In SEJ survey, Paul Krugman, an American, becomes the most influential European thinker:)

Surprise Result ? The most influential European Thinker is an American!

In our recent readers ballot we asked you who you think are the thinkers with the most influence on the European left-of-centre political agenda. Here are the top 50 of your vote:

1. Paul Krugman

MAIN FOCUS: Viennese elections highlight fear of Islam | 12/10/2010

Italy’s crackdown on Gypsies reflects rising anti-immigrant tide in Europe

MILAN – This venerable city, long known for savory saffron risotto and the leggy models of Fashion Week, is moving to establish itself as something else: a zero-tolerance zone for Gypsies.

Serbian Gay Rights parade marred by violence

The first Gay Pride parade in Serbia since a march in 2001 took place yesterday amid violent clashes provoked by far-right extremists. While the Gay Pride parade was moving though centre Belgrade, several hundred protesters shouted “death to homosexuals” while trying to get close to the march. Thousands of police had sealed off central Belgrade to protect the event. More than 100 people were injured, mostly police officers, while the centre Belgrade was demolished by the hooligans.

Is Europe’s far-right surge overblown?

Austria’s far-right gains in elections

EU citizenship: France?s Roma expulsions documented by CEPS

France?s expulsion of Roma shows that the rights of EU citizens are still in a formative phase, and issues of scope and exceptions concern other mobile Europeans as well.

The Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) has published a welcome research paper on the French Roma affair:

The new gatekeeper

For quite some time, we have tried to highlight how the EU’s new financial supervisors could eventually take on too much power for comfort – not least when viewed from the City of London. The European Securities and Markets Authority, in particular, looks set to become a force to be reckoned with. As we argued in our recent report on the subject, this is a bit peculiar since most of the commentary – such as the de Larosière report or the Turner review – which precipitated the creation of the new supervisors, related to cross-border supervision of large retail banks.

Europe’s worst kept secret

Eurogroup Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker has revealed Europe’s worst kept secret on the sidelines of the last IMF and World Bank meetings in Washington.

Juncker said:

“It was obvious that one day Greece would have to face this kind of problems, and I knew that problems would arise because we – the French, the Germans, ECB President Trichet, the Commission and myself – had been discussing the perspectives of what was not at that time known as so-called Greek crisis”.

However, for reasons he didn’t specify, EU leaders still decided to keep the whole thing quiet and hoped for a miracle.

The EU should be much bolder on energy efficiency

by Stephen Tindale

The most pain-free way for European governments to fight climate change is to use energy more efficiently. At a recent energy conference hosted by the European Commission, it struck me that the EU still has a poverty of ambition when it comes to energy efficiency. This is hard to fathom at a time when it could alleviate several of the ills currently troubling European governments: unemployment, energy security and climate change.

EU: Preventing human rights infringements ? CEPS proposal

In a research paper from the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) on the French Roma affair, the authors made an interesting proposal to strengthen human rights monitoring in the European Union. See:

Estonia?s Now-You-See-Me Now-You-Don?t Inflation Rate

Just to follow up on my recent long Estonia post, a couple of new data points have caught my attention recently: the sharp rise in Estonian inflation and the ongoing goods trade deficit.