Articles
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Scotland: Calton, capital of the disinherited
27 November 201214314 Trouw Amsterdam -
Elections in Catalonia: Victory of the status quo
26 November 20126951 La Vanguardia Barcelona -
EU budget: Britain’s bluster serves the eurozone well
26 November 201210016 Financial Times London -
ECB: Eurozone leaders disregard democracy
26 November 201231925 La Tribune Paris -
Catalonia election: The obsession with independence
23 November 201215556 La Vanguardia Barcelona -
EU Budget: Commission is nowhere to be seen
23 November 201223325 Coulisses de Bruxelles Brussels -
Eurozone crisis: EU set back a generation
23 November 201248156 Dziennik Gazeta Prawna Warsaw -
Catalonia election: What will happen the morning after?
22 November 20129765 El Periódico de Catalunya Barcelona -
EU budget: Maximum spending, minimum gain
22 November 20126681 Der Standard Vienna -
Israel-Palestine: Fortunately no-one’s waiting for Europe
21 November 201222133 El Periódico de Catalunya Barcelona -
Catalonian election: A dangerous leap into the abyss
21 November 20127841 El País Madrid -
Debt crisis: France’s elites are in denial
20 November 201234983 Die Welt Berlin -
United Kingdom: EU exit would lead to less sovereignty, not more
20 November 201219740 The Observer London -
Hungary: Viktor Orbán rigs his re-election
19 November 20122706 Népszabadság Budapest -
Justice: The crooked judges of Slovakia
19 November 20122702 Respekt Prague -
Austerity: No sacrifices without hope
16 November 2012286141 Project Syndicate Prague -
Montenegro: The Russians invade the Adriatic coast
16 November 20121126 De Volkskrant Amsterdam -
Gender equality: Brussels moralises at its own peril
15 November 2012556 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Frankfurt -
Gender equality: Quotas for women, more than necessary
15 November 20127712 El País Madrid -
Germany: Goodbye euro, hello recession
14 November 201258798 Die Zeit Hamburg -
Debt crisis: A plague of received ideas
14 November 201218415 Hospodářské Noviny Prague -
Greece: Aid is fine, but ideas would be better
13 November 20128420 I Kathimerini Athens -
Debate: How to preserve the European miracle
13 November 201229465 Dagens Arena Stockholm -
Eurozone crisis: The sick man of Europe is France
12 November 2012199144 Les Echos Paris -
Debate: All of Europe’s misfortunes
12 November 201216314 Polska The Times Warsaw -
Profile: Olli Rehn, austere guardian of budgetary discipline
9 November 20128822 Les Echos Paris -
United States-EU: Obama and Europe are facing the same battles
9 November 20129436 Le Soir Brussels -
Lithuania: The KGB still walks among us
8 November 20121681 Veidas Vilnius -
Cyprus: EU bailout for Russian oligarchs?
7 November 201240712 Der Spiegel Hamburg -
EU-United States: Take advantage of US indifference
6 November 201220719 Libération Paris -
Press freedom: Greece — more austerity, less liberty
6 November 20122747 The Observer London -
EU-US: Romney or Obama, it’s all the same for Europe
5 November 201213627 Il Sole-24 Ore Milan -
Romania: For a truly incorruptible state
5 November 20127913 România libera Bucharest -
EU Budget: The real test for Britain in the EU
2 November 201210969 The Daily Telegraph London -
Czech Republic: Resurrection of the Marxist old guard
2 November 201212523 Respekt Prague -
France : A new army of ghosts haunts Corsica
1 November 201220822 Le Monde Paris -
Greece: Why I published the Lagarde List
31 October 2012156190 The Guardian London -
Senior citizens: Granny lives in Slovakia now
31 October 201245831 Welt am Sonntag Berlin -
Hungary: Orbán’s land war with EU
30 October 20121219 Le Monde Paris -
International trade: We can’t export our way out of the crisis
30 October 201215952 Frankfurter Rundschau Frankfurt -
Health: The Robin Hood doctors of Greece
29 October 2012400629 The New York Times New York -
Debate: Federal Europe best cure for current gloom
29 October 201230544 Corriere della Sera Milan -
Ukraine: Slowly leaving the Soviet universe
26 October 20121065 New Eastern Europe Cracow -
European Commission: “Dalligate” begins to look like a crime novel
26 October 20121358 La Tribune Paris -
Spain: Grannies and grandads fighting the crisis
26 October 201229715 Le Monde Paris -
Lithuania-Belarus: The new Iron Curtain
25 October 20122381 15min Vilnius -
Debate: Give us a break with your nation states
25 October 201219285 Der Spiegel Hamburg -
Debate: Erasmus generation, you’re Europe’s last hope
24 October 2012221272 Gazeta Wyborcza Warsaw -
Spain: Chinese mafia’s “state within a state”
24 October 201249313 El País Madrid -
Debate: A federation, yes, but what kind?
