Blogs

Last week I joined a couple of colleagues in northern France for the latest meeting with our Interreg partners. Interreg is an EU-funding programme administered by the European Regional Development Fund. The Minsmere Discover Nature Project is part-funded by the Interreg IV A Seas programme under...

Today President Barroso sits down with his college of Commissioners from the 27 Member States to decide how to spend roughly trillion euros of EU tax payers money between 2014-2020. The sensible thing surely is to ensure that this money is spent on things that the EU has said that it wants to achieve...

Pardon mon ami. Je fait en vacance a la France. I hope that says "Sorry, friends. I have been on holiday in France." Although I've been back to France for what has become a regular trip in recent years, I must admit that my command of the language remains very poor. Yes, I did successfully...

Yesterday I highlighted the threats to Pillar 2 of the Common Agricultural Policy. The rumours that Pillar 2 may be scrapped are continuing to circulate – you may have seen me on the BBC (about 22 mins in) yesterday talking about it. Some of the journalists we spoke to approached the EU Commission...

I spent yesterday at the Cereals Show near Sleaford. Yes, I know, you envy my glamorous lifestyle. I went along to the Oxford Farming Conference debate on CAP reform and market volatility. After a while, I felt a little strange. Something wasn't quite right. I heard three oblique references to...

Regular readers of my blogs will be familiar with my occasional moans about too many meetings, too much time in the office and not enough time on the reserve. Well, it's the meetings and time in the office that I'm paid for, so I shouldn't really complain. But it is a standing joke that you...

UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne, with his counterparts in France and Germany, Jean-Louis Borloo and Dr Norbert Röttgen, last Thursday published a statement calling on Europe to increase its greenhouse gas reduction target to 30% cuts by 2020. The climate ministers'...