MAIN FOCUS: Austerity and hope in Ireland | 16/10/2013 The Irish government presented the budget for 2014 on Tuesday – the seventh austerity budget in a row. Prime Minister Enda Kenny stressed that the top priority was to create jobs and exit the bailout programme. Ireland’s success is proof that the stringent austerity policy is the right … Read more
European Commission understood AKP’s democratic potential capacity in its early years belatedly, and now it downplays the increasingly obvious authoritarian tendencies, a harsher critique will appear belatedly, I assume… Here are the documents in Turkish and in English… AB Komisyonu İlerleme Raporu – 2013 Turkiye Strategy Paper – COM 700 – EN final TURKEY … Read more
Is Turkish intelligence or PM Erdoğan in question? An article published by The Wall Street Journal on Oct. 9 about Turkey?s Intelligence Chief Turkish PM?s support of Obamacare or deep-running friction with the US Facing a Republican-led impasse and a partial government Global chemical weapons watchdog OPCW wins Nobel Peace Prize The Organisation for the Prohibition … Read more
MAIN FOCUS: Shift to the right in France | 11/10/2013 The far-right Front National could emerge as France’s strongest party from the European elections in May 2014, according to the results of a poll published by the magazine Le Nouvel Observateur on Wednesday. The party is benefiting from the mainstream parties’ lack of ideas, commentators write, fearing that France’s shift … Read more
Commission floats ?ideas? to deepen the EU?s social side Social policy indicators such as unemployment could soon form part of the European Commission?s regular monitoring of EU countries? economic and budgetary imbalances under plans floated by Brussels today to deepen the social dimension of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Presenting the proposal on Wednesday … Read more
Eskişehir governor threatens journalist over reports on protester?s murder Eskişehir?s governor has threatened journalist İsmail Saymaz with retribution if the daily Radikal correspondent does not stop reporting on a Gezi protester’s death Turkey violated rights ‘on huge scale’ during Gezi protests: Amnesty International report The authorities committed “gross human rights violations” during Gezi … Read more
Greek police arrest dozen Golden Dawn members, including party leader Greek police arrested the leader of the far-right Golden Dawn Party in a morning operation Greek neo-Nazi MPs to face criminal charges: Court source Five lawmakers of the Greek neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn including its founder Nikos Michaloliakos will face charges of belonging to … Read more
France breaking own rules on Roma camps: ombudsman France’s official defender of citizens’ rights on Friday accused the government of flouting its own rules related to the expulsion of Roma migrants Eurostat: English reinforces its status as Europe?s ?lingua franca? Ninety four percent of upper secondary students learn English as a foreign language, according to new … Read more
Germany’s path towards new government fraught with dilemmas After losing out on her preferred coalition partners, Germany’s newly re-elected chancellor, Angela Merkel, faces a number of hurdles in securing a power-sharing deal with rival left-leaning parties. While Merkel and her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) won a resounding victory in Germany?s general elections on Sunday (22 … Read more
Eleven Turks enter German Parliament Eleven lawmakers of Turkish origin have been elected to the German Bundestag Merkel faces tough coalition talks Chancellor Angela Merkel is triumphant but must now form a new ruling coalition, with the Social Democrats (SPD) seen as likely partners. As focus shifts to German coalition negotiations, who are the … Read more
VIDEO: Death sparks violence in Greece Violent clashes have broken out in several Greek cities after a left-wing musician was stabbed to death, the suspect is a member of the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn. Protesters, police clash in Greek anti-fascist demos Protesters and police clashed across Greece on Sept. 18 as thousands demonstrated against fascism following … Read more
Eight small European Countries are the happiest on Earth Just in time for the UN General Assembly, the UN secretariat has published the second World Happiness Report. On the basis of extensive polls in 156 countries it assesses how people rate their overall happiness in life. German election: don’t forget the Turkish vote(s)! There are … Read more
German parties wake up to growing migrant vote Arab Times (Kuwait) September 15, 2013, p. 16 AFP, Sept 14, Berlin German Chancellor Angela Merkel once alienated many immigrants by declaring ?multiculturalism has failed,? but as elections near her conservatives and other parties are scrambling to reach the growing migrant vote. The question, say analysts and … Read more
France Sees Great Potential in the Chinese Tourism Industry The statistics this year for French tourism are a bit fuzzy. Minister of Tourism Sylvia Pinel remains cautious with the numbers while the results from Protourisme, the reference point for tourism studies, look gloomy [fr]. Vassiliou: ‘Europeans should get out of their chairs more often’ … Read more
Barroso warns on EU political instability José Manuel Barroso warns against complacency saying progress is being put in peril by leaders attempting to return to ?business as usual? Q&A: The Catalan Way explained Why are Catalans taking part in a human chain this Wednesday? The Catalan newspaperAra has produced a series of questions … Read more