I’ve realised that now I am no longer using Twitter, there is no systematic overview of all the flow diagrams I have made over the years. So this is a post looking back over all the things I have diagrammed, and why! Please click on any image below to load a high resolution PNG version. Links to folders with XML, calculations, and high resolution PNGs and PDFs are provided in each case. It started back in 2017. I stumbled across the peculiar case of the Maltese Professor Joseph Mifsud, and the web of strange relations he weaved. The best way to map this web was to use a diagram – essentially ..read more

One of the most unpleasant episodes during my #CrossBorderRail project – where I crossed every internal border of the EU you can cross by train – happened at Frankfurt (Oder) in Germany on 24th June, when arriving from Poland. Already four hours late due to a problem on the Polish network, the train to Berlin was then further delayed by German Bundespolizei controlling every passenger’s passport while the train stood at Frankfurt. What happened then is documented in this Twitter thread. Since that incident, and after a series of similar incidents over the years, I wanted to investigate t ..read more

For years I have made pretty much every long distance trip I can by train. Conference in Iași? Sure, train via Ukraine to get there. Teaching in Geneva? Night train back to Berlin. Holiday in the Balkans? I’m the one who will take the Bar-Belgrade train. But what can I actually do improve railways in Europe? Sure I can diagnose the many problems with the railways, not least cross-border, here on my blog and on Twitter. But what can I actually help put right? That problem has nagged at me for some time, and this Trains for Europe campaign site is the answer. Last year I wondered what ..read more

WARNING! Political communication is my area of expertise, NOT public health. This blog post is no recommendation as to what ought to happen from a health perspective! This piece was written on 25.1.2021, i.e. before the decision for a Conditional Marketing Authorisation has been approved or not on 29.1.2021. Please bear this in mine in case you read this post after that date! It is possible that the EMA grants authorisation for ALL age groups – if this is the case then the fears expressed in this blog post are largely unfounded.   On 12 January the European Medicines Agency (EMA) fin ..read more

I might have been happily blogging away here for the last fifteen years, and in the meantime racking up enough words to publish a few books, but I have never had the confidence or the sticking power to actually write a book myself. Now at least I have managed the next best thing – I have written a chapter in the book “How to Work with the EU Institutions: A Practical Guide to Successful Public Affairs in the EU“, edited by Alan Hardacre and published by John Harper. My chapter is entitled “Working with the Media and Social Media in the EU” – the topic closely in line with what I teach at the ..read more

Yesterday was a public holiday in Berlin and I took a little cycle trip along the Teltowcanal all the way to the small town Kleinmachnow, sandwiched between Zehlendorf and Potsdam, south west of Berlin. The canal itself was partly the border between East and West Germany, and East and West Berlin, and that border is still the border between the German Länder of Berlin and Brandenburg. Long before you get there you cross another border – between the Berlin Bezirke of Tempelhof-Schöneberg and Steglitz-Zehlendorf – where the quality of the cycle path suddenly changes. The Bezirke could of c ..read more

So it is done. Mogherini has today been appointed as the new Rector of the College of Europe at a meeting of the Academic Council of the College, to be confirmed by the Administrative Council in June. Not that there is a formal statement about the appointment yet – that will come tomorrow (as Politico was told – half way down here). But Quatremer has tweeted it, and the news has been confirmed to me by internal sources. But why would we expect transparency and clarity in this process now? For that has been lacking throughout. The first most of us even knew of Mogherini’s candidature was throu ..read more

A fortnight ago I wrote a blog post about the possible appointment of Federica Mogherini as Rector of the College of Europe, and why Herman Van Rompuy has questions to answer about this. Since then I have dug. I have investigated. I have asked. And I have found no answers to a series of very basic questions posed in the initial blog post – about how interviews for the position will be conducted, and when, and about how and if candidates comply with the criteria set out in the job advertisement. As a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe it was right to ask these questions internally fir ..read more

TRANSPARENCY NOTE: I have been teaching at the College of Europe in Bruges for 5 years. I teach the Negotiation Simulation (compulsory course, taught with 2 others) and a short optional course entitled “Online Communications in EU Policy-Making“, both courses in the Politics Department (there are also Law, Economics and International Relations and Diplomacy departments in Bruges). I am one of the “flying faculty” (or in my case ludicrously-long-train-rides faculty) – I am not based in Bruges, but go there only for the time required to teach my courses. I have never taught at the Natolin campu ..read more

In 2014 the race to become President of the European Commission – using the new Spitzenkandidat process – was a two-horse race, and months ahead everyone knew who would likely win – Jean-Claude Juncker (EPP). Martin Schulz (PES) put in energy and determination, but the EPP emerged as the largest party after the EP elections and Juncker was approved on 15 July 2014, 7 weeks after the EP election. The other top jobs – Tusk as President of the European Council (EPP), Mogherini as High Rep (PES), and Schulz (PES) followed by Tajani (EPP) as President of the European Parliament largely f ..read more