Europe

Interesting take from a Bulgarian magazine on a now decades-long problem troubling almost all of Europe but which is especially acute in peripheral countries. A group of 20-somethings in Bulgaria has formed a network dedicated to curbing brain drain out of their country. Called “Here and There,” the group averages about one hundred people at […]

Presaging the apparently-imminent departure of Michele Alliot-Marie from the Quai d’Orsay, a recent op-ed in LeMonde written anonymously by current and former French diplomats is sounding the death knell of France’s diplomatic influence. “Africa is drifting away, the Mediterranean region wants nothing to do with us, we’ve been tamed by China and Washington ignores us!” […]

Apparently should have included this image in my previous post. The New York Times and LeMonde both came out yesterday with stories depicting “divisions” among European leaders on Egypt following Friday’s Brussels summit. But a close reading of the reports shows it is apparently just one leader who can’t quite fall in line and call […]

In a telling leading editorial, the Zeit, Germany’s biggest and most important weekly newspaper, praises Merkel for making Europe more German. After the others had only wanted our money up to now, now the idea were to create a European economic government, give up decision-making powers to Europe and in return force everyone else to […]

Tunisia was easy. Small country, educated middle-class and a weak Islamist element. For many European heads of state, the toppling of Ben-Ali was irksome (his ties to the continent ran deep — trained at Saint-Cyr, ambassador to Poland), but manageable. Other than the French foreign minister’s disturbing offer to provide the government security support, the […]

Indirectly we’ve talked about immigration repeatedly on this blog. I commented on the right-wing, anti-Islam reaction in a number of European states, it again played a role in my post on Tunisia and the tepid lack of European support for its democratization. Finally, as my co-blogger pointed out the other day: the overall immigration population […]

As my fruit salesman on the market at Barbès (an Arabic neighbourhood in the North of Paris) proclaimed with a wide smile this morning pointing to the Tunisian flag his stand boasted ‘C’est la revolution! On voit la vie en rose maintenant.’ (It’s a revolution! We see life through rose-colored glasses now.) Evidently this Jasmine […]

The current best-selling book in France is called “Indignez-vous!” It is said to capture France’s prevailing attitude about the moribund state of the world better than any other publication since the global recession began. Its author, Stéphane Hessel, is 93 years old, a veteran of the Resistance and a drafter of the Universal Declaration of […]

Well that was quick. Less than a week into its EU presidency, Hungary has been blasted from most corners of Western Europe — including the EC president’s office — for two bizarrely reactionary measures it passed within its own borders that took effect Saturday. The first, a 1.05 percent “crisis tax” imposed on revenue of […]

A recent interview with Viktor Orban, Hungary’s Prime Minister and the new EU Council President, is a good place to begin discussing what 2011 holds in store for Europe. The two most significant (and non-fiscal or monetary) items highlighted by Orban were strategies to manage the Roma population, and stronger integration with Southern and Eastern […]

There is a number of terribly unexciting and obvious, or maybe rather dubious candidates for a European Person of the Year award of course. Thus Benedict XVI slackened his church’s stance on the sinfulness of condoms, yet he was forced to deal with (or at times: ignore) constantly recurring pedophilia revelations in Ireland as well […]

What was the least expected event in Europe this year? Depends on your definition of unexpected. The most literal response, of course, is the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland, though a study published three months before the eruption documented increased activity near the volcano. But it did not predict the category 4-level eruption that grounded […]