Daily Archives: November 28, 2006

A centre without a heart

November 28, 2006 9:57 pm by Financial Times

It pays to be alert when you walk in Brussels. You have to look down to avoid the dog mess on its famously besmirched streets while also dodging the scaffolding and cement mixers that signal a building frenzy in the city.
The drab EU quarter is no stranger to the construction craze. Builders have for months toiled on the pink granite Justus Lipsius centre that represents member states: until last week a large green skip sat unceremoniously by the entrance.

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And what do you do?

November 28, 2006 6:12 pm by Financial Times

Apart from the spanking new flagpoles their national ensigns will occupy in Brussels after January 1, Romania and Bulgaria are seeking to make their mark as the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh members of the European Union.
In the run-up to accession, each has dispatched an eminent citizen as a candidate for the post at the European Commission that is the entitlement of each member state.
On Tuesday the committees of the European Parliament that oversee the policy areas to which the new commissioners will be assigned gave their blessing to Meglena Kuneva, Bulgaria’s minister for Europe, and Leonard Orban, who led Romania’s membership negotiations. The approval will come as a particular relief to Bucharest, which hastily selected Mr Orban after its initial nominee withdrew in a flurry of corruption allegations.

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Posted in Enlargement |

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