Articles

This paper first turns to the question of the EU’s impact on democracy in would-be and new Member States and whether it has helped to overcome the division of the continent. The EU’s ability to trigger liberal democratic reforms in candidate countries should not be overestimated, especially when it faces illiberal and authoritarian governments.

When Europeans commemorate the Great War of 1914-18 this summer they should be reflecting not only on the diplomatic blunders and the enormous waste of lives but also the beginning of a new approach to international relations epitomised by the EU.

The events happening in Ukraine are dividing the German public like hardly any other political event before. But this is not so much about Ukraine. The empathy or antipathy for the revolt against the Yanukovych regime is blanketed by a deeper difference: the view of Russia.

A European Year of Remembrance is about much more than the First World War, but it is also about its legacy. For above all, it is about the people of Europe. The people of Europe are those who we are commemorating in this project.

The problem in Poland is the coal-based structure of the energy sector. This results in the highest external costs for the production of energy in the EU, contributing to the loss of 1.2 million days’ pay annually as an effect of health problems.

Portugal, a country full of hopes for the future in 1974. A country with very poor macroeconomic and social-development indicators, where most of the population had limited contact with the rest of the world, except those spread in the African colonies and in some European countries.

Will the French government really take  a major energy, societal and economic change forward and seize the opportunities the Energy Transition offers? Or will it listen to vested interests in nuclear power and fossil fuels?

Energy policy has certainly become a popular sport in the UK these days. With the country preparing for a general election in a year’s time, the topic is now becoming a big political football.

Most important now is that the international community responds speedily and clearly to what amounts to a Russian occupation of the Crimea and the additional threat of Russian troops being stationed in Ukraine.