Chasing Brussels

This week in Chasing Brussels, Irish blogger Conor Slowey is in the hosting hotseat and he’s joined by a panel of bloggers from across Europe. Joe Litobarski offers his opinion from the UK, Eurosocialiste shows us a French perspective, Linda Margaret (an American blogger in Brussels) gives us the outside view and Ralf Grahn shares the Finnish angle.

Our plucky panelists discuss the year in EU politics, and all the goodies we have to look forward to in 2010. And what a year it’s been, eh? Between European elections in June and a tense referendum on the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland in October, there’s a lot to talk about.

Chasing Brussels 10

White Christmas

Happy Holidays to everyone from Chasing Brussels!

It’s been an interesting year, with the European elections, Lisbon Treaty, Barroso’s re-election, Copenhagen Conference and the economic crisis, but for a short while we can take a small break before plunging into the next year. Chasing Brussels started podcasting in September, and it’s been a steep learning curve, but we’ve tried to bring you some easily accessable news and debate on the major European issues across the continent. We’ll be back in the new year, hopefully refreshed and revived (and not too hung over), and ready to take on 2010.

We hope that 2009 has been a good year for you, and that 2010 will be better.

See you in 2010!

This week, Joe Litobarski is joined by Conor Slowey, Julien Frisch, Jon Worth, Matthew Lowry and Frank Schnittger to talk about the problem of the language barrier in European blogging.

The debate follows on from the recent euroblog meet-up that was arranged around the same topic. So, what can be done to solve the language problem in the euroblogging? Some sort of voluntary effort to translate blogs? Would EU funding set off the eurosceptics and make it look like a conspiracy? Or will Google translate solve all our problems.

All this and more in this week’s podcast.

Chasing Brussels 09 – Language & Euroblogs

In this episode, three men sit around and talk about gender politics in the EU.

Joe Litobarski hosts this week, and he’s joined by Julien Frisch and Conor Slowey to talk about the appointment of Herman Van Rompuy as European Council President and Baroness Catherine Ashton as High Representative for foreign affairs.

Is the appointment of Baroness Ashton a good thing for women in EU politics? Or will it hurt the chances of the Gender Balanced Commission campaign to push for a more equal Commission? All these things and more in this week’s podcast.

Chasing Brussels 08 – Gender Politics

You know you’ve got a great debate on your hands when an atheist is arguing for allowing crucifixes in schools and a Christian is arguing for secularism. That’s the situation this week’s podcasters, Joe Litobarski and Conor Slowey, found themselves in when they discussed the recent judgement of the European Court of Human Rights effectively banning the crucifix in Italian state schools.

We could say there was a certain amount of “playing devil’s advocate” on both sides.

If you have any comments or thoughts – please let us know either here in the comment box or contact us by e-mail at chasingbrussels [at] gmail [dot] com. We’ll be sure to give your comment a mention in the next podcast!

Chasing Brussels 07 – Playing Devil’s Advocate

Chasing Brussels is now on iTunes, so you can subscribe now (for free, of course), and keep track of the best EU politics podcast out there.

Also, feel free to leave a positive review!

In other news, we now have a “Suggestion Box” where you can leave your thoughts, opinions and suggestions about the podcast in general.

In this episode eurobloggers Conor Slowey, Linda Broughton and Joe Litobarski discuss how much fun the delegates must have had at the recent EU summit, now that the Lisbon treaty has finally been signed and ratified.

But by giving the Czech republic an opt-out of The Fundamental Charter of Human Rights, did the EU give away too much? Or is this just how the EU works? What is the distinction between practice and principles in the EU? Find out what we think in this episode!

Chasing Brussels 06 – The Saga of Lisbon Ends

In this episode, Joe Litobarski, Conor Slowey and Jan Seifert discuss the question of EU enlargement. Just how big should the EU get?

Chasing Brussels 05 – EU Enlargement

This episode, we’re talking about Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform. Conor Slowey and Joe Litobarski are joined by Jack Thurston of caphealthcheck.eu and farmsubsidy.org to chat about the EU and farmers.

Chasing Brussels 04 – CAP

In this episode, Jan Seifert, Conor Slowey and I discuss the results of the Irish Lisbon treaty referendum.

Chasing Brussels 03 – Irish Referendum