Erkan's field diary

Russia and the multipolar myth

By Centre for European Reform

by Bobo Lo

I attended a curious conference the other week in Moscow. It was a posh event with a stellar cast and the grand, even pompous, title of ‘Forging common futures in a multipolar world’. The event turned out to be not so much a conference as a celebration of multipolarity, served with a generous helping of schadenfreude at America’s recent troubles.

There have been a number of such gatherings lately, voicing various fashionable mantras. It has become axiomatic that ‘power has shifted decisively from the west to the east’, that ‘a new world order is emerging’, and that ‘the world has become multipolar’. It would seem that the decline of the West has finally occurred, some 90 years after Oswald Spengler first predicted it in the aftermath of the First World War.

Oh Happy Danes! Denmark named 'world's happiest nation'

Denmark is the happiest country in the world, according to a survey published by the US National Science Foundation.

Finding the ‘human’ in human trafficking

By anna patton

The European commission estimates that 100, 000 people per year are victims of trafficking in the EU; 80% of these are women and girls. Conversation with Barbara Eritt, a Polish-born social worker in Germany

Betancourt’s release: the media picks its winners and losers

By Chris Yeomans

Only last February, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced he was ready to address, “a life or death matter” and go to Colombia to free Ingrid Betancourt. But now she is released the European press and citizen journalists wonder how much credit Sarkozy and others can take for what has happened, and wonder who are the big political winners and losers of the dramatic rescue.

Czech Minister: 'More liberal, open and flexible' CAP required

A thorough reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is necessary to allow the EU to respond more effectively to rising food prices and internal pressures, according to Ivo Hlavac, the Czech state secretary in charge of agriculture, who spoke to EurActiv France in an interview.

Commission proposes cooperation on schools

After repeated calls to modernise higher education, the Commission is now urging member states to cooperate on national school reform as part of the Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs.

Merkel backing for France over EU treaty

Angela Merkel, German chancellor, has offered France her full support as Paris seeks to salvage the European Union's Lisbon reform treaty after Lech Kaczynski, Poland's president, said he would not sign the treaty

MAIN FOCUS: Betancourt is free: a failure for Sarkozy? | 04/07/2008

The former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt is free. The politician, who also possesses French citizenship, was held hostage for six years by the Colombian FARC guerilla organisation. French President Nicolas Sarkozy had hoped for a diplomatic solution, but Betancourt was ultimately liberated through a military operation. A foreign policy failure for Sarkozy?

How dare the Colombians rescue Ingrid Betancourt?

France wanted the credit

THAT, more or less seems to be the reaction from slabs of the European press, notably in the Francophone world, to the astonishing military operation that rescued Ms Betancourt and 14 other hostages from the FARC guerrillas in Colombia.The grudging reactions come from left and right in France, where successive governments had pushed the Colombian government hard to accept demands made by the FARC, and negotiate the release of Ms Betancourt, a politician from a small ecological party with dual Colombian and French nationality.

Poll on Betancourt

By Boz

OpnionWay has come out with a new poll today, which among many other issues, asks the French who they think played an important role in the liberation of Ingrid Betancourt.

Sarkozy: reckless and sometimes also right

The French president appears torn between his reflexes to intervene and his instinct to let people shape their destiny, writes John Thornhill

Malta bears the brunt of the European refugee problem

Judith Zijlstra Central Asian studies, Migration and ethnic studies University of Utrecht Dutch

Tjerk Destombes Social geography studies University of Utrecht Dutch

“600 Africans perished at sea”, “Spanish coastguard intercepts boat with refugees again”... In the past few years, news reports about Africans travelling in perilous boats, looking for a better life in Europe have filled many headlines in the European media. For these refugees, Gibraltar, the Canary Islands and Lampedusa in Italy were the most popular destinations. However, much less known are the thousands of African refugees that Malta has been receiving since 2000.