Marek Belka and Erik Berglof: New Europe Catches Old Europe’s Cold
LONDON – As governments across Western Europe began bailing out banks and their depositors, Eastern Europeans watched nervously, unsure about what the global financial storm would mean for them. Now that the storm has hit, the fragile bonds of European solidarity are being tested.
Muslims’ free speech ‘threatened’
European governments must do more to safeguard the right to free speech for critics of Islam who face threats from extremists, a think tank warns.
Interview: Single EU defence ‘not for all’
It is impossible to conceive ‘Defence Europe’ as a project for all 27 member states because they do not all share "similar ambitions", French Defence Minister Hervé Morin told EurActiv France in an exclusive interview.
‘Disappointment’ as auditors reject EU accounts
Members of the European Parliament have expressed ‘acute disappointment’ after auditors failed to sign off the EU accounts for the fourteenth consecutive year, finding errors in two to five percent of payments made to the bloc’s member states.
‘Collective intelligence’ tool enters European Parliament
Interactive tools have made their way into the European Parliament for the first time, facilitating large-scale deliberation during a high-level conference on climate change yesterday (11 November).
New pan-European alliance to fight EU treaty
A European political force opposed to the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty and to further EU integration will emerge today (12 November) after a visit to Ireland by eurosceptic Czech President Václav Klaus.
MAIN FOCUS: Hope for Bretton Woods II | 10/11/2008
Representatives of the 20 major advanced and emerging countries (G20) will meet this Saturday for a financial summit in Washington. In reference to the 1944 conference which determined global economic policy for the 20th century many are speaking of a second Bretton Woods. The European press discusses the hopes and expectations with which Europe views the summit.
A Retrospective UK Referendum on the Lisbon Treaty?
David Cameron and the Big Fight
SWP Comments 2008/C 27, November 2008, 5 pages
For the eventuality that the EU-wide ratification process will still be
open when his party comes to power, the leader of the main British
opposition party, David Cameron, has promised to hold a… more
»Climate Tariffs« and the Credibility of the EU Climate and Energy Package
International Climate Policy and Carbon Leakage
SWP Comments 2008/C 26, November 2008, 8 pages
The French president Nicolas Sarkozy has repeatedly advocated
strengthening the European climate and energy package by imposing tariffs
on imports from world regions without an ambitious climate… more
Who’s speaking for Europe?
Merkel gets a scolding
THE GERMAN chancellor, Angela Merkel, has come in for a scolding from Joschka Fischer, the former foreign minister, for her response to the global financial crisis. He blasts her for focusing too much on the national interest in recent weeks, and in the process, thinks she has foresaken the chance for Germany to play a broader leadership role. According to the Financial Times, he is not alone his his worries:
Bananas, euromyths and ridiculous regulations
And so yet more silly EU regulations bite the dust, as a bunch of rules on the physical appearance of fruit and vegetables are set to go the way of the Dodo. The most famous of these, of course, being the infamous “straight banana” euromyth that has been doing the rounds of the UK tabloids for years – “Brussels bureaucrats ban bananas!” and suchlike.
MAIN FOCUS: Commemorating World War I | 12/11/2008
On November 11 people all over Europe commemorated the end of the First World War 90 years ago. Europe’s press discusses the significance of these commemorations from different perspectives.
MAIN FOCUS: The Slovakian-Hungarian conflict escalates | 11/11/2008
The conflict between Slovakia and Hungary has reached a new level of intensity. For the firs
t time Hungarian right-wing extremists have blocked five border crossings with Slovakia – in protest at the arrest on the weekend of 28 members of the paramilitary "Hungarian Guard". The press in both countries looks for culprits and asks how the crisis can be defused.
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