Tag: European Union
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Now, with Trump in the White House, We Need a European Army
Much has been written about the new president-elect of the United States, and much about his total lack of experience in public office. Less remarked upon, however, is that Donald Trump has also never served in the armed forces, something regarded in times past as an alternative accolade of respectability for presidential candidates. Most famously,…
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I Was Wrong – This Might Be the End of UKIP
Back in March, before the referendum campaign that would ultimately eject Britain from the European Union, I wrote an article arguing that UKIP had successful transcended its status as a single-issue party. Like other groupings across Europe that began as protest movements against supranational integration, UKIP had broadened its appeal to become an expression of…
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How the EU Global Strategy Reshapes Democracy Promotion
When Federica Mogherini took the stage on June 28, the vast majority of politicians and journalists were still buzzing around Brexit. Instead of joining the debates about the demise of the European project, the EU’s High Commissioner Mogherini went on to lay out a clear vision for the union’s further interactions with the world –…
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It’s Only Over When It’s Over
When the British government announced that 52 percent of the population had voted to leave the European Union, this seemed to be a final decision. Right-wing populists from Marine le Pen in France to Geert Wilders in the Netherlands euphorically congratulated the Leave voters and already demanded their own national referendums. Global stock markets lost…
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Britain Has Voted Out, and Europa Is Weeping
This is the feeling of the axis of history tilting: not a smooth, mechanical turn, but the ground shifting and trembling beneath your feet. What even yesterday seemed so solid is now running through your fingers like silt. The possibilities that gave you hope have vanished behind a cloud, and now there is only a…
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Brexit or Bremain, the British Culture War Is Just Getting Going
Yes, thank God – it’s nearly over. In a fortnight’s time, the British public will finally decide at the ballot box whether or not to remain part of the European Union, bringing to a close several months of agonisingly irrelevant campaigning. There were those of us who hoped this referendum campaign would stimulate something of…
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TTIP and CETA – Myths Debunked
90,000 protesters in Hanover (Germany) expressed their displeasure and discomfort with the secret negotiations about TTIP and CETA, when Obama visited the city in April. 250,000 had preceded them last October in Berlin. Meanwhile more than 3.45 million people have signed the online petition Stop TTIP – I am one of them. On Monday, 2…
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Xenophobia ─ How to Fight It
In our discussions in last year’s capacity building the subject of xenophobia came up. Xenophobia (here used in the sense of dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries) is part of the ideology of far right parties, directly or indirectly. An example of this is when Nigel Farage of UKIP claimed he would…
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It is Our Duty to Help the Refugees
These days it is not easy to write an article about the refugee issue since the conditions change every day. Still, in my view we can identify three main tendencies, which have surfaced recently: 1) the return of borders· the re-introduction of border controls and even the construction of walls and fences, 2) a shift…
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Brexit or BrexIn: Britain Decides its European Fate
Following the conclusion of David Cameron’s EU ‘renegotiation’ deal at the EU summit in Brussels on February 19, he announced a day later that the referendum is to be held on June 23 – marking the effective beginning of the campaign which will settle the ‘Brexit’ question. We have been here before. In 1975, Britain…