Bankers' Bonuses and Smoking Ban - New EU Training Course

2010-01-17T15:20:00.000-08:00

Ran a new course with Howard Emmens - two days on "EU Negotiating Skills and Techniques". Howard and I have been working this up for some 6 months now. Why 6 months? Didn't you run these courses at the National School of Government? Well, yes...and Howard was my successor at the then Civil Service College.

But this required new case studies and role-plays which reflect the new Lisbon environment....where virtually everything is based on "Codecision". (Actually, Lisbon calls this the "Ordinary Legislative Procedure"...That's gonna catch on!?) So our main simulation includes the dynamic of the European Parliament's first reading amendments...fed into a Council Working Group.

The main exercise started towards the end of the first day (Tuesday 12th January) when London was just about thawed out from the previous week's snow. So pleased, therefore, when 9 out of 10 of the course struggled in to complete the exercise on the snow-disrupted second day. What heroes!

Overall, the feedback was very positive indeed, and Howard and I are looking forward to running another course in June - on the 14th and 15th.

The next course will incorporate some fine-tuning amendments suggested by the course participants. Again, many thanks to them for their contributions and suggestions.

If you'd like more info, please contact Marie at our office : marie@eetraining.co.uk.

Eastmead’s EU Rocket

2009-12-21T05:36:00.000-08:00

Eastmead's EU Rocket-"Europa":
A Way of Explaining the Post-Lisbon EU Structure

Delivering a seminar for a Turkish audience-eight days into the new Lisbon Treaty-I wondered how to replace the "Greek Temple" diagram. A challenge on several fronts, as you may imagine. Lisbon gives us two principal treaties-the EU's values and principles in the TEU (Treaty on the European Union) and the ToFU (Treaty on the Functioning of the EU) which sets out in detail how the Union works its main policy areas.

Solution:
a rocket with a nose cone as the TEU, setting out the values/principles of the EU;

and a longer body of the "How/What/When" of the EU (the old Rome Treaty of 1957 as amended)

Together they make

But Lisbon also gives us-leaves us with-two other "parts" which both have treaty status:

• The other "Rome Treaty" of 1957, EURATOM, the better known European Atomic Energy Community and

• The Charter of Fundamental Rights (CFR) elevated to Treaty status. Thus the CFR has equal value to-wait for it-the TEU, the ToFU, and EURATOM.

The solution?
A rocket with a nose cone (TEU), a body, and associated-but smaller-fins or stabilizers:

The Future?
I suspect that the EURATOM fin will be brought into the main body or fuselage of the ToFU at some later treaty re-visiting.
The CFR fin? I would bet it's going into the tip or nose cone of the TEU.

But can you imagine how any future British Government would handle the media fallout?

Eastmead EU Blog

Bankers' Bonuses and Smoking Ban - New EU Training Course

Eastmead’s EU Rocket