For a Change, Western Europe Doesn't Want to Change
William Pfaff

European voters are moving toward the right, so far as the recent electoral evidence indicates. Even in Portugal, the Socialists -- elected by a landslide four years ago -- lost their parliamentary majority in Sunday's vote, and will be looking for legislative allies

Obama's Missile Defense Concession Holds Opportunity for European Security
Paul J. Saunders

It's a concession, but it could present an opportunity as well. While the move highlights the unhappy geography and tough political choices facing Central European leaders, it could also create an important opportunity to strengthen European security. The administration would do well to use this chance to try to encourage new and different relationships between the former Soviet bloc and Russia.

Puzzling & Dangerous U.S. Foreign Policy Comes to an End
William Pfaff

President Barack Obama's cancellation of his predecessor's missile-defense scheme for Poland and the Czech Republic presumably brings to a close one of the least explicable and most dangerous American policy initiatives since the cold war officially ended.

Britsh prime minister Gordon Brown
(c) Nancy Ohanian

Why Sometimes Pays to Be Like Gordon Brown
by William Pfaff

Flamboyance of the Latin kind gets you into the newspapers, but for bad reasons as well as good.

Nicolas Sarkozy of France is not a man noted for charm but for his unchecked energies and the restless activity. Italy's Silvio Berlusconi is another matter entirely. He is a success in politics apparently because the majority of Italians like him.

Indeed, sometimes pays to be a nondescript politician like Gordon Brown of Britain.

 

Europe: Battle Over the Burqa
by William Pfaff

Since President Barack Obama in his recent Cairo speech made a tut-tutting remark about countries that restricted wearing religious garb in school, the controversy over the Muslim burqa has resumed in Europe

G20 vows to spur fragile growth
Leading economies say the recovery is too weak to end stimulus moves as the UK calls for a new social contract with banks.

Spain resists deal with pirates
Spain resists pressure to free two Somalis accused of piracy in exchange for Spanish sailors held in Somalia.

Russian army plane crashes in sea
A Russian military plane carrying 11 crew members crashes in the country's Far East, officials say, amid fears all are dead.

French minister bids to calm row
French minister Pierre Lellouche says he would be able to work with the Tories on Europe after previously criticising them.

Turkey defends Sudan leader visit
President Abdullah Gul criticises the EU after it asks Turkey to reconsider an invitation to Sudan's president.

Babies 'cry in mother's tongue'
German researchers say babies begin to pick up the nuances of their parents' accents while still in the womb.

Brown warns Karzai on corruption
Gordon Brown warns the Afghan president he will not put British troops "in harm's way" to defend a corrupt administration.

Danish student 'arrested in Iran'
A Danish journalism student is arrested in Iran after covering anti-government protests, says the Danish Union of Journalists.

Hitler house sale alarms locals
The sale of Adolf Hitler's family home in the Austrian town of Braunau am Inn triggers concern that it could become a Nazi shrine.

Scientists seek clues to bare bears mystery
Bears in an eastern German zoo have lost their fur, but international experts cannot work out why.

The BBC's Europe editor on the big stories of the day
BBC Europe editor Gavin Hewitt on the big stories of the day.

Chelsea transfer ban is suspended
Chelsea will be able to buy and sell players in January after their Fifa transfer ban is suspended pending a final decision.

Everton 0-2 Benfica
Javier Saviola and Oscar Cardozo score as Benfica defeat Everton in the Europa League.

Spanish League faces strike fears
Spain's top footballers could take strike action over a planned tax hike for its top-earning foreign stars.

Darling project
G20 finance ministers to pursue banking reform

Skin test
Undercover film exposes racism in Germany

Post-Wall journey
The shrinking cities of east Germany... and beyond

Ladies' night
Female artists shine at the MTV awards in Berlin

Earth Watch
All's fair in the climate change blame game

Red blues
The 'fiasco' dinner which left Nikita Khrushchev fuming

Climate deal 'unlikely' this year
The UK government has admitted that a new legally binding global treaty on climate change is highly unlikely to be agreed this year.

Controversy over U2's Berlin wall
A U2 concert marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall runs into controversy - after they build a wall around the venue.

Baku mosque attackers sentenced
A court in Azerbaijan sentences 26 people to lengthy terms in jail over a deadly attack last year on a mosque in Baku.

Secularism 'means fall in births'
Europe faces a population crisis because of attacks on religion by secularists, the UK's chief rabbi suggests.

Court imposes lawyer on Karadzic
The UN's war crimes court appoints a lawyer for ex-Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and adjourns his trial until March.

Two arrested over Moscow deaths
Russian investigators detain a man and woman over the killings of a prominent human rights lawyer and journalist last January.

Opel U-turn sparks German strikes
Opel workers in Germany are on strike in protest at parent firm GM's decision not to sell its European operations.

Ukraine 'pays Russian gas bill'
Ukraine says it has paid its gas bill to Russia, calming fears that Europe may suffer disruptions to gas supplies.

G20 ministers meet in St Andrews
The world's most powerful finance ministers are in St Andrews for a summit aimed at pulling the global economy out of recession.

Can a deal be reached on climate change?
It is unlikely that a new legally binding climate treaty will be agreed this year, the UK government says. How important is a legally binding treaty?

Climate: Where countries stand
Where key players stand on a deal to halt climate change

Is Opel facing a fatal blow?
Has GM dealt German carmaker Opel a fatal blow?

Pensions by computer?
What can the Danes teach us about retirement?

French identity crisis
France asks itself what it means to be French

Carbon trading doubts
Latest assault against carbon trading assessed

Danish pupils use web in exams
Danish pupils to use web in school tests

Levi-Strauss - RIP
The life and times of a French intellectual giant

Eyes on Karadzic
Ex-Bosnian Serb leader makes first trial appearance

Myths of the mind
Journey into the unconscious of analyst Carl Jung

BBC News | Europe | World Edition
Get the latest BBC News from Europe: headlines, features and analysis from BBC correspondents across the European Union, EU, and the rest of Europe.

 

Investment Hopes in Lithuania
In the gloomy downturn of the economic market, Lithuania is seeing some light, with investment prospects coming from global sources.

Students Fret over Loan Program in Lithuania
The state-supported student loan system is under fire in Lithuania, with many arguing that students financial situations are getting increasingly worse.

Forgive, Forget
Twenty years after the fall of the Wall, the controversial lustration process is still in deep waters, with many wondering whether rummaging archives still makes sense.

G-20: New Clout, New Responsibilities
The G-20 has asserted itself as the leading international body in addressing global issues, and it may be the world's best ally in confronting the economic crisis.

Albania: A Dubious Government and a Missing Opposition
Amidst serious economic problems, a flawed election and an ineffective Parliament, the situation in Albania looks gloomy at the moment.

Transitional Justice at 20
Over the years the lustration process in Southeast Europe has grown more intractable as it has become an instrument of political maneuver and manipulation.

Interview with Claudia Kissling
Am Johal interviewed Kissling in Berlin to discuss the possibilities of a World Assembly and how the United Nations might be involved in supporting it.

An Open Letter to Ukrainian President Yushchenko
An open letter to Ukrainian President Yushchenko

Caucasus: The Powder Barrel of Europe
The Caucasus region is rife with conflict-its countries battling over resources, military might, political leverage-and its near future could prove to be increasingly explosive.

Winds of Change in Turkish-Kurdish Relations
After decades of conflict and repressive policies, Turkey appears to finally be making legitimate steps to resolve longstanding conflicts with its Kurdish population.

Neglected Arms Control
With military conflict threatening in hot spots around the world, years of complacency about arms control are now taking their toll.

Lifting the Wall
The European Commission-proposed visa liberalization for Macedonia, Serbia, and Montenegro could end a costly ritual for people traveling abroad. Kosovo, Bosnia and Albania, though, were excluded from the recommendation.

Albanian Elections Produce Unstable Parliament
Although Albania's recent elections demonstrated progress in some respects, the sum of those parts may be little to no progress at all.

Romania Headed toward National Bankruptcy
Mismanagement, corruption and theft on a very broad scale have brought Romania to disaster.

Ceuta, the Border-fence of Europe
In the autonomous city of Ceuta, African refugees find temporary asylum leading nowhere, unable to cross into Spain, unwilling to return to the countries whence they came.

Romania Headed toward National Bankruptcy
The degree to which the Romanian economy has begun to crumble, in both the state and private sectors, puts the country at imminent risk or national bankruptcy.

The Pros and Cons of the Albanian Parliamentary Elections
Whoever wins the June 28 election, it will bring major changes to Albania.

The Last Dictatorship of Europe
President Alexander Lukashenko has built a powerful, repressive government around himself, based on the state monopoly of economic resources, on holding all executive power in his hand.

Brake on E.U. Enlargement Dims Hope for the Balkans
Countries of the Western Balkans have expected to be next on the list of E.U. enlargement for quite some time, but the global economic crisis has made those expectations a distant prospect.

Moldavia: Between Revolution and Geopolitics
Popular protests about the recent Community Party win in Moldova is unlikely to change the country's political landscape.

Global Reflections on the G-20 Summit
The international press reflect on the perceived success or failure of the G-20 Summit.

Britain: Economic Woes May Fuel Euro Debate
The British determination to remain outside the eurozone could undergo a substantial revision due to the current economic crisis.

Reflections on Post-Communist Central Europe
Former top Czech spy Karl Koecher comments on the two decades since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Russia-Ukraine 'Gas War' Damages Both Economies
The two-week dispute caused factory shutdowns and unheated homes across Europe.

"New Europe" is on the Economic Edge
Grumblings of discontent simmering beneath the surface for years have turned nasty, in places such as Greece last year. In 2009, these feelings persist and are intensifying by the day.

Global HIV/AIDS: Five Leadership Issues
The 2008 World AIDS Day focused on leadership issues, which is very appropriate as the future looks uncertain regarding a continued global resolve to contain the defining health challenge of our time.

