European Commission
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Institutions
Maastricht 20 years on: Eurocrat blues
6 February 201210Le Temps Geneva -
European Commission
Santer returns to the fold
25 January 20124PresseuropThe Daily Telegraph -
20 January 20124PresseuropEl País
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Hungary-EU
Brussels starts power struggle with Orbán
18 January 20128PresseuropNépszabadság, Magyar Nemzet, Népszava -
European Union
Myth of equality at an end
17 January 2012149Gazeta Wyborcza Warsaw -
26 December 2011Neues Deutschland Berlin
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Editorial
Elect the Commission
16 December 20113Presseurop -
Eurozone crisis
Van Rompuy and Barroso to the rescue
7 December 20113PresseuropEl País -
Who’s afraid of Germany? (4)
Merkel’s Nein is wrecking the EU
24 November 201115Die Tageszeitung Berlin -
Eurozone crisis
Only Eurobonds can save us
24 November 201110El Mundo Madrid -
24 November 2011Corriere della Sera Milan
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Debt Crisis
Belgium under the tutelage of Brussels?
23 November 20112PresseuropDe Morgen -
Eurozone crisis
Brussels to put bad pupils under tutelage
22 November 20114PresseuropDe Volkskrant -
EU Budget
Brussels tightens belt
21 November 20113PresseuropDziennik Gazeta Prawna -
Frankfurt Group
Europe’s new parallel government
10 November 20112PresseuropEl Mundo -
Literature
Brussels subsidises cut-price Kafka
4 November 2011PresseuropFrankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung -
Eurozone crisis
They forget about growth
28 October 20114Les Echos Paris -
20 October 2011PresseuropLa Tribune
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EUROPEAN OF THE WEEK
Guido Strack – the downfall of a whistleblower
6 October 201110Süddeutsche Zeitung Munich -
Press review
Barroso goes for bravado
29 September 20117Presseurop -
7 September 20111PresseuropDie Tageszeitung
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6 September 2011Het Parool Amsterdam
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Editorial
In defence of Eurocrats
2 September 20114Presseurop -
Environment
Changing light bulbs: not the brightest idea
31 August 201113Dagens Nyheter Stockholm -
Rethinking Europe (2)
No more working behind closed doors
21 July 20113Spiked London -
20 July 20111PresseuropDnevnik
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Editorial
Greek myths and EU budgets
1 July 20111Presseurop -
EU budget
Tug of war between EU27 and Commission
30 June 2011PresseuropPresseurop -
European budget
Crisis to change rules for structural funds
28 June 20111PresseuropPúblico -
27 June 20119Dziennik Gazeta Prawna Warsaw
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Debt crisis
Euro – what Brussels will do next
23 June 20112Le Monde Paris -
European Union
Barroso calls Danes to order
23 June 20114PresseuropJyllands-Posten -
8 June 20111PresseuropPresseurop
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Croatia
Barroso opens door to EU
8 June 20113PresseuropJutarnji List -
Schengen Area
Walking the border tightrope
5 May 2011Dagens Nyheter Stockholm -
Portugal
A 3 billion bill for families
5 May 2011Presseuropi -
Portugal
Austere New Year
4 May 20112Jornal de Negócios Lisbon -
Economic crisis
Portuguese will learn to live with IMF
29 April 20111PresseuropJornal de Negócios -
European Union
Reforming Schengen, an absurd gesture
28 April 20114Berliner Zeitung Berlin -
Institutions
Brussels/London clash over EU budget
21 April 20111PresseuropThe Daily Telegraph -
20 April 201113Der Standard Vienna
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31 March 2011PresseuropSüddeutsche Zeitung
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25 March 20116Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Frankfurt
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Europe 2020
A neo-liberal takeover
1 March 2011Libération Paris -
EU-Russia
Barroso and Putin spar over gas deal
25 February 2011PresseuropEUobserver.com -
North Africa
Libya's revolution, Europe's shame
23 February 20112El País Madrid -
Arab revolutions
Lady Ashton misses the boat
17 February 2011Libération Paris -
European Commission
Barroso lays hold of EU budget
10 February 2011PresseuropRzeczpospolita -
Hungary
A country divided
1 February 20111Respekt Prague -
EU-Uzbekistan
Our man in Tashkent
24 January 2011De Standaard Brussels
The European Commission and its civil servants gained unprecedented powers with the signing of the Maastricht Treaty on February 7 1992. Two decades later, the economy’s primacy over politics and the advent of the crisis has destroyed their dreams and turned them into scapegoats. 
