While the economic conditions that Britain will pursue outside the EU remain uncertain and can only be guessed by peering behind the political curtain, it is the EU’s wish to have as close as possible a relationship with the UK. However, one issue that has flown under the radar since the conclusion of the revised…
At the end of the First World War, the official war artist and Irishman, William Orpen, was commissioned to paint the signing of the peace treaty at Versailles. What his employers, the British Ministry of Information, had hoped would be a memorialization of the Allies’ victory, became, in Orpen’s hands, a subtle critique of the…
In April this year, during a visit to Farmleigh House, German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke about her experience of borders: “For 34 years I lived behind the Iron Curtain,” she said, “so I know only too well what it means once borders vanish, once walls fall.” On November 9, Merkel’s homeland celebrated 30 years since…
Perhaps the knottiest conundrum of Brexit are the competing dynamics of movement and blockage represented by exits and borders. Though the UK is the only member-state to activate Article 50, it is not the first to seek to leave the EU, e.g. Algeria (1962), Greenland (1985) and St. Barthélémy (2012). Significantly however, none of these…
After five exciting days of counting, the 13 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) elected by people in Ireland have not yet been fully confirmed, and might not be for up to another month. This is because a full recount will be carried out in the Ireland South constituency, since only 327 votes separated two…
Lithuania held two rounds of voting in May to replace Dalia Grybauskaitė, the seventh and first female President since its Restoration of Independence in 1990. On 26 May, the ‘independent candidate’ Gitanas Nauseda was elected as the country’s new President. Background Lithuania operates under a ‘semi-presidential’ system, whereby executive control is split between the President and…
No one can be sure who will be the next European Commission President, replacing the current incumbent Jean-Claude Juncker. But this is not only because of uncertainty about the results of the forthcoming European Parliament elections across the EU from 23-26 May (Ireland votes on 24 May). It is also because the procedure for appointing…
The weekend just gone was supposed to be Brexit weekend. But the UK government and the EU agreed at a recent summit to shift the Brexit date to at least April 12, and perhaps longer depending on what happens at Westminster. Even so, it is worth reflecting on the lessons of Brexit since the 2016…
Have you ever noticed, when posters for Member of European Parliament (MEP) candidates appear on lampposts around the country, not only do they bear the logo of their national party, but usually also that of their European political grouping too? Ahead of the European Parliament elections on 23-26 May (Ireland votes on 24 May), it…
In 100 days, citizens in Ireland and across Europe head to the polls to elect a new European Parliament. However, “Brussels” can seem very far away to many voters, and European elections are often understood to be much less important than national votes. As Tip O’Neill, the great Irish-American politician used to say: “all politics…