Winston Churchill:

"We have our own dream and our own task. We are with Europe, but not of it. We are linked, but not compromised. We are interested and associated, but not absorbed."

(Saturday Evening Post, Feb. 15, 1930.)

Interesting how things have been going on the European stage in the past week. Mr Blair very nicely signed away part of the rebate, without getting any compromise from Mr Chirac over the CAP!! Not a bad week's work that.

Oh, and Merry Christmas!

Europe's living a celebration...

For those of you who are not avid followers of the Eurovision Song Contest, "Europe's living a celebration" was the Spanish entry in 2003. It came 5th.

The following year the UK entry was "Cry Baby". It came last having received no points (or nul points as they say in Paris). The singers blamed the crushing defeat on the British government's position on Iraq. Forget that it was a f*^&%$g awful song. No, the only reason they lost so humiliatingly, was because Tony sided with his good friend Dubya. Like, get over it.

The reason for mentioning it here is that the European Union also has a problem with its voting system. Following the rejection of the proposed constitution by our europhile friends the French and the Dutch, voting in the EU is still regulated by the Nice Treaty of 2001. This treaty was designed to help the EU operate better as it grows to 25 members and beyond.

But, the treaty has come in for a lot of criticism. It claims to give a vote dependant on the relative size of a country's population. But this system is imbalanced. The big four (France, Germany, Italy and the UK) all have 29 votes of a 320 total, but Germany has 25% more people. Germany also has more than double the population of Spain or Poland, but these two only have two votes less. For a proposal to be blocked only 90 votes are required which gives a lot of power to these countries. The proposed constitution in theory simplifies the voting system, but increases the required majority to 55% of the votes representing 65% of the population but maintains the requirement of having a majority of member countries.

The Eurovision Song Contest is much fairer, although by giving each country exactly the same power, it favours the smaller countries who can work together to win. The EU is unlikely to promote a similar system for that same reason, but the current system should be reconsidered.

Eurovision might not showcase the greatest musical talent, but like it or loathe it, for one night a year the continent is brought together in a way the Commission could only dream of.