In the final part of our series, William Hague tells Benedict Brogan exactly where the Tories stand on the Lisbon Treaty. After years of dithering agreement has been reached for a project to bring non-Russian gas to Europe, reports Adrian Blomfield. Britain's old coal-fired power plants have only six more years to live at the most. Their death sentence has been passed by the European Union. Bringing Turkey into the fold raises profound questions about the very nature of European identity, reportsDavid Blair in Istanbul. Pol Pagès, 26, lives in Barcelona. He supports the independence of Catalonia within the EU Ask Britons what they like about the European Union, and right at the top of a minuscule list comes its impact on environmental policy. A disunited continent carries little economic or political clout in the Chinese corridors of power, writes Peter Foster in Beijing. Amidst the death in Afghanistan this summer, the conclusion of one British military mission has gone largely unrecorded. To some British companies the EU is a boon, to others it is a source of over-fussy rules that stifle enterprise. King Lear’s incoherent threat could be the inspiration for David Cameron’s policy on the Lisbon Treaty. When it comes to foreign policy, the EU almost always punches below its weight, says David Blair. Gordon Brown is very popular with Europe’s politicians – the same cannot be said for Cameron's team, reportsSimon Heffer. If the Irish vote Yes to the Lisbon Treaty on October 2 there will be an unprecedented number of top European Union jobs up for grabs at a tense Brussels summit on October 30. Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. When it comes to fighting wars that pose a direct threat to European security, the endless talk by European leaders of establishing a common defence policy rings pretty hollow. The nature of British sovereignty will be altered if the new structure and powers of the European Union are approved next month by an Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. The economic crisis has made the dreams of a decade ago seem grandiose, says Ambrose Evans-Pritchard. David Miliband was combative while defending European Union foreign policy and the Lisbon Treaty, before jetting off on Monday to chair a United Nations meeting on Iran. Gordon Brown may find that his greatest achievement was to keep Britain out of the euro, writes Ambrose Evans-Pritchard. The European Union's vast cost is one of the biggest reasons to be concerned about Britain's relationship with it, says Matthew Elliott. Sessions of the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs committee do not usually pull in the crowds, but when members met earlier this month, in the normally tranquil Room 1G3 of the parliament building in Brussels, dozens of surplus spectators were turned away. The EU's costly obsession with harmonising European trains is bad news for Britain's railways. Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall we can at last welcome the emergence of a healthy German nationalism that will help curb the European Union's overweening ambitions. Tony Blair had a theory that the British people like to knock the EU around the ring, but expect their governments to behave more soberly. During my time in the Foreign Office it was my aim (achieved) to go through my whole career without setting foot in Brussels. EU membership has led to deep constitutional changes and our government has helped rob us of our sovereignty, says Philip Johnston. The EU spends the bulk of its budget on the wrong things, which causes political strife, argues Jack Thurston. Cultural commentatorJonathan Meadesmuses on France's hyper-parochialism versus the European ideal. The European Council and the Council of Ministers explained. Half Latvian and half Estonian, Kristian Garancis, 36, works in re-insurance for a Budapest-based company that operates across Central and Eastern Europe.The State of Europe
The nature of British sovereignty will be altered if the new structure and powers of the European Union are approved by the October 2009 Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.
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Sunday, 11 October 2009
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