I have written a lot about the European Union and its democracy and its easy to get lost so I have made this page which is meant to be a start page/index.
- Subsidiarity and proportionality basically my comments, notes and links on the treaties and constitution of the EU, you can see where it started, but now includes a number of paper links on democracy in the EU including references to those who want to reverse the centralising tendencies.
- Digital market regulation in the EU includes the Democracy Shield and some brief comments on the Media Freedom Act
- Sailing the high seas reforming and enlarging the EU on the late 2023 attempts to agree or head off significant reform to the institutions and competencies, interesting because the two initiatives show the two approaches of increasing federalism and/or reverting to a two speed Europe.
Also possibly less central to understanding the EU
- An article called, Media and election interference covers the UK and EU, catalogues and comments on the laws I think needed to understand the challenges of the Democracy shield.
- How much has the EU changed since Jan 20?, unfinished, maybe I should put the UKICE material in this page.
A list of all the articles tagged “europeanunion” can be found here, and here is a rendering of the last 12 item in the list in Feedzy. There are a number of articles also tagged on my blog. and a Feedzy render of those is available below.
- My EU Start Page
by Dave on September 24, 2025 at 10:56 amI have written a lot about the European Union and its democracy and its easy to get lost so I have made this page which is meant to be a start page/index. Also possibly less central to understanding the EU A list of all the articles tagged “europeanunion” can be found here, and here is…
- Copernicus & Brexit
by Dave on August 13, 2025 at 2:35 pmThe European Space Agency celebrated its most recent launch of a Copernicus Sentinel Satellite, which made me wonder how Brexit had impacted the UK’s participation in the EU’s space programmes. This post looks at what I found. On visiting the Design Museum’s Living on Mars exhibition (a couple of years ago, I was surprised to…
- On AI Regulation
by Dave on June 26, 2025 at 6:35 amSome people are thinking very hard about this, here are my notes. Links I posted some thoughts on my blog; https://davelevy.info/thoughts-from-gmb-25-on-privacy-law/ and others (including Linkedin article mirrors) at https://davelevy.info/tag/ai/ Does DUAB change the landscape?
- EES/ETIAS
by Dave on June 19, 2025 at 11:54 amEES is coming this year, allegedly, while ETIAS will wait ’till 2026. EES is an automatic registration and will eliminate the need for passport stamps for short stay visitors to most of the EU; ETIAS is the pre-travel authorisation system, travellers will need to apply for permission to enter prior to visiting the EU, as…
- The next EU budget
by Dave on May 27, 2025 at 7:13 amThe EU is preparing its next medium term budget. This is an act of legislation but they have convened a European citizens panel https://citizens.ec.europa.eu/index_en on the topic; its rercommendations are documented here. No matter the cynicism and valid criticisms aimed at these panels, this must be a good thing. The process continues and this page…
- Reset or Roadbump
by Dave on May 25, 2025 at 12:56 pmOn May 19th the European Union and the UK at a summit made a series of agreements. The UK government heralds this as a “Reset”. The European Commission have issued a press release, which has been agreed with the UK. The press release covers Defence, Connecting People, Trade and Economics, & internal security and judicial…
- An EU Army?
