OVER THE past five years, the US has witnessed a spectacular revival of its gas production thanks to newly developed technologies allowing the extraction of gas by injecting water and chemicals under high pressure and crushing rocks that contain gas at depths of several hundreds (or even thousands) of meters. Today, shale gas amounts to [...]

THE LATEST developments from Tripoli and the surrounding towns demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that Gaddafi is a madman. By attacking his own population and killing them indiscriminately, he and his family are disqualified from the human race, let alone from leading an important oil producing country like Libya.

IT’S AMAZING what can happen in two weeks! Since my post on the “Year of (Arab) Revolutions” on February 13, the winds of change have hit Libya with a vengeance. Of all the countries in the region, Libya is the one whose fate will have the greatest short-term impact on Europe. The international community has reacted [...]

A piece about the euro crisis published early in December in the New York Times pointed out that “Portugal shares the high wages and prices of richer northern European neighbors, but not their competitiveness”.

For the last 50 years Turkey and the EU have been toying around with EU membership. But at the beginning of 2011 they are not really advanced to the point where we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Negotiations for accession have been going on without enthusiasm for the past five [...]

A nadie debería sorprenderle los miedos, temores y en algunos casos, pánico, que estremece las cancillerías europeas ante la revolución “dominó” que recorre desde el inicio de año el Norte de África. En primer lugar, a ese lado del Mediterráneo tenemos aún demasiada memoria histórica sonrojante de nuestras épocas imperiales en la zona. Situación que [...]

When your theme is water, there are really only a few places to start investigating the impact that water can have. Those places would either be very wet, or very dry.

Il y a quelques années et à la suite de Conseil de l’Europe, le Parlement européen n’a pas hésité à créer une commission d’enquête et à voter une résolution sévère concernant les vols secrets de la CIA et leurs prisons secrètes elles aussi. Pourquoi ne le ferait-il-pas pour les trafics d’organes au Kosovo? Or cette [...]

Improved food security has long been a justification for protecting farmers. In the long history of European agriculture policy flinging up tariff walls and subsidising production has nearly always been the governmental response to the prospect of potential food shortage. The evidence that such actions generally result in a reduction of production outside the protected [...]

In December 2010, at the PES Council, it was decided that the European socialists and social-democrats will select the candidate for the European Commission Presidency through a democratic and transparent process. Therefore the PES Council will set up a Working Group “Candidate 2014“ to discuss and propose a process until the end of the year. [...]

Like many in Brussels involved in policy debates, I rolled my eyes when I had learnt about the inclusion of a Citizens’ Initiative section in the Lisbon Treaty. Perhaps it was my well-honed, smug, academic elitism, but I had visions of hordes of the great unwashed coming to Brussels to clog up policy processes with [...]

The dramatic rise of Arab people against their oppressive rulers reached its climax in Libya. An oil-rich large country, sparsely populated, Libya in the last few days has been the scene of the worst possible violence against pro-democracy demonstrators. Every day, Gaddhafi’s 5,000-strong heavily armed security troops are busy increasing the death toll, which now [...]

Reuters reports that Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Monday condemned violence by Libyan forces against civilians as “unacceptable” and said he was “alarmed” over the situation in the North African state, after he was criticised widely for not speaking up earlier on Libya and saying that he did not want to “disturb” Gaddafi during [...]

More than two months since the second round of elections in Cote d’Ivoire, the international community faces a big dilemma. Technically flawless elections delivered a result which was not accepted by the incumbent Laurent Gbagbo. Three options are now in sight: protracted deadlock,  military intervention and power-sharing.

La publication des rapports intérimaires sur les progrès réalisés par la Bulgarie et la Roumanie au titre du mécanisme de coopération et de vérification comme aussi la résolution de la commission du Parlement européen sur les progrès réalisés par la Turquie (cf. autre information) nous apprennent l’une et l’autre qu’un manque de rigueur n’est pas [...]