EU – Page 29 – Slugger O'Toole

Sadly, we have political prisoners again

Daithi McKay on October 18, 2017, 10:19 am

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Catalans stand on their balconies late into the night banging metal pans with spatulas and wooden spoons snatched from their kitchen drawers. The collective rattle of utensils echoes throughout Barcelona. Spain has imprisoned two leading Catalan Independence leaders in a move that only serves to deepen and harden the current divisions between Barcelona and Madrid. Jordi Sánchez and Jordi Cuixart are being held without bail for arranging protests in front of local government buildings that Spanish police were …

A cautious welcome for Bombardier’s apparent rescue

Brian Walker on October 17, 2017, 10:58 am

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While the news about Bombardier is very welcome, a note of caution is also due. Boeing is not taking it lying down. Again, though Bombardier are saying that a new C-series production line in Alabama means expansion of C-series production as a whole, there are bound to be fears that Bombardier/Airbus may eventually switch some production to Alabama at the expense of Belfast if sales forecasts don’t materialise. However the Chinese are said to be interested in the project. And …

More delay over a return to the Assembly needs challenging by the two governments

Brian Walker on October 16, 2017, 12:46 pm

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So the target date for either direct rule or an agreement to revive the Executive has slipped for another week at least. What a surprise! We were told by the two governments yet again that ” progress” had been made, but this has been slapped down by the DUP. Sinn Fein’s agenda as far as I know it is not inherently unfeasible. The problem is that it’s Sinn Fein who’s running with it. Crafty old Gerry for false-footing the DUP? Or …

The Camino; the origins of the EU idea?

Terry Maguire on October 15, 2017, 3:18 pm

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It seems far-fetched, risible even, yet some experts claim the Camino de Santiago de Compostella is the origin of the European Union project. The argument goes that the pilgrims of the Middle-Ages who tramped across the many Pilgrim Ways that coalesce in the City of Santiago, north-west Spain, brought tolerance of differences and a focus on a common goal; a road that eventually led to the idea of a united Europe. Pilgrim’s objectives were spiritual, religious and off course selfish. …

Message to the EU: Ireland’s economic interests are as important as the peace process

Brian Walker on October 10, 2017, 11:56 am

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Irish Times Brussels correspondent Patrick Smyth demolishes the option of a border down the Irish Sea – not just because the UK government and the unionists won’t have it – but because it is against the economic interests of the Republic. This assessment follows the leaking of a report by the Office of the Irish Revenue Commissioners saying that an invisible border on the island is “impossible”. “It is probably somewhat naive to believe that a new and entirely unique …

Whatever its flaws, the British way of doing things has lessons for Spain

Brian Walker on October 9, 2017, 4:31 pm

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In an article in the Guardian prescribing on the Catalonian crisis, Gerry Adams strives to put himself on the right side of history and apply lessons from our own peace process. Thus far, the Spanish government is refusing to open a dialogue without the Catalans acquiescing to preconditions, including an acceptance that any talk of independence is illegal under Spanish law. In a conversation I had on Thursday evening with the Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, he assured me that the …

The Brexit crunch may come as soon as Christmas. The British case should be taken more seriously

Brian Walker on October 9, 2017, 10:31 am

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Many commentators on the Brexit negotiations, including Irish ones scarred by the diktat of the 2010 bailout and understandably opposed to the whole idea, talk as if the EU Commission’s stance is not only immutable but deserves the status of Holy Writ, while the British position is purely faction-ridden and pathetic. The contrast is too stark. There is no absolute logic to the EU’s making an adamantine sticking point out of of undefined “sufficient progress” on UK financial contributions, citizenship …

Bronagh Hinds on role of women in political discourse at home & abroad #msconversations

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on October 9, 2017, 8:30 am

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Peter Buntin and Bronagh Hinds answer questions from the audience at NICVA's Centre for Economic Empowerment 'Creating the good economy' conference in Belfast on 8 November 2011

A REAL PARTICIPATIVE DEMOCRACY is what the NI Women’s Coalition wanted. Cofounder Bronagh Hinds spoke to me about her work in NI and abroad ahead of her appearance next weekend on a panel as part of Mount Stewart Conversations (14-15 October).

“One of the things the independence movement hates most is that left-leaning people are against them…”

Pete Baker on October 8, 2017, 4:39 pm

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With the separatist Catalan government claiming that 90%, of 43% of the electorate, voted for independence, and ahead of a week of further uncertainty for all of Spain, the BBC’s Patrick Jackson gives a voice to some young Catalan Spaniards – some of whose views may, or may not, sound familiar… ANYhoo… Here’s a lengthy excerpt from the BBC report. “We feel Catalan and Spanish and I’m not going to allow independence supporters to take my culture away,” says David. …

Nationalism 101 with Prof Richard English – local and global #msconversations

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on October 8, 2017, 9:00 am

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Interview with QUB’s Prof Richard English ahead of his sessions on Nationalism and Brexit at next weekend’s Mount Stewart Conversations organised by the National Trust at their lough shore property.