by Dave on March 5, 2025 at 12:10 pmNot yet, but the US administration’s behaviour over Ukraine is leading the rest of NATO to ask how real US defence guarantees are. The EU Commission has announced a funding route for arms and Germany is looking to exclude defence expenditure from their “debt ceiling rules”. My notes and links … On the lead up…
- The Media and election interference
by Dave on January 16, 2025 at 5:41 pmSome notes and links on regulating the media and election interference … This article is written in two parts, the first a series of links, and the second a series of comments on what seem to be the critical laws in the UK and the EU. Links What do the US do? UK Laws The…
- About the Sahra Wagenknect Alliance
by Dave on January 3, 2025 at 4:51 pmThere is an election coming up in Germany, and both the Free Democrats and die Linke are polling at under 5%, which means they’re out. The BSW is seen as Left Populist, with a lot of focus being put on their position on immigration. This article i.e. mine, starts with a look at an interview…
- EU Commissioner confirmation hearings
by Dave on November 19, 2024 at 2:45 pmI volunteered to watch some of the commissioner confirmation hearings, and write them up. I started with McGrath, Commissioner Designate for democracy , justice, and the rule of law; to get a full picture of my notes, see also Digital market regulation in the EU elsewhere on this wiki. See also Democratising the EU, Democratic…
- The next Commissionby Dave on October 14, 2024 at 5:23 pm
I was looking at a piece of project work, considering the next Commission of EU . It seems that either part of VdL’s manifesto for the 24/29 programme or her letters to Commissioner designates contains the sentence as follows, “We will build on the Conference on the Future of Europe to instil a true and…
- Sir Keir goes to Brussels
by Dave on October 3, 2024 at 10:50 amStarmer met Ursula Von Der Leyen in Brussels yesterday. It seems they couldn’t agree on what to say. Here are my notes and links … One piece of context for this is the FT’s article, “EU issues UK with list of demands if it wants better relationship” (£|(-)). This relate to UK/Ireland trade, and the…
And the Feedzy of my blog, tagged “European Union”
- Tariffs and other trade barriers
by Dave on July 11, 2025 at 9:14 amLast night I watched a video about Canada raising a large toll on lorries travelling from the Lower 48 to Alaska, and it documents and forecast the impact on the fragile Alaskan economy. It reminded me of the trade barriers
- Human Rights
by Dave on June 25, 2025 at 8:25 amAt a meeting yesterday, I asked about/EU/UK cooperation within the justice pillar. I asked if in order to develop further cooperation, the UK would need to sign up to the EU’s charter of fundamental rights. The senior MEP present stated
- Thoughts from GMB 25 on privacy law
by Dave on June 12, 2025 at 12:21 pmThis article is a summary, I say, over the last week, at GMB Congress, three reasons to rejoin the EU or at least the single market have, in my opinion, been exposed. These are the highlighting of the GDPR as defence against AI, the second is the new EU Pay transparency directive, together with the EU’s AI Act. The full article is overleaf …
- Labour’s NPF and the EU
by Dave on May 30, 2025 at 12:16 pmI made a submission on rejoining the EU to Labour’s NPF. This article documents both how to, and my words of the submission. To see what I’ve said and/or download the text, use the “Read More” button. …
- Second thoughts on the Euro-summit
by Dave on May 30, 2025 at 11:07 amIt is my view that Starmer wants a Swiss style deal with the European Union. The reason I consider the summit to be a draw, albeit a score draw, is that neither of the end goals of rejoining nor staying
- Labour’s new deal for Europe
by Dave on April 27, 2025 at 7:55 amThis is a comment on A new deal with the EU is exactly what Britain needs. Here’s how Labour will achieve it | Nick Thomas-Symonds | The Guardian – www.theguardian.com, I have made it with the help of diigo, where
- The pan-European Mediterranean convention and EU/UK relations
by Dave on February 18, 2025 at 4:40 pmThis blog article comments on the reactions to Marco Sefcovic’s suggestion that the UK as part of the negotiations to improve relations between the UK and the EU should consider joining the pan European Mediterranean convention (PEM); . Sefcovic is the commissioner responsible for trade. The rest of the article looks at HMG’s lukewarm response and looks to explain what the PEM is. For more, press the button …
- Munich 2025, peace in our time
by Dave on February 18, 2025 at 10:12 amThe last week has signified the death knell of NATO. The ninety minute phone call between Trump and Putin signifies the road to a 21st century Hitler Stalin pact. The Trump administration’s proposals that the USA and Russia make peace in Ukraine without Ukraine being present at the table and mandating European NATO to provide peacekeeping forces are a return great power politics unrestrained by the rule of law. For more press the button ….
- Twenty seven becomes …
by Dave on December 22, 2024 at 11:32 amOne step forward, two steps back, or maybe not, for the EU. Iceland votes to consider joining, Turkey asks to revise its agreements to increase links, and demonstrators continue to protest in Georgia about the stolen election and the postponement
- The Draghi report on European competitiveness.
by Dave on December 16, 2024 at 4:33 pmI have been trying to get on top of whether the Draghi Report on European economic competitiveness is really a game changer. Without study it seems to be a call for more EU (as opposed to member state debt. I