With conflict raging in Calais between lorry drivers and would-be migrants to the UK, Tanja Müller asks what happened to European solidarity. World Refugee Day 2015, on 20 June, coincided with a huge anti-austerity demonstration in London. This was narrowly concerned with the specific politics on the British Isles – politics that seems to become […]
Peace prospects for Cyprus
Mustafa Cirakli and Fadil Ersozer look at the latest developments in Cyprus, after one of the main players in negotiations gave a lecture in Manchester. The decades-old reunification talks between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, which resumed in February last year, were unilaterally suspended by the Greek Cypriot side in October last year after an alleged violation […]
Privacy vs Security
As data protection becomes a hot topic again with the publication of the ‘A Question of Trust‘ report, Professor Steve Furber asks if we should be worried. I have always assumed that government security agencies – GCHQ, NSA, etc – can snoop on what they like, when they like, and that this is in the interests […]
The need for joined-up thinking on energy and cities
The EU’s new ‘Energy Union’ does not go far enough in reshaping our demand for energy, argue Professor Stefan Bouzarovski and Dr Saska Petrova. One of the ten stated priorities of the new European Commission has been the establishment of an ‘Energy Union’ – a common policy umbrella that will, says the EU, ensure “secure, […]
Are we any closer to a solution in Cyprus?
As a change of leadership in Cyprus take place, could a solution to the decades old conflict be on the cards? George Kyris examines developments…. When Mustafa Akinci took to the podium for his first speech as the new leader of the Turkish Cypriots waving an olive branch it became obvious that his victory was […]
Beyond the headlines on TTIP: Beware the fine print
Although much of the criticism in the UK of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has focused on the NHS and ‘corporate tribunals’, Gabriel Siles-Brügge and Nicolette Butler argue that this overlooks one of its central purposes: a series of provisions that could make it more difficult for governments to regulate in the public […]
The manufacturing of death by EU asylum and migration politics
Hundreds of people trying to migrate from Africa to Europe have been drowned this week, when the boats they were travelling in sank. Here Tanja Müller says more needs to be done and that European policies have contributed to the deaths. It has become a defining feature of European asylum and migration policy in recent […]
Time to make a stand over Europe
As the General Election campaign hots up and UKIP maintain their strong showing in the polls, former MEP Gary Titley says that pro-Europeans need to snatch back control of the debate, in a battle for Britain’s future. The time has come to make a stand on Europe. For far too long the anti-Europeans have had […]
Charlie Hebdo, the caricatures and the great fear of European Jews
Attacks on Jewish targets in Copenhagen and Paris are feeding emigration to Israel, explains Jean-Marc Dreyfus. The terror attacks in Copenhagen targeted both a cultural centre – where a debate on freedom of speech and the caricatures of Muhammad was taking place – and the city’s central synagogue. Five weeks after the Paris attacks, security […]
Honest debate needed on TTIP – not simplistic slogans
European Commissioners calling the adoption of the TTIP trade agreement a ‘no-brainer’ is not conducive to the honest debate on the EU-US free trade agreement that is needed, argue Ferdi De Ville and Gabriel Siles-Brügge. European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström and European Financial Services Commissioner Jonathan Hill have written that concluding the Transatlantic Trade and […]