Price rises continue for Europe

European inflation is confirmed at a six year high on high food prices.

Barroso stands firm on emissions

The European Commission President rules out a compromise on planned cuts to carbon emissions.

Industry, governments criticise renewables trading plan

Commission plans to introduce a trading mechanism for green power certificates have come under fire from Germany, Spain and the renewables industry, who argue they will undermine existing support schemes and investor confidence and ultimately hamper growth in the renewables sector.

Gonzalez voices bold ambitions for EU 'reflection group'

Former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez wants to restore Europe's economic and geopolitical influence on the global stage as the head of a new 'reflection group' launched by EU leaders at a summit in December. However, the question of whether it will deal with enlargement remains open.



Nation-state politics can only fail the problems of the modern worldUlrich Beck: A European community based on the principles of cosmopolitan tolerance could form the template for a new global order

Merkel and Sarkozy: Not an easy match
By JOHN VINOCUR You don't get much of an argument in Germany's halls of power against the proposition that Nicolas Sarkozy is Europe's most interesting politician. What you get is a kind of leery smile.

Education overhaul shakes up German universitiesbThe historic change now taking place at German universities is putting smaller disciplines under pressure.

Looking to Spain's political center The government dissolved Parliament and called general elections for March 9, officially opening what promises to be a close race between the governing Socialists and the opposition Popular Party.

CRS "Kosovo's Future Status and U.S. Policy," updated December 28, 2007.

Kosovo: the hour of Europe, John O'Brennan

Old Country, New Concern: Immigration By: Christine Spolar | The Chicago Tribune
Europe is swelling with a new nomadic class, a historic wave fueled by African misery and economic needs. Europe's airports are funnels for illegal immigration and its Mediterranean waters are a new sort of Rio Grande.

Bosnia’s Foreign Fighter Dilemma ISA
Bosnia plays a legal back-and-forth with foreign figthers from Islamic countries who arrived in the early 1990s and have never left, many obtaining citizenship on questionable grounds. The latest high-profile case has seen the citizenship of a Tunisian-born man labeled a national secuirty threat revoked and the man slated for deportation; however, a Bosnian court has reversed that decision as it follows procedure by the book.

Swedish ice hotels and Norwegian culture capitals

Plus carnival fever in Venice, cartoons in the south of France and Arab hip hop in Brussels - our guide to the month's best cultural titbits

Independence for Kosovo: The domino effect

By Jean-Arnault Dérens

Talks on the status of Kosovo have led to a political impasse, and a crisis seems likely, yet another failure of international policy in the region. As the situation deteriorates, there are fresh proposals to redraw the border maps, but another round of conflicting aspirations could cause worse chaos.

French unions reach agreement over 'flexicurity'

Employers' and trade unions are set to agree a compromise over the modernisation of the labour market in France, paving the way towards a distinctive 'French approach' to the Danish 'flexicurity' model. EurActiv France reports. 

BBC Is Europe becoming a platform for terrorists?

Frattini admits threat of EU 'home-grown terrorists'

Euro-federalists stoop to censorship

The latest example of Eurocrats showing flagrancy for breaking their own rules, writes Daniel Hannan, puts the European Parliament morally and legally in the wrong

Sarko gets religion

By Joshua Keating

In addition to "Anglo-Saxon" economic policies and a tabloid-baiting personal life, "Sarko the American," as the French president is somewhat derisively known, has adopted another habit of U.S. politicians: the frequent use of religious rhetoric in his speeches.

Davos needs your help

By Caitlin Wall

The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum is slated to kick off next week. More than more than 2,500 of the world's top CEOs, political leaders, journalists, and other public figures will gather in the Alpine resort town of Davos, Switzerland, to network, munch on canapés, and share ideas to make the world a better place. But you don't have to be a member of the global elite to contribute. Perhaps taking a cue from this year's United States presidential debates, the WEF is calling on Web denizens to share their ideas through video submissions on the new Davos YouTube channel:................

