Kriton Arsenis: A Just Agreement in Copenhagen Might Be Our Last Chance
The following post was submitted to Blogactiv by Kriton Arsenis MEP, member of the environment and fisheries committees, substitute on the development committe: The leaders of the planet gather to decide upon humanity’s future this December in Copenhagen. After the nuclear threat of the Cold War it is the first time that the very existence of [...]

Europe’s first Innovation Commissioner
Ireland’s Máire Geoghegan Quinn has been handed the newly-created innovation portfolio at the EU executive. (Full coverage of new Commission, click here). The job is an expanded version of the old Research & Science post, and comes just months before the first European Innovation Act is due to be published. The creation of an [...]

Barroso names his team: Viviane Reding for Justice, fundamental rights and citizenship
27.11.2009 / 11:15 CET European Commission president matches names and portfolios. Barroso II – portfolios Austria Johannes Hahn Regional policy Belgium Karel De Gucht Trade Bulgaria Rumiana Zheleva International co-operation, humanitarian aid and crisis response Cyprus Androulla Vassiliou Education, culture, multilingualism and youth Czech Republic Štefan Füle Enlargement and  European neighbourhood policy Denmark Connie Hedegaard Climate [...]

Medicines policy moves to Health Commissioner
Shock! Horror! NGOs have gotten their way despite fierce resistance from the pharma industry Pharmaceutical policy will move to the European Commission’s health and consumer wing, DG Sanco. This means control of medicines, which rested with DG Entrprise & Industry, is now under the wing of new health chief, John Dalli. Patient groups have been lobbying hard [...]

New Commission posts
The Commission has just published the new list of EU Commissioners and their responsibilities for the next five years. It looks like the paper obtained by Jean Quatremer which we reported on yesterday got it quite wrong.Here’s our initial reaction:1) …