Should social democrats (like myself) be quietly thanking David Cameron for delivering us an early Christmas gift by blocking the passage of a bloated and wasteful EU budget? Not quite, if Santa Cam has his way this gift will be a Trojan Horse.

To understand why the EU is putting a price on polluting emissions through the Emission Trading System (ETS), you first have to understand what economists call negative externalities, that is when you reap benefits individually, but pay the price collectively.

As the citizens' initiative has great potential to give people a greater say on the European legislation that affects them, fine-tuning it is well worth the effort.

The prime minister is a development champion at home. He has yet to show whether he will do so in Europe. He made a promise to the world's poorest. Today he can deliver.

Setting a budget is a difficult exercise at the best of times. Even when money is plentiful, it is never unlimited, so tough choices have to be made. Now imagine 27 countries, all with their own of difficulties and preferences, having to decide about billions of euros for a seven-year period in the midst of the biggest economic crisis since the great depression.

The biofuel in British petrol tanks could feed 10million people; across the EU biofuels could feed 185million people. This 'perfect storm' of declining supplies from climate change and rising demand from biofuels has dire consequences.

Unfortunately, it's not only celebrity chefs who try to take unfair advantage of the market by trading on knowledge that is not in the public domain (although not all of them end up being played by Cybill Shepherd in a film about their time behind bars).

With full tanks, all systems checked and automatic launch sequence ignited, the European Parliament is ready for lift-off. MEPs achieved much in the first part of 2012 that will make a noticeable difference to the everyday life of ordinary citizens, such as lower roaming charges and killing off the controversial anti-counterfeiting agreement. However, there is much to be done in the months to come.

They are not eligible to vote and most of them live thousands of miles away from the nearest EU country, so there was no reason for MEPs to even take an interest. Still the European Parliament took a key role in preventing thousands of seals being killed for use in luxury products.

Passport-free travel is one of the perks of living in the EU, so what sort of crisis would constitute a valid reason for lifting that prerogative? MEPs have been asked to consider in what exceptional circumstances member states within the Schengen area would be allowed to reintroduce internal border checks.

Europe is in the midst of a growth and political crisis which has thrown the continent into a recession; yet across Europe centre-right Member States are holding to the status-quo and continuing to maintain budgetary restraint and austere spending policies.

The European Commission has spent over £300,000 on updating its logo, it has emerged. According to reports, the Commission paid a graphic designe...

The European Parliament has always argued that the EU should have its own resources. Today 75% of the EU's budget comes from national contributions based on gross national income. A contribution based on value-added tax accounts for a further 11%, while traditional own resources such as customs duties, agricultural duties and sugar levies come to 13%.

MEPs will vote today on new mobile roaming regulations, which have the potential to turn back the clock on our mobile phone technology by 10 years, as they make it too expensive to access the internet while abroad.