Category: EU

My Summer 2024 Political Reading List

by dsmooney, posted in EU, Politics, reading list, UK politics, US politics

This is my 7th annual Summer political reading list. As with the ones that have gone before, the list is extremely personal. Most of the books on this year’s list have been published within the past 12-18 months. All cover broadly political topics and should (IMHO) interest to those who follow politics, be it Irish, European, American or global. The choices are mine. I have read some, not all, but these appeal to me. Some reflect my own political viewpoints, others challenge them. Feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments below. There is a Podcast to accompany this list 

But What Can I Do?:  Why Politics Has Gone Socampbell Wrong, and How You Can Help Fix It

by Alastair Campbell

As the late great Seamus Mallon often remarked, decisions are made by the people who show up. This dictum could well have served as an alternative title for Campbell’s latest book. He describes the book as part call to arms, part practical handbook… and it is. Continue reading “My Summer 2024 Political Reading List” →

Has #GDPR just become a way to penalise business?

by dsmooney, posted in data protection, EU, GDPR

This is commentary was written jointly by: Tom Hayes and Derek Mooney write: Is the purpose of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to create a legal framework to ensure that the personal data of EU citizens is properly protected or is it a mechanism to find ways to sue multinational companies, particularly US companies, for multimillion amounts of Euros?

You’d be hard pressed to know.

When the GDPR was first mooted, the person in charge of introducing it, Commission Vice President, Viviane Reding (photo above), said that one of the main benefits of the Regulation, if not the main one, would be the “one stop shop” concept. Continue reading “Has #GDPR just become a way to penalise business?” →

How Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine undid two decades work in a few days… for no gain.

by dsmooney, posted in Defence, EU, EU Army, Neutrality, Putin, Sinn Féin, Ukraine

This column first appeared on Broadsheet on Monday February 28th 

German chancellor Olaf Scholz announcing radical changes to German defence policy Pic via: bundeskanzler.de/

I start this week’s column, picking up from where I left off last week, by looking at the future prospects of the Russian Ambassador to Ireland, Yury Filatov.

Last Monday I suggested that he be sent home. I was not the first to say it. The call has echoed across most of Leinster House. At the end of last week we heard individual Labour and Fine Gael demand his expulsion. Inside Fianna Fáil, Jim O’Callaghan TD led a coordinated call by the party’s backbench TDs, MEPs, and Senators for the Ambassador to be expelled. Continue reading “How Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine undid two decades work in a few days… for no gain.” →

We Can’t Spite Ourselves On Covid Restrictions

by dsmooney, posted in Boris Johnson, Covid-19, EU, Government, Pandemic

The column first appeared on Broadsheet on December 20th. In it I look at the latest government responses to the Omicron variant and ask if we are taking sufficient notice from what our government, and others across Europe and across the globe, have sometimes done wrong, and often done right.

I specifically urge the re-establishment of the Special Dáil Committee on Covid-19, which was, in a most short-sighted move, disbanded in October 2020.

A sign for a Covid-19 testing centre at London Heathrow Airport – Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg

In his hefty 2011 tome, The Better Angels of Our Nature, cognitive psychologist, Prof Steven Pinker argues that the lesson is history is a society that has become less violent. His central premise is that there has never been any time, in the history of mankind, when we were less likely to die at another’s hand, than now.

It’s an uncommonly positive and optimistic analysis of the state of the world. Right now we need as much of that as we can get. Pinker’s outlook is not unique to him. Many others have reached the same conclusion. This is hardly a surprise. The statistics are convincing.

Continue reading “We Can’t Spite Ourselves On Covid Restrictions” →

GDPR: Going after the DPAs – First Belgium… Ireland next?

by dsmooney, posted in data protection, EU, GDPR

This is a short article I wrote for the BEERG (Brussels European Employee Relations Group) weekly newsletter on some interesting recent developments on data protection, particularly the criticisms of the Irish Data Protection Commission. Though unconnected, I had a short Twitter exchange with renowned privacy advocate, Max Schrems, on a related topic, a few days later.   

