Articles
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United Kingdom: What have the Europeans ever done for us?
4 February 201314731 The Independent London -
Germany: Boomtime for Hitler
1 February 201338669 Le Temps Geneva -
Romania: New mediation law still in question
1 February 2013794 CriticAtac Bucharest -
Turkey: Erdogan looks east for a little love
31 January 201313359 Milliyet Istanbul -
Bulgaria-United Kingdom: Dear Mr Farage...
31 January 201339340 24 Chasa Sofia -
Lithuania: A single passport is no longer enough
31 January 20131121 Veidas Vilnius -
CAP: The Green revolution hits Europe
30 January 201358315 La Repubblica Rome -
Sweden: No hitch in gay marriage debate
30 January 2013392451 Libération Paris -
United Kingdom: Don’t expect an immigrant tsunami in 2014
29 January 201317412 New Eastern Europe Cracow -
Portugal: The writing on the wall is Mandarin
29 January 201319927 Visão Lisbon -
War in Mali: Europe goes to war blindfold
28 January 201344395 La Repubblica Rome -
Greece: ‘No way to earn our bread here’
28 January 201316814 I Kathimerini Athens -
Italy: Rise and fall of the world’s oldest bank
25 January 20131839 La Stampa Turin -
European union: A crisis of democracy as much as finance
25 January 201359969 The Guardian London -
Romania: Local literature on its last legs
24 January 20131817 România libera Bucharest -
Poland: Gone with the Fiat
23 January 201311152 Tygodnik Powszechny Cracow -
Railways: High-speed fiasco in Benelux
22 January 20132686 NRC Handelsblad Amsterdam -
France-Germany: We are not celebrating
22 January 201313922 Frankfurter Rundschau Frankfurt -
France-Germany: Love burns bright with 50 birthday candles
21 January 201317863 Le Monde Paris -
Employment: The ‘lost generation’ that never was
21 January 201324528 Dziennik Gazeta Prawna Warsaw -
Slovakia: A sigh for Košice
18 January 20131174 Lidové noviny Prague -
War in Mali: Europe’s invisible hand
18 January 201318523 La Tribune Paris -
Northern Ireland: Belfast ‘living in two different worlds’
18 January 201310010 El Mundo Madrid -
United Kingdom: Europe baffled by British reluctance
17 January 2013190180 I Kathimerini Athens -
Belgium: Wallonia on the way to renaissance
17 January 201320213 De Volkskrant Amsterdam -
War in Mali: The Europeans aren’t fit for purpose
16 January 201348865 Süddeutsche Zeitung Munich -
Slovenia: Democracy or kleptocracy: What’s it to be?
16 January 20131882 Delo Ljubljana -
Lithuania: The Belarussians are coming
16 January 201386 Veidas Vilnius -
Economy: Saint Precarious – new icon of Europe
15 January 201385817 NRC Handelsblad Amsterdam -
Crisis: No common front in the fight against joblessness
15 January 201315649 Alternatives économiques Paris -
United Kingdom: Lost illusions on Europe
14 January 201310724 Financial Times London -
United Kingdom: Will the pro-Europeans please stand up?
14 January 201310468 The Guardian London -
Czech Republic: Who will be next in the Prague Castle?
11 January 20131036 Respekt Prague -
Drugs: European mules pack Peruvian ‘snow’
11 January 20131367 Le Figaro Paris -
Portugal: Government heads for end of the line
10 January 201316845 Público Lisbon -
Italy: No relief in sight for the ‘slaves’ of Rosarno
10 January 201337735 La Stampa Turin -
Separatism: Keep calm and carry on
9 January 201328451 EUobserver.com Brussels -
Debt Crisis: A €1m gateway to Europe
9 January 201330261 Die Zeit Hamburg -
EU-funds: Spending still hard to control
8 January 20134247 De Standaard Brussels -
Geopolitics : Could Romania be Europe’s breadbasket?
