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EU Is Laying the Foundations of a European Defence Union

When France and the UK decided to join efforts with the US to respond to the chemical attack in the Syrian town of Douma many in the EU, mostly in the European Parliament, criticised the two EU member states for not consulting at EU level on the upcoming strikes. Moreover, the leader of the Libe ...

European Parliament To Be More National or More European? This Is the Question

For the time being, European democracy remains largely national. This is, as briefly described as possible, the outcome of the informal EU summit, which took place in Brussels on 23 February. The result alone is not a big surprise, given the still strong Eurosceptic sentiment. What is surprising ...

February Eurogroup Opened the Season of Horse Trading with EU Top Jobs

The meeting of the eurozone finance ministers on February 19th could have passed completely unnoticed, even for the biggest Eurogroup fans, if it were not for the election of Spanish Finance Minister Luis De Guindos for vice president of the European Central Bank. The meeting did not produc ...

Can the European Parliament Become Really European?

The European Parliament is one of the main institutions of the European union, often boasting that its members are directly elected by the European citizens, ergo being the most democratically legitimate of them all. With an annual budget of 1.9 billion euros (for 2017), 751 deputies and thousan ...

23 EU Member States Decided To Go for Deeper Integration of Defence

Eight years after the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the EU will for the first time use one of its provisions, which lays the foundations of deeper integration in the area of defence and security - the establishment of a permanent structured cooperation in defence (PESCO). Although Proto ...

Finally the European Prosecutor's Office Is Born

After four years of tough negotiations, the European Union has made a big integration step in an area which has always been a taboo - justice and home affairs. On 12 October, the justice ministers of 20 member states voted unanimously to create an office of the European prosecutor (EPPO), who wi ...

EPP's Bad Boys

Photos from Catalonia where the Spanish authorities used excessive force against those willing to participate in an illegal referendum in the autonomous Spanish province caused justified reactions of indignation that such a thing is possible in the European Union. Even more revolting was the sil ...

Emmanuel Macron Put France Back into EU Driver's Seat

A leader has been born. For a very long time Europe has lacked leadership and vision, and for even longer France was the passive part of the Franco-German motor of European integration. But this has changed on 26 September, when the young president of France, Emmanuel Macron, turned a new page a ...

Juncker's Triumph

There is no doubt that European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker (Luxembourg, EPP) will remain in history as one of European Union's fathers, side by side to names like Jean Monnet, Robert Schumann, Konrad Adenauer, Helmut Kohl, Jacques Delors. His State of the Union address this year is ...

What Future for EU Budget after Brexit?

That time approaches in the EU when member states will begin talking about money. The seven-year cycle of the common budget is now coming to an end, and as tradition calls for, the talks about the post-2020 cycle will begin two years earlier. This time, however, will be radically different bec ...

EU Is Making a New Integration Step - Building a Defence Union

Almost a year ago, when the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security, Federica Mogherini (Italy, Socialists and Democrats), presented the new global security strategy of the Union right at the peak of the Brexit, it did not appear that the deep integration in the field ...

EU Will Fight Populism by Harnessing Globalisation

More than 10 years have passed from the success of Thomas L. Friedman's book "The World Is Flat", which praises globalisation. Since then, the attitude toward this process has turned 180 degrees and has served as powerful wind in the sails for the enormous growth of populist and nationalist forc ...

Following Macron's Election, Let's Make the EU a Great Democracy Again!

The collision that has been going on for several years in the developed liberal world is somewhat superficially presented as a struggle between mainstream political parties and populists. In the European context, that conflict is presented as a battle between pro-European forces and Euroscepti ...

After the Brexit - the Big Return of France?

Winning the ideologically highly contested elections in a key member country with a strong pro-European agenda against the prevailing Eurosceptic background and versus a strong anti-European candidate, enjoying support of an outside and hostile to the EU country, is definitely a spectacular ...

Is Hungary the Next Britain?

The European Union has finally stopped tolerating the abuse of its liberal system of values ​​and the building of illiberal regimes under its nose. Once the EPP had declared that it is ready to split with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's Fidesz party, the European Commiss ...

Thanks to EPP Blessing the Commission Has Finally Taken Up Hungary

Should you wish to build an illiberal regime within the EU without fear of the almighty Article 2 of the Treaty of Lisbon, do like Orbán, not like Kaczyński – agree to all manner of dialogues and political debates, initiated by the Brussels clerks, nod in understanding, an ...

16 Member States Will Establish the EPPO

After nearly four years of negotiations, many concessions and compromises, and a significant change from the original proposal, the European Public Prosecutor's Office for combating financial fraud with EU funds will be created by only 16 member states in the so-called enhanced coopera ...