Will someone spell it out. What role for Dublin under ” direct rule? “

Brian Walker on October 7, 2017, 2:19 pm

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Patrick Murphy’s apt question in the Irish News. “ Why do we think Dublin would be any better than running the North than London?” prompts the even more basic question:. What sort of new Dublin “input” is wanted or even necessary? Later this month, “Direct Rule” in whatever guise would in key respects be inevitably different from the direct rule of 1972 when the two sovereign states had barely begun to cooperate. Today, the British- Irish relationship through governments and …

Leo Varadkar needs to stand up to the Franco-German axis for Ireland and the small nations of the European Union

Sean Geeney on October 2, 2017, 11:03 am

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Since it became clear that Angela Merkel would be re-elected as German Chancellor, there has been a re-focused approach to tax harmonisation within the European Union, driven mostly by Emmanuel Macron’s France, along with Germany. This has been covered by numerous media outlets and there is little I can add to the conversation. The argument is that France and Germany who are now both stable and revitalised after momentous national elections, will look to readjust the balance of Europe. It …

Spanish police attack peaceful protesters in Catalonia…

Brian O'Neill on October 1, 2017, 8:20 pm

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How should the Spanish government have handled the Catalan independence referendum? Option A: Do nothing. Let it go ahead and when the result is announced condemn it as meaningless and undemocratic. The world’s media would give it a passing tweet at most. Option B: Go heavy-handed. Send in police to smash up printing presses, seizing posters and ballots. Send hundreds of police to storm polling centres attacking and terrorising women and children. Attack peaceful protestors in the streets with their …

Bertie Ahern: “It is worth looking for a moment at what we are in danger of losing…”

Soapbox on September 29, 2017, 12:50 pm

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Bertie Ahern, former Taoiseach and someone who has spent a political lifetime in the art of political negotiation gave this speech on Brexit to the Kennedy Summer School a few weeks back. This draft is published with the permission of both the Summer School and the author. The uncertainty surrounding the outcome of the Brexit negotiations is unsettling, and likely to last for some time to come. Brexit has opened up for the first time since the 1990s a major …

Bombardier’s CSeries US crisis gives NI an early taste of “Free Market” realities..?

Mick Fealty on September 27, 2017, 10:58 am

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I’m not sure there’s much an Executive could do in these circumstances, but the significance of the US threat to highly skilled jobs in Bombardier in Belfast was for once not lost on the news in the rest of the UK. It even made the headlines on Radio 6 Music this morning. The US Department of Commerce has clobbered 220% after it ruled that a $1 billion investment from Quebec and nearly half that amount in loans from the Federal government was used …

Environmental Governance Failure in Northern Ireland: High Time to Turn Over a New Leaf

Peter Doran on September 20, 2017, 9:02 pm

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By Ciara Brennan, Ray Purdy and Peter Hjerp Recent scandals including the RHI debacle and the discovery of illegal dumping on a massive scale (most notably at the Mobuoy Road ‘super-dump’) have catapulted Northern Ireland’s environmental governance failures into the public eye. The divergence from what can be considered ‘good’ environmental governance is clear and the environmental, economic and socio-political consequences of these failures cannot be overestimated. Protecting the environment is not a one-way cost and there has been very little …

Barcelona vs Madrid

Daithi McKay on September 16, 2017, 11:05 pm

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The Spirit of Franco never really left the Spanish state. Sometimes it is hard to see from the outside world but in the run-up to the Catalan referendum the Spanish Government are clearly trampling over basic human rights in their efforts to prevent the referendum from even taking place. Yesterday some 100,000 pro-independence posters were seized by the State after raids in various printing shops. Today they came back for the printing equipment! In newsrooms armed police came with a warning to …

Where “shared memory” and “story” meet lies something valuable

Mick Fealty on September 16, 2017, 1:12 pm

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I was lucky enough to be asked by Youth Action Northern Ireland to present a workshop at their two-day Islands of Innovation conference/symposium attended by young leaders (18-35) yesterday in Belfast. The key purpose was to “explore what Britain and Ireland could look like in 2021, consider how they can contribute and assess what decisions need to be taken now and in the future”. A welcome shift from the resolutely backward focus of our stranded politics right now. It’s hard not to …

The Irish border as a Brexit bargaining chip: A rejoinder to Legatum

Katy Hayward on September 15, 2017, 2:35 pmComments Off | Readers 3432

The Legatum Institute’s ‘Special Trade Commission’ published a paper this week on the subject of Brexit and what it terms ‘the Irish border issue’. Citizens on the island of Ireland need to take note of this for two main reasons. First, Legatum is one of the most influential think tanks in London on the subject of Brexit at the moment – its views are likely to have traction at the highest levels. And, secondly, it perpetuates egregious views of Northern …

Can the “Catalan Way” become a strategy for Nationalists in Northern Ireland?

Sean Geeney on September 14, 2017, 1:47 pm

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A lot of eyes in Ireland and Britain will be focused on Catalonia in the upcoming weeks. The vote taking place on October 1st will be an acid test for the integrity of Spain and the aspirations of independence for a number of regions across the European Union. The referendum was first called for in June 2017 and was formally approved by the Catalan Parliament on the 6th of September. Almost immediately, the Spanish Constitutional Court claimed the referendum was …