Europe & the World
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India: Protests in Delhi as EU defends Big Pharma
3 March 201142PresseuropEUobserver.com -
Egypt: The revolution that came from Serbia
2 March 20119081 Svenska Dagbladet Stockholm -
North Africa: Europe's new frontier
1 March 20111894 La Stampa Turin -
Belarus: Last European dictator torturing opponents
1 March 2011PresseuropGazeta Wyborcza -
Libyan crisis: Malta asks for help
28 February 2011PresseuropThe Times of Malta -
Arab revolutions: Europe's not so wonderful example
24 February 20113522 Frankfurter Rundschau Frankfurt -
North Africa: Libya's revolution, Europe's shame
23 February 201111822 El País Madrid -
EU-Libya: Gaddafi's last stand, Europe dithers
22 February 2011373 Presseurop -
Arab revolutions: What is really awaiting Europe
21 February 20111631 El País Madrid -
Arms sales: London sold anti-demonstration material to Bahrain
18 February 2011PresseuropThe Independent -
Arab revolutions: Lady Ashton misses the boat
17 February 201158 Libération Paris -
Arab revolutions: Seven reasons to be hopeful
17 February 20111PresseuropDie Zeit -
Meditteranean: A diplomatic challenge
15 February 201185 Der Standard Vienna -
Military: Misunderstanding over Dutch mission
15 February 2011PresseuropDe Volkskrant -
US/UK: Questions over 7/7 jihadist release
14 February 2011PresseuropThe Guardian -
IDEAS: Why Arab revolution isn’t 1989 again
10 February 20112513 Lidové noviny Prague -
Netherlands-Iran: Diplomatic anger over secret burial
8 February 2011PresseuropDe Volkskrant -
EU-Middle East: Time to ditch the Arab stereotype
4 February 20115323 Der Standard Vienna -
Europe - Egypt: Everybody's favourite dictator
4 February 2011PresseuropDie Tageszeitung -
Middle East: Hands off Egypt!
2 February 20112406 The Guardian London -
Terrorism: 9/11 mystery men
2 February 2011PresseuropThe Daily Telegraph -
Markets: Egyptian crisis strikes Central Europe
1 February 2011PresseuropHospodářské Noviny -
Libya: UK ministers helped free Lockerbie bomber
1 February 2011PresseuropThe Daily Telegraph -
EU-Egypt: An opportunity not to be missed
31 January 20111581 Presseurop -
Iran: Diplomatic crisis after Dutch citizen executed
31 January 2011PresseuropDe Volkskrant -
EU-Belarus: Minsk tries to bargain with Brussels
31 January 2011211PresseuropDziennik Gazeta Prawna -
Diplomacy: Frattini’s Egyptian mission plan
28 January 2011PresseuropThe Independent -
Eastern Europe: Transniestria looks to Russia, not EU
27 January 201173 EUobserver.com Brussels -
Netherlands: New mission to Afghanistan
27 January 2011PresseuropTrouw -
Kosovo: Hashim Thaçi, the big fish of Pristina
25 January 2011138 The Guardian London -
EU-Uzbekistan: Our man in Tashkent
24 January 201176 De Standaard Brussels -
North Africa: After Tunisia, rethinking the Med
20 January 20111603 Le Monde Paris -
France-Tunisia: How Paris missed the Jasmine Revolution
18 January 2011711 Presseurop -
Democracy: Do right by Tunisia this time
17 January 2011111 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Frankfurt -
America on Europe: At the heart of the Euromess
17 January 20113PresseuropThe New York Times -
Turkey-Greece: From the other side of the wall
17 January 201160 Sabah Istanbul -
EU and Tunisia: Give Ben Ali the Lukashenko treatment
14 January 2011621 El País Madrid -
Bulgaria: A great disappointment
13 January 201138 Sega Sofia -
Arms trade: London hostile to lifting China embargo
12 January 2011PresseuropThe Times -
EU-North Africa: A tragedy in the making
10 January 2011207 Le Soir Brussels -
Terrorism: France targeted by Al-Qaeda in the Sahel
10 January 2011PresseuropLe Figaro -
Spain: Saying Adiós to Afghanistan
7 January 2011PresseuropLa Vanguardia -
France-Ivory Coast: Revealed - Gbagbo’s French backers
7 January 2011PresseuropLibération -
China-EU: Beijing, the self-serving life-saver
5 January 20111174 Presseurop -
Belarus: Lukashenko's secret services crush opposition
21 December 2010PresseuropDie Tageszeitung -
Belarus : Drop Lukashenko, not his people
20 December 201054 Rzeczpospolita Warsaw -
Kosovo: Was Europe blind?
