Identity and Migration: A European Problem
Firstly, let me apologise for the length of this post. I simply couldn?t have written this more concisely.
I wanted to start this week?s instalment to say that I thought that various official reactions to the crisis in Lampedusa was funny. However, the more I thought about the situation the less I was able to make such a pronouncement. Now, I have a pretty dark sense of humour, and I have a talent for seeing the ridiculous in situations, but something bothered me about these tragedies. I believe the root of these problems to be systemic within the nature of European identities and societies.
Mapping Europe’s war on immigration – Le Monde diplomatique
English edition ? Philippe Rekacewicz ? It is a strange thing, this paranoid fear of invasion, this determination to protect themselves at all costs from these human beings who every year exile themselves from their homelands to head for an imagined promised land in the rich countries.
EU?s long-term budget bedeviled by details
As member states bickered over details, MEPs yesterday (17 October) postponed a vote on the 2014-2020 EU budget for the November session, raising doubts about the implementation of the ?960 billion package by the planned 1 January 2014 deadline.
As one EU diplomat described the situation, ?the devil is in the detail? of the budget talks between the Council and the Parliament.
It’s time Europe walked the walk on money laundering
The EU must grab the opportunity to shine a light on the secretive world of shell companies when it revises its money laundering rules, writes Catherine Olier.
Catherine Olier is Oxfam’s EU policy advisor
What do US food trader Cargill, German car maker Daimler AG, and computer giant Apple all have in common? At first, it may appear very little, but the three companies share a common practice: the use of secrecy to advance their business at the expense of the public interest.
Appetite for EU enlargements hits all time low
As the European Commission unveiled its yearly ?progress reports? on EU candidate countries yesterday (16 October), an Austrian think-tank revealed that domestic public support for enlargement had hit rock bottom, the EurActiv network reports.
In its annual set of progress reports, the European Commission for the second time recommends granting EU candidate status to Albania and, for the fifth time in a row, to opening accession negotiations with Macedonia (see background).
Grand coalition beckons in Germany
A grand coalition between Germany’s centre-right and centre-left parties moves a step nearer, nearly a month after the general election.
Modern slavery is a reality also in Europe
Even rich Western countries like Iceland, Ireland and the United Kingdom cannot be considered to be free of modern slavery. It is estimated, for example, that there are as many as four thousand modern slaves in the UK ? and more could be done to help them, writes Nick Grono.
Nick Grono is chief executive officer of the Walk Free Foundation, an global organisation campaigning against slavery.
Modern slavery may not be as visible as in the past, but it?s found in the richest and poorest countries, in our major cities and in the countryside. As our societies have developed, slavery has evolved as well. Victims are transported on 747s as well as ox-carts. It?s used to produce everything from electronics, steel, food, and the cotton in our clothes. It turns its victims into pliable servants to be used and discarded.
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