Throughout the recent Balkan wars, Macedonia was the shoe that stubbornly refused to fall. Wars in Bosnia, in Kosovo did not spread to Macedonia. The blockade imposed by Greece in the early years of independence did not rise to open conflict. Latent Bulgarian claims were amicable resolved. Chaos in Albania did not become contagion. Many [...]

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 [...]

Olivier Guichard, one of ‘the Last Barons of Gaullism’ has died. New York Times has an obituary.

After 25 years in the European Parliament, Iain Paisley has announced that he will not be standing for re-election as an MEP this year.
This means, of course, that the Parliament will be losing one of it’s more colurful characters whose explits included (as Anthony Wells reminded me) being forcefully removed from the chamber by Otto [...]

I’m mighty flattered that I’ve been promoted to “guest blogger extraordinaire” even though I’ve been silent the whole of this year so far (due mainly to illness). Sorry about that!
Well, here goes.
Take a look at this Czech press review from today, in which Prague daily Lidove Noviny reports that Miroslav Grebenicek, the Communist [...]

BBC NEWS | Europe | EU pins hopes on Serbia reformers

Ukraine’s Constitutional Court clears Kuchma for third term

Jiri Pehe – once an advisor to Vaclav Havel, now an academic and a go-to man for international journalists seeking smart quotes about Czech politics — once pointed out to me that Czech president Vaclav Klaus is more anti-integration than just about every mainstream politician in Europe with the exception of one branch of the [...]

A very interesting take on the Yukos situation from the Moscow Times. And one which relates directly to some of the privatisation issues we were debating recently. Boris Kagarlitsky, director of the Institute of Globalization Studies, argues basically that given that the Russian economy is dominated by an oligarchic structure of raw materials quasi-monopolies, and [...]

Further to my piece on the troubles of the Conservative Party the other day - Iain Duncan Smith was defeated in the confidence vote - The Guardian has a roundup of some of the European press’ reaction and comment to the news.