Another outbreak of foot and mouth disease prompts Steve McGiffen to look at the unacceptable conditions in which farm animals are often kept. He suggests that existing EU laws on the transport of live animals need to be properly enforced, and new regulations concerning minimum journey hours and overcrowding should be introduced.

We cannot allow this government to renege on its promise to give the British people the right to say whether they are in favour or against the most profound constitutional change of modern times, writes Steve McGiffen.

Maastricht’s outlawing of socialism is about to be confirmed, writes Steve McGiffen

“Labour law for the immensely prosperous Europe of the 21st Century should ensure that all men and women share in this wellbeing at every stage of their lives. It should for example ensure their affiliation, including during periods spent raising children or in other unpaid occupations, to a social security scheme guaranteeing health and unemployment benefits and an adequate pension.

Instead of such a programme, what the European Commission is offering in its recently-issued consultation document on the subject is what is now termed ‘flexicurity’. The word is, of course, an amalgam of ‘flexibility’ and ‘security’. Designed to suggest greater flexibility and security for the workforce, in reality it would offer greater flexibility to the employer whilst inflicting greater insecurity on employees.”

On May 10th, writes Steve McGiffen, the European Parliament and Council of Transport Ministers finally agreed that local and regional public transport can, in principle, remain in the hands of public authorities.

The recent high profile adoption by the European Union of a position on climate change which envisages drastic cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases over the next quarter century risks, once again, creating the impression that the unelected, unanswerable institutions in Brussels, Luxembourg and Frankfurt are at least a potential part of the solution to the world’s ills. They are not argues Steve McGiffen.

Steve McGiffen reviews Raj Chari and Sylvia Kritzinger’s ‘Understanding EU Policy Making’

Steve McGiffen on how concern for the environment is being used by the European Commission to undermine democracy.

An examination of the European Commission’s approach to labour law by Spectrezine’s Steve McGiffen.

Steve McGiffen reports on the return of the Bolkenstein directive – coming soon to a parliament near you.

Putting forward the case for keeping Europe GM food-free.

A review of David Keen’s book, Endless War: Hidden Functions of the War on Terror.

An argument for local and regional control of public transport.

A recent meeting of the European Parliament’s most progressive political formation drew attention to the problems that have flowed from the recent EU enlargement.