23 October 201222569 Respekt Prague
A victim of factory closures in the 1970s and 80s, Glasgow's Calton district holds several unfortunate claims to fame: high unemployment; poor life expectancy; low per capital income. Cuts in social programmes leave little hope that this situation will improve. 
The early regional elections of November 25 marked a decline in the party of Catalonian President Artur Mas, which had focused on winning an absolute majority in order to organise a referendum on independence for the region. In the end, it was the ruling order which prevailed. 
The EU leaders' failure to find an agreement on the budget is largely symbolic as negotiations concern only a very small part of the Union’s wealth. More important to the EU’s future is the efficiency of the single market and relations between the countries inside and outside the currency bloc. 
On the sidelines of the Brussels budget summit on November 22 and 23, Eurozone leaders approved the appointment of Luxembourgian Yves Mersch to the board of the European Central Bank. But he was elected despite the European parliament voting against him, a move which highlights the EU's dysfunctional nature. 
The issue of self-determination is the main issue in Catalonia's November 25 regional election, and has emerged as the single theme of the campaign. It has been foisted on the electorate in order to avoid more pressing concerns such as unemployment, education and health, argues a columnist. 
Everyone has forgotten that the European executive prepared the budget which is currently being negotiated by European leaders. And there is a simple reason for this: Commission President José Manuel Barroso has become invisible. Libération’s Brussels correspondent deplores what he describes as a political “suicide”. 
It will be decades before the most economically stricken countries recover their pre-crisis standard of living. And the gulf between with these states and those doing well is widening all the time, threatening the unity and stability of the EU. 
The regional elections of 25 November should hand the Catalonian nationalists a majority. The independence referendum they are promising, however, must first get the approval of Madrid and the support of the Catalans. 
The EU spends a third of its budget to try to narrow the gap between rich and poor in Europe. Despite the billions from Brussels, though, the poorer countries have not caught up. Could the 27 please rethink that when they discuss the EU budget? 
Left on the sidelines by the Arab Spring, the EU has not found its voice in the renewed conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It is as if the EU has given up on playing a role in a region that is in its own backyard. 
Central to the Catalonia’s November 25 regional elections will be the question of secession from Spain, with President Artur Mas aiming for an absolute majority that would legitimise a referendum on this issue. But the vehemence of the campaign is such that events could easily spin out of control, worries author Javier Cercas. 
Accused of sticking its head in the sand over the crisis, France has been downgraded by Moody's and become the biggest problem child in Europe. To the political elite in Paris, though, all that doesn’t matter, writes an author from Berlin in the conservative Welt. 
As a poll shows 56% of Britons in favour of a straight EU exit, the British Sunday newspaper argues that the consequences of such a withdrawal would be dire. 
After abolishing automatic voter registration, the Hungarian Parliament is expected to approve a bill restricting media time allotted to parties during the 2014 elections. This is seen as another indication that the government of conservative PM Viktor Orbán is installing a system aimed at eliminating all competition to his Fidesz party. 
