The new dissidents
After a two-year long trial, the organisers of the “Forbidden Art” exhibition in Moscow which infuriated the Orthodox Church could have gone to jail if the prosecutors had it all their way. Instead, Andrei Yerofeev, an art historian and curator o...
Reasons for Despair: at a loss for words
Scientific impotence : PharyngulaJohn Timmer has written up a relevant paper on the tactics people...
Europe keeps moving, nevertheless (Respekt, Prague)
TL: Over the past few months, Angela Merkel has often been compared to Helmut Kohl. Timothy Garton Ash finds that Kohl had a sense of history and always made the right choices at the right time. Now – and he’s far from the only one &ndash...
Book Review: Mandela’s long walk to Freedom
Not linked to the European Union, but definitely, I believe, something that anybody who wants to look at the world or be part it needs to read : Nelson Mandela’s memoirs “Long Walk to Freedom” tells the story of Mandela’s li...
Netherlands fluff it again (De Volkskrant, Amsterdam)
Under the headline “Still no luck!” De Volkskrant's front page features a picture of Wesley Sneijder prostrate in despair in the wake of the Netherlands’ World Cup final defeat against Spain. News in brief : cover...
Interlude Gaullois – L’erreur de Mr Woerth
Allez hop, je fais une parenthèse Franco-Francaise et je rajoute mon grain de sel sur l’affaire Woerth parce que s’il fallait connaître quelque chose en politique pour en parler, ça limiterait l’intérêt de la démocratie et la...
Drink to me only
Moldova's tangled history sparks a wine war with Russia...
Tant Gredelins medicin för Littorin
Före detta arbetsmarknadsminister Sven Otto Littorin har råkat ut för precis det som justitieminister Beatrice Ask tycker att all misstänkta sexköpare ska råka ut för. Uthängd till allmänt skamstraff utan att någon dom avkunnats, för ett b...
Liking, learning, languages
Looking at the Petit Filous ads, I wonder – can you get a lifestyle from a language? One of the great things about Facebook is that you ccan get back in touch with people. Today, I’ve been looking at the photos of my Frnech friend’s...
Dealing With Downside of Labor Reform
Reforms of euro zone labor markets have created more employment volatility. What to do.
Poles like Russians a bit more (Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, Warsaw)
Over 40 percent of Poles believe Polish-Russian relations have improved in the three months since the Smoleńsk crash, reveals a poll conducted by Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. According to experts, it demonstates increasing trust in Russia since the air d...
What Can the European Union do for Development?
The European Commission’s Development Directorate has a fresh team in charge: a new Commissioner and a new Director General. What should be their priorities? The Commission writes big cheques: its aid budget makes it one of the largest donors. Yet...
Арбитража-можност и избор за решавање спорови
Неодамна бевме сведоци на историски референдум во нашиот регион кој се однесуваше на територијалниот спор меѓу Хрватска и Словенија за...
Yet another “Other People’s Money” Party?
Disgruntled Greens are apparently forming a new party, according to the Irish Times here. Another party based on the principle that all our problems can be solved by increasing taxes on other people, preferably those who actually create things like...
Turkey-Israel: credibility and question of anti-semitism
Since heavy criticism from the Turkish side after the Israeli attack on a Gaza aid ship on 31 May, relations between the two states have entered a further ice age. There has been rising concern in Europe that Turkey is increasingly turning away from...
Frappé, cult official beverage of Greek economic crisis
Having an obligatory iced coffee in the Greek capital is a heady mix of the crisis, anarchic events and corruption at all levels with the wisest and healthiest farniente (pleasant idleness). Only those much-condemned across Europe could own such a fl...
Can Europe Go in Two Directions at Once?
Professor Richard Rose University of Aberdeen The tension created by forces pushing and pulling in opposite directions can lead to equilibrium or disequilibrium. The growth of problems requiring collective action above the level of national governmen...
