Thursday
28th Jan 2021
The marketisation of health and long-term care, the push for Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), and the public spending cuts encouraged by EU economic governance processes all contributed to the increased commercialisation, privatisation, and reduction of health and long-term care services.
The EU-Israel Association Agreement, and Israel's systematic violation of its article 2, must be stopped until Israel implements its obligations under international law. This should not be a matter of controversy, but the least peace-loving countries must do.
"Banknotes are still to stay," European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde said at a recent conference, "but I think we will have a digital euro."
The Office of the High Representative, tasked with coordinating international actors and ensuring implementation of the non-military components of the 1995 Dayton peace accords, has languished for a decade and a half.
Ultimately, the European Pact on Migration and Asylum, only unveiled in September, risks reinforcing bottlenecks and misery at the borders, should be thoroughly amended before final agreement.
Russia could expand hostile operations, such as poisonings, including beyond its borders, if it feels an "existential" threat and there is no European pushback.
America's legitimacy will ultimately rest in its capacity to get boots on the ground in heavily-contested environments, to undo Chinese surprise campaigns, and not to allow China to do what Russia did in the Crimea.
Why do authoritarian leaders on the fringes of Europe, such as Turkey's Erdoğan, bother trying to romance the EU?
Washington's dazzling security-dominated Asian engagement may get all the attention - but the EU has done a pretty good job of hammering out its own Asia policy over the last few years.
The greatest mistake the EU institutions can possibly make at this juncture, is to turn the Conference on the Future of Europe into yet another round in the outdated feud between the federalists and the inter-governmentalists.
Romania has drawn the signal that the time has come to resume the EU-level dialogue on protracted conflicts and their crippling effects on the region's security and development perspectives, writes the country's foreign minister, Bogdan Aurescu.
This week the European Commission's Directorate for Cooperation and Development changes its name to the Directorate-General for International Partnerships - in a symbol of how early-industrialised countries seem to be losing influence to the benefit of some emerging countries.
The recent attack on the US Capitol reveals the toxicities of digital media platforms, but the European Commission's proposed competition laws won't fix it.
Let's expand the EU with a Health Union where cutting edge research and world-class applications go hand in hand. For this, it is worth being European, believing in Europe, working on Europe, writes European People's Party leader Manfred Weber MEP.
It's alarming that the EU is moving towards making development assistance conditional on the cooperation of third countries with its own migration objectives. This risks skewing priorities and undermining progress.
Last August, German activists almost stormed the Reichstag building to protest the government's corona measures. In the Netherlands, farmers angry at the government's policies to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions rammed the doors of local government buildings with tractors.
Ursula von der Leyen promised the Conference on the Future of Europe, the European Council supported it, the European Parliament was enthusiastic to go ahead ... and then, nothing.
On Tuesday (12th January), the EU-India Human Rights dialogue will take place. Will EU leaders take a leap and stop keeping quiet about the deteriorating human rights situation in India?
Given China's size and interconnectedness with Europe, a strategic policy of non-engagement hardly deserves the label "strategic".
One little-discussed outcome of Berlin's six-months stint in the EU presidency hot seat is the reactivation of intra-EU consultations among France, Germany... and Poland.
If Trump is still alive, healthy, free and tweeting politics by 2023, I think we all can officially start to worry. Not only for the American democracy, but for democracies in Europe and the rest of the world.
The Swedish king would have been better advised to use his annual Christmas interview to call for unity of purpose and shed light on the political roots of the country's response.
I understand that the German-Turkish community - often subjected to condescension in Germany - celebrated the story. Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türecki represent scientific excellence and business success at the highest level.
The Danish government has committed to reducing Denmark's CO2 emissions by 70 percent by 2030. These are not figures made up for the occasion. They are the targets that scientists believe are the bare necessity.
It is high time Europe makes cultural and historical dialogue part of its enlargement process in the Balkans, following the debacle on Bulgaria and North Macedonia.
Unfortunately, enforced disappearances are continuing to occur around the world and there is an additional risk of states using the pandemic and associated states of emergency as cover for enforced disappearances.
The West's fake moral high ground on climate change is devastating Africa - Europe must stop gaslighting the poor and create an inclusive Green New Deal.
The debate around the plant in Belarus is not about safety. Ensuring safety is paramount. The real choice is whether to let antinuclear bigotry, scaremongering and spin shape policymaking agenda or secure the supply of low-carbon energy into the future.
At present, when 'rainbow families' move from one EU member state to another, they could lose their legal recognition as a family.
Concluding an investment agreement between the EU an China now is a symbolical victory for China and makes it harder for Europe to engage it on critical matters in the future, experts on EU-China relations argue.
The EU is eager to claim that this step means that one of the 14 key conditions from the May 2019 European Commission Avis to achieve candidate status has been met. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from truth.
EU national politics and leaders' personal ambitions have become its real enlargement criteria, in sad times for the European dream.
In a messy, pandemic-racked and rudderless world, Europe's normative power certainly matters. But it would matter more if EU leaders practiced at home what they preach to others.