Treasure Hunting

European News from World Press Review
World News Review

 

Pay protest in Dublin
Thousands of Irish public sector workers have marched in Dublin and other cities to protest at government plans to cut pay and employment in next month's budget

EU jobs stakes to dominate Berlin gala
European Union leaders will discuss the bloc's full-time president and foreign policy chief on Monday when they meet in Berlin to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall

Turkey defends Bashir invitation
President Abdullah Gul accused the European Union of 'interfering' by asking Ankara to withdraw an invitation for Omar Hassan al-Bashir, Sudan's indicted president, to attend an Islamic summit in Istanbul

Bids for Turkey's power grids reach $1.2bn
The auction serves as a test of market conditions that has persuaded Ankara's privatisation administration to press ahead with asset sales to ease strains on public finances

The Wall may have fallen but not enough changed
Two decades on, Germany is still grinding through the problems thrown up by reunification. That does not detract from what was a wonderful moment and a joy to witness, writes Frederick Studemann

Regions angered by EU budget proposals
The European Commission is pressing for a 'root-and-branch reform' of the EU's €140bn-a-year budget in a proposal that is stirring outrage among Europe's regions, which risk losing their grip on vast sums of financial aid

Eurozone heads for exit from loan measures
The European Central Bank left interest rates unchanged at the record low of 1% as it moved closer to implementing a softly-softly 'exit strategy' to unwind exceptional actions taken to combat the recession

Russia woos City to aid recovery
Alexei Kudrin, the Russian finance minister, travelled to London to woo investors ahead of Russia's return to international debt markets for the first time in 10 years

Forecast hits Berlin's tax-cutting hopes
Hopes that economic recovery would give Berlin more scope to cut taxes in the coming years were dashed on Thursday after government-appointed experts said the rebound would have almost no positive impact on tax revenues in 2010

Two held over Moscow murders
Russian police announced the detention of a man and a woman – Yevgenia Khasis and Nikita Tikhonov, both Moscow natives in their 20s – in connection with January's killing of a journalist and a human rights lawyer in central Moscow

Lesser light respected as skilled mediator
Herman Van Rompuy is not in the world's premier league of politicians but the Belgian prime minister has earned respect for steering the country in difficult...

Former UBS client jailed for tax fraud
A US court yesterday handed down the first prison sentence to a former US client of UBS in a ruling that will unsettle the Swiss banking group's other US former...

Europe keeps open mind on presidency
David Miliband, the UK foreign secretary, is emerging as the frontrunner to be the European Union's next head of foreign policy, but the contest for the bloc's...

Former UBS client jailed over tax
A US court handed down the first prison sentence to a US former client of UBS yesterday in a ruling that will unsettle the Swiss banking group's former offshore...

Ukraine pays Russian gas bill
Ukraine's prime minister, says the recession-ravaged country had squeezed enough funds from consumers and cash-strapped state coffers to pay a $500m October gas bill to Gazprom, Russia's natural gas giant

FT.com - World, Europe
FT.com - World, Europe

 

US National Security Adviser James L. Jones on Afghanistan: 'We Will Not Solve the Problem with Troops Alone'
US National Security Adviser James L. Jones talks to SPIEGEL about his skepticism regarding calls for more US troops to be sent to Afghanistan, the chances of Pakistan's nuclear weapons falling into the wrong hands and President Barack Obama's leadership style.

Stealth Travel In The USSR: The East German Adventurers Who 'Escaped' The Other Way
Many East Germans dreamt of Disneyland and shopping in London. But an adventurous few went in the other direction, with the aim of climbing the highest peaks and rafting the wildest rivers in the Eastern Bloc. A new book tells tales of daring, danger and drunk Russian border guards.

Picture This: Attack Of the Swine

Obama, Europe and Afghanistan: 'We Don't Have Simple Answers'
US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Gordon talks to SPIEGEL ONLINE about progress in Afghanistan, America's relationship with the new German government and the urgent need for the US to restore its moral authority.

Stasi Files Revisited: The Banalities and Betrayals of Life in East Germany
A West German dessert. A "flour box." A female driver. The East German secret police took an interest in all manner of banal details as it oppressed its citizenry. Now that Germany is celebrating 20 years since the fall of the Wall, more people than ever are taking a look into their Stasi files.

SPIEGEL ONLINE Interview with Lech Walesa: 'It's Good that Gorbachev Was a Weak Politician'
The world is looking to Berlin as the city celebrates 20 years since the fall of the Wall. But in an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, Lech Walesa, the man who led Solidarnosc, says that the collapse of communism started in the Polish shipyards -- and that East German "deserters" endangered his ultimate success.

'Shoot Them in the Head': World Cup Hosts Brazil and South Africa Crack Down on Crime
There are 50 murders a day in South Africa, the host country of the 2010 football World Cup. And Brazil, host of both the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, also suffers from extreme violence. With a view to the high-profile events, the two countries are now attempting to crack down on rampant crime -- and are using ruthless tactics to do so.

Spanish Banks Expand: Seeking New Worlds to Conquer
Flush with cash and facing hard times at home, Spanish companies are again looking abroad.

The World From Berlin: On Nord Stream Pipeline, 'Germany Must Take a Selfish Stand'
The Swedish and Finnish governments have finally consented to the construction of an ambitious new gas pipeline from Russia to Central Europe after years of opposition. German commentators welcome the removal of this last obstacle to the project but express reservations about Russian geopolitical ambitions.

Hugging the Panda: Gerhard Schröder Opens Doors for German Companies in China
Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has gotten a lot of criticism for his ties to Russian energy companies. But he also has become an "old friend of the Chinese people," helping German businesses forge links with Chinese companies -- and earning his own fair share of consulting fees.

Achtung Berlin!: U2 Rock Out at Iconic Brandenburg Gate
Irish rock stars U2 preformed a free concert at Berlin's historic Brandenburg Gate on Thursday as part of the MTV European Music Awards. The six-set gig helped kick off celebrations to mark 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Anger at US Carmaker: GM Management 'Reminds One of Socialism'
GM's about-face has angered both Opel workers and European governments. In an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, union leader and Opel board member Armin Schild blasts GM for mismanagement and says that the US company is uninterested in saving the Opel brand.

Where the Berlin Wall First Fell: Historic Border Crossing Finally Gets a Facelift
The former border crossing at Bornholmer Strasse may have been the spot where the Iron Curtain cracked wide open, but 20 years on there is little in this drab corner of East Berlin to indicate its historic significance. That is set to change now that Berlin has commissioned a firm of architects to create a new square to commemorate the events of Nov. 9, 1989.

Our Bad: Germany Still Looking for Freedom from David Hasselhoff
For years, the world has mocked Germany for its love affair with David Hasselhoff. And, for years, Germans have been hoping that the world would forgive and forget. But now that MTV has invited "the Hoff" to perform in Berlin, just like he did 20 years ago when the Berlin Wall came down, their hopes have been dashed.

Black Gold: Why Oil Majors Are Coming Back to Iraq
Global oil companies are finding it harder to resist the huge volume of crude in Iraq. But their change of heart could increase tensions in OPEC.

Picture This: Milk Misery

Westerwelle 'Plucks Chicken With Press Speaker': Germans Poke Fun at Their New Foreign Minister
At his first press conference, Germany's new foreign minister insisted that he be asked questions in German, not English. The incident led to serious debate about what skills a foreign minister should have. But it has also resulted in a whole lot of jokes at Guido Westerwelle's expense.

The World from Berlin: 'GM Has Done Serious Damage to the Trans-Atlantic Relationship'
The decision by General Motors to hold onto its German subsidiary Opel has unleashed a wave of shock and despair on this side of the Atlantic, with politicians railing against American corporate duplicity and unions striking. But some commentators think that maybe the GM decision is actually good for Germany.

Avoiding a Second Vietnam: 'Obama Is Absolutely Right to Re-evaluate Afghanistan Strategy'
Gordon Goldstein's book on the lessons of the Vietnam War is required reading in the Obama White House. In an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, Goldstein talks about why Obama should think long and hard about sending more troops to Afghanistan and not rush into the kinds of decisions that Vietnam-era politicians now regret.

Rare Earths: High-Tech Companies Face Shortages as China Hoards Metals
Germany is pinning its economic hopes on future-oriented industries such as solar panel manufacturing. But high-tech companies are facing shortages of essential metals as China, which dominates the world market in so-called rare earths, begins stockpiling the highly sought-after resources.

SPIEGEL ONLINE - International
Daily news, analysis and opinion from Europe's leading newsmagazine and Germany's top news Web site.

 

Charlemagne: Blair's unbalancing act

Lessons from the unedifying fight over top Brussels jobs

IN THE end, Tony Blair’s great European adventure seems to have been a balancing act too far. As prime minister, Mr Blair built a career on political acrobatics. He was the Labour politician who left in place great chunks of Thatcherism. As prime minister, he swore he was a true European (the “most European of Englishmen”, France’s Nicolas Sarkozy once said) even as he defended opt-outs from such policies as ending internal European Union passport controls. More than any British leader, he backed closer European defence co-operation—and then he split Europe by joining America in Iraq.

But high-wire acts hurt when they fail. And, at an EU summit in Brussels on October 29th and 30th, Mr Blair fell, watching his bid to become the first permanent president of the European Council collapse. Mr Blair needed leaders to agree that he was a sincere European, and they could not. He needed his fellow socialists to admit he was one of them, and they declined (the centre-left Austrian chancellor, Werner Faymann, said Mr Blair represented “Bush and the war in Iraq”.) ...

The Chirac trial: Liberty, equality, no impunity

The salutary shock of a former president going on trial

THE French have greeted the decision to put Jacques Chirac on trial for misappropriation of public funds with mixed feelings. A surprising number of politicians have suggested that the former president should be left in peace. But voters seem pleased that an era of impunity is ending: 72% told one poll that they approved of treating Mr Chirac as an ordinary citizen before the law.

When he was president, from 1995 to 2007, Mr Chirac was immune from prosecution, and his lawyers argue that he remains so for acts during his time in office. The case going to trial is the only one of many compiled against him, mostly dating from his time as mayor of Paris in 1977-95, not to be dropped. (For the others, the statute of limitations has expired or prosecutors have said there is not enough evidence.) Mr Chirac is accused of employing 21 friends in allegedly “fake jobs” at the Paris town hall, a relatively minor charge. ...

Italy and the CIA: Conviction time

A damning verdict in an Italian court against America’s CIA

NOBODY knows how many people have fallen victim to CIA-organised “extraordinary renditions”—operations in which suspected terrorists are snatched and shipped to third countries for interrogations that often involve torture. In 2007 the CIA director, Michael Hayden, suggested the figure was around 50. But a European Parliament report the same year concluded that more than 1,000 flights had been run by the CIA through European Union airspace.

What is certain is that only one extraordinary rendition has led to a trial. On November 4th that trial, in Milan, ended with the conviction of 22 alleged CIA officers and agents, an American air force colonel and two Italian agents, all for helping to kidnap an Egyptian cleric known as Abu Omar, who vanished from a Milan street in 2003. He was released four years later and claimed to have been tortured in Cairo, where he was hung up “like a slaughtered sheep” and given electric shocks. ...

Russia and Britain: Frozen diplomacy

More of an update than a reset

EVER since the new American administration popularised the phrase, it has been fashionable to talk of a “reset” with Russia. Few relationships have needed resetting more than the one between Russia and Britain. It has been all but frozen since Russia refused to hand over Andrei Lugovoi, an ex-KGB officer suspected of murdering his former colleague (and British citizen), Alexander Litvinenko, in London in 2006. Diplomats have been expelled, contacts between security services severed and visa restrictions imposed.