After quibbling for several weeks, the European Commission launched three legal actions against the Hungarian government. But who will back down first – Budapest or Brussels? The Hungarian press is not expecting any great changes. 
Whether it’s the planned European treaty, the S&P downgrade of nine eurozones states or reprimands issued to Hungary, recent events in the EU have highlighted how powerful countries are now imposing their law on their smaller neighbours. Polish columnist Jacek Żkowski aims to set the record straight. 
Alone against all, the Chancellor says ‘No’ to a supporting mandate for the ECB and ‘No’ to common euro bonds. In Germany too, more and more experts are warning that her firm stance on discipline and rules is plunging the eurozone into chaos. 
The measure demanded by most European partners and supported by the European Commission still meets with stiff opposition from Germany. But Berlin cannot indefinitely block the launch of Eurobonds, which increasingly appear to be the only solution to the debt crisis. 
The agreement reached by the seventeen states of the eurozone is leaving out one crucial issue: growth. Two problems therefore remain unresolved: the lack of a common macroeconomic policy and the divisions between the member countries. 
He wanted justice, and for it risked family, work and health – to lose it all. Guido Strack was once an ambitious officer with the European Commission. But that was before he began to draw attention to abuses in his department. 
In his “Speech of the Union” to the European Parliament on September 28, the President of the Commission sought to defend his institution and put forward concrete proposals to leave the crisis behind. But the European press has no illusions about his true room for manoeuvre. 
As of 1 September, conventional light bulbs of more than 40 watts will be taken off the market. In the countries of the Arctic Circle, it’s a step into the dark that’s being badly received. Just who is it who has wrought this change in our daily life? wonders Dagens Nyheter. 
Insulated from the public and unpracticed in the art of political leadership, small wonder EU officialdom is so powerless to tackle a eurozone crisis that risks scuppering the European project itself, argues sociologist Frank Furedi.
The debt crisis has laid the foundations for an economic governance that will accelerate European integration. In future, says the Polish columnist Andrzej Talaga, member states should hand over more sovereignty to the EU. 
With the single currency at risk of collapse, the leaders of Europe’s 27 member states are set to meet for a European Council summit to finalise the details of a mechanism that is supposed to prevent a repeat of the Greek crisis. 
A more open Europe with tighter external borders: in a bid to establish a consensus on the issue of the reform of the Schengen Agreement, the EU home affairs commissioner has been forced to walk a tightrope. However, Dagens Nyhter argues that the proposals presented by Cecilia Malmström succeed in striking a delicate balance. 
The 78 billion euro bailout plan announced on May 3 to help Portugal to avoid bankruptcy will likely not be as severe as feared by the Portuguese. Nevertheless, hard times lie ahead if they want to their country enjoy a new start, warns Jornal de Negócios. 
France and Italy have called for reform of the Convention on freedom of movement — they will not have trouble getting what they want, but that does not solve the problem of accommodating immigrants, says the Berliner Zeitung. 
Yesterday the energy saving lamp, today data retention. Tomorrow: recording your frequent flyer points and what hotel you stay in. Its highly questionable and intrusive meddling is costing the EU the trust of the public. 
Brussels is the lair of a bureaucratic monster, writes the German essayist Hans Magnus Enzensberger. It’s up to the Europeans themselves now to take up their pitchforks. 
Although initially a social-democratic project, the Lisbon Strategy did not succeed in promoting innovation or social cohesion in the EU. On the contrary, when taken over by the European Commission, it was transformed into a neo-liberal programme — a trend which a French economist argues is even more pronounced in the 2020 Strategy destined to replace it. 
Faced with the massacres perpetrated by the Gaddafi regime against its own people, how can the EU content itself with calling for “restraint”, while spending more time worrying about an influx of refugees? Madrid daily El País publishes an indignant editorial. 
On 16 February, Catherine Ashton announced an aid package that will deliver a total of €258 million to Tunisia by 2013. Libération points out that the EU only gave its support for the Tunisian revolution when huge numbers of Tunisian boat people arrived on the coast of Lampedusa. 
The government of Viktor Orbán (Fidesz) has succeeded in consolidating its power, including control over the media, and is preparing to amend the Constitution. Is the sudden set-back to democracy in Hungary just a hiccup, or is it a systemic phenomenon that could spread to other central European states? Respekt reports from Budapest. 
When talking to dictators, Europe applies a double standard: quick to snap at Lukashenko of Belarus, it plays much nicer with Karimov of Uzbekistan, as it did with Ben Ali. But is it really worth the trouble? asks political analyst Bruno De Cordier.