Subject: Europe’s foundational Declaration of Inter-Dependence and Communication policy Dear President Barroso and Commissioners, Congratulations on your new positions. During the coming months, the 60th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration must be planned to take place on 9 May 2010. I hope that the entire Commission will give great thought to the preparations for this [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Commission waters down CO2 proposal for vans‘: These proposals are all well and good in theory, but do the proposers actually have any kind of engineering background, and if not, where are they getting their advice from? Due to the combustible mechanics of modern fuel and efficiency curves for work output, there is [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Europe desperately seeking leaders‘: The sad truth is that Europe is not seeking a leader, someone who will be the best professional in his/her field of expertise with a personal opinion and the guts to stand behind this opinion, but that high-ranking EU politicians are seeking the ‘consensus candidate’ – a person so [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘World Food Summit deepens rich-poor country divide‘: There can be no meaningful discussion about world hunger and how to solve this problem without addressing popuation growth. The world has reached its ‘carrying capacity’: a severe shortage of water is staring many countries in the face, and agricultural land has to make way for [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘EU elects discrete, consensual leaders‘: Henry Kissinger asked ‘If I want to call Europe who do I call?’ After his appointment, Herman Van Rompuy replied jokingly that he awaits the first phone call. In Belgium, Van Rompuy was seen as the consolidating force bringing the country out of its political impasse. His role [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘UK Conservatives vow to fight back after Lisbon setback‘: David Cameron’s pledge to change British law so that any future transfer of power to Brussels would have to be put to referendum and the Conservatives’ vow to enact a ‘legal lock’ to prevent British accession to the euro zone without a referendum are [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Miliband: Turning Turkey away from EU ‘unconscionable’‘: In response to UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband’s comments regarding Turkey’s integration into the EU, allow me to state below what U.S. Ambassador James Gerald once wrote: “The Turks should not be accepted into the society of decent nations until they show sincere repentance for their [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Algae: The ultimate biofuel‘: Your section headed “no competition for land” ends by describing algae as “ending the potential for conflict with food production which comes with increased energy crop cultivation”. We’d all like this to work, but let’s not get carried away. If this could work profitably there would be the incentive [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘UK Conservatives vow to fight back after Lisbon setback‘: Mr Cameron’s position is intellectually dishonest. He knows full well that he cannot “negotiate” further opt-outs, not least because the UK already has quite many. He wants to have his cake and eat it: staying in the EU in order to throw a spanner [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘The new European Commisssion‘: The long-standing plan to reduce the size of the European Commission has just succeeded beyond all expectations, but not quite as intended. Legally there is now only one commissioner, José Manuel Barroso, who was recently re-appointed as president according the procedure laid down in the treaties. The five-year terms [...]