This is why this should never have gotten started. It‘s an absolute mess that he cannot communicate to others because he doesn’t have a handle on it himself.

I kept reading. I am going to be as charitable as I can under the circumstances: this is a disaster.

“Birthright subjectship only applied if your parents were under the protection of the sovereign, and if your parents had come unlawfully, without invitation... without safe conduct, they would not have been under the protection of the sovereign,” Wurman said. www.thecentersquare.com/national/art...

Emmanuel Macron peut-être fier de son bilan: La France tient bon dans la zone euro avec une croissance de 1% au 1er semestre 2025 et un chômage stable. Nobel de physique et d’économie décernés à Michel Devoret et Philippe Aghion, ainsi que les JO de Paris et la réouverture de Notre-Dame.

Les Allemands sont inquiets du risque de fuite d'informations sensibles à cause de la présence de l'AfD aux réunions sur la sécurité européenne (Forum de sécurité de Munich en février 2026). Les Français avec 15 RN au sein de la commission de la défense nationale et des forces armées (dont un VP)..

The revocation of citizenship is a fundamental and brutal discretionary power of the state. One of the more depressing themes in recent judgments is how the courts nod-along and shrug when faced with this brute exercise of fundamental power, rather than subjecting this power to anxious scrutiny.

And "higher education" (alongside education) includes R&D, innovation and commercialization, IP, startups and spin-offs, academic networks, the creatribve arts, global collaboration, and the *global* economic, cultural, and social impact these institutions have, btw.

What it’s not Belgium winning or Germany losing, but Europeans moving forward together? Let’s tone down, and ponder who we are and where we’re going www.politico.eu/article/bart...

Important point from Martin. I do think there is may be some template function here. Even if it largely uses the existing routes to do common issuance and thus with unanimity (witness Orban et al folding there), some holdouts get compensated so it's a bit Eurobonds with a coalition of the willing.

Passing new legislation „in record time“ is not a good thing if the impacts/consequences are unclear. www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/pre...

There is a hard truth here. Either the EU moves toward genuine federation or it does not. If not, then the € is as good as it is going to get, to the systematic disadvantage of certain MS whose normalcy is treated as pathological by a currency union shaped by "Frugal" fiscal and monetary preferences

Also making the point in today's Guardian piece that the sight of global companies working overtly with the US government to coerce a UK government desperate for positive headlines about investment is a hugely worrying precedent which we need to be discussing.

China, the US, & the far-right are all eating away at our continental capacity, civic space & polity. 90s deregulation, 00s atlanticist neoliberalism and modern-day Euroskepticism all point away from the EU while our citizens want more EU, more than ever. I am not optimistic.

Schlimmverbessern 101: Legislative predictability is more important for business than performative deregulation.

Good. Go for it! But an Ukraine eurobond needs to be joint & several liability (that is, federal), issued by the EU Commission, paid for by genuine own resources not MS GNI contributions — so not like the previous NGE effort that encumbers national treasuries. www.euractiv.com/news/belgium...

Schlimmverbessern 101: Austria acted early with higher wages (and support measures for energy costs, etc.), which helped households absorb initial cost shocks. But the result was that prices got “stuck” higher, so the intervention has made inflation more persistent in AT than elsewhere.

Zum Vergleich: Euro Raum im Schnitt: 2,4%

There are two immediate points: 1. Farage being a far/hard-right figure is already factored-in, and any attempt to brand him as such is like branding McDonalds as junk food. 2. Apologizing would hurt his political brand as someone who unapologetically speaks there mind.

"Suggesting that a state might withdraw from the ECHR or ignore CJEU rulings – even if done insincerely for short-term political gains – only normalises the agenda of the far right and reinforces the impression that euroscepticism and anti-immigrant positions were legitimate from the outset" 💯

2/ China.....maybe its not just "cheap labor" and "subsidies" www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/c...

Pages can be turned very easily...

My first British Christmas since I was a bairn.

I usually say that every innovation now makes sense if you realise it's designed for Mars and not Earth, but I still don't understand the point of hands-free driving. Can anyone illuminate me on why we are going all in for it?

YES

How many more people need to say it...