Almost a year after the so-called “Gorilla” file lifted the lid on corruption in Slovakia, a new documentary reveals a Slovak judiciary controlled by a clique of unscrupulous judges ready to thwart those who resist them. Its director, Zuzana Piussi now faces up to two years in prison. 
If the EU had greater legitimacy, Europeans would agree more readily to the efforts that are asked of them, because they could then expect to see these sacrifices rewarded. 
They come for the sea, sun, for peace and quiet ... and business opportunities. Taking advantage of old historical and cultural ties, more and more Russians are settling the former Yugoslav republic and EU member candidate Montenegro. 
How a country ensures equality is its own business. Brussels should not interfere. The meddling is hardly helping women, and Brussels is making itself even more unpopular by its moral interventionism, writes a German columnist. 
Despite regular calls to promote equality in the workplace, women continue to be under-represented at the highest corporate level. The European Commission is therefore right to impose quotas, writes a Spanish observer, who regrets that this measure is only temporary. 
What would happen if Germany left the euro? Economist Gustav Horn of the Hans-Böckler Foundation, which has close ties to trade unions, speculates on what would happen in the days following a German exit from the euro – and on what Germany's most popular euro-critic, Thilo Sarrazin, might also say. 
In the Middle Ages, just as now, crises were conducive to the emergence of all sorts of myths. Just as the plague was blamed on the Jews, Europe and the single currency are supposedly responsible for the world's current woes. An idea that economist Tomáš Sedláček seeks to contradict. 
Its European partners have given Greece’s government two more years to lower the deficit, but Greece will still have to wait on the 31.5 billion euro aid tranche. Once these negotiations are over, though, the groundwork for a new economic development must be built – not the easiest task awaiting the country. 
The crisis might be undermining the EU project, but a journey through the former “bloodlands” of Europe’s historical wars reminds us of what the Union has done for the continent, writes a Swedish journalist. If we want to make sure that democracy doesn't perish again, we mustn't shirk from getting citizens involved in the political life of the EU. 
The German government is increasingly concerned as well as outspoken about France's economic situation and its inability to act. Authorities in Paris are aware of the slump in industry but nonetheless irritated by the German pressure. 
The Old Continent is grappling with a moderately severe economic crisis, a severe political crisis, a critical civilisational crisis, and perhaps a deadly spiritual crisis, argues a Polish philosopher. 
Popular in his home country of Finland and much feared elsewhere in Europe, the European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs maintains a low profile. However, with the introduction of new supervisory rules for budgets, his emerging role as a key player in Europe’s economic governance will make it difficult for him to avoid the limelight. 
The newly re-elected US president and his European counterparts are facing the same challenge, writes the editor of Belgian daily Le Soir: to prove that a tolerant society and social solidarity are possible. 
Twenty-two years after it was dismantled, the KGB continues to rouse passions in Lithuania. The publication of the names of former employees of the Soviet security agency has exposed some politicians and officials. Are they still a threat to the state? 
The EU, the IMF and the government of Cyprus are negotiating a 10-billion euro bailout for the country’s ailing banks. Brussels doesn’t want to let the country go bankrupt. But there is a danger that the financial injection could be used to launder dirty money that passes through financial institutions on the island. 
Whoever takes the White House for the next four years, Europe must face the facts: it is no longer considered a strategic priority by the United States. Europe must therefore reinforce its common defence structures and spearhead decisive diplomatic initiatives towards Russia and the Mediterranean countries, suggests a French commentator. 
While the EU is keen to expose increasing authoritarianism in Viktor Orbán's Hungary, it tellingly turns a blind eye on the erosion of press freedom in Greece, the country on which it has foisted a raft of self-defeating austerity measures, argues a British columnist. 
Whether it’s the incumbent or his Republican challenger who wins tomorrow’s presidential election in America, economic and political relations with the Old Continent are unlikely to be substantially affected, writes Sole 24 Ore’s correspondent in the United States.
