The End of Term at the EP - Bill Newton Dunn

12.30.30pm BST (GMT +0100) Sun 26th Apr 2009

It is a bit like "end of school term" at the European Parliament. Our five-year term ends in two weeks' time. MEPs not returning are care-free. MEPs standing for re-election are fraught. The most fraught are those whose parties have not even chosen who will be candidates next time, notably Italians and Spanish. Parliamentary committees have finished their work, and the full parliament is debating and voting on their recommendations in order to try to tie up all loose ends. Election day will be Thursday 4th June in Protestant countries, and Sunday 7th June in Catholic ones.

Working-Time directive

Representatives of the two legislative chambers, Parliament and Council, continue to meet in order to try to agree on the revision of the existing EU law.

Presidency of the Council - chaos

The government occupying the six-month presidency of the Council of Ministers, the Czechs, has had problems. The government lost a vote of confidence in Prague and, from 10th May is to be replaced by a "government of technocrats". This chaos is a strong argument in favour of the Lisbon Treaty which would introduce a chair for the Council to serve for 30 months at a time.

Jokes

In order to encourage people to visit my site there will be a European joke a day. http://www.newton-dunn.com/?page=joke

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