The Podemos Express: What lies behind the extraordinary rise of Spain’s new protest party? Open Europe blog The extraordinary rise of Podemos, Spain’s eight-month-old protest party, continues. A new Metroscopia poll for El País, released on Sunday, showed that the party would win a Spanish general election, if held today, with 27.7% of votes. The Socialist Party … Read more
MAIN FOCUS: Controversial election in eastern Ukraine | 03/11/2014 euro|topics Pro-Russian separatist leaders won the controversial election in eastern Ukraine on Sunday. The Ukrainian leadership and the Western states have rejected the vote as unlawful. Commentators stress that Kiev has lost all influence in the east of the country and see the election as the next … Read more
Cyprus President replaced by Greek PM at EU summit EurActiv.com Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades was hospitalised ahead of the first day of the EU summit yesterday (23 October), and was replaced at the summit by Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. This is the first time that a leader from another country replaces a colleague at the EU … Read more
Venezuela Gets Security Council Seat; Turkey Fails NYT > Turkey by By SOMINI SENGUPTA After two rounds of voting at the General Assembly, the five new rotating members will be Angola, Malaysia, New Zealand, Spain and Venezuela. Ankara strikes upbeat note despite failure in UN Security Council bid New Zealand and Spain win the seats in the … Read more
Juncker bitten by the hand that fed him as the European Parliament undermines his Commission Open Europe blog Juncker and Schulz in happier times… The letter from European Parliament (EP) President Martin Schulz to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has now been published in full and contains an extensive list of questions for the UK’s Lord … Read more
New EU sanctions against Russia come into effect EurActiv.com The European Union put into effect on Friday (12 September) a new round of sanctions against Russia over its role in Ukraine, including restrictions on financing for some Russian state-owned companies and asset freezes on leading Russian politicians. What impact could this round of Russian retaliatory sanctions have … Read more
Young people are the most likely to take action to protect their privacy on social networking sites Oxford Internet Institute – Blogs Internet Archive posts millions of images from old books on Flickr The Next Web by Josh Ong Internet Archive uploads more than 14 million public domain images to Flickr Evidence Grows That Online Social … Read more
Britain is no longer a world power open Democracy News Analysis – by Ben Waite Britain faces a turning point in its foreign policy; it is no longer capable of delivering the ‘interventions’ its leaders crave, while its much vaunted ‘soft power’ seems so soft as to barely make an impact at all. A change of mindset … Read more
Left-wing leaders back Juncker BBC News | Europe | World Edition Jean-Claude Juncker‘s bid to head the European Commission receives a boost with the backing of nine left-wing heads of government The world’s most precious genes? BBC News | Europe | World Edition Why scientists are dying to get their hands on Icelanders’ DNA … Read more
Just who are Podemos? open Democracy News Analysis – by Fernando Betancor Who are the people voting for Podemos? An analysis of election data reveals some surpising results… I?ve be following the impact of the ?Podemos? phenomenon on Spanish politics since the European elections late last May. It is not too much of an … Read more
Spain’s Poisoned Chalice FP Passport by James Badcock The Spanish monarchy is in big trouble, and not even a young, handsome new king may be able to do anything about it. MAIN FOCUS: Juan Carlos abdicates | 03/06/2014 euro|topics After almost 40 years on the throne, King Juan Carlos of Spain announced his abdication in a surprise move on Monday. … Read more
MAIN FOCUS: Juncker and Schulz both after presidency | 27/05/2014 euro|topics After the European elections the wrangling over the post of Commission president has begun. With the conservative European People’s Party behind him, Jean-Claude Juncker has the support of the largest parliamentary group. But social democrat Martin Schulz is also laying claim to the post. … Read more
Fascists and ultra-rights @ #EP2014:25% France23% Denmark22% UK20% Austria15% Hungary13% Finland12% Greece8% Germany — Wolfgang Lünenbürger @luebue@norden.social (@luebue) May 25, 2014 MAIN FOCUS: European elections: triumph of the Eurosceptics | 26/05/2014 euro|topics Despite a loss of votes the conservatives remain the strongest force in the EU Parliament, while right-wing populist and Eurosceptic parties made massive … Read more
The Eurosphere is losing Ukraine open Democracy News Analysis – by Denis MacShane Ukrainians may have had high expectations, but the unpleasant truth is that the EU has offered them more than it can deliver Ukraine in a European context open Democracy News Analysis – by Paul Lewis All in all, the fall of an unpopular, corrupt and … Read more
MAIN FOCUS: Heavy cost of corruption for Europe | 04/02/2014 Corruption costs the EU economy around 120 billion euros per year, the EU’s first Anti-Corruption Report published on Monday reveals. According to a Eurobarometer survey, more than half of the respondents believe that bribery has increased in the last three years. Commentators call on … Read more