In early December one of the five directors at Belgium’s Data Protection Authority (APD/GBA) resigned, citing the same concerns about a “lack of independence” at the authority which the EU Commission had raised several weeks earlier.

In November VRT (public-service broadcaster for the Flemish Community of Belgium) ran a story saying that the European Commission was commencing infringement proceeding against Belgium claiming that:

some members of the APD/GBA cannot currently be considered free from outside influence, as they either report to a management committee dependent on the Belgian government, have participated in government projects for the detection of COVID-19- contacts, or are a member of the Information Security Committee.

Continue reading “GDPR: Going after the DPAs – First Belgium… Ireland next?” →

It’s very testing to go travelling

by dsmooney, posted in Covid-19, EU, Government, Pandemic, Politics

This column first appeared on Broadsheet.ie on Monday June 28th. In it I recount my experience of traveling to and from Spain on a 3-day family visit, including 3 x PCR tests and checks at Airports. I discovered after writing this piece that the PCR test required to cut your return quarantine to 5 days is free, via the HSE. Unfortunately, I discovered this information after I had pre-booked and pre-paid for one elsewhere.    

It has been about eight months since I recounted my experiences of travelling to Spain during the pandemic. Needless to add, like the vast majority of us I have not been travelling since. That is, up to last week.  

As I explained the last time, my travel was essential as I was going to visit my mother who lives in Spain, having retired there, along with my late father (who died in 2011) just over two decades ago. For reasons too personal to go into here, it was essential that I visit my mother now. 

The airport staff, the airline crew and the other passengers were extremely careful, cautious and prepared. There were a few bothersome aspects, but none so trying as to be worth commenting on here. The one area on which I will focus is testing… primarily because arranging and securing tests – particularly PCR tests – is not cheap and not always easy.

Long story short – while the journey itself was not too difficult, the bottom line is this: while my return flight to Spain for 3 nights via Ryanair cost about €250, the PCR tests required to make that journey cost €400 for PCR tests. By the way, the gap between the first PCR test and the last one was approx 9 days. 

Continue reading “It’s very testing to go travelling” →

Just 1 week to go to the most consequential U.K. election of modern times… and a major #TheSNP win

by dsmooney, posted in Brexit, EU, Nicola Sturgeon,, Politics, Scotland, SNP

This piece first appeared on Broadsheet.ie on Monday April 26th and looks at the upcoming Scottish Parliament elections and argues that this election will be one of the most consequential U.K. elections of modern times for the politics and future of these two islands.  

10-days from now (Mon, April 26th) people across Scotland will vote in what will probably be the most consequential election yet for both the people of Scotland and the of these two islands. I say “yet” as the second Scottish independence referendum that will inevitably follow, will be the most consequential.

With its bold and direct slogan: Scotland’s future is Scotland’s choice. And nobody else’s the SNP has left Scottish voters in no doubt as to what this election is about. It is not just about deciding about who sits in the Scottish Parliament and who forms the next Scottish Government, it is also about preparing for a second independence referendum.

That is why what happens on May 6th will be hugely consequential for us on this island because it will set the course for the final steps in the move to Scottish independence and the breakup of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

With 10 days to go, things are looking good for First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP. But… a lot can happen in 10 days, and while the SNP’s dominance is in no doubt, the issue is now whether it can win a majority of seats (more than 65). Continue reading “Just 1 week to go to the most consequential U.K. election of modern times… and a major #TheSNP win” →

What’s The Story With Malta?

by dsmooney, posted in Corruption, EU, Malta

This column first appeared on Broadsheet.ie on November 23rd. In the context of the EU’s Rule of Law pursuit of Hungary and Poland, I examine how ingrained corruption has become in Malta, particularly within the Maltese Labour party. There is a clear case for adding Malta to the list, and insisting that it implement major reforms before any more EU money is provided.

https://www.daphne.foundation/en/

One of the downsides or having such easy access to British news, particularly the BBC, is that we assume Brussels to be as fixated on Brexit as the Brits imagine. As Brexit dominates the headlines here and the UK we suppose that everyone in Brussels and across Europe is as focussed on Brexit as us. They are not.

