Articles
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European integration: We need a referendum on the future of Europe
17 October 201227256 Il Foglio Milan -
Belarus: Voyage to the heart of Europe’s “grey zone”
17 October 20121219 Timpul Chisinau -
Catalonia-Scotland: Spain, Britain and the forbidden fruits of independence
16 October 201246649 Financial Times London -
Greece: Chinese making Piraeus blossom
16 October 201225285 The New York Times New York -
Nobel Peace Prize: Oslo’s call to Europe
15 October 201261845 La Repubblica Rome -
Debate: Let’s give EU’s Nobel money to Erasmus
15 October 2012262348 The Guardian London -
History: Yugoslavia syndrome threatens EU
15 October 201242336 De Volkskrant Amsterdam -
Belgium: Hollywood on the North Sea
12 October 2012671 De Standaard Brussels -
Debate: The disenfranchisement of Europe
12 October 2012153152 Der Hauptstadtbrief Berlin -
Eurozone: Monetary union continues its painful progress
11 October 20128146 Le Monde Paris -
EU budget: A tale of three Europes
11 October 201211135 Gazeta Wyborcza Warsaw -
Czech Republic: Russians and Americans jostling for Temelín
11 October 20125311 Ekonom Prague -
Greece-Germany: Those mad, bad and sad Anti-Merkelites
10 October 2012261120 Coulisses de Bruxelles Brussels -
Greece-Germany: She comes too late
10 October 201213722 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Frankfurt -
Democracy: Petitioners of Europe, unite!
10 October 20128822 Le Monde Paris -
Eurozone crisis: ESM: a debt making machine
9 October 201223940 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Frankfurt -
Institutions: Eurobarometer fever
9 October 20129629 De Volkskrant Amsterdam -
European Union: Richer regions want to redraw the map
8 October 201224236 The New York Times New York -
Debate : Europe, not good enough for the French
8 October 201210480 La Tribune Paris -
Debate: A European constitution for the 21st century
5 October 201219857 The Guardian London -
Nuclear energy: Let’s shut the power stations down
5 October 201217524 Frankfurter Rundschau Frankfurt -
Gender equality: Portuguese women — poorly rewarded for good education
5 October 20121548 Visão Lisbon -
Diplomacy: Syria: Europe’s unsustainable strategic weakness
4 October 201211853 Le Huffington Post Paris -
Belgium: Cheap labour feeding a city
4 October 201217013 De Standaard Brussels -
Immigration: The secrets of Fortress Europe
4 October 201217712 De Groene Amsterdammer Amsterdam -
Caucasus: EU is letting Georgia down
3 October 201210512 Gazeta Wyborcza Warsaw -
Eurozone crisis: Why German unification was a mistake
3 October 2012595153 Der Spiegel Hamburg -
Catalonia: A scale model of European implosion
2 October 201227351 Diário de Notícias Lisbon -
Catalonia: Artur Mas - the man with Spain’s future in his hands
2 October 201214387 Financial Times London -
Austerity: Please make austerity more flexible
1 October 20129439 El País Madrid -
Emigration: The Germans are coming back to Poland
1 October 201230126 Uważam Rze Warsaw -
Eurozone crisis: Federalism or death!
28 September 2012760194 Le Point Paris -
Debate: An infantile satire that no longer informs
28 September 20128915 Süddeutsche Zeitung Munich -
Debate: Towards a diplomacy without inhibitions
28 September 201213511 El País Madrid -
Eurozone: Surprise — we haven’t escaped the crisis
27 September 201227154 La Stampa Turin -
Lithuania-Russia: Stubbing out Kaliningrad’s illicit cigarette trade
27 September 2012454 15min Vilnius -
European integration: Looking beyond market and power
26 September 201219863 NRC Handelsblad Amsterdam -
Czech Republic: Time we boozed with sobriety
26 September 20124411 Hospodářské Noviny Prague -
Greece: Russians bargain-hunting in Northern Aegean
25 September 20122533 I Kathimerini Athens -
Poland: Vanishing dream of prosperity
25 September 201216234 Polityka Warsaw -
Spain: Catalonia, a new headache for the EU
24 September 201259776 El País Madrid -
European integration: SimEurope is not a game
24 September 201210915 The Economist London -
Spain: Eurovegas won’t hit the jackpot
21 September 20128691 El País Madrid -
Photography : Their Europe is ours too
21 September 20121112 Público Lisbon -
Debate: Do we believe in the EU?
21 September 201228592 Gazeta Wyborcza Warsaw -
Profile: Bare breasts, heads high
20 September 20122019 Libération Paris -
European integration: Britain and EU close to point of no return
20 September 201232296 The Guardian London -
EU-Middle East: Europe flees from “Arab Winter”
19 September 201214454 La Repubblica Rome -
Immigration: The other Greek crisis
19 September 2012181182 The Wall Street Journal Europe Brussels -
Romania: Expelled Roma will keep coming back
18 September 201219121 Evenimentul zilei Bucharest
The European project, as it has been constructed so far by the elites and their "benevolent paternalism", has run up against its limits. The next step towards political union cannot be taken without a direct consultation with the citizens, writes the director of the Italian geopolitical magazine Limes. 