8 January 20132666 Adevărul Bucharest -
Renewable energy: Ireland back in the green
7 January 201313337 La Repubblica Rome -
Czech Republic-Slovakia: The happy Czechoslovakia that could have been
7 January 2013154165 Respekt Prague -
Democracy: Wooing Europe’s masses
4 January 201353698 Project Syndicate Prague -
Denmark: Let’s truly commit to Europe
4 January 201310772 Berlingske Tidende Copenhagen -
Economy: Merkel shepherds us away from the fiscal cliff
3 January 201313750 NRC Handelsblad Amsterdam -
Czech Republic: The hospital from where you don’t return
3 January 20133316 Mladá Fronta DNES Prague -
Ireland: What is the point of the EU presidency?
2 January 201318222 La Tribune Paris -
New Year's Quiz: 40 trick questions about Europe
31 December 201284955 Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung Frankfurt -
The press in Europe (5/5): Embedded in the Brussels bubble
28 December 201248614 Inside Story Melbourne -
The press in Europe (4/5): Culture is becoming a luxury
27 December 201291817 Axess Stockholm
Actually, quite a lot, argues a columnist, after the UK’s pro-Europeans rallied last week for a low-key launch of a new group to counter the nation’s infamous Euroscepticism. A fitting tribute to the subtle but profound influence that the EU has had on the country during the last 40 years. 
Released in the autumn of 2012, ahead of the 80th anniversary of Adolf Hitler's coming to power, "Er ist wieder da" ("He's Back") by German writer Timur Vermes starts off with the dictator’s return to Berlin in the summer of 2011. The book has soared to the top of the book sales charts, but it has also set some teeth on edge. 
Romanian criminal cases ranging from robbery to rape may now be settled by a mediator rather than in court. A new law that went into effect on February 1 aims to reduce the backlog in the courts and to promote social peace. But there is a risk is that it will fail because it is too ambiguous and difficult to interpret. 
Faced with a European Union procrastinating over Turkish accession, the country's prime minister is threatening to hook up with other global bodies, such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Even if it is just a bluff, it reflects growing impatience in Ankara. 
The comments of UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage regarding the "influx" of foreign workers who would arrive in the Britain following the opening up of the UK labour market to Bulgarians and Romanians in 2014 has provoked angry reactions from Sofia. One young Edinburgh-educated Bulgarian woman wrote an open letter to the Eurosceptic MEP. 
Ice dancer Deividas Stagniunas’ American partner has recently had her application for a Lithuanian passport turned down. The decision has reignited the debate on the identity of a country that is opening up to the rest of the world. 
The reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, which is to be wrapped up this year, is resulting in a move towards sustainable development and greater fairness. However, it is being threatened by pressure from the agro-food lobbies, declares the founder of the Slow Food movement, who is launching an appeal to Europe's citizens and their MEPs. 
In a Europe where “marriage for all” has opened up a bitter divide in France, and at time when the Polish parliament has recently rejected civil union legislation, Sweden stands out as a country where lesbian bishops can legally get married without sparking controversy. 
Ahead of the end of immigration controls on Romania and Bulgaria in January 2014, some UK ministers are thinking of running a campaign to deter a repeat of the 2004 “wave” of immigration when eight former communist countries gained EU working rights. But the eurozone crisis makes this prospect less likely. 
One out of four Portuguese young people is unemployed. To find work, these youngsters are ready to become expatriates, and the languages they learn before leaving - German, Russian, Chinese or Arabic - draw a map of their new promised lands. 
Remarkably for a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Europe has been at war for close to 15 years: in the Balkans, in Afghanistan, in Libya, and today in the Sahel. However, an Italian editorialist argues, European intervention has consistently been marked by an absence of long-term vision. 
Victims of the crisis and its consequences, non-European migrants have started to head home. In a centre in Athens, they talk bitterly of the setback that repatriation represents for them. 
Founded in 1472, the bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena has helped raise Siena's quality of life and governance to the top tier. The political and economic scandal that has erupted around the “MPS”, however, could mark the end of a system - and of an era. 
