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EU condemns Egyptian court ruling for ex-president Morsi

In a statement posted on the EU’s External Action website late on Sunday, 17 May, Federica Mogherini, EU foreign policy chief, made it clear that the bloc stands firmly against the death penalty...

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Uncertainty looms over new EU plan on migration

On Monday, 18 May, the EU Foreign and Defense Ministers agreed to establish a naval force, EUNAVFOR Med, to combat human smugglers operating off the coast of Libya. The force is part of the European...

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Mogherini pledges EU support for Middle East peace

EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini visited the Middle East in the hope to revive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority grounded to a halt more than a year ago. The two-day...

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Eastern Partnership Summit ends with a joint declaration

22 May. Leaders of the European Union and six former Soviet republics met in Riga for the first Eastern Partnership Summit since the Ukrainian crisis erupted. Unlike the Riga Summit of 2013, which...

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Andrzej Duda wins Polish presidential election

24 May. Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski conceded defeat in Sunday’s presidential elections. The exit polls showed him trailing his main challenger, Andrzej Duda, who managed to win 53% of the...

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Red Card for FIFA

The future of the World Cup is in the air and FIFA is mired in one of its deepest crises. US justice authorities have accused nine of its executives of corruption and Switzerland is currently...

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UN Secretary-General takes on migration during Brussels visit

Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon delivered a formal address to the European Parliament on Wednesday, 27 May, as part of his goodwill tour marking the 70th anniversary of the United...

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Commission unveils draft budget for 2016

On 27 May the European Commission presented its draft budget of €143.5 billion for 2016. The proposal, which requires approval from the EU Parliament and EU member states, focuses on creating jobs and...

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Greece and its creditors finalise an agreement

The tremendous policy over the future of Greece is heating up. The Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, has submitted a proposal to break the current impasse in the negotiations, and the creditors have sent...

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New Finnish Government appointed

On 1 June, the President of the Republic of Finland Juha Sipila appointed the country’s 74th government. This moment marked the dismissal of Alexander Stubb’s cabinet and the coming into office of...

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Cameron’s EU charm offensive

David Cameron has concluded a one week EU whistle-stop tour in his bid to reform the 28-nation bloc and win back powers from Brussels. Coming after a fresh win in last month’s general election, the...

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Turkey’s AKP party loses majority in surprise result

It was surely a night to remember for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his AKP party. With all the votes yet to be counted, the ruling party is set to lose its majority in the Turkish...

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Romanian Prime Minister granted immunity

Under investigation for corruption, the Romanian Prime Minister, Victor Ponta, refuses to resign, declaring himself innocent. The National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA) announced on Friday, 5 June,...

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G7 leaders make headway in Germany

On the 7 and 8 of June, leaders of the world’s seven most advanced economies met in Schloss Elmau, Germany for their annual summit. These meetings include on their agenda the most complex challenges of...

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No vote on TTIP

The President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, has postponed the vote scheduled for Wednesday over recommendations which the European Parliament will submit to the Commission. These will then...

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EU–CELAC Summit ends with pledge to strengthen ties

With the theme “Shaping our common future: working for prosperous, cohesive and sustainable societies for our citizens,” leaders of the European Union and Latin America came together in Brussels on 10...

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Stalemate in EU migration talks

On Tuesday, 16 June, EU Home Affairs Ministers met in Luxembourg to discuss a plan to distribute asylum seekers more equally across the 28-member bloc. The scheme is part of the European Agenda on...

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Centre-right alliance wins Danish elections

With nearly all the votes counted, former Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen can now call the elections for his centre-right coalition. After a tight race, it appears that the opposition bloc...

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Eurozone talks over Greek deal end in deadlock

Eurozone finance ministers met in Luxembourg on Thursday in the hope of reaching a deal that would see Athens receive the last €7.2 billion of the bailout aid. Hopes were quashed once again, however,...

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Euro Summit ends without conclusions but offers optimism

The heads of state and government of the Eurozone met on 22 June in Brussels to attempt to find an agreement on the continuation of Greece’s bailout. A sense of urgency accompanied the summit,...

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Five Presidents propose EMU strengthening

How many presidents do you need to make Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) work? Well, five may do it, or rather they better do it. This reference is to the “Five Presidents’ Report” issued in...

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EU NAVFOR Med gets the green light

On Monday, 22 June, the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Luxembourg launched EU NAVFOR Med, a joint naval force aimed at dismantling people smuggling networks in the Mediterranean Sea. This...

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Juncker investment plan gets the go-ahead

The Juncker investment plan was backed by the European Parliament in a vote on Wednesday, 24 June. The plan, aimed at creating jobs, fostering economic growth and tackling record high unemployment...

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Rifts over EU Migration Plan

The European Council meeting on Thursday and Friday, 25 and 26 June, exposed divides between EU member states on asylum seeker distribution quotas. After a wrangle overshadowing other issues discussed...

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Greek bailout: No extension, Yes renewal?

The Eurogroup has refused the Greek government’s request to extend the bailout programme, which expired at midnight on June 30th. By this time, Greece would have had to make a €1.6 billion payment to...