When a Moldovan visits Belarus, “the last true dictatorship at the heart of Europe”, a comparison with the Soviet era is inevitable. And yet the people of Belarus look towards Europe as much as they look towards Moscow. 
While British PM David Cameron has signed off on a Scottish independence referendum for 2014, Spain rules out a similar vote in Catalonia as unconstitutional. One decision is politically mature, the other likely to fuel rising secessionist demands, argues Gideon Rachman. 
Since taking over part of the historic Greek port of Piraeus, Chinese company Cosco has seen cargo traffic double over the last year. The other Greek side of the port is looking on with scepticism about working conditions, but perhaps also envy, according to this New York Times report. 
The Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the EU is a double appeal, writes German philosopher Jürgen Habermas: to European leaders to save a Union that has broken down; and to its citizens, to show solidarity just as the crisis is undermining the European social model. 
For its Eramus student exchange programme alone, the EU deserves its Nobel Prize, for fomenting trans-national love-making and the creation of true Europeans. 
The north earns the money, while the south spends it – while this phrase is currently being bandied about in the eurozone, it was also widely heard a quarter of a century ago in the former Yugoslavia. European politicians would do well to remember, a Dutch journalist contends. 
With its well-preserved natural landscapes, tax breaks and competent technician, Belgium over the last few years has become the location of choice for European film makers. 
With acronyms like EFSF or ESM and mantras that preach that there are no alternatives, such as “If the euro fails, Europe fails”, politicians are undermining Europe’s historical democracy. And they won’t pull through that way, writes German author Hans Magnus Enzensberger. 
With the entry into force of the stability mechanism and the consensus on plans for a banking union, the Eurozone has compensated for the “birth defects” of the single currency, albeit at the price of a widening rift with other member states. 
Three parallel Europes inhabit the EU, each with its own goals. And the single budget, which used to unite them, is increasingly a source of division and, in the long run, will be unsustainable. 
New nuclear reactors are become a rarity in Europe, which makes the case of the Czech Republic's Temelín power station all the more interesting, for which the Russians and Americans are engaged in a competition that involves politicians, lobbyists and secret services. 
Angela Merkel’s 9 October visit to Athens gave rise to demonstrations in the course of which the chancellor was caricatured as Hitler. Excesses bordering on stupidity that prevent the Greeks from facing up to their responsibilities, argues a French journalist. 
A sign of good will, a symbol, a gesture.... The German press has hailed Angela Merkel’s goodwill visit to Greece, but it is too little, and comes too late, complains a FAZ columnist. 
How do you reconcile the democratic expression of Europeans with decision-making in Brussels? While referendums on treaties have become too risky, a functioning tool for this purpose has been around for a few months: bring on the petition. 
With the launch of European rescue fund the ESM on October 9, the EU is betraying its founding fathers and their treaties. That it will stabilise the monetary union is also in doubt, laments FAZ, which strongly backs Germany’s policy of stability. 
Opinion polls conducted by the European Commission continue to show that Europeans remains committed to the union — statistics then used to justify ongoing integration projects. Such an approach could be considered trivial if it didn't widen the gulf between citizens and the EU leaderships, warns a Dutch columnist. 
The crisis is reviving old historical and economic quarrels between rich regions with a strong sense of identity and central governments. But as the latest example of Catalonia shows, the question is whether the EU encourages stability or secessionist tendencies. 
The French parliament is set to vote on the Fiscal Compact on Tuesday 9 October. But the new proposals Paris has made to reform the European Union are further evidence of the complacency and provincialism of the country’s pampered political class, writes a French journalist. 
The EU’s leaders are currently hammering out a new project for the Union, but if they want to avoid a repeat of the rejected constitution of 2005, they might do well to consult the post-apartheid South African model, write two academics, one Portuguese, one American. 
The stress tests carried out by the EU provide more than enough reasons to shut down the old reactors. The European Commission, though, lacks the courage to follow the German example and prefers instead to rely on costly upgrades, laments an environmentalist writer. 
In a single generation, Portuguese women cleared away obstacles impeding their ability to receive a genuine education. But they must still break through the glass ceiling in the public and private sector workplaces where men are over represented in upper management. 
The impotence of the EU faced with the drama in Syria reflects the lack of a credible European foreign policy. But this can only come about if the European Union gets a real armed force of its own. 
The slaughterhouses of Anderlecht often use an Eastern European workforce - mainly Romanian - that is underpaid and without a contract. A problem that is linked to their vulnerability and economic imbalances between member states, writes De Standaard. 
The EU is constantly looking to strengthen surveillance of its external borders, using increasingly expensive technologies. But are they effective? And in a democracy, who control the controller? asks the Groene Amsterdammer. 
The unexpected victory of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili in Georgia’s parliamentary election on October 1st has attracted little attention in western Europe. This is a mistake, argues a Polish columnist, because the EU is thus turning its back on a country that is one of its staunchest supporters. 