On November 1st David Miliband, Britain’s foreign secretary, flew to Moscow for talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. It was more of an update than a reset. His host was courteous, which is progress. The two men signed joint statements on nuclear non-proliferation, Afghanistan and the Middle East. Yet none of the sticky bilateral issues was resolved—nor was any expected to be. Mr Miliband repeated Britain’s request to hand over Mr Lugovoi, only to hear, yet again, Moscow’s response that this would be against Russia’s constitution (which is sacred unless for lengthening presidential terms). For now, at least, Mr Lugovoi will carry on as an elected member of the Russian parliament. ...

The euro-area economy: Recovery, of sorts

The European Commission reckons that today’s growth will not last

EUROPE’S emergence from its worst post-war downturn seems assured. Figures released on November 13th will confirm that the euro-area economy came out of recession in the third quarter. The fourth quarter also looks promising. Output rose at its fastest rate in almost two years in October, says a survey of purchasing managers. Business and consumer confidence have continued to improve. A jump in foreign orders for German capital goods in September is a sign that export demand is returning.

The latest forecasts from the European Commission reflect this new mood. The commission says euro-area GDP will rise by 0.7% in 2010, a brighter prospect than seemed likely in May, when it forecast a 0.1% drop. The upgrade would be larger if today’s growth rate were sustained. But the commission thinks the economy will hit a soft patch early next year, as the temporary effects of fiscal stimulus and of firms’ restocking begin to fade. ...

Eastern Europe's economic woes: Down in the dumps

The ex-communist economies have not collapsed. But finding new ways to catch up with the West will be hard

EVEN at the height of the ex-communist countries’ boom in 2006, almost half their citizens felt they lived worse than in 1989. Yet that glum verdict on 17 years of liberalisation, privatisation and stabilisation was tempered by another finding. Most of those polled by the World Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said they were optimistic about their children’s prospects.

The worry is that the global economic crisis has dented confidence in the future and intensified gloom about the present. Fast growth eased dissatisfaction with corrupt politicians and bossy bureaucrats. It offered at least the chance of better health care and education, which lag far behind western standards. But the average decline in GDP this year is a whopping 6.2%; recovery is expected to be slow. So east Europeans face higher taxes, bigger debts, less public spending, lower pay and fewer jobs. They do not have the same shock-absorbers as in the west—which is where, in the eyes of many, the crisis originated. ...

Italy's opposition: Into the ring against Silvio

The Italian opposition gets a new leader—and a new scandal

SILVIO BERLUSCONI, who can claim to have out-punched more than half a dozen left-wing opponents, has a new sparring partner. On October 25th Pierluigi Bersani was elected as the new leader of Italy’s biggest opposition group, the Democratic Party (PD). The vote was open to all, and almost 3m people paid €2 ($3) to take part. The main rival to the 58-year-old Mr Bersani was Dario Franceschini, a former Christian Democrat who stepped in when the previous leader, Walter Veltroni, resigned in February after a disastrous showing in a regional election.

Mr Bersani is the straight-talking son of a mechanic from the “red” heartland of Emilia-Romagna. He rose through the ranks of the Italian communist party (PCI). Mr Bersani’s first move after his victory was to visit workers in a textile factory. But he is not an easy man to pigeonhole. He wrote his degree thesis on the history of Christianity and is best known as the minister who, in the most recent centre-left government, sponsored a programme of economic liberalisation. ...

French corruption scandals: Peering into the murk

An arms-smuggling trial casts a shadow over the French elite

BIT by bit, the entrails of France’s one-time ruling elite are spilling out. This week Charles Pasqua, interior minister under President Jacques Chirac, was sentenced to a year in prison, with a further two years suspended, for involvement in arms-trafficking to the Angolan government in the 1990s, during its civil war against UNITA rebels.

Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, son of the Socialist former president and his father’s then Africa adviser, was fined for embezzlement and given a two-year suspended prison sentence. The dozens of other defendants also accused of supplying, or aiding the sale of, landmines, shells, tanks, helicopters and naval vessels—despite a United Nations arms embargo—included Pierre Falcone, a French arms dealer, and Arkady Gaydamak, an Israeli-Russian businessman. Both men were sentenced to six years imprisonment. ...

Germany: Angela's new team claims its seats...

…and debates how to promote growth, reform taxes, contain health costs and also balance the budget

AFTER weeks of tension, tantrums and trial balloons, Germans now know which ministers will govern them for the next four years, and roughly how they will do so. In the early hours of October 24th the three parties in the new centre-right coalition government that won September’s federal election—the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), its smaller Bavarian sibling, the Christian Social Union (CSU) and the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP)—put the finishing touches on a 124-page agreement that promises tax cuts, more spending on education and a reform of health care. It is a “new beginning”, declared Guido Westerwelle (pictured above), the new foreign minister, who led the FDP back into power after an 11-year absence.

Like the most tantalising prizes at a beachside funfair, the new beginning will require a lot of luck to claim. What is immediately on offer is more sparkle than substance. The new government, led by the CDU chancellor, Angela Merkel, plans a “right-away programme” of tax cuts to speed the economy’s recovery from recession. Later on it wants to reform income and business taxes, as well as a health-care system burdened by an ageing population. But finances and disagreements among the coalition partners may upset such ambitions. “The promising ideas are still very vague,” says Clemens Fuest, an Oxford don who heads the finance ministry’s council of advisers. “Things that are concrete are not very satisfactory.” ...

Charlemagne: Deciding Europe's place in the world

The European Union is giving itself better means to conduct foreign policy, but does it have the will?

SOME time ago, just before the European Union enlarged to take in new members from Estonia to Cyprus, two senior EU officials debated an interesting question: with so many governments to consult, how on earth would Javier Solana—the Spaniard who has headed the EU’s foreign-affairs arm since 1999—forge a European consensus on any question of foreign policy?

The more senior of the pair counselled calm. Most countries don’t have foreign policies, he explained cheerfully; Mr Solana’s job was to convince such countries that whatever he was proposing had actually been their policy all along. That would not change with enlargement. The cynical Eurocrat has seemingly been proved right. Today, even with the union enlarged to 27 members, Europe’s foreign policy machinery smoothly churns out common positions all the time. And yet, even ardent pro-Europeans admit that the impact of all this diplomatic activity has, to date, amounted to less than the sum of its parts. ...

NATO and Russia: War games

Jitters in eastern Europe over Russia’s military manoeuvres

SCAREMONGERING is where defence-planning and politics overlap. Big military exercises in western Russia and Belarus, which finished earlier this month, were based on the following improbable scenario: ethnic Poles in western Belarus rise up and “terrorists” from Lithuania attack the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. More than 10,000 troops from Russia and Belarus countered them, reinforcing Kaliningrad from the sea and sending special forces behind the enemy lines. Three NATO–like brigades, one visiting, one Estonian and one Latvian, then invaded western Russia, where they were successfully rebuffed by the elite Pskov-based 76th air assault division, reinforced by a motorised rifle brigade.

Military exercises need a notional enemy and, from Russia’s point of view, NATO is the obvious choice. Because the alliance has expanded to Russia’s borders, taking in a dozen ex-communist members over strenuous protests from the Kremlin, it is all the more desirable to send a strong signal. What is more, Western countries have been urging (and helping) Russia’s military forces to become more professional. That requires practice drills. ...

Baltic economies: The Estonian exception

Estonia gets a boost, but worries persist about its Baltic neighbours

SMUGNESS is Estonians’ least attractive feature, at least in the eyes of their Baltic neighbours, Latvia and Lithuania. A surprise endorsement by the International Monetary Fund of Estonia’s plans to join the euro in 2011, coupled with gloom about the other two countries, will only make that worse.

All three Baltic states are facing double-digit economic declines in GDP this year, following the collapse of credit bubbles created by reckless lending and spending. Many outsiders have wondered if the three countries can maintain their fixed exchange rates, which peg the national currencies to the euro. A currency or banking collapse in the Baltic would spook markets elsewhere in the region, threatening wobbly economies such as Hungary’s. ...

Spain's political scandals: The problem with Don Vito's friends

Troubling questions for the opposition party, and for Spanish politics

HE OILED his hair, told employees to call him Don Vito (the Mafia boss played by Marlon Brando in “The Godfather” films) and, according to Spanish investigators, allegedly kept politicians on his payroll. Documents released by a Spanish court indicate that for Francisco Correa, a Spanish businessman, bribery, fraud, money-laundering were all part of his way of doing business.

Those same documents have also lifted the lid on Mr Correa’s extensive network of friends and clients inside Spain’s opposition People’s Party (PP). To the immense embarrassment of a party that aspires to govern, they include everyone from a former party treasurer to a son-in-law of the former prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar. ...

Worries over Bosnia: Balkan scheming

Efforts to hold Bosnia together have repercussions as far afield as Afghanistan

BOSNIA, scream some hysterical headlines, is on the brink of a new war. It is not. But it is deeply troubled. This month has seen the highest level diplomacy since the end of the war in 1995, in an attempt to break a deadlock that has paralysed its government for three years. The initial omens are not good. Unless a deal is struck soon, notes Zlatko Lagumdzija, an opposition leader, everyone can forget about serious change until after next year’s elections.

The Dayton accords, which ended the Bosnian war, formalised the division of the country into two parts: a Serb entity and a federation of Croats and Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims). Until 2006 the country was slowly becoming more functional. But since then progress has halted; the two entities cannot agree, for example, on who should own state property. Bosniaks in Sarajevo want a more centralised state. Serbs in Banja Luka want more autonomy, or even full independence. The European Union wants to shut the office of the high representative, a sort of governor-generalship, whose power has anyway more or less evaporated. But American diplomats are resisting this, arguing that Bosnia could fall apart without foreign oversight. ...

France, Germany and the European Union: Future dreaming

French hopes for new Franco-German leadership in Europe may yet founder on disagreements about policies and priorities

TO MOST people, the prospect of an end to the European Union’s institutional navel-gazing is welcome. Once the Czech holdouts ratify the Lisbon treaty, goes the line, there should be no new grand schemes. Yet this is not how things are seen in France. Indeed, the French have been laying the ground for their next big idea: a deepening of the Franco-German axis to entrench their dual leadership and make Europe “one of the principal players of the 21st century”.

In a speech to his ambassadors in August, President Nicolas Sarkozy declared that he wanted “Europe once again to make history instead of enduring it”. His model was “Franco-German understanding” built on his friendship with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor. His Europe minister, Pierre Lellouche, is zealously spreading the message. “More than ever, the relationship between France and Germany will form the heart of what I would call the third phase of post-war European history,” he recently wrote in Le Monde. ...

