Eigenzinnige Britten roeren zich: Copernicus, Galileo en Erasmus slachtoffer van Brexit

Koos van Houdt In the British newspaper The Times of this Thursday morning, 28 March, we can read an indignant report about the possible closure of access for the British to the European Union’s Copernicus space project. The programme costs 4 billion euros and the British have been taking part in it so far. It […]

NL Premier Rutte: “Europese commissie is geen regering”

Koos van Houdt Between 2002 and 2004, Aart Jan de Geus and Mark Rutte were ministers and state secretaries at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment. De Geus has been chairman of the board of the Bertelsmann Stiftung in Berlin since 2012. Last Friday we saw the ‘old boys network’ in action. Is there […]

Europese wetgeving inzake asiel schiet maar niet op

Koos van Houdt If there is a place where ’the devil is in the details’, it is in the negotiations on a common European asylum and migration policy. There have been and are fine words about it. But if Greece and Italy are faced with a disproportionate burden, the other Member States will simply look […]

Heibel in Europees Parlement: Poolse Europarlementariër Czarnecki onder vuur

Koos van Houdt They play it cautiously, the group chairmen in the European Parliament. Relations with Member State Poland are difficult enough as it is. But a statement by one Polish MEP Ryszard Czarnecki about his colleague Roza Thun seems to get him into political trouble. Czarnecki called Thun a ‘szmalcownik’. That is an unusual […]