In the latest summit, what was made evident is that European elites have agreed on three policy areas to respond to mounting market pressures primarily on Italy and Spain with France being in the horizon, who sees dark clouds gathering over its triple-A credit rating. These three areas of policy are (i) the leverage of the [...]

  Does the proposed amending directive on providing medicines information to the general public (sometimes thought of as advertising) actually enhance patients’ rights? Will it lead to good regulation? The document in question can be found here. I’ll grant that a lot of people have been involved in this, so there must be some consensus, [...]

A terme la peine de mort sera abolie partout. Le bilan annuel est une occasion pour constater des progrès lents mais réguliers. Les points noirs sont toujours les mêmes : Chine, Iran, Etats-Unis. En moins de dix ans plus de trente pays ont supprimé la peine capitale L’exécution de Troy Davis, le 21 septembre 2011 aux [...]

Lors du Conseil affaires intérieures du 26 octobre, la commissaire Cecilia Malmström a appeléla Grèceà prendre des mesures d’urgence pour régler la situation humanitaire des migrants présents à la frontière avecla Turquieet plus particulièrement le long du fleuve Evros. C’est rappelons le, une des principales portes d’entrée de l’immigration illégale en Europe .   La commissaire [...]

The decisions agreed upon by EU leaders during the 26th of October summit – the leveraging of EFSP, the “voluntary” 50 percent reduction of Greece’s debt, improved coordination of fiscal policies within the eurozone countries, the appointment of a super-commissioner with fiscal oversight responsibilities – have all been judged as steps in the right direction [...]

Author: Marija Hristova An interview with Ilija Prokopiev, artist from Macedonia, participant at the Biennial of the Mediterranean. What is this event all about? What’s special about it? What does it mean for the young artists? Let’s find out! The Biennial of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean (BJCEM – http://bjcem.org/) began its journey [...]

Der Hinweis, dass es sich bei der einstweiligen Anordnung (des BVerfG) nur um eine vorläufige Entscheidung handelt, schränkt die im Ernstfall dramatische Wirkung dieser Entscheidung kaum ein. Bis Weihnachten wollen die Richter zu einem endgültigen Urteil kommen. In Zeiten wie diesen ist das eine Ewigkeit. Wenn bis dahin der Fall einträte, dass ein taumelndes Euro-Land [...]

The latest summit did not produce a comprehensive solution as many expected (see The aftermath of the October 26 Euro Summit – No Solution). Apart from the consensus on certain policy areas and despite the vague figures and numbers that are not backed by any tangible plan; the decisions of the summit are full of [...]

Daily newspaper “Vijesti” brought an intwerview with former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro – Branko Lukovac. He said that “European enlargement agenda is currently on the second place and it is good that the Montenegrin Prime Minister Igor Luksic publicly pointed to the possibility that the decision to start negotiations with Montenegro might be postponed”. Prime Minister Luksic spoke at [...]

Das Entstehen paralleler Märkte von älteren (unversicherten) und neuen (versicherten) Staatsanleihen scheint unnötig kompliziert zu sein. Obendrein soll ein Teil der Schlagkraft des Rettungsfonds durch kapitalkräftige Länder wie China erbracht werden, die ihre eigenen Bedingungen stellen werden. Die Vorschläge für eine Architektur der Eurozone sind nicht konkret genug. Nun darf man von einem EU-Gipfel zwar [...]

Until now, the EU Asylum Qualification Directive 2004/83/EC of 29 April 2004[1] foresaw in art. 10 par. 1 (d) that “gender related aspects might be considered” by national asylum authorities when examining the potential persecution of specific social groups in their country of origin. Therefore, discretion was given to the authorities assessing the asylum claim, on [...]

Um die Eurozone auf lange Sicht zu retten, ist eine grundlegende Politikänderung notwendig. Sie muss eine Finanzunion werden, eine Union von Transferzahlungen, um die regionalen Unterschiede auszugleichen, oder sie muss schrumpfen. Die letztere Option – im wesentlichen Griechenland auszuschließen – hat politische Konsequenzen. … Griechenland rauszuwerfen ist keine risikofreie Option. Auch eine Transferunion ist das [...]

It has been clear for months in this European debt tragedy that those lending money expect those borrowing it to make some pretty tough choices. I have had a couple of conversations with fairly influential people in Brussels whose opinions are along th…

Guest post by Kaj Embrén, Sustainable Development export and blogger, Stockholm, Sweden. Revolution and recession. For good reason, these two words have dominated headlines over the past year. Yet talk of such political and financial tumult has resulted in the neglect of a third issue, which is both critical and germane: sustainability. In every crisis [...]

In my post on the Innovative Medicines Initiative I mentioned the danger that industry subsidies might sometimes be “little more than corporate social welfare, subsidising an already rich industry or, worse, paying for something that industry would otherwise have done for itself”. That was meant as a general point and not as a specific comment [...]