A quote from The Financial Times, 7 January 2008

Plans to tighten European anti-pollution legislation could force the closure of swathes of industry […] The European Commission tabled proposals just before Christmas to toughen directives dealing with dust, sulphur and nitrogen emissions […] BusinessEurope, which represents employers across the European Union, says the cost of compliance could force many plants to close. "These directives will impose a disproportionate cost on industry, leading to production cuts in Europe rather than to further innovation and investment in clean technologies," it said in a letter to commissioners.

The Commission has launched a slew of figures today and, how can I put it they don't make particularly happy reading,

1) December 2007: Economic sentiment continues to weaken in both the EU and the euro area

In the EU, managers' production expectations and their assessment of order books deteriorated, contributing to the overall decline in industrial confidence.

A quote from EU Observer, 7 January 2008
 
Irish prime minister Bertie Ahern has let it be known that he would be interested in one of the EU top jobs when the posts comes up for negotiation later this year. […] [H]e added: "I like Europe, I like dealing with Europe. I have been dealing in the European Council now continuously – except for a very short period – for 21 years. And I like all of that." […]

A quote from Manzoor Moghal in the Daily Mail, 7 January 2008

Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali's warning that Islamic extremism is creating 'no-go' areas in parts of Britain has provoked a predictable barrage of outrage. He has been condemned for making 'inflammatory' remarks, distorting the truth about our inner cities and 'scaremongering' against the Muslim population. But, paradoxically, this reaction from the politically-correct establishment is an indicator of the weight of his case. If our ruling elite were not so worried that his views would strike a chord with the public, it would not have been so anxious to condemn him. […]

A quote from The Sunday Telegraph, 6 January 2008

Islamic extremists have created "no-go" areas across Britain where it is too dangerous for non-Muslims to enter, one of the Church of England's most senior bishops warns today. […]The Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester and the Church's only Asian bishop, says that people of a different race or faith face physical attack if they live or work in communities dominated by a strict Muslim ideology.

President Sarkozy, whose romantic rather than political activities have lately been to the fore (he still has a keen eye for the ladies) has instituted a new form of terror: each cabinet and junior minister is to be issued with a report card detailing his or her achievement of key performance indicators – that’s targets to you and me.

A quote from Simon Carr in The Independent, 10 November 2007

Macfarlane suggests that British liberty was the result not of tolerance, inclusiveness and respect, but of the struggle for dominance between estates of the realm. The monarchy. The church. Parliament. The barons. The judiciary. The peasants, occasionally. They all secured victories, but none of them triumphed. Thus the state of British liberty existed in a state of dynamic tension between equally poised groups jealous of their rights, privileges and independence.

Across Europe there are plenty of people who care not for the European Union’s appetite for unaccountable power. Some want to extract their countries from the Union in order to restore real power and independence to their country. Some simply want to halt the constant one-way cession of power to the Union. Others just want to have their say.
 
With the latest, and arguably the most far-reaching, power-grab, the new Union Constitution effected by the Treaty of Lisbon, the political élites of almost every member state have concluded that they know what the right answer to the question is and have determined that they are not, under any circumstances, going to allow their electorates to give the ‘wrong’ answer to that question.

A quote from the Daily Mail, 3 January 2008

By conservative estimates, 66,000 women and girls living in Britain have been mutilated. This figure, accepted by the Metropolitan Police, came in a report by a volunteer organisation funded by the Department of Health and carried out with academics from the London School of Tropical Hygiene and the City University.

Philippe Cayla, a former French civil servant, is president of EuroNews, the multilingual and pan-European television news channel subsidized by the European Union. In an op-ed article in Le Monde (January 1) he speaks of the need for the peoples of Europe to be better informed about Europe, and he makes some sweeping declarations about sovereignty:

Why speak of Europe? Because the history of nations is ending and the history of Europe has hardly begun. National, economic, commercial and financial sovereignty, as well as military sovereignty, no matter what the nations may say, are finished. These renunciations are definitive, irreversible and so much the better.