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The March summit in the Italian capital will mark the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, which founded the European project. By then, member states were expected to have outlined their vision for the future of Europe.

Europe looks beyond March summit to forge vision

By: EBR | Friday, February 3, 2017

The 60th anniversary of the Rome Treaty next month is unlikely to be celebrated with a landmark roadmap for future EU integration, as diverging views continue to undermine efforts to forge a common vision

The battle against roaming charges took on an added significance after Britain voted to quit the bloc last year in a surge of anti-EU sentiment and Brussels has sought to show it works for ordinary citizens.

‘Goodbye roaming’: EU clears final hurdle to end mobile charges abroad

By: EBR | Wednesday, February 1, 2017

The European Union clinched a preliminary deal early on Wednesday (31 January) to cap wholesale charges telecom operators pay each other when their customers use their mobile phones abroad, paving the way for the abolition of roaming fees in June.

Significantly, as President Trump moves to make the his country more insular, transactional, and narrowly interest-driven – saying the US will buy American and hire American – China has set up stall as the defender of economic globalisation and free world trade. As Chinese President Xi Jinping warned at the Davos World Economic Forum last month, “No one will emerge as a winner in a trade war”.

As Trump disengages from the world, Europe and others can take the lead

By: EBR | Wednesday, February 1, 2017

The new President of the United States, Donald Trump, is upending liberal democracy, spreading ‘alternative facts’ and smashing civilised values

This is not the only issue along which party lines are divided. Since he was ousted two and a half years ago, along with fellow left-wing rebels Montebourg and Aurélie Filippetti, Hamon has been one of the Valls government’s most vocal opponents. He even went so far as to call for a vote of no confidence in the government over last spring’s labour reforms.

Hamon’s victory confirms ‘Corbynisation’ of French left

By: EBR | Monday, January 30, 2017

The clear victor in France’s Socialist primary, Benoît Hamon represents the left fringe of his divided party. Fearing a decline into eternal opposition and irrelevance, some Socialist MPs will instead back Emmanuel Macron

Malta’s aim for its six months at the heart of Europe is to act in the interests of its citizens, make a better life for them, and bring a greater appreciation of the EU to its people. Through small acts by a small country, we can achieve these bigger goals for the whole of Europe.

Maltese presidency aims to make the ordinary extraordinary

By: EBR | Monday, January 30, 2017

On 1 January Malta, the smallest member of the European Union, took on the giant task of the presidency of the EU Council

Other factors, currently understated, will add to the tension: growing irritation among continental partners blaming Brexit for their poor economic performance and falling investment; difficult domestic politics in other European countries resulting in little patience for British foibles; and irritation that Brexit crowds out the other important issues on the European agenda. All of this while eurozone woes continue; while bank weaknesses threaten growth and stability; while Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic further downgrade their commitment in Europe; and while NATO is undermined and Europe’s military is overstretched and incoherent.

Europe must take control of its own destiny in 2017

By: EBR | Friday, January 27, 2017

The end is in sight for the Atlantic alliance as we have known it for 70 years. The European Union, both with and without Britain, must now prepare for the new multipolar world and decide whether it is in control of its own destiny

There is a certain irony that Schulz sought a third term as Parliament president before his decision to move into German politics was made, as time and time again during his Brussels stint he accused his native country of blocking the ongoing development of the EU.

Martin Schulz’s rapid rise from Brussels man to chancellor candidate

By: EBR | Thursday, January 26, 2017

Martin Schulz is known in Germany mainly as a European politician and an ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel. But later this year they will face off in the country’s leadership race

The Eurosceptic tide has been running strongly against the EU for a decade, ever since the financial markets crisis of 2007 turned into an economic depression and led to the eurozone’s sovereign debt crisis. Although it was the half-completed nature of economic and monetary union that was largely to blame, public opinion across the EU wrongly blamed ‘too much Europe’ for their ills. Trump looks like being the antidote to this.