Thirty years after the inauguration of Helmut Kohl and 22 years after German reunification, the former chancellor is being celebrated as the father of German unity. But the truth is that, by hastily joining the GDR to the Federal Republic, he planted the seeds of the euro crisis, argues Wolfgang Münchau. 
The budgetary austerity zealously applied by Madrid has revitalised demands for independence in Barcelona. Engaged in a fiscal and economic power struggle with the central government, Catalonia is threatening to disrupt the social and regional equilibrium that underlies Spanish democracy. 
Not only is Spain in the midst of a devastating economic crisis, but it also faces the prospect of a constitutional one, after nationalist leader Arthur Mas, president of the autonomous Catalonia region, called an election widely considered as a plebiscite on independence. A profile. 
Marked by the drive to balance public accounts, the budgets been recently presented by several countries will pave the way for more hard times, and even more recession. To break out of a deficit-austerity vicious circle, spending limits will have to be more flexible, argues the director of Slate.fr. 
For years, West Germany was a prime destination for Polish immigrants. But today, it's the Germans who are crossing the River Oder in search of work in Poland. 
For French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, Europe has no option but advance towards the simple goal of political union. If not, the euro will die. 
Seldom has satire been so much in the public spotlight. It’s just a pity that today, of all times, it’s never been so bad. Whether it’s Charlie Hebdo in France or Titanic in Germany, the religious taunting in place of political satire is getting boring. 
To make Europe’s voice heard on the world stage, its policymakers should adopt a more incisive and strident tone. A number of rambunctious young ministers of foreign affairs, like Poland's Radoslaw Sikorski and Finland's Alexander Stubb, are revamping the old continent’s old fashioned sense of protocol. 
After a period of relative truce and some optimism, the markets seem to be back in a mood to dish out more punishment to the shakiest countries in the euro zone, and social tensions are flaring up. Those who thought that the modest changes in policy would solve a structural crisis are gravely mistaken, says an economist. 
In spite of the installation of increasingly sophisticated surveillance equipment, Lithuanian authorities are still struggling to eradicate a highly lucrative cross-border traffic in cigarettes with the neighbouring Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. Their task is made all the more difficult by the wide variety of interests served by the illegal trade. 
Differing social and cultural patterns amongst Europeans are all too often overlooked. And this poses a threat to the core of the European project, points out a Dutch sociologist, arguing that political leaders should engage in a dialogue with their citizens. 
The partial ban on sales of spirits after 26 deaths due to methanol poisoning is likely to end soon. But in a country where liberties can often lead to carelessness, keeping some sort of ban in place may be worth thinking about, argues a columnist. 
Second homes, hotels, land and football clubs… Greece, and particularly the region of Thessaloniki, is being swept by a tide of Russian money. A financial windfall which could have an impact on the privatisation of the country’s infrastructure. 
Since the beginning of the crisis, the Poles have described their country as a "green island" of prosperity amidst a sea of recession. But the outlook for the coming years is not so rosy, and the country must now develop an alternative development model. 
Catalonia, Spain's wealthiest and yet most indebted region is claiming the right not to pay for a central government brought low by debt, all the while brandishing the spectre of independence under Madrid’s nose. For Brussels this microcosm version of trouble the eurozone faces is the cause of much scepticism, as well as concern. 
EU leaders and governments are busy designing the future of the EU. But these fantasies of the More Europe variety forget just one thing: the real-life eurozone crisis, writes The Economist’s Charlemagne. 
In 2016, a “European Las Vegas” should open outside Madrid. In response, Catalonia is launching Barcelona World, a super-park attraction. In Europe, however, these entertainment venues imported from America rarely live up to their economic promises. 
What is our Europe like? How do we see it? How do we experience it? We all live in the same space, but without seeing it in the same way: an observation demonstrated by the works on show at the European Photo Exhibition Award, which is set to run until 18 November at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Paris. 
Crisis is a good moment for an examination of conscience. If war broke out in Europe today, would anyone be willing to die for the ideas of Schuman or Monnet’s community method? 
The women of the Femen association, noted for their bare-breasted feminist demonstrations, are the best-known activists in Ukraine. But some, such as Inna Shevchenko, have been pressured into leaving the country. Now settled in Paris, they have opened a training centre in order to instruct followers from the world over. 
José Manuel Barroso, Herman Van Rompuy, and now a group of 11 foreign ministers: everyone in the EU seems to be proposing greater integration as a way out of the crisis. But Britain continues to stand apart and the divide may soon become unbridgeable, writes The Guardian’s Europe editor. 
The anti-Western demonstrations in Arab countries and the turn the "Arab Spring" is taking in several countries are shouting out a challenge to Europe. But Europe, looking inward to its economic and institutional crisis, prefers to shirk its responsibilities in the Mediterranean and to rely on the – helpless – United States. 
Already hit by the crisis and austerity measures, Greece must also cope on very limited resources with the arrival of thousands of migrants from the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. Here too, it is getting little in the way of solidarity from its EU partners. 
While Paris is toughening up its policy on repatriating Roma back to Romania and Bulgaria, some of them are doing quite well out of it by heading back to France – notably from what they pocket for leaving France “voluntarily”.