Muslim Women Behind Wall of Silence in Germany

by Sylvia Poggioli

First in a six-part series.

[thanks Jake !]

Russia Watching: Soft power, hard power but not very smart power

Photo credit: PHKushlis, Kazimir Malevich's "Black Cross, Black Square and Black Circle," Maeght Foundation Exhibit of Russian Avant-Garde Artists, August 2003.

Why is it that the Russians are so good at projecting the arts – the very best of their culture – abroad, yet so ham-fisted with the rest of the relationship?

Energy & Renewables Roundup

By nanne

A few EU blogs discussing renewable energy policy this week:

Newsweek France's New Western IdeaTracy McNicoll Sarkozy aims to create a novel kind of transatlantic leader, proudly Christian with warm Muslim ties.

Der Spiegel Blow For Merkel: Koch Slumps in Hesse Vote as Immigration Campaign Backfires


 IHT EU prepares new controls on visitors Advancing its effort to combat terrorism on the Continent, the European Union next month will propose tough measures on non-EU travelers entering and leaving the 27-member bloc, including the collection of fingerprints and other biometric information.

Time José Manuel Barroso: Poised to face new challenges ( Confidence and ambition are growing again in the European Union, says its top official

Railroading democracy One reason the Government gave for not fulfilling its promise over a referendum on
the new EU treaty was that its ratification would be extensively debated.

Casting out the devil by 70 Beelzebubs?

By Sean Jeating

'The European Union has announced plans to increase the use of gas and diesel produced from plants. But the critique against biofuels is mounting. Many say they are even more harmful than conventional fossil fuels.'..........

Davos bosses get a reality check

Economic turmoil overshadows the annual meeting of the world's movers and shakers in Davos.

Single Euro Payments Area kicks in

The new Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) launched today (28 January) is widely expected to bring price reductions for consumers and offer new business opportunities for banks and payment operators across borders, according to a recent study.

Fear of higher prices grows in EU

Europeans are convinced they will be hit by increased costs this year, according to a survey that highlights worries about inflation across the continent

Europeans still addicted to cash

The launch of the single euro payments area should help wean Europeans off their heavy use of cash for transactions – but people should not expect a change overnight

France softens its stance on EU Small Business Act

Although insisting on the need for preferential measures to help boost SME participation in government tenders, French Secretary of State for Enterprise Hervé Novelli said his country would no longer be attempting to push the EU to copy an American scheme whereby a set share of public markets is reserved for SMEs.

Confusion surrounds EU's health services directive

A long-awaited proposal to codify the circumstances under which EU patients can legitimately be covered for treatment received in other member states could be either redrafted, withdrawn or downgraded, EurActiv has learnt.

EU warned of trade war over climate measures

The EU found itself on a collision course with its major trading partners last week after the Commission announced it was considering forcing importers to pay pollution charges on carbon-heavy imports.
By ELAINE SCIOLINO Napoleon Bonaparte landed in Egypt. Charles de Gaulle left Algeria. Nicolas Sarkozy has nuclear plants to sell

A European Future?

By Alex Harrowell

Parag Khanna has a monster screed - eight pages - in the NYT on the subject of “turning away from hegemony”. The hegemony concerned is that of the United States; the argument is that US power will decline relative to that of China, India, big second-tier powers, and Europe. This is a topic that cannot fail to elicit trolls; but it’s worth looking to, perhaps just for that reason alone.

Flashy nothingness

By Kiki

Another quote on the Sarkozy’s politics of flashy nothingness:

FRANCE IS another country; they do things differently there. Or do they? The enduring popular belief that the French hold the franchise on emotional intelligence when it comes to love, sex, marriage and fidelity has been very publicly - and quite untypically - put to the test by their new president, not to mention the two women who have most recently commanded his hormones and his heart: his ex-wife, Cecilia Sarkozy and his new maybe-wife, Carla Bruni, whom he married secretly in a civil ceremony in the Elysée Palace on January 10.

This week in Network Europe

• Muslims of Marseille soon to get new mosque
• London mosque scaled down: no longer to be the largest in Europe
• Anti-Muslim right-wingers say they represent Dutch public opinion
• Mosque minarets taller than church steeples
• Are there enough Muslims in Krakow to warrant an Islamic centre?
• Ljubljana struggles to find space for a mosque
• Stockholm has welcomed its mosque
• January Quiz: The Answer!

Monitoring EU Aid

By nanne

Coordination of development cooperation on the European level has increased in recent years. For 2006, the European Commission controlled a full fifth of all EU aid, and thereby over a tenth of all global aid.

Parag Khanna: "Europe's Influence Grows at America's Expense"

By Kyle Atwell

The short-lived age of US hegemony is over, with no hope of return.  Instead of comfortable primacy, the United States will struggle as one of three global superpowers.

Jan T. Gross: Poland's 'anti-semitic' attitude

Public opinion in Poland has been heated up by Jan Gross’s post-war anti semitic denounciatory book

The EU: Neither God nor Caesar

By Bérengère Massignon

How does the European Union handle the relationships between confessional faiths and the unified body that it is striving to bring about? Being inherently pluralistic, it is incumbent upon the EU to develop a new form of secularization.

Does Britain need free trade with Europe?

Ask the withdrawalists

The terrible Dutch

By Internation Musing

Yes, they vetoed the new proposd European Constitution away, together with the French. And now they want to put a hold on EU negotiations with Serbia. They only would sign a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) "when Serbia hands over the people who stand indicted for the Yugoslavia tribunal".
All members, included the EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, wanted to sign this agreement, but today they agreed that only this pact will be signed when Serbia handed over war crimes suspects to The Hague tribunal. The Netherlands was backed by Belgium.
The Serbian general Ratko Mladic is among those indicted on genocide charges.

The Western Balkans and the EU: Attitude is Key

Ruby Gropas of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars writes on the hopes and expectations of Western Balkan EU accession. Without the will to accede -- on everyone's part -- the Western Balkans won't have the capacity to do so.