Europe

Apart from a few years in the middle-east, I've lived my whole life in europe; the great majority in britain. I am a european, both from conviction and pragmatism. Europe, of which the uk remains a part, is helping forge a new way forward for the world. It is a lighthouse of how old enemies can become not just new allies, but so closely bound and integrated that their future prosperity depends on them hanging ever closer together. At its best, europe brings real benefits from bigger and freer flowing markets, economies of scale, the circulation of best practice and safety in numbers. I have written a lot about europe, mainly in my guise of new europe, and you can read it all here. Watch the clip, by oscar-winning producer alice doyard

court in the act (September 2005)

Once upon a time, the ECJ was a works tribunal for Brussels staff. One day, to little fanfare, it quoted one of its own previous decisions, and so began the extraordinary story of how ECJ jurisprudence transformed a common or garden treaty system into the unique constitutional order that is today's EU...