Serbia's busy foreign policy: Better troublesome than dull

Some Balkan diplomacy matters more than usual just at present

Correction to this article

SERBIA seems to have a foreign policy on steroids. Vuk Jeremic, its 34-year-old foreign minister, says that he spent 700 hours in the air last year, almost two hours a day. He is not the only one travelling. In the past two weeks alone, Carl Bildt, Sweden’s foreign minister, Toomas Ilves, Estonia’s president, and (on October 20th) Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s president, have all visited Belgrade. Turkey’s president, Abdullah Gul, will follow shortly. For a relatively small Balkan country, Serbia is getting a surprising amount of attention. ...

Charlemagne: A single-market celebration

For all the gloom about Europe's single market, it remains an admirable project

THERE are two ways of looking at the saga of Opel, the European carmaker being sold by General Motors with the help of some €4.5 billion ($6.7 billion) in German state aid. The first, gloomy view is that the Germans have mounted a shocking assault on the principles of the European Union’s single market—and, worse, have got away with it.

During a sale process overshadowed by electoral politics, the German government openly favoured a consortium involving Magna International, an Austro-Canadian car-parts maker; Sberbank, Russia’s largest retail bank; and GAZ, Russia’s second-largest carmaker. The dodgy industrial logic of Magna’s plan, which would keep open all four Opel factories in Germany but trim production at more efficient ones in Spain, was, alas, electoral catnip to German politicians. They duly nodded and winked that they would hand over the cash only if Magna won. ...

Turkey and the Kurds: Return of the natives

A trickle back of PKK terrorists may herald a lasting peace

“DON’T waste time, come back!” The call by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, to rebels of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) this week sounded like an invitation to a party. And a party it was when tens of thousands of ululating Kurds flocked to the Iraqi border on October 19th to greet 34 PKK fighters and their sympathisers, who gave themselves up in a gesture that may bring peace. (Five of the fighters were arrested but later released on the orders of a judge.) The move comes after a year of secret talks between Turkey, America, the Iraqi Kurds who control the mountainous territory in which the fighters have been based, and probably the PKK itself.

Plans to give an amnesty to PKK fighters who stand aside from the terrorist group’s vicious 25-year-old war have long been opposed by Turkey’s hawkish generals. Hoping to bully Turkey into recognising their quasi-independent state, the Iraqi Kurds let the rebels roam free. But the impending withdrawal of American troops and the risk of spiralling ethnic and sectarian violence in Iraq has concentrated minds. ...

Silvio Berlusconi and Italy's judges: Injudicious

The prime minister’s worrying plans to promote judicial reform in Italy

DON’T get mad, get even. After Italy’s constitutional court had thwarted his efforts to make himself immune from prosecution, Silvio Berlusconi certainly got mad. But the Italian prime minister gradually simmered down—and has now turned his attention to how to get even.

In Mr Berlusconi’s telling, he is the victim of a plot by communists in the judiciary, particularly in Milan, where he has repeatedly been put on trial (but never definitively convicted). The constitutional court, he declared, had “in effect, said to the red judges of Milan: ‘reopen the manhunt’.” Shifting metaphors, he said it was time “to take the bull by the horns and reopen the constitution”. This can be done either with a two-thirds parliamentary majority, or by getting a reform passed by a simple majority and then approved in a referendum. “If we have the numbers to do it in parliament, fine. If not, we’ll do it by recourse to the voters in the most democratic and orderly way possible,” Mr Berlusconi said on October 16th. ...

The Economist: Europe
Europe

 

Berlin gets ready to celebrate fall of the wall
Final preparations to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall are being put in place in the German capital. The giant party,…

Darling urges climate deal at G20 summit
St Andrews in Scotland is hosting finance ministers from the world's leading rich and developing countries amid growing signs of a global recovery.…

Lebanon opposition agrees to form government
Opposition parties, including Iranian backed Hezbollah, have reportedly agreed to form a national unity government in Lebanon. The deal…

US seeks clues to army base massacre
The US is still trying to understand the reasons behind the deadly mass shooting at the Fort Hood military facility in Texas. Visitors and…

Russian military aircraft crashes in Pacific
A Russian military plane has crashed in the Pacific Ocean, with all 11 people on board feared dead. The Tupolev-142 disappeared from radar…

Brown faces flak on Afghanistan from top military brass
The commitment of the British government to the troops in Afghanistan has come under fire from three former chiefs of the defence staff. The…

Families fear for fate of captured fishermen
The families of 36 kidnapped Spanish fishermen, under threat of death by Somali pirates, have come together to urge their government to give in to…

Kosovo energy fears if power plant shuts down
The EU has called for the closure of a polluting power plant in Kosovo but it is feared a shut-down could mean energy shortages. The Kosovo A…

Pre-Copenhagen climate talks make little progress
Environmental groups have scaled the heights of Barcelona's Colombus Monument, hanging a banner ahead of the crucial Copenhagen climate summit.…

Protesters breach Israel's security barricade
Israel's high security wall in the occupied West Bank has been breached by Palestinian protesters. Using a hydraulic car jack, masked youths…

Europe's Afghan engagement
The foreign troop presence in Afghanistan may hit the headlines but reconstruction efforts are equally important for the country's stability.…

Afghanistan: What next?
"We will keep trying our best to address the questions that we have facing Afghanistan and to make sure that the wishes of the Afghan people come…

Military forces in Afghanistan
Foreign troops are paying a heavy price for their involvement in Afghanistan. Last year, a record 294 soldiers lost their lives. This…

Talks failure plunges Honduras back into crisis
There was anger and frustration in Honduras as talks to break a four month political crisis failed. Supporters of ousted President Manuel…

French police hunt guard after 11m euro heist
French police are on the hunt for the driver of an armoured van who reportedly made off with more than 10 million euros he was transporting.…

Big in Berlin - Beyonce triumphs at MTV awards
There was only one show in town as Beyonce swept the boards at the MTV Europe awards in Berlin. Since its release a year ago Beyonce's album "I…

Afghanistan: The shaping of a nation
In this Peshawar market place in Pakistan, the majority of traders are Afghan refugees. There are 1.7 million displaced Afghans on Pakistani soil.…

U2 embarrassed by Berlin gig 'wall'
It was supposed to be U2's tribute to the fall of the Berlin Wall. But the rock group was left red faced when organisers of a free concert outside…

Anger at GM's Opel U-turn rumbles on
Opel workers in Germany continue to vent their spleen after General Motors announced it was to abandon its plan to sell off its European car-making…

UN resolution calls for Gaza war crimes probes
The United Nations has ordered Israel and the Palestinians to investigate claims of war crimes. A resolution passed at the UN's General…

Portugal to continue state aid for faltering economy
Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates says it would be a grave error to withdraw the economic stimulus packages in place to help steady the economy…

Palestinian President Abbas to bow out
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says he will not stand for re-election in January's polls. Although Abbas has not made an official announcement,…

Karadzic war crimes trial adjourned
The war crimes trial of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has been adjourned until March next year. Judges at The Hague have ordered…

UN staff in Kabul relocated
The UN is temporarily relocating more than half its international staff in Afghanistan after last week's deadly Taliban attack on UN workers.…

Rail strike halts Belgium's trains
Thousands of commuters have been forced to find different ways of getting to and from work after a 24-hour strike by Belgian rail workers brought…

Couple kept apart 50 years by Iron Curtain
Separated from his sweetheart for 50 years by the Iron Curtain - Fortunat Mackiewicz finally found his true love, Elvira Profe. It is an amazing…

Putin voices displeasure over GM U-turn
Russia has voiced its contempt for the GM reversal. In September, GM agreed to sell a majority stake in its Opel/Vauxhall division to the Canadian…

Changing trends in European drug use
A new report on drug use in Europe shows that cocaine and heroin consumption are increasing.  Production in countries like Peru has fallen, but…

The car that came from behind the Iron Curtain
Fans of the tiny Trabant are hoping the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall will lead to a resurgence of interest in the iconic car from…

CIA found guilty of human rights abuses
In the first verdict of its kind, an Italian court has convicted 23 Americans of kidnapping a Muslim cleric. It was a symbolic condemnation of…

More signs Hezbollah re-arming for a fight
A ship carrying hundreds of tonnes of weapons allegedly supplied by Iran has been seized by Israeli naval commandos. The cargo vessel was intercepted…

Clashes return to Tehran streets
Clashes have broken out between police and opposition supporters in the Iranian capital, Tehran. Some reports in Iran say shots were fired by…

A mix of election fever and flu in Ukraine
Swine flu has spread into the political arena in Ukraine. President Viktor Yushchenko has accused opponents running against him in a January…

Afghan police: infiltrated by the Taliban?
There is concern the Taliban may have infiltrated the Afghan police force after the killing of five British soldiers at a checkpoint.…

Romanian prime minister designate rejected
The Romanian parliament has rejected the prime minister designate and his proposed cabinet. They were rejected with 250 negative votes. Three…

Berlin - The Alexanderplatz protests
The universal clock on the popular Alexanderplatz was already ticking on the 4th of November in 1989. Now it displays a time when east…

US and EU move closer on climate change
US President Barack Obama says the United States and the European Union have agreed to boost their efforts for success on climate change at the…

Obama one year on
It has been one year exactly since Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. He promised the one thing voters wanted most - change.…

Top US official meets Myanmar's Suu Kyi
A top American official has met with Myanmar's detained opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, on a rare visit to the country. US Assistant…

Democrats do badly without Obama
The Democrats in America are downplaying their loss of the state of Virginia in three key elections, the first real test of President Obama's…

EU court tells Italy to take crosses down
Fury at the heart of Europe. Italians have reacted strongly to their nation's condemnation at the European Court of Human Rights. It wants crucifixes…

Death of a great French thinker
Claude Lévi-Strauss, one of the great philosophers of the 20th century has died aged 100. The death of the famous Frenchman and founder of…

Building the Berlin Wall
On Sunday August 13 1961, the inhabitants of Berlin woke up to find the city alive with construction workers. Some 40,000 soldiers and East…

Escapes over the Berlin Wall
A part of the Berlin wall can still be seen in Bernauer Strasse. It was here that some of the early escapes from West to East took place. In…

Berlin Wall: Train of Freedom, leaving East Germany
Even before the fall of the Berlin Wall the frontiers with the West were starting to crumble.   20 years ago at Shopron, in Hungary, on August 19,…

Berlin Wall memories
Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and in the shadow of the Brandenburg Gate two men meet. Gunter Ziehe and Peter Daube share common…

Joy and bitterness over fall of Berlin Wall
At first there was joy and euphoria, but for some Germans reunification led to bitterness, not able to understand what they were facing. Egon Krenz,…

East Germany's economic renaissance
Since 1922 MZ has been producing motor bikes in eastern Germany close to the German-Czech border town of Zschopau. The brand has undergone a…

The fall of the Berlin Wall
At 21h20 the barrier rose at the frontier post on Bornholmer strasse. The Berlin Wall was open. The decision to throw open the border was…

Bush, Gorbachev and Kohl honoured in Berlin
The three leaders of the Soviet Union, the United States and West Germany, at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall, have been honoured in the…

Leipzig celebrates being the first brick to fall
Leipzig, 20 years after the fall of the wall. The former East Germany's second city was at the heart of the popular movement that brought the curtain…

Belgium rents Dutch prison cells
An empty Dutch jail is to be filled with at least 500 inmates from Belgium which is looking beyond its boundaries to solve a prison overcrowding…

euronews
The leading European News TV-channel. All the International news in seven languages.

