Life at 27
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Economic crisis: Iron chancellor will have her way
3 March 201120PresseuropPresseurop -
Debt crisis: Europe, give the Irish a break
28 February 201124 The Observer London -
European Commission: Barroso lays hold of EU budget
10 February 2011PresseuropRzeczpospolita -
European integration: Paris and Berlin play it for Brussels
9 February 2011552 The Times London -
Co-operation: Weimar Triangle needs a few more notes
8 February 2011371 Gazeta Wyborcza Warsaw -
Eurozone crisis: Honey, I shrank the social model
7 February 20112412 El País Madrid -
Debt crisis: The axis reclaims its power
4 February 2011561 Le Monde Paris -
European Parliament : Freedom of information under threat
2 February 201163PresseuropEUobserver.com -
Hungary: Viktor Orbán, a latter day Kuruc
1 February 201158 Népszabadság Budapest -
Institutions: What action, Lady Ashton?
28 January 20112612 Le Monde Paris -
EU Presidency: Frosty reception for Viktor Orbán
20 January 2011PresseuropNépszabadság -
Denmark: Lisbon Treaty in the dock
12 January 2011PresseuropBerlingske Tidende -
EU Presidency: Play it smart with Hungary
7 January 2011935 The Economist London -
Schengen area: Paris and Berlin leave Bucharest and Sofia high and dry
22 December 2010191PresseuropDnevnik -
Institutions: Budget wars continue
20 December 201021PresseuropPresseurop -
European council: All a blur at the Euro-summit
16 December 2010672 Süddeutsche Zeitung Munich -
Institutions: EU finally gets its budget
16 December 2010PresseuropLa Libre Belgique -
European Integration: The Eurocracy is nigh
8 December 201074 Przekrój Warsaw -
Lisbon Treaty: How the treaty saved our skins
1 December 2010591 El País Madrid -
EU Structural Funds: Europe’s grand vision loses focus
30 November 20101051 Financial Times London -
Austerity: Brussels awards itself a pay-rise
25 November 2010221PresseuropLe Figaro -
Irish Crisis: The bitter taste of bailout
22 November 2010741 Presseurop -
European Council: President Van Rompuy - is it really a year?
18 November 2010PresseuropLe Soir -
Institutions: Parliament loses first battle of the budget
17 November 201028PresseuropPresseurop -
Eurozone crisis: Ireland might be only the beginning…
16 November 201034PresseuropPresseurop -
Institutions: The EU: no budget for 2011
16 November 2010PresseuropPresseurop -
Politics: 2011 - the year of Central Europe
15 November 2010Jyllands-Posten Aarhus -
Integration: Federal Europe? It just happened
3 November 20104113 The Times London -
Eurozone: Oh no, Lisbon is back...
29 October 2010831 Presseurop -
European Council: They’re leading us to the abyss
28 October 2010451 El País Madrid -
European Council: Can Cameron curb EU budget?
28 October 2010PresseuropThe Times -
Euro: Easy does it, Nanny Merkel
27 October 2010522 Süddeutsche Zeitung Munich -
EU Budget: MEPs dream of a European tax
21 October 201015PresseuropLes Echos -
Border disputes: The black gold of Rockall
14 October 2010581 La Stampa Turin -
Integration: Anyone for a federal Europe?
12 October 20101383 The Independent London -
European Commission: Berlaymont, at the end of the rainbow
6 October 20104331 Der Spiegel Hamburg -
Germany: You get unification, we get the euro
1 October 20101462 Der Spiegel Hamburg -
Budget: Netherlands tops EU net contributor table
27 September 2010PresseuropDe Volkskrant -
Budget: Brussels and the begging bowl
24 September 2010952 Le Monde Paris -
European Commission: Questions over ex-commissioners in clover
24 September 2010PresseuropDe Volkskrant -
Debate: Will France and Italy capsize the Union?
21 September 2010422 Adevărul Bucharest -
Roma: Axis of weevils
17 September 2010602 La Stampa Turin -
Roma: Just how far will France go?
16 September 201053 Libération Paris -
European Commission: Barroso, the Union's in a state
8 September 2010361 Presseurop -
European Institutions: Brussels has its work cut out
1 September 2010PresseuropLa Voix du Luxembourg -
Opinion: Would the EU please wake up, please?
27 August 2010881 La Stampa Turin -
Slovakia: Bratislava beats back Berlin
26 August 2010PresseuropPravda -
External Affairs: Jobs for the old boys
23 August 2010831 Dziennik Gazeta Prawna Warsaw -
Stability pact: That figures
18 August 2010PresseuropPúblico -
Taxation: Eurotax is pie in the sky
11 August 2010411 De Volkskrant Amsterdam
The new government in Dublin deserves a supportive EU, not a punitive one, argues the Observer leader. 
The “pact for competitiveness” is not so much a Franco-German takeover of the EU but a step towards a federal Europe, argues Times columnist Anatole Kaletsky. Which is why its outline for an ‘economic government’ in the eurozone won’t ease the effects of the financial crisis. 
At their February 7 meeting in Warsaw the Polish, German and French leaders agreed to bolster their trilateral cooperation. High time, writes Gazeta Wyborcza, to counter fears of a two-tier EU. 
The competitiveness pact put forward by Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy to end the crisis is ambitious, but threatens the social traditions of most European countries, warns El País. 
