The European Commission is following very closely France's dealings with its Roma, who the authorities are planning to expel in groups, Commission representatives said yesterday (18 August), after being asked by the Brussels press whether the expulsions were in line with EU legislation.

France gets the key internal market post in the new European Commission, whose composition has just been announced.

Yes, another useful crisis. Reports the Wall Street Journal, the European Commission criticized airport operators in western Europe for being ill-prepared to cope with bad weather. The commission, the European Union's executive arm, may draft new rules if airport operators can't voluntarily take action to plan better for severe weather, Siim Kallas, the commission's transport-policy...

"Anti-Commission sentiment seems to have grown in France," writes Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform (CER), in a January paper.

Gordon Brown is apparently to tell the United States Congress that Europe now has its most “pro-American” leaders “in living memory”. That, however, may be a touch passé. The people running Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the European Commission have not changed. But the person running America has. When can Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the European Commission expect to be run b...

According to the second paragraph of Article 197 of the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC), Members of the Commission may attend all meetings and shall, at their request, be heard on behalf of the Commission. Under the consolidated Treaty of Lisbon, the first paragraph of Article 230 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) would shorten this to: The Commission m...

The European Commission infuriated the left, the liberal and green groups in the European Parliament yesterday (7 September) after it failed to provide an answer on whether France had breached EU law by organising the expulsion of hundreds of Roma to Romania and Bulgaria in recent weeks.

The FT reports that the European Commission has thrown its support behind new financial regulation proposed last week by Jacques de Larosiere, former Bank of France Governor, and pledged to fast-track his proposals. "Action is urgent," said Jose Manuel Barroso, Commission President, unveiling about a dozen regulatory and legislative initiatives, which the Commission hopes to bring forward this yea...

France abided by a European Commission deadline at the last minute by submitting information on how it intends to align its national legislation with EU laws on the free movement of people just before midnight on 15-16 October. But the country remains under scrutiny to determine whether its summer crackdown on illegal Roma camps amounted to discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, the C...

Being a very simple womble, I'm a little befuddled over the European Commission's "recovery plan", launched amid much trumpeting today. The figure of 200bn Euros has been mentioned, in the context of whatever the Euro-twaddle is for "fiscal stimulation". It is hoped that it will save "millions" of European jobs. The Commission says that the money will be used to improve job training, ene...