 

Joined-up development thinking
Joined-up thinking has become a valuable business management mantra. Itrsquo;s now being put to work for EU development policy too in the first ever European Report on Development which was launched at the European Development Days. The first-ever European Report on Development ERD was launched on 22 October at the European...

Robin Cosgrove Prize rewards Innovation
The ldquo;Ethics in Finance Robin Cosgrove Prizerdquo; will be awarded to 7 young people on 22 October who submitted winning papers on Innovative Ideas for ethics in finance. The financial crisis was largely triggered when trust in financial markets was destroyed by lack of transparency and evidence of the absence...

Swedish premier believes Klaus will sign Lisbon Treaty
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said on 21 October he believed Czech President Vaclav Klaus will ratify the Lisbon Treaty but could not say when it will take place. ldquo;We have agreed to get this the treaty in place rdquo; Reinfeldt told Swedish radio news. The Lisbon Treaty is aimed...

Brussels to improve protection and efficacy of Asylum System
Officials in Brussels on 21 October called for common and fairer asylum rules within the European Union in order to offer refugees a higher level of protection. The proposals put forward by EU Home Affairs Commissioner Jacques Barrot aim to put an end to the so-called ldquo;asylum lotteryrdquo; whereby a...

Still no EU single market when it comes to online shopping
The European Unionrsquo;s single market was meant to give customers a better deal by allowing them to find the cheapest product in any member state. But while the internet may have produced virtual shopping malls of continental proportions most online shops still prevent foreign customers from getting a bargain according...

EU court rules in favour of workers sacked while on parental leave
An employer who sacks a worker while they are on parental leave must base the severance pay on the workerrsquo;s full-time salary rather than on what they were earning while at home with the kids the European Union court ruled on 22 October Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa reported. The precedent-setting judgment...

Rising Tata Motors takes over a Spanish bus maker
Indiarsquo;s Tata Motors making noises about becoming one of the worldrsquo;s biggest makers of cars and buses has made a move into the European Union with the acquisition of the remaining 79 percent stake in Spanish bus maker Hispano Carrocera one of Europersquo;s main bus and coach manufacturers. Tata Motors...

A Right Wing Coup
Pro European Tories are mounting a counter attack after what they see as a right wing coup that handed control of a planned transnational party and think tank to a group of Euro-skeptics led by Daniel Hannan MEP and dashed Conservative Central Office hopes of having a safe pair of...

EU seas still critically overfished
Eighty-five per cent of European Union fish stocks are overfished with key species such as cod critically below safe population levels officials innbsp;Brussels said on October 16. But the European Commission still expects member states to increase catch quotas for North Sea cod next year despite clear signs that conservation...

Turkeys path to Europe or lack thereof
Turkeyrsquo;s chief European Union negotiator Egeman Bagis has welcomed the blocrsquo;s latest progress report on the country. Bagis called the report ldquo;the most objective report so far.rdquo; Responding to the reportrsquo;s singling out of a tax-evasion case against media group Dogan Media Holding a vocal critic of the current government...

Outgoing EU Commission will be no lame duck
There will be no slackening of work at the European Commission when its mandate expires at the end of October even though no new commission will be ready to replace it commission spokesman Johannes Laitenberger said on 16 October. ldquo;If there is no new commission which will evidently be the...

Got milk no cash
A majority of European Union countries on 12 October called for helping dairy farmers with an additional euro;300 million after an informal meeting of farm ministers and officials in Vienna. The representatives from 20 EU countries which represent 95% of the EUrsquo;s milk market said member states should contribute that...

European car sales boosted by government incentive schemes
European new car sales jumped by 6.3% in September boosted by government incentive schemes aimed at drawing car buyers into showrooms the auto industry association ACEA said on 15 October. But underscoring the fragile state of the European car sector in the wake of the global economic crisis auto sales...

Rise in eurozone industrial production
Industrial production in the 16-member eurozone rose in August the Europersquo;s statistics office said on 14 October adding to evidence of an end to the recession in the currency bloc. Eurostat said output rose by 0.9% month on month in August and revised up the July figure to a 0.2%...

Eastern European performance down
The economies of central and eastern Europe are expected to contract by an average of 6.3% this year but growth in the third quarter of 2009 suggests the regionrsquo;s recession is bottoming out the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development EBRD said on 15 October. The EBRDrsquo;s Transition Report 2009...

EU welcomes Microsofts offer
ON 7 OCTOBER Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes welcomed plans by Microsoft to offer new Windows users a choice of web browsers as a means of addressing the regulatorrsquo;s concerns. ldquo;I have good grounds for thinking that we are moving towards a very satisfactory resolution of some serious competition problems in...

Commission fines transformers cartel
THE European Commission on 7 October imposed a euro;67.6 million fine $99.5-million on French Swiss and Japanese producers of power transformers for forming a market-fixing cartel. Germanyrsquo;s Siemens also participated in the illegal agreement but was granted immunity for revealing the existence of the cartel to the Commission. The biggest single...

Czechs to ratify Lisbon by end of 2009
CZECH President Vaclav Klaus will sign the European Unionrsquo;s Lisbon Treaty most probably by the end of the year Czech premier Jan Fischer said on 7 October. ldquo;There is no reason for anxiety in Europe. In the Czechnbsp;Republic the question is not lsquo;Yesrsquo; or lsquo;Norsquo; it is when rdquo;nbsp;Fischer told...

EU central banks keep rates on hold
EUROPErsquo;S leading central banks held interest rates at historic lows on 8 October as they await evidence that the regionrsquo;s recovery from its steepest economic downturn in a generation is taking hold. While the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank ECB left interest rates unchanged for the sixth consecutive month the Bank...

EU to step up fight against spam
BRUSSELS has urged national governments to step up their fight against spammers with data showing that the majority of Europeans still receivenbsp; unsolicited emails. Although spam has been illegal in the European Union since 2002 a recent Eurobarometer poll showed that 65% of EU citizens still receive spam on a...

Finance ministers debate post- recession exit strategies
THE European economy will need propping up well into 2010 but ballooning budget deficits should be deflated as soon as the recovery is consolidated possibly by 2011 European Union finance ministers said on 1 October. ldquo;It is quite clear that the economic and financial crisis has been halted by bold and...

EU sends aid to disaster -struck areas across Asia
A SERIES of natural catastrophes in Asia including earthquakes typhoons and tsunami met with a quick response from the European Union which opened its vaults to send aid to the victims in Indonesia the Philippines Samoa Laos Vietnam and Cambodia. Included was euro;3 million in front-line aid to the victims...

Consumer prices dive deeper into negative
CONSUMER prices in the 16-member eurozone tumbled deeper into negative territory in September according to data released on 30 September. Annual consumer prices slipped to minus 0.3% in September from minus 0.2% in August the European Unionrsquo;s statistics office Eurostat said. Eurozone prices slumped to a record low of minus 0.7%...

Why the Euro Corridors Matter: The Case of the South Moravia
The South Moravian Region 1 130 000 inhabitants lies in the southeast of the Czech Republic on the borders with Austria and Slovakia. The region is home to the Czech Republicrsquo;s second largest city Brno an important judiciary city a university town with 80.000 students and the Central European trade...

Germany faces EU reprimand for excessive deficit
THE European Commission is expected to reprimand the traditionally fiscally virtuous Germany for running a high budget deficit during the recession it emerged on 1 October. Joaquiacute;n Almunia the European Unionrsquo;s monetary and economic affairs commissioner confirmed at a meeting of EU finance ministers in Gothenburg Sweden that his office...

EU right to cap roaming charges
THE European Union was right to put a cap on the charges mobile phone companies levy on customers who use their phones abroad a top EU lawyer said on 1 October according to Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa . The opinion comes as a blow to four of Europersquo;s biggest mobile phone...

Wide-ranging VAT fraud clampdown
THE European Commission on 29 September proposed measures to stamp out VAT fraud on goods ranging from mobile phones to greenhouse-gas emission permits saying that it costs the taxpayer billions of euro per year. The Commission has been working on the issue for years but has given it a higher...

EU to retrieve misspent farming funds
THE European Union is to claw back more than euro;200 million $293 million in aid that has been misspent on EU farmers with a third of the total coming from France officials in Brussels said on 29 September. ldquo;The money returns to the EU budget because of non-compliance with EU...

EU helps broker Iran okay on nuclear inspections deal
With the European Unionrsquo;s chief diplomat helping lead the way a stubborn Iranian government has agreed to international inspections of a mysterious nuclear facility and said it would continue talks about its nuclear program with six world powers. Javier Solana the EUrsquo;s foreign policy chief said Iran had reiterated its...

Yes to the Lisbon Treaty
There are many loose ends to tie up after 2 October and we must assess the changes needed to effectively communicate Europe to its citizens. European Peoplersquo;s Party EPP Secretary-General Antonio Lopez Isturiz told New Europe: ldquo;Now with the new Commission the time has come for the EU to launch...

Lisbon countdown
The crucial vote on Irelandrsquo;s 2 October re-vote on the European Unionrsquo;s governing document the Lisbon Treaty ndash; which replaced the failed EU Constitution and was rejected by the Irish last year ndash; became even iffier after an opinion poll showed the lsquo;Norsquo; vote picking up steam and a report...

Can Lisbon help to fight poverty?
All eyes are on Ireland this week and the much-anticipated outcome of the Referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.nbsp; If the majority of my compatriots do vote lsquo;yesrsquo; on October 2 it will be largely down to the current crisis the heightened perception of Irelandrsquo;s economic vulnerability and the potential of...

Facing Europe
Anna Diamantopoulou former EU Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs is in the midst of a hectic election campaign schedule leading up to the ballot on 4 October in her country Greece where she is running as a Member of Parliament for Athens. She managed to find some time to...

