Over 350 mainly young people gave  European President Hermann van Rompuy an enthusiastic reception, at an event organized today by the European Movement, and held at The Bavarian Representation to the EU. He spoke for just 15 minutes on “After the LisbonTreaty – what can citizens expect?  Moving from design to delivery”, and answered questions [...]

The College of Europe has been addressed by many leading political figures and heard many important speeches. The speech of Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council (EurC), on 25 February 2010 is well worth reading.  His theme was “The challenges for Europe in a changing world”.  The gist of the speech follows. Our main [...]

The new treaty entered into force on 1 December; Hermann van Rompuy took office on 1 January; Cathleen Ashton, while already High Representative for Foreign & Security Policy, had to face her Europêan Parliament Hearing on 11 January; and the new Commission does not come into being until February.  And yet, to read the media, [...]

Many reactions to the appointments of Herman van Rompuy as president of the European Council and Catherine Ashton as foreign policy chief have been negative.  They deserve a second thought. While the secrecy in which the appointments were made is disappointing, it is understandable that consensus was needed on this occasion; hopefully not next time [...]