EU agrees on key immigration pact

EU ministers agree on a plan to curb illegal immigration while easing the rules for highly-skilled workers.

In support of the freedom of speech of someone with whom I almost completely disagree

By nosemonkey on UKIP

Of course, this is no doubt a lot more complicated than it appears at first glance, but nonetheless the apparent attempts to shut down UKIP press spokesman Gawain Towler?s long-running England Expects blog are to be heartily condemned. As the man himself says, it is his job – as the spokesman of a party that exists to attack and ridicule the EU – to, erm, attack and ridicule the EU.

In defence of Gawain Towler

By Jon

It?s not often you get me defending UKIP on this blog, but this is one of those times. I second Nosemonkey in his disgust at the situation facing UKIP?s press officer in the EP Gawain Towler, author of the England Expects blog. Where Nosemonkey is wrong is assuming he disagrees with Towler on almost everything? Having met both of them I?m not so sure. But that?s another issue.

Report unveils EU’s ‘most corrupt’ countries

While Denmark and Sweden are Europe’s ‘cleanest’ countries, Bulgaria is perceuved as the ‘most corrupt’ after having regressed “significantly” since last year, reveals Transparency International’s 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). Romania ranked a close second behind Bulgaria.

The Euro in a Global Context: Challenges and Capacities

by Benjamin J. Cohen

The purpose of this chapter is to evaluate the experience of the Euro Area to date in a broad global context. The central question is: How has the creation of the euro affected the power of participating states to cope with external challenges? Three broad issues are explored. First, how well equipped is the Euro Area to deal with any threat of financial instability?

Europeans see Moscow as security threat

The Russian military’s recent incursion into Georgia means that many more west Europeans now regard Russia as a greater threat to global stability than states such as Iran, Iraq and North Korea, according to a survey for the Financial Times.

Europe: Russia is a threat, but let’s do nothing about it

By Blake Hounshell

Here’s an interesting graphic from today’s Financial Times, related to a Harris opinon poll conducted for the paper after the war in Georgia. It seems that an increasing number of Europeans in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain see Russia as a threat, but few of them want to increase defense spending as a result.

Plus, Vladimir Putin is no doubt pleased to have confirmation that although the Baltic states are NATO members, in none of the countries surveyed would a majority sending troops to defend them against Russia if that country “were to take military action against them.”

Brussels is ‘burglary capital’ of the EU

Brussels is not only the hub of European Union business – it is also the burglary capital of the EU, according to a new survey.

Depressive European

By Hanna Hallgren

Chocolate cigarettes, AIDS, and homes for battered wives. Hanna Hallgren conducts a critical, poetic search for European identity.

US military ties to the Lisbon ‘no’ camp?

Follow the money

THE RUMOURS and accusations of American involvement, swirling for months, have always been flatly denied. Now there are calls for a full and formal investigation of exactly who has funded Libertas, the policy group that played a high-profile role in pushing for Ireland’s rejection of the Lisbon treaty.

MAIN FOCUS: The financial system in crisis | 24/09/2008

In MAIN FOCUS

Ten days after the bankruptcy of the US investment bank Lehman Brothers, the international financial world is in the throes of a deep crisis. The American government has meanwhile announced it will buy up bad loans amounting to 700 billion dollars. Where does that leave the international financial order?