Briefings
Trouble in the Eurozone
Faced with economic crisis, several eurozone countries have accumulated debt while increasing public spending, thus diverging from the Maastricht criteria. Some, like Greece, have teetered on the brink of default, putting pressure on the single European currency.
Balkans, the path to Brussels
Whether as candidates or on the way to being so, the Balkan states of Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania and Kosovo, are all actively seeking membership of the European Union. Although they have initiated a process of political and economic reform, the path to membership is far from smooth and strewn with obstacles - notably lingering corruption, inward-looking nationalist tendencies, and Brussels' reluctance to commit.
Europe and the crisis
Confronted by the most serious post-war financial crisis, the European Union is dealing with the problem in a more or less co-ordinated way. Affected to different degrees, members states are seeking solutions that will enable them to restart growth without having to sacrifice completely their national models.
The Lisbon Treaty
A streamlined version of the constitutional treaty rejected by the French and the Dutch in 2005, the Lisbon Treaty’s stated aim is to facilitate the workings of the Union of 27 members and upwards. After a rocky road to ratification, it finally came into force on 1 December 2009. With it, a new Europe has been born, and not without difficulties, as this series of articles demonstrate.
Europe and the Iranian crisis
Since the presidential elections of June 13, 2009, supporters of the reformist candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi, who dispute the re-election of conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have defied the Islamic regime in the streets and on the web. As repression and censorship take hold of Iran, Europe, which has long played the role of mediator between Teheran and the United States, is having trouble making its intentions clear.
1989, 20 years on
Protests, round-tables, revolutions: in 1989, Eastern Europe ousted the communist regimes which had ruled since the Second World War ended, and brought down the iron curtain. From Warsaw to Bucharest, including Prague and Budapest, people discovered a new way of life: democracy, travel, capitalism and freedom of choice, but unemployment, corruption, and immigration as well. Twenty years down the road, although they are now members of the European Union and NATO, the transition is still incomplete.
Copenhagen, summit for the planet
Representatives of the world's governments will shortly arrive in Copenhagen to attempt to reach agreement on the reduction of emissions which contribute to global warming. The European Union aims to play a major role at the climate conference, to be held from the 7th to the 18th of December, which will focus on a wide range of issues from renewable energies to aid for developing countries. Unfortunately, the commitment of some of the world's major political and economic players remains in doubt. Here's an inventory of what's on the table at COP15.
Articles
Blog
French is just too provincial
One of the most consistently informative and entertaining blogs about the European Union has to be Jean Quatremer’s Coulisses de Bruxelles.
Losing Angela in translation
When presseurop.eu was launched in May last year, one of its guiding mottos was Umberto Eco’s “The future of Europe is translation.” But sometimes I’m inclined to think that the future of Europe is lost in translation. I recently checked a statement by Angela Merkel concerning the CD-rom nabbed by HSBC supergrass Hervé Falciani containing data on Germans who have siphoned off their money to Switzerland in order to avoid taxes back home.