Euro-Missile Talks Are Back, Leaving "New Europe" Behind

By Kyle Atwell

After months of pitfalls and procrastination, talks have picked up again on the placement of US missile defense sites in the Czech Republic and Poland – and negotiations are not getting any easier for the United States. The NYT reports:

The new [Polish] government apparently intends to press the United States to pay for creating, maintaining and protecting the system and to modernize Poland’s air defense capacities by providing Patriot missiles. “The new Polish government is prepared to drive a hard bargain because much is at stake if this system goes ahead,” said Tomas Valasek, director of defense at the Center for European Reform, an independent research agency in London . “Poland wants security guarantees from the U.S. since it is not convinced NATO would provide that guarantee. This means the U.S. putting boots on the ground in Poland but also helping Poland to upgrade its air defenses.”

DOSSIER: Total is charged guilty of pollution | 17/01/2008

For the first time ever, French justice has recognised the principal of 'ecological prejudice' by condemning, on January 16th, the petrol group Total for 'maritime pollution'. In December 1999, the shipwreck of the Erika oil tanker caused an enormous oil slick with over 20,000 tons of heavy fuel oil spread over 400 km of the French coast.

EU scientists query bloc's biofuel strategy

A plan to increase the use of biofuels in Europe may do nothing to help fight climate change and incur costs that outweigh the benefits, says European Union report

Poland’s bold new foreign policy

By Centre for European Reform

by Charles Grant

As far as the rest of Europe was concerned, the worst thing about Poland’s Law and Justice government, led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski (and supported by his twin brother, President Lech Kaczynski), was its foreign policy. The twins’ attitude towards Russia, Germany and – sometimes – the EU was confrontational. The Civic Platform government that took over in October is shifting Poland’s foreign policy. Its ministers often speak to the Germans without reminding them of the war. More controversially, the government is trying to build bridges with Russia. Moscow has lifted its ban on meat exports from Poland, while Warsaw has consulted the Russians about the Bush administration’s plans to deploy missile defence systems in Poland. Prime Minister Donald Tusk is much less enthusiastic than the Kaczynskis about missile defence.

Eco-suburbs: Vauban, Freiburg

The district in south-west Germany is a pioneering development that puts into action innovative rules for communal living in a unique environment. But this paradise of purity is not without its faults

Jean Quatremer: 'there's a lack of passion amongst some MEPs'

Only 55% of Europeans state that they have any confidence in their parliament. On the benches of the French National Assembly, few young MPs are debating. How can the EU attract a new generation?

Religion, European secular identities, and European integration

By José Casanova

The rapid process of secularization in western Europe has not diminished the unease with which Europe considers Islam and Muslims in its midst. In this benchmark essay from 2004, José Casanova argues that the "Islam problem" is an indicator of the disparity between liberal and illiberal strands of European secularism.

Speaking French: a British terror

Sarkozy v. Blair: whose accent is worse?

The EU Reform Treaty: Small Step or Giant Leap?

By Brendan Donnelly

A striking feature of discussion about the European Reform Treaty agreed by the European Council in Lisbon has been the ability of commentators, confronted with exactly the same text, to disagree radically over the document’s significance. For some, it is a mildly disappointing document, lacking in focus and ambition; for others it is a springboard for exciting and far-reaching future developments; for yet others, particularly in the United Kingdom, it is a gigantic step towards the European superstate. To some extent, these different assessments are matters of conscious political positioning. Those eager for further institutional reform in the Union do not wish to accept Mr. Brown’s conclusion that no further institutional changes can be entertained for at least ten years. The Treaty’s godfathers, such as Mrs. Merkel and Mr. Sarkozy, are naturally bent on stressing its wide-ranging significance. Those eager in the United Kingdom to provoke a referendum on the Reform Treaty predictably paint its provisions in the most lurid possible colours.

400 groups sign charter for European Muslims

Germany's Foreign Policy is Dangerous

Dr. Dimitrios Argirakos , chairman of the Düsseldorf Institute for Foreign and Security Policy, contends that Angela Merkel subordinates German international relations to US geopolitical objectives, something that Bismarck and Adenauer would not understand.

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