International

Should the EU flag be be set down in a constitutional treaty? The Dutch Council of State, our highest court when it comes to matters of governance and law, said that it should not, unless a referendum approved it first. But anxious to avoid another flop, Prime Minister Balkenende told the European Parliament in a speech in Strasbourg in 2007 that the 'symbols' contained in the Lisbon Treaty must be removed from its text.

This week a number of MEPs from different political groups will use an official European Parliament 'political declaration' in an attempt to give teeth to their demand that the European Commission and the member state governments lend their weight to a campaign to stop the censorship of news broadcast to China. In June French satellite firm Eutelsat ceased transmission of news, some of critical of the Chinese authorities, into China by broadcaster NTDTV, ostensibly because of 'technical problems'. Though a declaration would have no binding force, it would increase pressure on the European Commission to act to stop this blatant interference with media freedom.