The spirit of dictators like Nicolae Ceauşescu is finding new life in the response of the European elite to the eurozone crisis, says Slovenian thinker Slavoj Žižek. The same distrust of democracy that once constrained the developing or the post-communist countries is now gaining ground in Europe. 
We have freedom of movement, freedom of information and freedom of speech, but we are prisoners of a disdain for our language and culture, which is feeding illiteracy, complains a Romanian historian and writer. 
Modern and productive, the Tychy factory was once Fiat’s flagship site, but in the face of the debt crisis, the Italian automaker has decided to bring production of the popular Panda back to Naples. For the Polish workforce, this means a wave of redundancies in late January, and disillusionment is the order of the day. 
Less than six weeks after its launch — and a multitude of technical problems later — the high-speed Fyra train between Amsterdam and Brussels has been taken off the tracks. A flop that brings into question the way international supply contracts are handed out. 
The people of Sedan, in northern France, have offered futile resistance to the Germans in three wars, from Bismarck to Hitler. Now, a journalist searching for the French-German reconciliation celebrated in the 50th anniversary of the Elysée Treaty, finds a community broken by poverty, that has nothing to keep alive but the ghosts of the past. 
Paris and Berlin may be celebrating the anniversary of the Elysée Treaty, which founded their reconciliation, but their marriage has hit the rocks. The French are making faces at the economic success of the Germans, who aren’t holding back when it comes to pointing out the weaknesses of their neighbours. But we have to keep the love alive. 
With every serious crisis we feel sorry for young people who cannot find work, calling them a “lost generation”. Well, there have been many such generations in history and they always succeeded in the end, writes DGP. 
Košice this year shares with Marseille the title of European Capital of Culture (ECOC). An acronym that Slovaks shorten to "Ehmk" and which sounds more like a sigh than a top class cultural event, notes a Slovak music critic. 
A week after launching operations against the Islamists who are in control of the north of Mali, the French are still the only Western forces with boots on the ground. But the bloc, which has renounced a joint military capability, is there on other fronts - just more discreetly. 
For a month and a half Catholic Republicans and Protestants loyal to the crown have clashed over the issue of the flying of the British union flag over Belfast City Hall. But this hostility is latent throughout daily life, as a Spanish journalist discovered in... Madrid Street. 
On the eve of the British PM’s much-anticipated speech on Britain’s EU membership, the Brussels correspondent of Greek daily I Kathimerini says that, no matter what David Cameron may say in Amsterdam, Britain has already cut itself loose. 
For a long time, Wallonia was considered the poor half of Belgium, reliant on aid from rich Flanders. Today, the Walloon economy is back on its feet and the Walloons want to seize their destiny and address the pressure from Flemish separatists. 
France's war in Mali is a fight for all of Europe that France is fighting alone, writes the Brussels correspondent of the SZ. Brushing Paris off with a few aircraft isn't just shirking on the part of its European Union partners, it's a fatal blow to a common European defence. 
The divorce between the political class and the Slovenian population is expanding at the same rate as the revelations about corruption. Now that the head of government himself has been caught up in the scandals, Slovenian society stands at a crossroads. 
Hotels, shops and spas are all profiting from wealthy clients but also from the middle classes coming from the other side of the Belarus border. 
Austerity and free market regulations have created a band of loyal followers: The Precarious. And they are threatening the jewel European civilization, social security, argues Belgian writer Geert Van Istandael. 
The latest figures are grim: unemployment has soared to record levels in the eurozone, with 11.8 per cent of the workforce unemployed. So far, however, European countries have been unable to harmonise their social policies in an effort to get out of the crisis. 
In his forthcoming speech on Europe, due on January 18, UK Prime Minister David Cameron must take account of the Conservative Party’s eurosceptic mood, but above all speak for the country rather than the party and keep Britain in Europe, argues a Financial Times editorial. 