The anti-corruption policy implemented by successive governments with support from the EU is not only ineffective, but actually aggravates the problem, argues a Romanian editorialist. The solution is a full scale overhaul of the state. But this will only happen when Romania’s politicians assume their responsibility. 
On October 31, Eurosceptic conservatives and Labour joined forces to push through an amendment calling for a cut in the EU budget. The vote marked a major defeat for PM David Cameron who could be cornered in a intransigent position that will be difficult to maintain in the coming negotiations. But it is a risk worth taking, argues the conservative Daily Telegraph. 
For the first time since 1989, on 13 October, Czech communists have won elections in two regions, and their party is now hoping to extend its influence in general elections slated for 2014. However, reporting from the Karlovy Vary region, the weekly Respekt remarks that the communists have barely changed since the heyday of the single party. 
Never mind Sicily or Naples, the most crime-ridden European region is what the French call "the Isle of Beauty" — Corsica. There, nationalists and racketeers, who are sometimes one and the same, are regularly felled by bullets. A journalist from French daily Le Monde took a “murder tour” of the sites of these crimes that everyone knows about but which are cloaked in a shroud of silence. 
In 2010, the so-called “Lagarde List”, which names more 2,000 Greek tax evaders, was handed over to the Greek government. But nothing was done. Kostas Vaxevanis, editor in chief of Hot Doc, was recently arrested for publishing it. For him, it’s a symptom of Greece's corruption. 
Germany is getting greyer every year. But the country has a shortfall of trained nurses for pensioners, and care homes are expensive. Those outside Germany are much cheaper – and German families are sending their seniors into them. 
Currently reserved for Hungarians, farmlands will be available for purchase by foreigners from 2014. But as this EU imposed deadline looms, PM Viktor Orbán government is doing all it can to delay it. Meanwhile small farmers are battling with wealthy candidates, often close to sources of political power, for the most attractive lots. 
To come up with the money to pay for its crisis, the eurozone has decided to export at any cost, slashing wages across the union, and courting customers abroad. The problem: that’s exactly what the countries in the Americas and Asia are trying as well. 
Successive austerity budgets have left hundreds of thousands of Greece’s unemployed without health cover, or even the means to pay for life saving medicine, a desperate situation which an underground network of doctors is seeking to alleviate. 
For Italian writer Claudio Magris, the only way to dispel the dismay prompted by the European economic and political crisis is to create a strong, decentralised and respected federal state. 
The October 28 general election is expected to confirm President Yanukovych’s power and the need for renewal of what remains of the Orange revolution. But in the long term, the country’s enduring crisis will lead to some form of normality, argues a Ukrainian journalist. 
A week after the resignation of Commissioner John Dalli, who was about to table a directive that comes down hard on tobacco products, suspicions of a plot against him have continued to grow. A strange case of burglary at the Brussels offices of anti-tobacco activists adds yet more drama to the allegations of influence peddling. 
Picking up grandchildren from school, donating cash to balance their children’s household budgets, and taking time to demonstrate against the austerity policies advocated by Brussels: Spain’s abuelos have emerged as a pillar of strength in a faltering society. 
In the Soviet era, when Lithuania and Belarus were both part of the USSR, there were several villages spanning a border that existed only on paper. Today, crossing from one side to the other has become a nightmare. 
Those who are arguing today for more Europe have provoked the wrath of the professional democracy purists who hold up the nation state as an ideal model. But do we seriously want to live in a super-Austria? 
Don’t count on EU leaders to get us out of the crisis. The future will be shaped by the youth they have forgotten, writes Polish philosopher Jarosław Makowski, as Brussels seeks funds to help the student exchange programme survive the budget cuts. 
The arrest of the “godfather” of the Chinese mafia in Spain in mid-October has lifted the veil on crime within the community and reflects the power, complexity and international cohesion of these criminal groups. 
Whether it be political, budgetary, or based on financial solidarity, the idea of a more integrated EU is in fashion. But just what final form would the Federal Union take in the end? Nobody really knows, and that’s the whole problem.