Trump will be a gift to Europe’s lost unity

By: EBR | Wednesday, January 25, 2017

The presidency of Donald J. Trump is going to be a gift to Europe’s troubled and divided policymakers, even though it comes in a package labelled ‘Handle with Care’ and ‘Danger’

”The only way to get out of this is to remove moral hazard, stop confirming the image that we’re there to make life difficult, that it’s not the member states’ fault what happens in Brussels, that the North is imposing models that don’t work on the South, that the South is lazy. These are all lies, but they lead to a huge lack of trust within nations and between nations.”

‘This double game is destroying us’ – EU strikes back at its critics in Davos

By: EBR | Friday, January 20, 2017

Leaders of the European Union lashed out at the forces that could bring it down in an emotive session at Davos, days after Theresa May revealed that Britain was heading for a clean break

Britain will forgo membership of the EU Single Market and Customs Union (Common External Tariff and Common Commercial Policy) and end the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. The virtue of Mrs May’s strategy is that it should prevent the EU from continuing to hamstring Britain during negotiations after Brexit is final. Leaving both the single market and the customs union is the only way London can regain the ability to negotiate its own trade deals with the US, Canada and Australia. Those and other countries have tried and failed, or only barely succeeded, to conclude trade pacts with the EU.

No deal for Britain is better than a bad deal for Britain

By: N. Peter Kramer | Wednesday, January 18, 2017

'May to EU: give us a fair deal or you'll be crushed', was the opening of The Times on the day after UK Prime Minister Theresa May's Lancaster House speech on Tuesday 17 January

The question is not about hope for the European Union, but for the survival of democratic institutions. Anyway, “hope” is one more notion corroded by its political abuse during the last years of the crisis. One thing is for sure: strong political will and leadership is required. This is not a poker game. One cannot exploit populism à la carte. An integral strategy is needed. Otherwise, the political elite – politicians of a generation who has never lived outside the EU and inside the menace of populist predominance – will very soon find themselves trapped in their own trick. And what is at stake is much more than their petty political survival.

Pick-and-choose populism and the EU elite

By: EBR | Wednesday, January 18, 2017

EU leaders cannot exploit populism when it suits them and then complain when things do not go their way. We need strong leadership from the political mainstream to turn things around, write Petroula Nteledimou and Nikos Lampropoulos

Ecommerce Europe: pros and cons of new proposal for Regulation on ePrivacy

By: EBR | Thursday, January 12, 2017

Ecommerce Europe believes that a review of the ePrivacy Directive was needed in order to make this legislation fit for the future of online retail

Before Brexit, and despite the ever-intensifying security challenges, EU governments had progressively lost interest in the Union’s defence policy. As a result, the French do not assume that their EU partners will always rush to support their military operations. In general, they haven’t robustly supported France in Africa in recent years, although Germany has enhanced its presence in Mali since the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks. But if acting through the EU could help ensure more military support from other EU members, France would find that preferable to acting alone.

Can France and Germany lead European defence?

By: EBR | Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Soon after Britain voted to leave the European Union in June, Ursula von der Leyen, the German Defence Minister, said that Germany and France would lead talks with other EU member states to assess their appetite for closer defence cooperation

For the Europhile elites, accepting that the people want to keep a certain identity, sovereignty and security is unthinkable. I think they have been extremely condescending. This is why we saw the rise of protest voting and now see real electoral rebellions.

Hubert Védrine: ‘European elites showed disdain for the people’

By: EBR | Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Hubert Védrine is a French Socialist Party politician. He is a former member of the French Council of State and was minister for foreign affairs from 1997 to 2002 under Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. Védrine recently published a book entitled Saving Europe

Our Europe is, and has been, one of diversity: rich in distinct regional cultures, languages and identities. The love for our great literary traditions as well as of democratic principles belongs to all, both across Europe and around the world.

What does it mean to be European?

By: EBR | Wednesday, December 28, 2016

What does it mean to be European in the 21st century?

What however is surprising are the latest news coming from Denmark, a country which is generally considered as being extremely efficient and “progressive” in dealing with various social problems.