At 60 EU Enters a New Phase in Life

On his 60th birthday, the European Union decided to part with its idealism and move towards pragmatism. As euinside reported over recent years (here and here), the romantic period of the Union - the unification of Europe and the invention of a mechanism for preserving peace - is long o ...

EU of Those Running Fast, or of Those Arriving Together?

A lot of tension has piled up in the EU over the last decade between the 50th and 60th anniversaries of the signing of the treaties of Rome, which laid the foundation of today’s European Union. When the half-century anniversary was celebrated, the EU had just finished the arduous proc ...

Hungary Brings Up Communism as a Shield Against Criticism About the State of its Democracy

There was another hearing in the European Parliament last week on the state of human rights and rule of law in Hungary, but as a Hungarian colleague of mine wrote to me “did they say anything new to make it worth watching”. He had not watched it. Actually there were new thi ...

Poland's Weird March Against Its Own Self

Poland opened a new front of confrontation with the EU, but it seems that it will lose. This week the leaders of the member states are about to elect the former Polish prime minister Donald Tusk (EPP) to his second term at the head of the European Council, but the government of the ultra-conserv ...

Juncker to Member States: We Need To Talk!

What is wrong with the EU? It is the product of compromise, the result of which is complex legislation, with many exceptions, which creates pockets of integration and practically just the illusion of a single market and community in general. Compromise is deeply embedded in the fabric of the EU, ...

Bulgaria Is Not Catching Up With EU Peers on Income Convergence

In ten years of EU membership Bulgaria has shown no progress in income convergence with the rest of the member states. Bulgaria remains at the same relative position regarding its peers. This is the toughest conclusion in the annual economic in-depth analysis of the European Commission ...

The Debate on the EU - Informed vs. Uninformed, or Intentionally Misleading

I have began to avoid debates on the future of Europe, for in the last few years they have turned into a boring and pointless exercise, during which moderators ask some too general questions, which have already been asked a thousand times and the invited participants reply in an even more genera ...

The Battle for the EU - Liberalism vs. Illiberalism

It is again a crisis that drives the European Union towards a reconsideration of its state and towards change, as it has always been throughout its 60-year long life. Last year saw just the beginning of talks about the Union’s future after the Brits’ decision to leave it and the elec ...

EU Did Not Commit Suicide. It Is Reinventing Itself

The year 2016 started off quite depressing for the European Union. At the very beginning of the year forecasts started piling in of the impending suicide of the Union, and not just by anybody, but by its institutional leaders. euinside’s text about the upcoming suicide was the most-re ...

The EPPO Might Not Be Ready By Year End

Despite efforts being made, the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) might not be agreed by the end of the year, as are the expectations of the European Commission and the Council’s Presidency. Another deadline will be missed and the discussions surrounding the new European instituti ...

Head-on Collision Between Brussels and Member States Regarding EU's Global Strategy

The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini (Italy, Socialists and Democrats) presented in front of a joint meeting of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee and representatives of national parliaments a plan for the ...

Rule of Political Validity, or Orbán's Way towards Illiberalism

Who lost and who won in the Hungarian referendum on Sunday? A well developed democracy should be able to provide an unequivocal answer. Experience with the Brexit, however, shows that even in the most developed of democracies the answer is not always unequivocal, for there was reasonab ...

Not What EU, but Whose Is the EU. That Was the Question in Bratislava

Never since its creation has the European Union had to prove why it is a peace project, whose aim is to prevent armed conflicts between states in Europe. Some member states last year hurried to send their armies to protect their borders, including internal ones for the Union and Schengen, put up ...

Rebellion against the Status Quo in EU*

Leaders of EU member states (without Great Britain) gathered in Bratislava for a summit, which brings the charge of setting the beginning of a redefinition of the European Union and its possible rebirth. Less than three months ago the 27 gathered in the margins of the June European Cou ...

How Do We Bring Back the Soul of the EU in the Bodies of Member States?

Precise diagnose, but also fragmentation and lack of credibility in suggesting a treatment. This was the essence of the hour-long speech of European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker (Luxembourg, EPP) on the state of the European Union, filled with painfully boring cliché ...

The Autumn of Referenda*

The previous political season ended with a referendum of large magnitude, which shook the entire European Union, but there are mighty aftershocks and individual local earthquakes expected in the new one, for there are three more referenda coming in seismically active areas for the EU and the Eur ...

The New EU Security Strategy Reveals Internal and External Insecurity

An important piece of news with a long-term horizon did not manage to push through the flood of short-term solutions that the EU is fully occupied with at the moment. There could hardly be any worse timing for the presentation of the long-awaited global strategy of the EU by High Repre ...

