Eurobloat #0017 • September 2011
The month Brussels looked at a continent on fire and decided the missing ingredient was a brand new EU-wide tax, a sermon about more Europe, and a ruling that turns honey into a regulated substance.
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Eurobloat
A monthly, sceptical look at what the European Union got up to last month. The promised paradise that never quite arrives, told one directive, regulation, and ruling at a time.
192 posts
Eurobloat #0016 • August 2011
The month two leaders met in Paris and decided the cure for too much Europe was a true European economic government, while an unelected central banker posted Italy a homework list.
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Eurobloat #0015 • July 2011
July 2011, in which seventeen leaders posted another nine-figure cheque to Greece, the Commission asked for its own taxes, and Brussels found time to police your food label and your roaming bill.
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Eurobloat #0014 • June 2011
The month Brussels asked for its very own taxes, decided that border controls should be graded by the Commission, and reminded a continent that the cucumber was guilty until proven innocent.
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Eurobloat #0013 • May 2011
The month a member state dared to guard its own border, so Brussels decided that border decisions should belong to Brussels; also a third bailout, a botched cucumber, and a fresh demand for your consent to a cookie.
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Eurobloat #0012 • April 2011
The month Brussels discovered that its borderless paradise survives only until somebody actually crosses a border, while the ECB hiked into a crisis and the Commission found twelve fresh levers to pull.
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Eurobloat #0011 • March 2011
The month Brussels invited itself to grade national budgets, told you to surrender your car by 2050, and abolished the actuary in the name of equality.
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Eurobloat #0010 • February 2011
The month Berlin and Paris drew up a Competitiveness Pact to grade everyone else, Brussels asked airlines for your credit card details, and the Galileo bill quietly grew by another two billion euros.
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Eurobloat #0009 • January 2011
The month Brussels appointed itself headmaster of the eurozone, stood up three brand-new supervisors, handed Estonia the euro on the eve of a debt crisis, and discovered it had been bankrolling the dictators it was now busy freezing out.
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Eurobloat #0008 • December 2010
The month Brussels rewrote the Treaty to bless a permanent bailout fund, launched a brand new diplomatic corps, and handed itself a budget rise while half the continent went bust.
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Eurobloat #0007 • November 2010
The month Brussels passed the hat round for Ireland, lost a court case to its own farmers, launched a diplomatic corps nobody voted for, and decided what it really needed was a tax of its very own.
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Eurobloat #0006 • October 2010
The month two leaders carved up the Lisbon Treaty over a seaside lunch, the Parliament voted itself a bigger allowance and floated its own taxes, and Brussels decided that cloned cows and refillable burdens needed yet more rules.
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Eurobloat #0005 • September 2010
The month Brussels gave itself three brand-new financial regulators, scolded Paris over its borders, signed a returns deal with Pakistan, and switched off your 75-watt bulb.
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Eurobloat #0004 • August 2010
The month Brussels handed your bank records to Washington, polled itself into believing everyone wanted more Brussels, and discovered that its open borders only work until a member state actually uses them.
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Eurobloat #0003 • July 2010
The month Brussels handed your bank records to Washington, conjured a diplomatic corps out of thin air, capped bonuses it could not understand and declared its banks healthy three months before they were not.
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Eurobloat #0002 • June 2010
The month Brussels decided it should read your national budget before your own parliament does, hand your bank records to Washington, and pay Colonel Gaddafi to mind the door.
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Eurobloat #0001 • May 2010
The month Brussels appointed itself auditor of every national budget, lit a 750 billion euro bonfire to save the single currency, and still found a spare afternoon to ban glued-together steaks.
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