Sir, Regarding ‘Barroso warns opponents not to weaken Europe’: I would like to share with you my personal view on why José Manuel Barroso should not be re-elected as president of the Commission of the European Communities (alias the European Commission). I would not support Mr. Barroso for a second term because: 1) The legislation [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Electric cars: On the road to greener transport?‘: When a crisis becomes an opportunity: roadmap for an e-mobility platform The economic crisis we witness today has everything to be considered as a catastrophe, signalling the end of an economic dream. It might however be a lot better to see the crisis as a [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Leaders urged to unblock Turkey’s EU bid‘: This is a long overdue need for us in the European Union to have Turkey as a member, as it would signal that the EU is more than a Club of European nations with vested interests to hold their aloofness apart from a deserving partner. We [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘EU light bulb ban attacked from all sides as phase-out starts‘: The ban on ordinary light bulbs is an extraordinary consumer ban on a product that is safe to use. We are not talking about banning lead paint here – and light bulbs don’t give out any CO2 gas. Power stations do. Note [...]

Sir, At the Association for Competitive Technology (ACT) we have been relentlessly fighting for a Community patent for the past five years. We’re happy to see UEAPME joining us in carrying the flag for this important cause. Innovative SMEs can only benefit from the improvements that a one-stop shop for patent protection across Europe would [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘EU chief: ‘Energy and climate are today’s coal and steel’‘: PWR’s business is monitoring the development of the renewable energy sector (RES) and climate change policies in Europe. As such, we are reasonably well placed to comment on the success or otherwise of the EU’s policies in these two linked areas. Mr Barroso [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Barroso unveils five-year plan with 2020 horizon‘: Your article on European Commission President José Manuel Barroso’s political guidelines correctly highlights his intention to develop a European Digital Agenda under the new EU executive. As the European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA) we welcome the plan, which correctly identifies the importance of the telecoms industry [...]

Sir, I just read your article ‘Support for Lisbon Treaty in Ireland plunges‘ [1] and that reminded me again of G. Orwell’s masterpiece Animal Farm – a truly remarkable novel about a society living up to seven commandments, the seventh of which is “All animals are equal” [2]. Eventually, as the years passed by and [...]

Sir, Regarding: ‘EU divided over Google Books‘ Do some in the EU actually think they can disregard the Berne Convention when it suits them and not have other countries display a similar cavalier attitude? France is considering making a deal with Google to create a national digital library on the cheap, ignoring the copyrights on [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Europe leads global drug discovery: Study‘: PhRMA, the American pharmaceutical trade association, issued a strong rebuttal to an article in the August 25th issue of Health Affairs-web exclusive that documented the superior research productivity of Europeans to Americans in developing global drugs since 1982. ‘Global Drug Discovery: Europe in Ahead’ apparently touched a [...]