“Post-liberalism” means two things: 1) I like the fascism, but I don’t think of myself as the sort of person who’d be into something so uncouth. 2) The woke made me do it, but since everyone’s opposed to liberty now, why don’t we acknowledge that some races, genders, and religions are lesser.

twitter-thread.com/t/1999521705... Je ne sais pas si mon premier poste est passé alors je tente a nouveau!

We are so close..!

This is very good news, and also proves what many of us have said for many deacdes: When there is sufficient political will, the treaties can be interpreted and used expansively. The obstacles to robust structural reform can no longer be said to be anything other than simple political choices.

This simply cannot happen. Absorbing Ukraine without the Draghi and Letta reforms would strain the EU into intergovernmental crisis management and push it toward a de facto Europe of sovereign states.

It's a rare politician these days who stands up for making the lives of immigrants easier, so let's hear it for Parti Socialiste's Colette Capdevielle. Her bill (sadly doomed to fail) combines compassion with practicality, since 99% of renewal applications for long-term CdS are already granted

Österreich bekommt zwei neue Eisenbahntunnel und der Erste ist eh noch nicht der Semmering-Tunnel und ich kann entspannt weiter über den Berg fahren. Aber bald ist auch meine Semmering-Lustfahrt dahin. Aber erst 2030. Bis dahin kann ich meine schönen Ausblicke noch genießen.

This is fascinating: this is the first article by a British journalist I have read that is wholly written in the new international English, a register that is entirely un-British.

Everything everyone warned everyone else about Merz is true. Go figure!

The entire 20th Century and everything that held it together is over.

So there are no easy ways for Europe to respond to the second China shock. Any response will probably be costly - costs compounded by letting dependencies like REE and Nexperia grow. But not responding to Chinas distortions and the damage they do to European manufacturing is also costly. 5/5

🇩🇪 Annonce massive en Allemagne. Le gouvernement promet 500 millions d'€ d'investissements dans la recherche sur le #CovidLong et les maladies post-infectieuses : "Je sais à quel point elles représentent un fardeau pour les malades et leurs familles."

I have heard three BBC commentators refer to The Council of Europe as The European Council today.

Another push further towards Europe's irrelevance on the world stage. These rules won't help with literally anything, but they already managed to destroy sanity consensus. Europe's not sluggish because of rules, but because of levels of investment into innovation on par with the global south.

...and sorry this media culture will advantage leaders who don't care whether they answer questions or not which personally I don't believe to be a good thing.

The latest Kenova report details how MI5 prevented Stakeknife investigations, but we continue to see claims of "lawfare" being used against the UK in conflict legacy cases. The manifest failings in many Troubles investigations is what is driving current legal actions: www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cv...

One of those beautiful #Cologne traditions, the Christmas concert to play along to on your instrument. Of course in the Cathedral of Cologne.

Varoufakis has all the characteristics of a lefty drunk on his own fame increasingly frantically casting about for a new adrenaline shot of attention. In 20 years' time we will find him on the far right. Or sooner.

Add this to the growing calls for a deeper EU that innovates, empowers and protects.

I worry that that this panicking EU Council, Commission, and EPP+Right Parliament lack the political foresight and desire to safeguard EU institutional integrity. It seems that whatever comes after this will be closer to a Europe of Sovereign States than a European Union.

People gloat but France is the template of what is coming to us all: Hung parliaments of left, center and right-wing internet-based political movements, squeezing the dying legacy parties between them.

@ombudsman.europa.eu has ruled that the Commission committed maladministration in preparing Omnibus I - confirming concerns raised by The Good Lobby and civil society. This is an important reminder that EU policymaking must respect the rule of law. 👉 More: thegoodlobby.eu/omnibus-i-fo...

Bin gespannt, ob es auch eine Diskussion über diejenigen in Deutschland geben wird, die jahrzehntelang als Transatlantiker den Aufbau einer starken eigenen europäischen Verteidigung abgeblockt hatten - auch das hat zu sehr gefährlichen Abhängigkeiten geführt, wie wir jetzt merken

Die Frage von Krieg und Frieden ist eine allein europäische geworden. Die USA stehen nicht mehr an unserer Seite. Wir Europäer müssen uns selbst behaupten, wenn wir Frieden und Freiheit auf unserem Kontinent sichern wollen. Das ist die Aufgabe, vor der wir jetzt stehen.