Seeking Re-election, Barroso Sweats for His Job
Stephen Castle
the International Herald Tribune, 17 June 2009

E.U. Coaxing Irish Toward 2nd Try on Lisbon Treaty
Stephen Castle
the International Herald Tribune, 19 June 2009

Back in May, Pierre Avril, Brussels correspondent for the French daily Le Figaro, wrote about the latest EP transparency initiatives tackling the issue of absenteism in the European Parliament.
Interesting, now we just elected the next team!

Read here, or visit the Europe blog of Le Figaro here.

Ruling elite under fire in EU elections
EUobserver, 21 May 2009

Another interesting piece giving somewhat of a pan-European view on the EU national political contexts on the way to the European Parliament elections.

Video clips battle voter apathy in EU elections
in EUobserver – 19 May 2009

Really interesting pan-European view on how the various EU Member States use video clips to push us to vote!
In France, Socialists blamed the clip saying it was pro-UMP. Well, judge by yourself… Theirs is such an appalling copy of the orginal Apple ad; hope they didn’t pay too much for it(!) God help the French  left.

French Socialist Party clip
‘UMP’ clip

For French readers: see all political parties clips in the Le Figaro article: Européennes : bataille de clips sur le web, 18 May 2009

First issue of the new e-mag on EU affairs: Opinion Corner
Hard Sell – the media and the European Parliament elections

Besides the content, the good news is 1) you can have fun flipping through it and watching interviews live & 2) you can download it in English, French and German. When will EU publications add a language from the EU-12 to the famous EN-FR-DE trio? Ok perhaps not Hungarian…

Awkward Dance for EU Treaty Talks
Stephen Castle & Dan Bilefsky
The International Herald Tribune – 12 May 2009