The UK runs the risk of being stampeded out of the EU by Europhobic politicians and media magnates. Pro-Europeans must shed their fears and launch an objective debate on the case for Britain’s EU membership, writes an editorial in The Guardian. 
Later this month, the Czechs will elect their first president by universal suffrage. In a country with a long history of strong leaders, the role has often taken on more importance than was codified in the constitution, running the risk of weakening the state, says Respekt. 
Hit hard by the crisis, Roberta, a Spanish grandmother, and Jeremy, a French baker, responded to the lure of easy money. Their mission? Smuggle cocaine from Peru into their home countries. Today, they’re rotting in a Lima jail. 
In requesting that the constitutional court re-examine the state budget for 2013, president Cavaco Silva runs the risk of plunging his country into a political crisis, warns a researcher and political analyst. As a result, the Portuguese people may be called on to take responsibility for the remedy chosen to cure the country’s economic ills. 
At the end of 2009, Africans working in the orchards of Calabria rebelled against the inhuman living and working conditions, reopening the debate in Italy on seasonal work. Three years on, the public initiatives have failed and the migrants are still being exploited. 
From Scotland’s membership of the EU should it split from the UK, to handling requests for military help to put down pro-independence movements, the recent rise in European secessionist spirit poses tricky questions for the Union. EU leaders should keep their cool, argues a Greek journalist. 
Hard-hit by the crisis, Lisbon is wooing rich investors from its former colonies. Anyone who invests in the country has a good chance of obtaining a visa — and an open door to the rest of Europe. 
Despite all the promises of transparency, European funds are still being used improperly by companies and member states, while fraud and misuse remain difficult to detect and rarely punished. 
Against a backdrop of global crisis, the battle for resources is set to escalate in 2013. At a time when the EU is turning to Russia for its energy needs, one of its member states could supply the others with agricultural produce. But for this to happen, Romanians will have to take full advantage of their country’s assets. 
After two years of radical austerity the Irish economy is going through an upswing, thanks to new revenue the state is collecting from renewable energy and from taxing fossil fuels and rubbish. 
Twenty years ago, Czechoslovakia split in two new countries. If the Czech Republic and Slovakia had stayed together and transformed the impoverished former nation into a multi-ethnic country, both societies would be more democratic today, argues a dual-nationality columnist. 
Ahead of the 2014 European Parliament elections, the EU could learn much from the recent US presidential vote regarding how to engage with its citizens, gain legitimacy and achieve a louder voice on the international stage. 
As they celebrate the 40th anniversary of entry into the European Union, Danes are weighing up the pros and cons. To persuade fellow Danes that the Union can still benefit Denmark, all the country's political forces should come together and propose daring new ideas, writes Berlingske. 
The last minute negotiations in Washington to avoid a budget shortfall show that short-termism is well grounded in US politics. And by contrast, it shows that despite her controversial handling of the euro crisis, the German chancellor is wise enough to instead push for long-term solutions. 
In the mountains of Bohemia, near the Polish border, lies a small hospital - the only one of its kind in Europe: The Biological Defence Centre in Těchonín is designed to treat the poor unfortunates who contract the world's most dangerous viruses or fall victim to a biological terrorist attack. 
On January 1, the Dublin government took over the rotating presidency of the European Union. However, French daily La Tribune argues that economic crisis and a shift in the balance of power in the EU have turned this institution into an empty shell. 
Three years of the euro crisis, 2013 is around the corner, and you still have some questions? So does essayist Hans Magnus Enzensberger. The outspoken critics of the Brussels bureaucracy has been inspired to draw up a quiz – with, of course, entirely objective questions. Have fun! 
The Belgian capital is the heart of the EU power machine, where dozens of journalists try to cover the activities of all the institutions. But as an Australian newcomer founds out, they have too much information and too little time to make sense of what’s going on. 
Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet has decided to cut back on its literature section to make space for more lifestyle pages. One of the critics that the newspaper let go complains that the newspaper’s bid to reach out to a wider public will result in an increasingly impoverished press.