The ‘competitiveness pact’ hammered out between Paris and Berlin could yet be a milestone in the construction of Europe, says Le Monde. If only they had not relegated the other member states and the Commission itself to mere onlookers.
By taking on the rest of Europe, the Hungarian Prime Minister is appealing to his compatriots’ patriot gene, which protests against foreign powers. But this tactic doesn’t work every time, notes the Hungarian daily Népszabadság. 
Catherine Ashton was cast as Europe’s international voice, the head diplomat of an EU full of world-wide ambitions. Unfortunately, she is not making her voice heard, is nearly invisible and has already lost the confidence of most of the member states. 
As Hungary takes the helm of the EU’s rotating presidency, many fear its government is taking an anti-democratic turn. But is there much the European Union can do about it? wonders The Economist. 
A naysaying chancellor from Germany, allied with a fickle president from France, up against massive but irresolute resistance at the EU's 16/17 December summit. Is this how Europe saves its currency? 
The crisis has been the perfect opportunity for the EU to push forward European integration. But now that some aspects of Greek and Irish sovereignity are now controlled by Brussels, the debate about the union’s democratic deficit is on once again.
In the year since the controversial treaty came into effect, Europe has been turned inside out by the crisis. Yet far from being a dead letter, Lisbon could well end up helping get us out of this mess, argues a prominent Spanish commentator 
Only 10 per cent of the EU’s €347 billion flagship growth fund for Europe’s rundown regions is actually released. Billions lie idle because cash-strapped national governments cannot find the necessary matching funds. The Financial Times and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism have published a major investigative report. 
Between 80 and 100 billion euros. We don’t know yet how much aid Ireland, the EU and IMF agreed on 21 November. But the question is: was it the right call? Reactions from the Corriere della Sera and Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. 
In general, Western Europeans, and the Danes in particular, cling to negative stereotypes of fellow EU citizens fromthe former Eastern bloc. Hungary and Poland, however, at the helm of Europe in 2011 are likelier to make a bigger splash than provincial Denmark when it takes over the EU presidency in 2012. 
Forget Angela Merkel’s treaty changes or David Cameron’s budget quibbles, the real event at last week Brussels summit was that Europe took an important step towards becoming a single state. 
Why decide to revise a treaty that only came into force last year? In the wake of the decision by Europe’s 27 member states, which aims to protect the single currency, the European press is far from impressed. 
In Brussels, 28/29 October, France and Germany will try to persuade their EU partners to modify some of the EU's cornerstone texts in order to create a culture of budgetary rigour. A simplistic and useless idea, according to a Spanish editorialist. 
Angela Merkel tells it like it is. That's the problem. Her plan to push through penalties for overindebted states at the 28 October European Council meeting is a good one, says Die Süddeutsche Zeitung. But it is also guaranteed to put the backs up of many members states, who will see an over-dominant Germany behind her good sense. 
Uninhabitable and relentlessly pummelled by the stormy waters of the North Atlantic, the tiny island of Rockall has been coveted for conquest by four European countries for half a century. The reason they’re so keen on the island lies below: the huge oil reserves hidden in the surrounding seabed. 
As it goes through another crisis of confidence, Europe has split into two opposing camps, those who seek to relaunch the federalist project, and those for a more British style loose form of membership. And it's very hard to tell which solution is the best.
European politicians are has-beens exiled to Brussels and then written off? Wrong, writes Der Spiegel. A post at an EU institution promises power and, above all, money. Especially for commissioners. 
While Germans celebrated the collapse of the Berlin Wall, Helmut Kohl and Francois Mitterand were at war over the consequences of a united Germany. Secret government documents obtained by Der Spiegel appear to show that Bonn was forced to sacrifice the Deutschmark for reunification. 
As the EU fights a losing battle to finance its increasingly wide range of roles and responsibilities, member states reluctant to contribute to community institutions are being held to blame for an imminent cash flow crisis.
The Roma affair is evidence of an existential crisis in the European Union. A Romanian editorialist argues that it highlights the degree to which certain governments, on the look-out for easy votes, now hold the EU and its values in contempt. 
Nicolas Sarkozy defiance of Europe — loudly supported by Silvio Berlusconi — isn't just about the Roma, it is an attack on the community's core values and the right of the public to know what is being done in their name, says columnist Barbara Spinelli 
Threatened with legal action by the Commission, with precious little backing from her neighbours, France is suffering the fallout from her president’s bellicose anti-Roma rhetoric. But the other Roma-deporting countries could conceivably help her out of this fix. 
With all that has recently transpired throughout Europe, observers have been awaiting the first EU state of the union speech from its chief executive in Brussels. Though the EU is indeed slowly pulling itself out of the financial crisis, the tone of the speech reveals a marked lack of ambition, according to the European press. 
The EU is plunging in the polls, according to the latest Eurobarometer survey. The ranks of the disillusioned are swelling not with Eurosceptics, but with Europhile integrationists. Meanwhile, the Commission marks time and Van Rompuy gone AWOL. 
Only two of the EU’s 115 ambassadors come from central Europe, all the rest come from Old Europe. As the "Foreign Affairs ministry" gets up and running, Poland warns that it will not tolerate the stitch-up. 
The Commission proposal to introduce a European tax is an attractive one, especially for countries which are net contributors to the EU. However, De Volkskrant argues that it will have little chance of overcoming opposition from national governments, who are reluctant to surrender control in an area as delicate as taxation.