Greece, Denmark and European madness

By: EBR | Tuesday, December 27, 2016

The last months articles appeared in the international-especially German-press concerning the inefficiency of the Greek state in guarding its borders and preventing dangerous elements from moving from Greece to the rest of Europe

The topics of immigration and terrorism, narrowly, and safety and security, broadly, bring back the essence of European collaboration. These were the core principles that started European cooperation 60 years ago. This is what people truly wanted. This has an emotional value. Fortunately, most people today have not known wars in Europe. Seventy years ago this was different. If you were a young European, you would have lost millions among your age group on the battlefield. The military graves across Europe show the tangible remains of hundreds of thousands of young French, Germans, American, British and soldiers of other nationalities.

Europe in 2017: These are the key events to watch out for

By: EBR | Friday, December 23, 2016

What are the key events to watch in Europe in 2017?

The failed example of the Agenda 2020, which was never implemented, dragging to failure a series of ECB programs should not be repeated. Similarly, we should avoid mistakes of the past that made Cohesion Policy cumbersome and unpopular: bureaucracy, formalism and excessive costs gave the (wrong) impression that funds in European Regions are wasted to no avail. The first EFSI assessments, however, also indicate the same conclusions: labyrinth procedures, complex bank mechanisms and difficulties in participation from the administrative mechanisms of the Member States. This leaves one to wonder whether Europe has stopped being effective for good.

The Juncker Plan and funding opportunities for public works

By: EBR | Monday, December 12, 2016

The announcement of the Juncker Plan in 2014 and the consequent creation of funding tools have already-from the previous funding period- established a new framework for investments in the public sector in Europe

Dragnea succeeded the former Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta at the helm of the Social Democratic Party in 2015 and served as his deputy from 2012 to 2015. His intervention comes in the wake of a two-year investigation by the Environmental Investigation Agency US (EIA), an NGO, which says it recorded officials from an Austrian firm, Holzindustrie Schweighofer, offering to buy illegal timber from investigators posing as buyers and filmed unmarked logs dumped at the company’s depots in apparent violation of Romanian law.

EU urged to help combat ”devastating” illegal logging in Romania

By: EBR | Thursday, December 1, 2016

Liviu Dragnea, the leader of Romania’s Social Democratic Party (PSD), has called for “more effort” to preserve Europe’s last remaining virgin forests in Romania. At a meeting with Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern, Dragnea described the forests as a “national treasure”

”The best thing, from a European perspective, should be that this is not a Russian company but one from Kazakhstan, which controls the world’s 12th largest reserves of crude oil and gas,” says Wilson. But the company is now embroiled in a potentially highly damaging dispute with Romanian prosecutors. It comes after KMG announced in April that it was selling 51 per cent of its subsidiary to a Chinese company in a joint venture that would open up bigger investment in the Black Sea region. Two weeks later Romanian prosecutors announced that they were freezing company assets worth an estimated $2.1 billion as part of a corruption inquiry.

Romania case could pose ”real threat” to EU’s energy security

By: EBR | Thursday, December 1, 2016

This is the season for voting across Europe, truly a referendum on how governments across the EU are performing, post Brexit and Trump, and after Moldova and Bulgaria seemed to go pro Russia. Romanians go to the polls on 11 December

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EU Actually

Far-left and far-right gains throw French mainstream parties into a quandary

By: N. Peter Kramer

In many big towns and cities, Socialists and centre-right Republicans are tempted to make electoral pacts on their outside flanks to beat the opposition in next Sunday’s run off of the French mayoral elections.

Europe

Russia’s Imperial Retreat Is Europe’s Strategic Opportunity

The war in Ukraine is costing Russia its leverage overseas. Across the South Caucasus and Middle East, this presents an opportunity for Europe to pick up the pieces and claim its own sphere of influence.

Business

EU risks losing US soy imports under deforestation rules, Washington warns

The regulation would make the bloc less attractive for American exporters, a senior USDA official said