10th January 2012 Dublin, Ireland
The successful Polish Presidency is over. But 2012 is set to be another year in Britain and Poland. Even if England were drawn in Ukraine, EURO 2012 will be a highlight here and a chance to showcase the best of Poland. For the UK, 9 January marks 200 days until the start of the Olympic […]
19th December 2011
Everyone knows that one of the benefits of Ukraine’s potential integration with the EU is that the EU will help Ukraine to adapt the quality of its administration to EU standards. In other words, the EU will help Ukraine to become a more EU-type country. But how does that work in practice? One of the […]
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15th December 2011 USA
For those of us actively working toward successful international negotiations on climate change, the most recent meeting in Durban, South Africa seems like cause for optimism this holiday season. The UN climate talks wrapped up last weekend with over 120 countries (including major economies such as the United States) forming a coalition behind the EU’s […]
8th December 2011
The UNIAN news agency interviewed me this week. In case you have not seen it you can read the full interview here (in English) or here (in Ukrainian).
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28th November 2011
Here’s one area Romania does not want to ‘catch up with the rest of the EU’ – obesity. The latest study by Eurostat shows that Romania has the lowest incidence of obesity among the 19 EU Member States surveyed, with 8% of women and 7.6% of men recorded as obese. At the other end of […]
10th November 2011 London, UK
I was in the Netherlands earlier this week, my second visit as Minister for Europe. The UK and the Netherlands have a strong working relationship; the aim of my visit was to deepen bilateral and multilateral co-operation in the many areas where our views are closely aligned. As well as the important trade relations the […]
13th October 2011 London, UK
The Foreign Secretary has today made a statement to Parliament which explains the Government’s first use of the European Union Act 2011. This use of the Act is required by the proposed treaty change to enable Eurozone countries to set up the European Stability Mechanism, which aims to secure economic stability in the Eurozone countries […]
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13th October 2011
This week, for almost the first time since I arrived in Ukraine in June 2008, Ukraine has been the number one item on the BBC World News website and in other media around the world. Friends have been getting in touch to ask me what’s going on, and where Ukraine is going. It’s an important […]
5th October 2011
A long time ago in a previous job I used to lecture students and bureaucrats on the EU budgetary process. I used to hand out a mind-bogglingly complicated diagram, filled with jargon, arrows and boxes, which seemed to have been designed to be as confusing as possible. “For a start,” I would say, “ignore that […]
4th October 2011
Dr. Vince Cable, the UK’s Minister for Business, Skills and Innovation, came to Bucharest last week with a very clear message – the EU has got to get back on the path to sustainable long term growth. And that means doing what the EU does best – free trade. Romania and the UK are both […]