Europe has lost its leverage in the places that matter - Guardian columnist Martin Woolacott on Europe’s declining influence

I’m certainly no expert on the Cyprus question. But John Quiggin at Crooked Timber has made the claim that the upcoming referendum on the reunification of Cyprus is of monumental importance for the future of Europe, the EU, and the Middle East–so much so that the eventual fate of Iraq (very likely “an imperfectly democratic [...]

This is really a case of two stories in search of a common theme: a theme, that is, which goes beyond the rather random unifying factor of the work of Shanghai based ‘foreign correspondent’ Fons Tuinstra. In fact both points emerged from browsing his blog.
In the first place we have the problem with the [...]

We’ll meet again - Berlusconi leads the criticism of the Franco-German-British summit, as they insist they intend to continue meeting as a triumvirate

On the previously mentioned subject of Europe’s “free” movement of labor (and the possibility of a massive influx of cheap labor from the east come EU accession time) here’s an article I wrote on the topic in November for Czech and Slovak Construction Journal (for some reason the article’s not posted online).
If you’re too [...]

As someone who lives and works in Barcelona (capital of Catalonia, and formal definition in the eyes of the local nationalists of being Catalan), it is really rather frustrating to find that about the only time we make it to the European headlines (apart, of course, from when Bar?a wants to buy some world famous [...]

Now maybe David is sitting there today asking himself just what the hell that post of Edward’s on outsouring in the US had to do with a European centred blog. Well the answer didn’t take long in reaching us: the euro rose to a fresh record above $1.29 today as upbeat U.S. data [...]

The Czech press digest Fleet Sheet puts out a free email bulletin with blog-like observations on Czech culture, business and politics. Though it’s sometimes a bit off base, it’s worth looking at to get a sense of the scene in Prague. Today’s…
Why does Prague airport have expensive self-service parking machines, when the CR is a [...]

Has Schroeder started a trend? Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller is resigning the leadership of the Democratic Left Alliance, but will remain in office as PM

Well, we didn’t win - congratulations to Daily Kos, who won Best Group Blog, and all the other winners of the Koufax Awards