Obama Goes Historic on Nuclear Weapons: Let the Battle Begin
President Obama marked his chairing of the United Nations Security Council on September 24 with the submission of a US-sponsored resolution intended to promote the ultimate goal of the abolition of nuclear weapons. The resolution was passed unanimously by the Council. Obama is following up his promise in Prague in...

EU must take a lead in ensuring Europeans are Fit for Work
A Call to Action is being launched this week to seek proper intervention and treatment for the more than 44 million EU citizens who have a longstanding health problem that affects their ability to work. In particular it addresses those with musculoskeletal disorders MSDs which account for more sick days...

Germany completes ratification process for Lisbon treaty
German President Horst Koehler has signed the ratification document for the EUrsquo;s Lisbon Treaty completing the ratification process in Germany a presidential spokesman said on 25 September. The Lisbon Treaty intended to create a more powerful EU leadership must be confirmed by all member states before it can come into...

EU: Banks hide key info from customers
Europersquo;s banks frequently hide key information from potential account holders and hit them with unexpected fees the European Unionrsquo;s executive said on 22 September as it called for more transparency in the consumer banking market. ldquo;Retail bankers are letting consumers down...basic consumer principles are being violated with problems from complex...

India tells the EU: US China – now its our turn
With the eyes of the world riveted on China and hopes it can help end the recession still gripping the planet the other great power of Asia ndash; India ndash; has quietly begun to make its move into markets and will make its presence known in the European Union this...

Buzek stresses challenges of a common Europe
The economic crisis energy and relations with Russia were just three themes the new President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek raised during his speech to MEPs in Strasbourg France. Buzek the first President of the European Parliament to come from behind the Iron curtain used his inaugural speech to...

MEPs scrutinize planned changes to Balkans visa rules
Entry into the borderless Schengen area made up of 25 countries is regulated by common EU visa rules. Currently citizens of most Balkan countries need visas also for short visits. The Commission has put forward plans to scrap the requirement for some but not for all Balkan EU neighbours. Will...

Barroso reelection strengthens EU abroad
Clearly relieved and sporting a winning smile Joseacute; Manuel Barroso reenters the European Parliamentrsquo;s plenary session in Strasbourg to the applause of the MEPs after waiting outside for them to cast their secret ballot that endorsed his second term as president of the European Commission. Barroso won the absolute majority he...

EU makes a pre-G20 push to stop bank bonus babies
Once again ndash; although without a plan on how to do it - the European Unionrsquo;s 27 leaders have vowed to push for a curb on managersrsquo; bonuses as they agreed a joint strategy for this weekrsquo;s Group of 20 G20 summit on world financial reform. The show of unity...

NATO says Iranian threat isnt going away soon
NATO has welcomed US President Barack Obamarsquo;s decision to scrap a controversial missile defense system sited in Eastern Europe but said that the threat from Iranian missiles was still present. The spokesman for the defense alliance James Appathurai said that NATO ldquo;welcomes the fact that the US has had this...

Wallstrom calls for new College to be balanced
An initiative headed by the Vice President of the European Commission Margot Wallstrom and co signed by three Vice Presidents of the European Parliament fellow members of the Commission College and Chairwomen of EP Committees has called for the new makeup of the Commission to be balanced and gender representative...

EU dairy farmers call from Paris for a strike
Milk farmers from eight European countries said after a meeting in Paris that they were prepared to strike to press their demands for higher prices and a cut in milk production quotas. The current European farms policy is destroying European milk farmers European Milk Board EMB head Romuald Schaber said...

Fight not over but Slovenia to unblock Croatias path to EU
After a long-running feud Slovenia will no longer stand in the way of Croatiarsquo;s accession negotiations with the European Union the leaders of the two nations said after agreeing to reset a long-standing border dispute. ldquo;We will immediately propose to end restraints of Croatiarsquo;s EU accession negotiating process rdquo; Slovenian...

Dan Hannan The Man With The Plan
The British Conservative Party has not only welcomed Dan Hannan MEP back into the fold after his expulsion in February 2008 by Joseph Daul but many are embracing his ideas laid out in his book The Plan: Twelve months to renew Britain. In it Hannon lays out a series of...

Turkey will strengthen EU its foreign minister says
Turkey will strengthen the European Union even if the road to future membership in the bloc is ldquo;long and stony rdquo; Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said. The country is undergoing a ldquo;silent revolutionrdquo; and carrying through reforms that ldquo;were unthinkable just a few years ago rdquo; he wrote in...

Moldova ruling coalition and foes move closer to the EU
Moldovarsquo;s ruling coalition and the opposition Communist Party have edged toward finding common ground with officials from both sides making declarations supporting integration with the European Union the Infotag news agency reported. Mihai Gimpu the newly-elected parliament speaker said in a radio interview that his factionrsquo;s top priorities were reduction...

Spains Gonzalez rules himself out as new EU President
Former Socialist premier Felipe Gonzalez of Spain has ruled himself out of the running for Mr. Europe a new post created by the impending Lisbon Treaty. ldquo;It would be an honor but I will not be a candidate rdquo; Gonzalez said in a video interview on the Financial Timesrsquo; website....

New Europe News - Main Feed
New Europe News - Main Feed

 

A Right Wing Coup
Pro European Tories are mounting a counter attack after what they see as a right wing coup that handed control of a planned transnational party and think tank to a group of Euro-skeptics led by Daniel Hannan MEP and dashed Conservative Central Office hopes of having a safe pair of...

Politicians urged to provide cash for lives
Europe looks set to face more flu-related deaths than necessary as the H1N1 virus looms large. Experiences in Australia and Mexico have already shown that intensive care units ICUs will be stretched to maximum and beyond as a result of so-called swine flu. Vital beds are being earmarked for pregnant women...

Got milk no cash
A majority of European Union countries on 12 October called for helping dairy farmers with an additional euro;300 million after an informal meeting of farm ministers and officials in Vienna. The representatives from 20 EU countries which represent 95% of the EUrsquo;s milk market said member states should contribute that...

EU project to fight money laundering complete
THE EU recently completed a 27-month programme aimed at helping Albania fight money laundering AENews reported. The cost of the project is €1.3 million which was provided by the European Commission. The Commission said that the project has strengthened the capacities of the Financial Intelligence Unit FIU of Albania to...

Italian Left piggy-backs on European Liberals
The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats ALDE and the Greens at the European Parliament have asked for a public debate in plenary session to discuss the freedom of press in Italy according to Article 7 of the Treaty which provides for liberty and democracy in Member States. In this context...

EU Latvia discuss global developments
Latvias Foreign Minister Maris Riekstins met with European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek on 1 October to discuss current events on EU and global agenda. Riekstins and Buzek reviewed the institutional changes envisaged in the Lisbon Treaty in particular the establishment of the European External Action Service and related issues. Latvias...

Sowing the seeds for a better future
The news that some of the big supermarkets have been in talks with the Government about introducing Genetically Modified GM ingredients to the nationrsquo;s shelves will be welcome to Scottish farmers. In fact GMs have been on the shelves of our food shops for years in various different shapes and...

Why is there so much bitterness in the East?
I am not very sure that in Washington the reasons for the bitterness and frustration in former Socialist countries at the news that the US has abandoned the installation of the anti- missile shield in the Czech Republic and in Poland have been fully understood particularly as the timing of...

Buzek stresses challenges of a common Europe
The economic crisis energy and relations with Russia were just three themes the new President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek raised during his speech to MEPs in Strasbourg France. Buzek the first President of the European Parliament to come from behind the Iron curtain used his inaugural speech to...

In with the new
In May of this year when Greece announced its candidates for the European Elections one of them stood out and not only because he had long hair and was wearing a t-shirt. But because he was young. I donrsquo;tnbsp; mean to be ageist or stereotypical but this was a change...

Heal the world
Very few people have the confidence to say they can change the world. Over history and time some such leaders have been plucked from obscurity and happened to be the right person at the right time in the right place who was then pushed towards the limelight. President Baracknbsp; Obama for example...

Sarkozy tells Swedes: Turkeys not getting into the EU
Continuing to dash hopes France remains opposed to Turkey becoming a full member of the European Union French President Nicolas Sarkozy said during a visit to Stockholm the first head of state to be hosted by Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt since Sweden on July 1 assumed the rotating presidency of...

The Philosopher King
In Ancient Greece more specifically in the bustling trading capital Athens of the all powerful state of Athens around the fourth century BC there lived a man who changed the course of history. He founded the first educational institution of the western world came up with a phrase to describe a...

The Eurosceptics find their place in EU Parliament
A new political force has taken shape within the European Parliament as British Polish and Czech Eurosceptics announced that they had found enough support to form a separate parliamentary group. The move confirms a major split among the centre-right parties which dominated the June 4-7 European Parliament elections. But analysts...

MEPs join protest against Latvias anti-gay laws
Members of the European Parliamentrsquo;s Intergroup on gay and lesbian rights showed their support for a demonstration outside the Lithuanian permanent representation in Brussels to protest against new homophobic and oppressive law in Lithuania by showing up themselves. On June 16 the Lithuanian parliament adopted an amended Law on the...

Low voter turnout didnt alter the European Parliaments conservative stronghold
Leaders of the European Unionrsquo;s political parties and in the European Parliament gathered the night of June 7 in the parliament building in Brussels to discuss ndash; and spin ndash; the results of the EU elections in which the 736 members of the parliament were selected. With a record-low turnout...

Dutch jump the gun with results and the Far-Right wins
In a move that irritated European Union officials who said it violated the blocrsquo;s rules on releasing results of the elections for the European Parliament the Netherlands said the far-right Dutch Freedom Party PVV which participated for the first time emerged as the first winner in the EU-wide parliamentary elections....

Swedish EU presidency will push for farming cuts
Sweden wants the European Union to cut the subsidies it gives to farmers when it takes over the blocrsquo;s presidency in July the countryrsquo;s agriculture minister said setting the stage for a huge fight with some of its biggest countries who want to protect farmers at any cost a stance...

Who speaks for Europe? The EPP wants to know
Nearly four decades ago then US secretary of state Henry Kissinger asked Who speaks for Europe? as he lamented there was no one which whom he could speak there who could stand for all the countries in setting a uniform foreign policy. While there is a European Union now it...

Drug candy must stay out of Europe
Tobacco companies have to find new inventive ways to market their products as it is simply becoming difficult to hook consumers on the highly addictive life-suckers with the negative mindsets and advertising regulations. The solution is being test-marketed in the USA as we speak. R.J. Reynolds owner of the brand once...

A skeptical Field Guide to British Eurosceptics
All fair-minded people would surely agree that the British are revolting. The daily news shames an ever-longer list of Members of Parliament who have been caught fiddling with their expenses. Some have gone wild and got the taxpayer to buy and furnish several homes. Others have made claims for items...

