The European Commission will present plans for a quota system that distributes refugees among the 28 member states on Wednesday. Several countries oppose the initiative. This is the right response to the refugee crisis, some commentators note approvingly. Others argue that Brussels is overstepping its competence on the issue.
The United States and major European powers on Monday (11 May) questioned the Macedonian government’s commitment to democracy and European values over its failure to address allegations of abuse of power, piling pressure on leader Nikola Gruevski following a weekend of bloodshed.
The Six Strategic Objectives could be considered as the Bosnian Genocide’s Wannsee Conference. The only difference is that the participants of this Assembly are still active as politicians in modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Following the election victory of British Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party, a referendum on Britain’s EU membership in 2017 is almost a certainty. This is a chance to redefine relations between Brussels and London, some commentators write in delight. Others fear the debate over a Brexit could weaken the EU in foreign policy.
Greece has been invited to become a member of the development bank of the BRICS economies, including Russia and China, which is seeking to become a counterweight to the IMF, a move welcomed by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras as “a happy surprise”.
In a surprise to nearly everyone, the Conservatives have won the UK’s 2015 General Election with a (small) overall majority. Following his audience with the Queen after the election, David Cameron reiterated his commitment to holding an in/out referendum on Britain’s EU membership. It seems therefore that we can now expect several years of negotiation, campaigning and debate on the UK’s future in the European Union.
The European Union and the United States have been friends and allies for decades. Our economies and our societies are so tightly intertwined that creating artificial divides and walls is not only practically difficult but potentially extremely damaging for both of us. And yet, listening to some of the recent commentary around the high-tech sector, […]
The “special relationship” between the defence establishment and private arms companies is not an election issue. We need to make it one.
Is the Podemos bubble bursting?
The rise of Spain’s new anti-establishment party, Podemos, has been nothing short of spectacular. However, there are now signs that Podemos is running out of steam. Mats Persson looks at the possible reasons behind the party’s decline in recent opinion polls, and whether it is a sign that the populist wave sweeping Europe is subsiding.
If the Greek government seems honest in its intentions to co-operate with the partners for a “mutually beneficial agreement”, the “working together for reform” rhetoric is hypocritical on the part of the EU institutions.
The French government claims its new Intelligence Bill is defined in opposition to the American and British models – but this just doesn’t hold once the text is examined. Quite the contrary.
EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has severely criticised thereaction of the EU heads of state and government to the refugee tragedies in the Mediterranean. Addressing the EU Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday, he called for refugees to be given legal access to Europe and the introduction ofcountry quotas. The press praises Juncker’s initiative and encourages the public to put pressure on politicians in the migration crisis.
Chancellor Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert rejected accusations of a govenment cover-up in the mushrooming NSA scandal. EurActiv Germany reports.
With a Conservative victory in the UK election, even deeper cuts are looming for women already in poverty and at risk, and the suffering will become entrenched.
As the Labour right-wing searches to rationalise last week’s election defeat, the future of the party is at stake.
What comes next for central and eastern Europe’s civil society and social movements? The trend is for new forms of social participation that are community-oriented.
Expenditure reduction leads to falling household incomes, contraction in public services and a rising incidence of poverty, all without progress toward the professed goal, reduction in the nominal public debt.
Top European Union officials met the Ukrainian leadership on Monday for talks on deepening trade links and efforts to bring peace to Ukraine, but worsening violence in the separatist-minded east clouded the summit.
The conservative opposition candidate won the first round in Poland’s presidential election on Sunday (10 May), opening the way for a runoff in two weeks. EurActiv Poland reports.
Migrants arriving on the Island of Lampedusa by Regis51 CC-BY-20
April was a particularly deadly month in the Mediterranean Sea, where several boats carrying migrants with hopes of reaching Europe sunk.More than a thousand are estimated to have drowned, 800 alone in the April 19 wreck.
Buoyed by a surprisingly clear-cut election victory, British Prime Minister David Cameron will name his new cabinet on Monday and meet Conservative lawmakers keen to hear how he plans to claw back more powers from the European Union.
SPECIAL REPORT / As the agricultural sector faces mounting pressure to raise production, consumer trust in the safety of the food supply chain has been eroding, a European Commission official warned.
The battle lines in the conflict over Athens’ debts have emerged more clearly after the meeting of the Euro Group on Friday in Riga. Euro Group leader Jeroen Dijsselbloem stressed that without sweeping reforms no further payments would be made. After three months of negotiations there is no sign of an agreement between Greece and its creditors, commentators write, and attempt to find a culprit for the fiasco.
Model 720, the anti-fraud law passed by the Spanish Government in 2012, has claimed its first high profile victim. Rodrigo Rato, the former director of the International Monetary Fund, as well as First Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister of the Economy, is being investigated. EurActiv Spain reports.