It is not that the other EU capitals don’t take the looming Dec 31st deadline seriously or are not straining to avoid a hard crash out. They would prefer see a no deal Brexit avoided, as much for Ireland’s sake as their own, but they have long since accepted that Brexit is happening. So, all that is left to resolve is the manner of the post Brexit relationship. Brexit will not be reversed, so there is no point in EU heads of government expending any further political capital on it.

Their attention therefore moves to more pressing matters, so where Brexit still dominates the headlines here, news broadcasts and papers in France, Germany, Spain and Italy feature stories about the deteriorating relationships between Hungary, Poland and the rest of the EU.

Continue reading “What’s The Story With Malta?” →

After this crisis, the familiar ones will still be there

by dsmooney, posted in Boris Johnson, Brexit, Colum Eastwood, EU, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, GE2020, Green party, Northern Ireland, Scotland

Screenshot (52)As you will see from the opening paragraph below I wrote this column, which appeared on Broadsheet.ie on June 8th, assuming that the three parties would have produced some form of Programme for Government (PfG) – even if it was not one to which all the negotiators (i.e. not all the Green party ones) felt they could sign up..

As we see today (Friday 12th) yet another deadline has slipped in a process that full of missed deadlines and makes Bismarck’s sausage factory look like a place of beauty and efficiency. We also see today via a Michael Gove Tweet that the UK does not want a sensible transition extension and so the Tories are determined to have a hard UK Brexit crash out at year’s end.

Tempting though it is to present you today with yet another analysis piece about the government formation process, I will resist.

My reasons are twofold:

  1. There is a 50/50 chance the process will still be ongoing this time next week
  2. We are in such a state of flux with events moving faster than ever, there is every chance that the facts underpinning any analysis could change while I write it up.

OK, reason one is a bit flippant. I would be extremely surprised if an agreed document, though not necessarily one agreed by everyone, has not emerged by week’s end.

The second reason remains rock solid.

The one thing I can say with any certainty today is that there are so many moving parts and shifting gears that no one outcome, or series of outcomes, is certain.

Continue reading “After this crisis, the familiar ones will still be there” →

Only threat to military #neutrality comes from SF, Ming #FakeNews, not #EU #EP2019

by dsmooney, posted in Defence, EU, EU Army, Neutrality, Politics, Sinn Féin

Broadsheet 129 – They won’t have a winner some day

EU army SF

“Beyond the Fringe” was a 1960s British comedy revue that was seminal to the rise of British satire… well, according to Wikipedia, it was.

Even if you never heard of the show, you will know its cast. They were: Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller and Alan Bennet

The revue had lengthy sell-out runs in London’s West End and Broadway and introduced several classical comedy sketches. One in particular has been coming to mind over the past few weeks.

It opens with a group of obsessive devotees gathering at the top of a mountain. They are counting down to midnight and, they believe, the end of the world. Their shaman tells them of what is to befall the world and assures them that they will be safe. Meanwhile the individual followers sheepishly wonder about mundane things like who brought the tinned food… and the tin opener.

The countdown nears its climax. 3… 2… 1. [Spoiler Alert] There is silence. Nothing happens. Unperturbed, the shaman concedes “this wasn’t quite the conflagration I’d been banking on… same time tomorrow lads, we must have a winner one day”.

And so it is with Sinn Féin, Ming, Daly et al. With the same fixated zeal as the lads on the mountain they are once again predicting the end of neutrality. Mercifully, it is not nighty, though their incantations do seem to come around with a regularity curiously attuned to the electoral cycle.

Continue reading “Only threat to military #neutrality comes from SF, Ming #FakeNews, not #EU #EP2019” →