EU sues Ireland over aquaculture failures
The European Commission has confirmed to an Irish Member of the European Parliament Jim Higgins that it has been forced to take Ireland to the European Court of Justice again following its failure to implement an earlier ruling relating to aquaculture practices in Ireland. EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas in...

The EU elections are coming!
Every five years a small number of Europeans participate in the process that legitimises in part the European Union: voting for members of the European Parliament. Postulating that perhaps not many Europeans know how the different political parties stand on relevant subjects New Europe researched their websites to see what...

Working time finds no agreement
An attempt to reach agreement over the working time directive - which limits workers to 48 hours including overtime - broke down in the European Parliament last week as MEPs and EU Ministers failed to agree on the terms. In December 2008 members voted 421 votes to 273 with 11...

Slovenia tells EU to back off over Croatia
European Union officials have urged Slovenia and Croatia to quickly resolve their border dispute warning that the row could also slow down the EU membership bids of other Balkan nations as well but Slovenia isnrsquo;t budging so far. ldquo;A lot of politicians in Europe tend to put the whole of...

MEPs question Turkish attitudes
Progress has been made on womenrsquo;s rights in Turkey in recent years but much remains to be done according to the speakers at a public hearing held by the European Parliament Womenrsquo;s Rights and Gender Equality Committee. Constitutional and legislative measures can only achieve so much: societyrsquo;s attitudes need to...

The EPPs Brok lashes out hard at the Socialists
Elmar Brok a Member of the European Parliament from Germany stopped by the New Europe NETV booth at the European Peoplersquo;s Party convention in Warsaw Poland last week to discuss the partyrsquo;s agenda. Long an active voice in the party he had a lot of opinions on its role before...

Mauro has his eyes on the European Parliaments top prize
Mario Mauro from Italy a Vice President of the European Parliament and a contender to become President in the next Parliamentary term stopped by the New Europe NETV booth at the European Peoplersquo;s Party convention in Warsaw Poland last week to talk about the partyrsquo;s role in Europe and trying...

EPP: a steady hand for Europe
Mr. President how do you think the EPP Congress in Warsaw next week will affect the campaign for the upcoming European elections? nbsp;-Our Congress is an important moment for our political family. Over 3000 delegates activists journalists and guests will be there. All of our Prime Ministers Commissioners party leaders and...

The Twitter Elections
Itrsquo;s election time and candidates to a seat in the European Parliament are disposing of all means to gear up their support base. Following the successful example of Barack Obamas bid for the White House widely credited for its effective use of internet resources many current and prospective Members of...

Democracy a la carte
Nineteen ALDE MEPs yes ALDE led by Sophie in lsquo;t Veld MEP ALDE The Netherlands followed by 12 of her colleagues called with a letter on President Jose Barroso to condemn the UN initiative for Resolution 10/22 on ldquo;Combating Defamation of Religions rdquo; because it disallows offending religious beliefs. Xenophobia syndrome...

Crimea says no to US Black Sea naval exercise
Eight months after the Russian skirmish in Georgia produced a fear that Ukraine might be next the parliament of the Ukrainian province of Crimea has voted against allowing planned US naval manoeuvres in the Black Sea the Interfax news agency reported. The Crimean parliament voted in favour of a motion...

EU wants a modern image of North Africa shown to world
The European Union is sponsoring television programmes designed to promote North African societies as modern open and emancipated officials in Brussels said. The EuroMed-News project co-financed by the European Commission using 2.16 million Euro USD 2.85 million of European taxpayersrsquo; money also aims to increase awareness among the local populations...

MEPs back liberalisation of electricity gas markets
European Parliament members in Strasbourg agreed to make dominant electricity and naturalgas companies improve access to transmission networks for competitors ending 19 months of contentious negotiations with a compromise to open markets. The European Parliament approved legislation finally gave the green light to further liberalisation of EU electricity and gas markets...

Ukraine tries to re-launch Odessa-Brody
The Odessa-Brody oil pipeline in Ukraine should begin operating in its intended direction as soon as possible said Bohdan Sokolovskiy a top energy adviser to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko for international questions of energy security Georgiarsquo;s The Financial reported. In August Yushchenko signed a measure to ensure the 419-mile Odessa-Brody pipeline...

The EU elections loom but few care or vote
Less than half of Europersquo;s citizens are interested in Junersquo;s European Parliament elections and only a third of them currently plan to take part in the ballot according to a survey from the Eurobarometer which polled some 27 000 citizens from the 27-member bloc between January and February and found...

MEPs dive headfirst into fitness and empty pool
There have been cynical mutterings about the claimed five million Euro swimming pool that the European Parliament is supposedly building and some are describing this as an example of financial fecundity. Of course examination of the supposed cost would expose this untruth for what it is. Five million is clearly...

MEPs back a call for more energy efficient buildings
There are more than 160 million buildings in the European Union and they account for 40 percent of Europersquo;s energy use and the room for savings is extensive so Members of the European Parliament on the Energy Committee recently backed proposals that should see all buildings constructed after 2018 having...

Bosnia said not ready to change its constitution
Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has said Bosnia will not change its constitution in order to gain membership of the European Union. ldquo;If it turns out that changing the constitution is a condition for the membership in the EU that means that the Europeans do not want Bosnia in the...

Copyrights extended but musicians aint got no satisfaction
Maybe itrsquo;s a losing battle in an era of free downloads and intellectual property battles but the European Parliament has voted to extend music copyright from 50 to 70 years less than the 95 years proposed by the Commission and what critics called a compromise that was a blow to...

Consensus-building tricky business in the EU parliament
Martin Schulz a Member of the European Parliament from Germany and chairman of PES the European Socialist Party took some time to answer New Europersquo;s questions on how the body tries to find a consensus on difficult issues what coalitions are in danger of toppling and what lies ahead with...

Sipos says freedom of the press paramount
Robert Fico certainly lacks the sympathies of the most Slovak journalists but so would any populist European politician running the country with the help of an extreme nationalist party and another one with the history of authoritarian misrule. Similarly the ruling coalitionrsquo;s presidential candidate Ivan Gasparovic faced hostile press not...

Slovaks president re-election pits press and government against each other
After Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic was re-elected to become the first Slovak president serving two consecutive five-yearterms alarm bells went off in the media. Enjoying the support of two government coalition parties headed by Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico the old-new president received 55.53 percent compared to 44.46 percent won...

Maternity leave in the EU
The amount of money women are entitled to when they take maternity leave differs enormously across Europe despite the priority given to gender equality by the European Union. To our disgrace the United Kingdom has one of the lowest levels of statutory maternity pay in the EU third only to...

New Democracys glance of Europe through the EPP
For more than 30 years the political family of the European Peoplersquo;s Party EPP to which New Democracy belongs has encouraged and supported the development of Europe. In June 2009 our commitment to a Europe of shared values a Europe of prosperity a Europe of security and solidarity will be...

EUs help critical for Ukraine and regional stability
On April 6 the President of the European Parliament Hans- Gert Pottering addressed members of Ukrainian Parliament. Speaking about the relationships between Ukraine and the EU he noticed: ldquo;We are already more interdependent and engaged with each other than ever before.rdquo;On March 19 Ukrainersquo;s President Victor Yushchenkoand Prime Minister Yulia...

AIDS: Therapeutic vaccine in four or five years
nbsp; Last year French Professor Luc Montagnier jointly won the Nobel Prize for Medicine with Franccedil;oise Barreacute;-Sinoussi for their discovery of the HIV virus in 1983. On 1 April he took part in a conference on biomedical research organised by the European Parliament. In an exclusive interview we spoke to him...

New pact for Europe demanded by EESC members and top MEPs
Ahead of the June European elections prominent MEPs and EESC members met yesterday at the European Economic and Social Committee in order to discuss the future of Europe and the EU governance. Apart from the proposals specified in the EESCrsquo;s recent Programme for Europe: Proposals of Civil Society the Parliament Groupsrsquo;...

Suicide prevention funds cut leads to call for EU plan
A 12.5 percent cutback in government funding to Irish mental health groups by the National Office for Suicide Prevention has drawn the ire of a Member of the European Parliament from that country Jim Higgins and he outlined his aim to create an EU-wide Suicide Prevention Strategy. ldquo;This cutback is...

Are you at risk from man-made electromagnetic fields?
Electricity has been one of the greatest discoveries of mankind and made life easier for immeasurable numbers of people who have light in the dark and power to run machines but the way in which itrsquo;s carried and distributed over power lines is still causing a furore among those who...

European Parliament News - New Europe
European Parliament News - New Europe

 

G20 leaders vow to keep global stimulus a priority

WORLD finance leaders struggled last night to frame a blueprint for securing future global growth.

War of words breaks out over Berlin Wall opening

East Germans may have arrived in West Berlin hours before history records.

Karadzic wins extra time as war crimes trial adjourned

THE FORMER Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic (right) won some of the extra time that he insisted he needed to prepare his defence on genocide charges when his trial was adjourned until March yesterday.

Gang takes flour after drug sting goes wrong

A gang made off with 80 kilograms of flour after police set up a drugs sting but went home before their targets arrived.

No appeal against decision to try Chirac in corruption case

Paris prosecutors said last night they would not appeal a judge's decision to order former French president Jacques Chirac to stand trial in an alleged corruption case that predated his presidency.

Unexpected quakes may be ancient aftershocks

SOME OF the most violent earthquakes that have occurred unexpectedly in places with no recent record of tremors may be the aftershocks of earthquakes that took place decades or even centuries ago, scientists have discovered.

'Rendition' CIA agents get prison sentences

AN ITALIAN court sentenced 23 former CIA agents to up to eight years in prison yesterday for their role in the abduction of an Egyptian terror suspect in the first trial relating to "extraordinary renditions".

Prostitute posed as an undercover police officer to deceive men

A British prostitute who posed as an undercover police officer to deceive vulnerable men has been sent to jail for three years.

Goth bride spends wedding night in hospital after being attacked by yobs

A new bride spent her wedding night in hospital after being attacked by yobs for being a goth after her reception on Halloween.

Emotional McCanns deny 'pact of silence' on Maddy

Kate and Gerry McCann were grilled yesterday for the first time about allegations they could have been involved in their daughter's disappearance.

Murderer confesses in prayer recorded by police

A man whose prayers for forgiveness were overheard by police who bugged his car was convicted of murder yesterday.

Nicolas Sarkozy tells Carla Bruni to take lower profile

Nicolas Sarkozy has asked his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy to lower her public profile after complaints about her political influence on the French president, it has been claimed.

