Sir, Regarding ‘EU staff consider strike over pay freeze‘: Whilst the article is factually correct, one has to wonder about the relevance of the comparisons with certain member states. Ireland is in a crisis which is largely due to “irrational exuberance”. Yet only the highest-paid civil servants (who are certainly not totally innocent in respect [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Commission must address ‘rigid’ recruitment system‘: The first question to ask is: what is the Commission for? Then it can be decided who is to be recruited and how. If the commissioners are to be all political, and composed of national or even nationalistic representatives (as national politicians decided secretly in the Council [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Commission must address ‘rigid’ recruitment system‘: Is the European Commission an institution which requires civil servants or should it be run as a task-driven agency? This is the question and Mr Kallas gives a clear answer: it should not be more than an agency of the Council. This is truly a dangerous idea. [...]

Sir, Concernant ‘Ecologist’s film ‘boosted’ French Greens‘: Le film ‘HOME’ de Yann Arthus-Betrand (présenté ce 5 juin sur Club RTL) devrait être visionné dans toutes les écoles, donner lieux à un concours de dissertation par les jeunes de plus de 12 à 20ans ( avec un impact sur leurs parents,) et pourquoi pas récompensé par [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Veolia calls for shift to ‘low-water economy‘: It is little wonder that Antoine Frérot wants to change the economics of the water business. Veolia Water, the biggest global water corporation in the world, is now confronted with a serious threat: as Corporate Europe Observatory noted in its report (‘Turning on the taps in [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘EU expert group calls for tightened financial supervision‘: A new report from Corporate Europe Observatory, entitled ‘Would you bank on them?’, tried to highlight the problems of privileged access and policy capture by vested interests that can result in flawed policies and regulations. In the report, we examined whether the group’s members represent [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Single EU lobbyists’ register faces further delays‘ The discussion about an EU register for lobbyists in Brussels seems to be currently shifting to rather technical issues, forgetting the big picture. But lobbyists and institutions in Brussels should not lose sight of the broader perspective and learn from Washington’s experiences: both the good and [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Think tanks should ‘think European’ to fight global challenges‘: Europe has great independent experts from different member states, academics and NGOs. A think tank is a contracted lobby agency that produces agitation for the benefit of its contractors. We have many of them in the EU. They mostly serve a negative, not-at-all transparent [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Think tanks should ‘think European’ to fight global challenges‘ : I can only concur with the comment of Stephen Boucher and Martine Royo that “think tanks should think European to fight global challenges”. Their recommendation is equally valid in Brussels as illustrated by the following (excerpt from G. Fayl & U. Fayl von [...]

Sir, In an article published by EurActiv on 1 December, ‘Monitoring your MEP: Mission impossible?‘, it was indicated that there is very little information available on how MEPs behave inside the European Parliament. We, the founders of a new project called VoteWatchEU (to be launched on www.votewatch.eu early next year), would like to share with [...]