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Greece votes ‘NO’

The “No” has won a landslide victory in Greece´s referendum on the draft agreement presented by “The Institutions” on 25 June, with more than 61% of the votes cast. Greece’s governing party, Syriza,...

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Hungary approves border fence and anti-immigration law

The Hungarian Parliament has intensified the country’s anti-immigration drive by passing new legislation tightening asylum rules and giving the go-ahead for the construction of a fence on the Serbian...

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Merkel visits Balkans amid Euro crisis

Taking time out of the Greek crisis, Chancellor Merkel set off on a tour of the Western Balkans (8-9 July 2015), reassuring the nations of Albania, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina of her support for...

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EU praises UN Libya deal

An UN-proposed peace deal for Libya was signed late Saturday, 11 July 2015, in Morocco by some of the country’s political factions. The agreement was widely hailed as a move towards stability in the...

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Eurozone deal on Greek debt crisis

One of the worst crises in EU history took another crucial turn with a decision made in the morning of Monday, 13 July. In order to avert his country’s financial collapse, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras...

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Iran deal reached

After 18 continuous days of talks, major world powers and Iran reached a historic deal on 14 July in Vienna. The arduous discussions mark the end of 13-year old gridlock over Iran’s nuclear ambitions...

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Greek banks reopen for the first time in three weeks

In a bid to boost morale and ease the financial squeeze on Greek citizens, banks reopened on Monday, 20 July, after being closed for 3 weeks. Though banks are fully operational, withdrawals will still...

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Crisis at Calais

The story about crowds of immigrants storming the freight terminal in the French port of Calais, trying to board trucks headed for the UK, has mesmerized onlookers from across Europe and beyond. The...

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Turkey goes on the offensive against ISIS

On 5 August, Turkey formally announced its readiness to step up attacks against the Islamic State during a meeting of the Turkish Foreign Minister with his US counterpart. The move came against the...

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Greece reaches new bailout deal

Tuesday morning, 12 August, marked a respite in an overly protracted Greek crisis. The Greek government and its creditors reached a deal on the country’s third bailout package. The agreement is not yet...

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EU leaders urged to show solidarity on the migration crisis

The European Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs, Dimitris Avramopoulos, called upon all EU member states to step up to the plate and help fellow countries left to deal with the influx of...

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Record number of migrants at EU borders

Frontex released on Tuesday, 18 August, its latest data regarding the number of migrants registered at EU borders. The influx of migrants has skyrocketed, reaching a record high of 107,500 persons in...

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Tsipras kicks off election campaign

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras launched his election campaign with a TV interview, which aired on 26 August and in which he defended his brief term in office. Even before the 14 August Greek...

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Different approaches to the refugee crisis

The refugee crisis has revealed rifts among EU member states trying to cope with the influx of asylum seekers who hope to make their way to the wealthier parts of Europe. EU leaders are acting in very...

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Tsipras wins new mandate

Despite expectations of a neck-and-neck struggle between SYRIZA and New Democracy, Alexis Tsipras’ party is the clear winner of the 20 September general election in Greece. With about ninety-two per...

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VWgate: CEO Winterkorn resigns

German car manufacturer Volkswagen cheated on diesel engines to meet environmental standards. In the stock market, VW shares fell sharply. Workers fear that the car industry is now threatened. The...

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Catalonia: pro-independence movement grows but fails to obtain majority of votes

“We have won”, claimed Artur Mas on Sunday, 27 September, when his party, CDC (Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya, for Democratic Convergence of Catalonia) obtained the majority during regional...

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Deadly blasts hit Turkey

Ankara, the capital of Turkey, was hit on Saturday, 10 October by two deadly blasts leaving 95 people dead and 245 injured. A pro-Kurdish political party, whose members were among those killed in the...

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Deaton wins Nobel Prize in Economics

On 12 October 2015, Angus Deaton received the so-called Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, which is in reality the Sveriges Riksbank (Bank of Sweden) Prize for his work on consumption. He is an...

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ECONOMY AND SOCIETY

European art, held hostage by capital Article by Daniel Tkatch, 10 October 2015 There is a global network of airport-based duty-free depots that buy and sell works of art that might never again see the...

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EU EXTERNAL RELATIONS

Old Ukraine, New Ukraine Opinion article by Francisco de Borja Lasheras, 25 November 2015 When, like every Monday in the 1990s, the children at her school in Sambir, western Ukraine, sang the national...

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GLOBAL ISSUES

Multilateralism is back Katoikos Editorial, 27 December 2015 The final weeks of 2015 saw remarkable activity at the global level producing concrete results, for a change. The UN climate change...

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MIGRATION

6 January 2016 Amid growing concerns over reinstated border checks, ministers from Denmark, Sweden and Germany attend a round of talks with the European Commission in Brussels. The meeting comes after...

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TERRORISM

12 January 2016 Ten dead and fifteen wounded in Istanbul suicide bombing. The perpetrator, identified as a Saudi-born, Syria-raised man, who had registered as refugee from Syria, detonated his...

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EUROPEAN POLITICS

13 January 2016 At its first formal meeting of 2016, the College of Commissioners of the European Commission decided to initiate a structured dialogue with Poland under the Rule of Law Framework. This...

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