Treasure hunter found £1m haul on first outing

An amateur treasure hunter in Scotland has discovered a hoard of Iron Age gold worth more than £1 million on his first outing with a metal detector.

Karadzic pleads for more time at his war crimes trial

FORMER Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic appeared before the international war crimes tribunal for the first time yesterday, but only to repeat that he needed more time to prepare his defence.

Race for plum jobs begins as Czechs sign off Lisbon

EU leaders are now focusing on filling the powerful posts created by the Lisbon Treaty - one of which is wanted by former Taoiseach John Bruton - after the Czech President finally signed the reform document yesterday.

Italians in uproar over crucifix ban in schools

EUROPE'S court of human rights has banned the display of crucifixes in Italian public schools.

Woman jailed for killing husband

A young African woman has been jailed for life in the Gambia after being convicted of murdering her wealthy Irish born husband, police have said.

Czech go-ahead for EU reform treaty

Czech President Vaclav Klaus has signed the EU reform treaty.

Video: Forklift driver brings the warehouse down

A video clip of a forklift driver accidently bringing down the entire contents of a warehouse in Moscow has become a hit on Youtube.

'Human bomb' mother gets two years in jail

A MOTHER of six who concealed bomb-making manuals on a computer memory stick hidden inside her burka as she flew into Britain has been given a two-year jail sentence.

Karadzic 'organised massacre of 8,000 in Srebrenica'

Radovan Karadzic orchestrated the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys -- and his only regret was "that some Muslim men got away".

Maddy film urges key witness: do right thing

British police appealed yesterday for internet users worldwide to spread a new video aimed at pricking the conscience of a key witness who knows what happened to Madeleine McCann.

Berlusconi will not resign if convicted of fraud

Silvio Berlusconi will refuse to resign as prime minister of Italy, even if he is convicted in two corruption trials due to begin later this month.

Russians practise nuke strike in Polish 'war game'

Russia has provoked outrage in Poland by simulating a nuclear attack on the country during military exercises.

Kosovans honour hero Clinton with gold statue

THOUSANDS of ethnic Albanians braved low temperatures and a cold wind in Kosovo's capital Pristina to welcome former US President Bill Clinton yesterday as he attended the unveiling of a 3.5 metre statue of himself on a key boulevard that also bears his name.

Paparazzi king faces jail over blackmail case

It is a tangled tale of sex, greed, ambition and blackmail in Silvio Berlusconi's celebrity-obsessed Italy.

Major break-up of UK banks expected soon

THREE new banks are to appear on the UK's high streets as part of a major break-up of the financial sector to be announced by the UK this week.

Sarkozy deals a blow to Blair's presidency bid

NICOLAS Sarkozy dealt a blow to Tony Blair's hopes of becoming EU president by publicly withdrawing his support yesterday.

Chirac faces corruption trial over 'ghost jobs'

JACQUES Chirac, the former French president, has been ordered to stand trial for corruption in a case which has shed light on sleaze allegations from his time as mayor of Paris.

Police investigate claims of key Lockerbie witness

MALTA is preparing to investigate the evidence of one of the key trial witnesses who helped to convict Abdelbasset al-Megrahi over the Lockerbie bombing.

It's all over bar the shouting for Blair

Former British prime minister Tony Blair's prospects of becoming the first EU president were fading last night, despite a last-minute plea from Gordon Brown to Europe's leaders to "get real" and back his predecessor for the post.

Memoirs of SS officer reveal Hitler's true Holocaust role

THE MEMOIRS of the last SS adjutant to Adolf Hitler are to be published in a move historians say could cast away the last shred of doubt over the Fuhrer's personal involvement in the Holocaust.

Compulsive hoarders can blame genes

People who have a compulsive urge to collect junk can partly attribute their problem to genes.

Police release 'mafia hit' video

WARNING - This article contains images which some readers may find disturbing - Italian prosecutors released a video yesterday of a mafia-style murder in Naples -- which was seemingly met with indifference by bystanders -- hoping it would help break a wall of silence over the identity of the killer.

Spanish woman thanks 'guardian angel' who diagnosed rare disease on bus

A Spanish woman has thanked a stranger who saved her life after approaching her on a bus to tell her she was suffering from a rare disease.

Independent.ie - Europe RSS Feed

 

G20 Agree Too Early to Remove Stimulus: UK's Darling
G20 policymakers are agreed it's too early to pull the plug on economic life-support packages as the global recovery is still fragile, said British finance minister Alistair Darling.

Why German Opel Workers Can't Stand GM

RBS Posts $2.5 Billion Operating Loss

British Airways Posts First-Half Loss of $346 Million

Hermes Revenue Up 10% in Third Quarter

Hannover Re Swings to Profit in Third Quarter

UBS Traders Dumped Losses on Duped Rich Clients

IMF Freezes Loan to Romania Amid Government Crisis

UK Postal Workers Suspend Strike

Eni Signs Cooperation Deal in Kazakhstan

Polish New Car Sales Fall 8.5% in October

Estonian Inflation Falls by Record 2.2% Year-on-Year

Slideshow: London Fashion Week

World's Biggest Gold Reserves - In Pictures

Special Report: Countdown to London 2012

Special Report: Eastern Europe on the Edge

CNBC Europe Top News and Analysis
Stock Market News, Financial, Earnings, World Market News and Info Covering the Europe Region

 

British PM Brown Vows to Fight On in Afghanistan
Increasing number of British casualties in Afghanistan has eroded support for the war

Berlin Wall Remembrances Vary
The Berlin Wall - still emblematic of the divide between democratic states and totalitarian ones - fell 20 years ago. Eyewitnesses and journalists on both sides reflect on its meaning for people in societies at different levels of political freedom today

Couple Creates Charity to Help Britain's Wounded Troops
Hope for Heroes Inspires Thousands to Help Too

Global Climate Change Treaty Delayed
Speaking in India, Sweden's prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt tells journalists setback comes because some countries are not politically ready to sign deal

Impact of Berlin Wall Collapse Still Rippling Through Russia
Russia still struggling to lead effective military alliance, to modernize resource-driven economy, and to liberalize authoritarian political system

Berlin Wall Stands Tall...In South Carolina
Two segments of the Berlin Wall remain erect in Spartanburg, South Carolina, as a memorial.

British PM Calls for Halt to Afghan Corruption
Gordon Brown warns Afghan government to take action against corruption, saying he would not risk more British lives there unless it reforms

Berlin Prepares for Celebrations 20 Years After Fall of Wall
Main event will be a long line of oversize dominoes running in part right across front of Brandenburg Gate to nearby Reichstag

Britain Urges G20 to Insure Financial System
PM Brown calling for G20 to consider global tax on financial transactions as insurance against future bailouts

Medvedev: Not All Hopes Realized After Berlin Wall Fell
Russian president makes remarks in interview with German magazine 'Der Spiegel' ahead of 20th anniversary of fall of Berlin Wall

VOA News: Europe,Europe
Up to the minute news from Voice of America

 

Brown: 'We will not walk away'
In a major speech, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said UK troops will remain in Afghanistan until the mission is complete.

G-20 ministers meet in Scotland
Rain and strong winds gave way to sunshine Saturday morning at St. Andrews, where the Group of 20 industrialized and developing countries met to discuss economic reform and climate change issues.

Spanish judge considers pirate prisoner swap
A Spanish judge would consider sending two Somali pirate suspects held in Madrid back to Africa, as demanded by pirates holding a Spanish fishing boat and its crew off the Somali coast, it was reported Friday.

U.N.: Climate treaty set for 2010
A new international treaty to combat climate change will not be ready when 40 world leaders meet next month in Copenhagen but may be finished next year, a top United Nations official said Friday in Barcelona.

Berlsuconi denies sex scandal in new book
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has caused a buzz all over Italy this week with the release of a new book that simply asks the colorful premier about some equally colorful exploits.

GM's Europe chief to quit after Opel U-turn
The president of General Motors Europe, Carl Peter Forster, plans to resign in the wake of GM's decision this week not to sell its European wing, a source told CNN on Friday.

Chelsea transfer ban suspended by CAS
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has suspended the transfer ban placed on English Premier League side Chelsea after the side appealed against the ruling made by football's world governing body FIFA.

BA reports record loss as strike looms
British Airways reported a record pre-tax loss Friday of more than $485 million, another setback for the airline as it faces the threat of strikes over the Christmas period.

War crimes court imposes lawyer on Karadzic
The war crimes tribunal trying Bosnian genocide suspect Radovan Karadzic says it is imposing a lawyer on him.

Opel workers strike after sale abandoned
Thousands of Opel workers go on strike in Germany in protest at the decision by U.S. parent General Motors to abandon the sale of the automaker.

CNN.com - Europe
CNN.com delivers up-to-the-minute news and information on the latest top stories, weather, entertainment, politics and more.

 

Country profile: United Kingdom
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An overview of Abkhazia including key facts, political leaders and notes on the media.

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A profile of Scotland

Country profile: Slovakia
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Regions and territories: Trans-Dniester
An overview of the breakaway region in eastern Moldova

Country profile: Turkey
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Timeline: Albania
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Timeline: Bosnia-Hercegovina
A chronology of key events

Timeline: Bulgaria
A chronology of key events

Timeline: Chechnya
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Timeline: Denmark
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Timeline: Faroe Islands
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Timeline: Georgia
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Timeline: Gibraltar
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Timeline: Greenland
A chronology of key events:

Timeline: Greece
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A chronology of key events

Timeline: Soviet Union
A chronology of key events

Timeline: Sweden
A chronology of key events

Timeline: Switzerland
A chronology of key events

Timeline: Turkey
A chronology of key events

Timeline: Ukraine
A chronology of key events

Timeline: United Kingdom
A chronology of key events

Profile: The Commonwealth
Key facts, figures and dates

Timeline: The Commonwealth
A chronology of key events

Profile: The Council of Europe
A profile of the pan-European human rights organisation

Profile: International Committee of the Red Cross
Key facts, figures and dates

Profile: European Court of Human Rights
A profile of the Strasbourg-based body which aims to protect rights and freedoms in Europe

Profile: The European Union
Key facts and dates for the EU

Profile: IAEA
Key facts, figures about the nuclear watchdog of the United Nations

Timeline: IAEA
A chronology of key events

Profile: Nato
Key facts, figures and dates

Timeline: Nato
A chronology of key events

Profile: The OSCE
An overview of the OSCE, including its background, structure and key activities

Timeline: Portugal
A chronology of key events

Profile: United Nations
Key facts about the United Nations, its background and its structure

Profile: The UN Security Council
Key information on the workings of the United Nations Security Council and its members.

Profile: World Trade Organization
Key facts, figures and dates

Timeline: World Trade Organization
A chronology of key events

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