What is joost up to?

Hey- I've been trying to find/download the Maria-Jose theme- its amazing :) but can't seem to get to it anywhere... is it still available??

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:05:10 +0200

Here you go girl:

Maria José

by j00st

I just noticed it has 1000 installs. Yay!

Enjoy it :)

sartorialdiy: This is Akki, my godson :) He’s one day old and...

Fri, 11 May 2012 10:56:31 +0200

sartorialdiy:

This is Akki, my godson :) He’s one day old and he’s wearing a T-shirt I made.
Impact of all problems in the world on my mood: none.

Please read carefully

Fri, 11 May 2012 10:27:34 +0200

What a great dress. I love how that’s what goes through my...

Thu, 10 May 2012 10:44:02 +0200

What a great dress. I love how that’s what goes through my mind when seeing this picture.

The girl is Kaisa Leka, Finland’s cyclist of the year.

Majority of the European Parliament wants a single seat

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 17:27:57 +0200

The monthly migration between the two seats of the European Parliament (Brussels in Belgium, and Strasbourg in France) is a prime target for criticism and even ridicule of the European Union.

What is lesser known is that the European Parliament can not change its own seat because the location of the seat is defined in the European Treaties, and those can only be changed by an agreement between all the member states.

Recently, the European Parliament, in its estimates of revenue and expenditure for 2013 went as far to explicitly state that it would like to see its seat changed to a single location:

Parliament’s places of work should be limited to a single seat for Members and officials
…
substantial savings could be made by having a single seat for Parliament
…
calls on the Council to take into account the demands expressed already on several occasions by Parliament and Union citizens concerning the need to fix a single seat for the Members and officials

The resolution on the Seat was adopted by 429 votes for, 184 against and 37 abstentions. Good news for those in favor of a single seat, and a clear message that the European Parliament would very much like to see a single seat.

So what needs to happen for that to become reality? Well, as you can read in the quote above, the EP calls on the Council to act on the need for a single seat.

The Council is just another way of saying the member states. And to know how the member states feel about things, let’s look at the votes per country:

Votes per country (for-against-abstention)

BE: 15-3-0
BG: 13-3-1
CZ: 18-1-0
DK: 12-0-0
DE: 46-34-8
EE: 5-1-0
IE: 9-1-1
EL: 5-8-7
ES: 17-18-4
FR: 13-43-2
IT: 58-6-2
CY: 1-1-3
LV: 4-3-1
LT: 5-2-1
LU: 0-5-1
HU: 12-5-1
MT: 5-0-0
NL: 23-0-0
AT: 9-7-1
PL: 35-12-2
PT: 13-8-0
RO: 11-13-3
SL: 6-1-0
SK: 7-4-0
FI: 10-1-0
SE: 18-0-0
UK: 61-1-0

(countries in bold oppose the idea of a single seat)

The votes show that although the European Parliament simply calls for one single seat, without naming where that seat should be, it is France who leads the resistance to the idea. Obviously, they don’t want to European Parliament to leave Strasbourg.

Luxembourg, where the parliament also has a lot of staff, although no political staff) is also not keen on the EP limiting its places of work.

Greece, Estland and Romania aren’t nearly as decided as France and Luxembourg, but nevertheless, the balance tips to negative in these member states.

The reason for that is most likely pan-European party politics, as becomes rather obvious from the breakdown of votes by political group:

Votes per political group (for-against-abstention)

European People’s Party: 86-141-10
Socialists & Democrats: 107-24-17
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats: 68-5-0
The Greens: 47-0-2
Conservatives & Reformists: 41-1-0
United Left: 15-3-9
Europe of Freedom and Democracy: 29-2-0

With a whopping 141 votes against, the EPP group is responsible for over three quarters of all votes against the single seat. It’s also the only group who is not in favor of a single seat.

The S&D group, although effortlessly eclipsed by the EPP group also racks up 24 votes against, most like from French members ;)

In all the other groups, pretty much everybody agrees that a single seat is a better idea. The Greens don’t even have a single member that opposes the idea.

The EPP group is the largest political group in Europe, and among its ranks are a number of heads of state and prime ministers from member states of the European Union.

So it seems that the European Parliament will keep its two seats for the time being. Despite there being a majority of members who want a single seat, the largest powerhouse of European Politics is firmly against it.

i wanna have your tumblr themes, where can I get it? thank you :)

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:04:24 +0200

Here you go girl: http://www.tumblr.com/theme/30890

Enjoy it :)

This is a great video :)

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 12:00:35 +0200

This is a great video :)

Translation for my English friends: Cock’s meat products....

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 09:42:07 +0200

Translation for my English friends: Cock’s meat products.
Over here that doesn’t raise a single eyebrow.

Fashionable destruction

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 13:32:00 +0200

Fashionable destruction

Sorcha

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 10:17:56 +0200

Sorcha

Sandymount Green in Dublin

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 13:40:05 +0200

Sandymount Green in Dublin

This makes me feel right at home

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 10:20:05 +0200

This makes me feel right at home

Drowned bicycle

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 13:40:05 +0200

Drowned bicycle

Saturday morning in Rue Neuve

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 10:20:05 +0200

Saturday morning in Rue Neuve

Working in bed on Sunday morning with Mini snoozing next to me

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 09:32:49 +0200

Working in bed on Sunday morning with Mini snoozing next to me

A place called Dublin on a day called beautiful

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 13:40:05 +0200

A place called Dublin on a day called beautiful

Reunited at last :)

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 13:22:16 +0200

Reunited at last :)

I’m just keepin it Belgian

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 17:51:30 +0100

I’m just keepin it Belgian

Ooooooh :)

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 20:34:08 +0100

Ooooooh :)

Stupid guy with flowers is making me look bad while waiting at...

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 20:32:50 +0100

Stupid guy with flowers is making me look bad while waiting at the airport ;)