Meeting room in the Dutch maritime museum where finance ministers will gather on Friday
Coming to terms with painful truths can take a long time, and the EU’s struggle to acknowledge an original sin built into its banking regulations is a case in point
Monday 11 April saw the launch of an impartial and independent review: the EU referendum and the UK environment. Authored by 14 international experts – and led by the three of us – this review draws on the findings of over 700 publications to investigate how has EU membership affected the UK and what might change in the event of a vote to Remain or Leave in the forthcoming June 23rd referendum. The launch of the review was followed by a roundtable event in London which brought together senior representatives from the UK environmental sector to debate its findings.
The EU Commission needs to satisfy both a majority in the European Parliament and a qualified majority in the Council of Ministers.
Members of parliament vote to elect the national assembly’s president during its first session on Oct. 23 2015, following the Oct. 4 general elections. AP Photo/Armando Franca
We citizens of the Member States of the European Union, of the Schengen Area, the Balkans, of the Mediterranean, and of the Middle East as well as citizens of other countries in the world, who share our concerns, are launching an emergency appeal.
Press Association/Benjamin Girette. All rights reserved.T
Foreign minister Sebastian Kurz says restoring Dublin and Schengen agreements must be priority
Austria’s foreign minister has accused the European Union of “acting like a human trafficker” by ushering refugees straight to the centre of the continent.
Speaking exclusively to the Observer before Monday’s crucial EU-Turkey summit, Sebastian Kurz said that “in Greece refugees are being waved through to the heart of Europe. That is simply unacceptable in the long run. The European Union cannot act like a human trafficker.” Restoring the Dublin and Schengen agreements, he said, had to be a priority at the meeting between the EU leaders and Turkey.
Marriages between Pondicherrians who took French nationality in 1962, and those who chose to remain Indian, reveals a complicated range of ‘marriages of interest’ taking place today.
Still, the boats come. Detention, as a solution to this, would have to be on a scale hitherto unimaginable in the EU. We need alternatives, and migrants need to be part of them.
Refugees arriving on Lesbos, November 2015. Flickr/Charles-André Habib. Some rights reserved.One after another, the opened borders of south-east Europe have slammed shut.
A thoughtful analysis should deconstruct narratives portraying migrants as a ‘weapon’ and identify them for what they are: people looking for international protection or, at most, better living conditions.
Greek coast guard officer tries to calm Syrians who are part of the the largest refugee flow the continent has seen since World War II.Thanassis Stavrakis / Press Association. All rights reserved. T
Italian Islam in Mainstream TV: Either Invisible or Visibly Othered
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Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, in between meetings at his office last week
Countdown to re-run elections starts in Spain
Spanish Socialist leader Pedro Sánchez yesterday failed in his first bid to be voted in as new Prime Minister. As a result, we now have a hard deadline: if no candidate can be elected Prime Minister by May 2, re-run elections will have to be called. Open Europe’s Vincenzo Scarpetta looks at what lies ahead for Spain.
‘Still the Enemy Within’, on the 1984-5 Miners’ Strike, will be screened at London’s Somerset House on 7th March. Two filmmakers who worked on the award-winning documentary tell the story.
From the archive. Part of openDemocracy’s partnership with the Unorthodocsprogramme of documentary screenings and events, which asks why so many award-winning documentaries never make it onto British TV. Buy tickets for ‘Still the Enemy Within’ here.
Britain belongs with the European Union, despite their differences.