17 December 20101353 Presseurop -
Human rights: Muzzled voice of Cuba
16 December 2010PresseuropGazeta Wyborcza -
Human Rights: Lady Ashton fails to do the Nobel thing
10 December 2010341PresseuropDagens Nyheter -
Croatia: Disgraced Mr Europe jumps ship
10 December 2010PresseuropVečernji list
Some of the members of the April 6 Youth Movement, which spearheaded the Egyptian revolution, were trained by members of Otpor!, a Serbian-based group that was responsible for the fall of the Milosevic regime in 2000. 
Thirty years ago nobody could have foreseen the process that brought the Warsaw Pact countries into the European Union. Now that the same is happening to Arab nations, the EU must offer them the same opportunity to strengthen democracy: the true prospect of membership. 
What must a North African currently following news from the “European community of shared values” be thinking? It’s not just that the community's support for the fight for freedom around the Mediterranean has been half-hearted. It’s that it is taking its own members’ violations of the values the community espouses rather calmly. 
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. 
The bloody repression of the Libyan people by the Gaddafi regime is exacerbating the problem of a Europe faced with revolts in the Arab world, writes the European press, which calls for concrete and coordinated action. 
Terrorism, immigration, the economy: for Europeans, the wave of revolts that have shaken the Arab world is fraught with dangers that are not altogether clear. El País has tried to unravel truth from falsehood. 
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 EU is being constantly overtaken by surprises: first by the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, then by the onslaught of refugees on Lampedusa. To ward off new ones, the 27 should be considering taking onboard the countries of Maghreb. 
The parallel between the popular unrest in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco, and the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 is an uneasy one. How can the foundations for democracy in the Arab world be compared with those of Eastern Europe? 
The revolutionary spirit sweeping the Middle East has provoked as much fear as joy in the West. Der Standard questions why is it that we doubt that Arabs have the will or the ability to be the masters of their own destiny. 
The events in Egypt are exhilarating to any lover of civil liberty, concedes Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins. But given its record of bloody and futile interventions around the world, the West should think twice about meddling as Muslim states strive for self-determination. 
After the cacophony and the hesitation that followed the “Jasmine Revolution” in Tunisia, the EU once more seems paralysed in the face of an uprising against the Egyptian regime of Hosni Mubarak. All the same, notes the European press, it’s another chance to support democracy in its Mediterranean “backyard”. 
The 350,000-or-so people living in the separatist Transniestria region want to integrate with Russia despite a new wave of euro-optimism on the other side of its unofficial border with Moldova. But their views are shaped by decades of repression. 
As the Council of Europe prepares to demand an investigation into the shady underworld dealings of Kosovo PM Hashim Thaçi, secret Nato documents leaked to British daily The Guardian provide more shocking revelations about a prized Western ally. 
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. 
Aid packages will not be enough if Europe really wants to promote democracy in Tunisia, writes a specialist on Arab affairs, who believes that the EU should reconsider its entire neighbourhood strategy for Mediterranean Arab countries. 
Overtaken by events, slow in supporting the forces of democracy, the French government seemed to be backing the regime of Ben Ali to the very end. Today, it’s having a hard time justifying its position. 
Now that Europe's longtime ally Ben Ali has fled abroad, Tunisia's democratic forces must face off the regime's old guard. This time around, will Europe do the right thing?
The fence Greece has decided to build on its Turkish border to keep would-be immigrants out will also be yet another obstacle between Turkey and the EU, argues the chief editor of the Istanbul paper Sabah. 
In view of the crackdown in Tunisia, the EU ought to apply the same policy of “smart sanctions” that had some sway on Alexander Lukashenko’s regime in Belarus back in 2006, urges political analyst José Ignacio Torreblanca. 
Battling with organised crime and held back in its bid to join the Eurozone and the Schengen Area, Bulgaria has begun 2011 without a political project to mobilise its people. 
In turning a blind eye to the corruption, nepotism and human rights violations of North African governments, the EU should share some of the blame for the violence that has recently erupted in Tunisia and Algeria, argues Belgian journalist Baudouin Loos. 
After Greece and Portugal, Peking has now come to the rescue of crisis-stricken Spain, with a massive buy-up of national debt. A symbol of increasing inroads China is making in Europe, notes the press. 
The Belarusian president is set to serve a fourth term after what seems to be another rigged election. Nonetheless, the West should not turn its back on its eastern neighbour, argues Rzeczpospolita. 
The European Council report released on 15 December accusing Kosovo’s leadership of organ trafficking raises plenty of questions about the EU’s indulgent attitude towards prime minister Hashim Thaçi and former Albanian separatists.