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...
View ArticleUncertainty 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...
View ArticleMogherini 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...
View ArticleEastern 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...
View ArticleAndrzej 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...
View ArticleRed 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...
View ArticleUN 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...
View ArticleCommission 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...
View ArticleGreece 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...
View ArticleNew 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...
View ArticleCameron’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...
View ArticleTurkey’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...
View ArticleRomanian 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,...
View ArticleG7 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...
View ArticleNo 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...
View ArticleEU–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...
View ArticleStalemate 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...
View ArticleCentre-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...
View ArticleEurozone 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,...
View ArticleEuro 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,...
View ArticleFive 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...
View ArticleEU 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...
View ArticleJuncker 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...
View ArticleRifts 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...
View ArticleGreek 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...
View ArticleGreece 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,...
View ArticleHungary 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...
View ArticleMerkel 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...
View ArticleEU 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...
View ArticleEurozone 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...
View ArticleIran 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...
View ArticleGreek 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...
View ArticleCrisis 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...
View ArticleTurkey 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...
View ArticleGreece 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...
View ArticleEU 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...
View ArticleRecord 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...
View ArticleTsipras 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...
View ArticleDifferent 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...
View ArticleTsipras 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...
View ArticleVWgate: 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...
View ArticleCatalonia: 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...
View ArticleDeadly 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...
View ArticleDeaton 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...
View ArticleECONOMY 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...
View ArticleEU 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...
View ArticleGLOBAL 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...
View ArticleMIGRATION
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...
View ArticleTERRORISM
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...
View ArticleEUROPEAN 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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