Brussels, Do We Know Each Other?

Can you imagine that the prime minister of a member state from the innermost levels of the EU – Schengen and the euro area – knows nothing of the European Parliament? Moreover, we are talking about a country, which has just taken over the rotating presidency of the Council, meaning d ...

Commission Was Completely Ignored by Council on EPPO

The intergovernmental approach is winning in the creation of a regulation on the establishment of an European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), which would investigate crimes against the EU’s financial interests. Work on the project has turned in a Eurosceptic direction fr ...

Mitov: Western Balkans Should be Treated as EU Members

Enlargement needs a change and a serious one at that. This opinion united in Zagreb the foreign ministers of Bulgaria and Croatia. The Bulgarian Minister Daniel Mitov was far bolder in his vision, while his Croatian counterpart was more concentrated on sending messages to certain neighbouring st ...

Is There a Future for the European Project?

“Et tu, Brute?” would Julius Caesar ask Austria today, after, at the first round of the presidential elections, the far-right Freedom Party came back to the political scene with a bang. The party’s candidate Norbert Hofer came out first and the chances of him being the next p ...

Hungary Tripped the EU again with Poland's Help on LGBTI Rights

Continuing the saga from the beginning of December, when Hungary and Poland blocked a deal, being prepared for over five years to settle asset disputes of married couples and registered partnerships, including gay couples, in the beginning of March the Social Affairs Council of the EU ...

Dutch Referendum Proves Eurosceptics Wrong

On April 7th, 32.38% of Dutch eligible voters voted in a referendum for the approval or dismissal of the hard reached comprehensive trade agreement with the Ukraine, which precipitated that country's war with Russia. Out of these 32.38% of the voters, 61% voted against the ratification of the tr ...

Member States Disagreed on EPPO Financing As Well

Despite all differences between member states another presidency in a row is working hard on finding a compromise on one of the most difficult European dossiers – the common European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) for dealing with European funds fraud. The Dutch Presid ...

Mr Juncker, Didn't Obama Show You How It's Done?

On Wednesday, there was an event held in the EU, which usually doesn’t gather much attention, but the combination with other events made it attractive. We are talking about the visit of Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev to Brussels. Yes, no mistake. We are talking about the ...

Will the Brussels Attacks Finally Unite Us?

The bombing attacks in Brussels of the morning of March 22 are somewhat different from the Paris horror just several months earlier. The blasts at the Brussels Zaventem airport and in the Maalbeek underground station, situated in the European district of Brussels, showed quite clearly that this ...

Winter Is Coming to the EU

If you want to stall the EU, organise a referendum. It does not matter what it is about, as long as it is against the EU. Mere hours after the weary European leaders shook hands with British Prime Minister David Cameron on transforming the special relations between Great Britain and th ...

No New Visions Over Next 6 Months, Just Abiding by the Rules

Ever since the Treaty of Lisbon the change of the rotating presidencies of the Council of the European Union poses no great interest, except when something different is happening, for several important positions were created which took over leading functions from the presidencies, thus ensu ...

2015 - The Year of New Flaws in EU Architecture

If in 2009 the global economic and financial crisis exposed gaps in the construction of the euro area, in 2015 the refugee crisis and terrorism exposed the lack of union in areas like security, external border policing, and once more, as with the euro area crisis, the lack of soli ...

Poland and Hungary Blocked EU

The change in course towards euroscepticism in Poland is already strongly felt at European level. After nearly five years of negotiations and difficult compromises, with a ready to sign agreement for settling married couples' and registered partnerships’ disputes, Poland and Hungary outr ...

European Prosecution With No Wings

You should never count your chickens before they hatch and always measure EU integration by the creation of common institutions. In this sense, the ministers of justice of the EU made one more bad news for the supporters of more Europe. They came closer to an agreement on the proposal ...

Instead of Article 5

There are good news and bad news for the European Union after the Paris terrorist attacks of November 13th. Let us start with the good news. For the first time in history the leaders of the 28 member states came out with a common statement after the tragedy, in which almost 130 people ...

A Clash between EP and Eurogroup Chief over Greece

The first discussion of the third bailout programme for Greece was scheduled to commence in the late afternoon of November 10th in the European Parliament’s economic committee with the participation of Eurogroup leader Jeroen Dijsselbloem (the Netherlands, Socialists and Dem ...

Either a Strong European Prosecutor's Office, or None

After they froze all work on half of the articles of the draft regulation for creation of an European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) the Ministers of Justice demonstrated they are unable to come to an agreement on the second half of the regulation either. During a co ...

EU Is a Babylon Tower

With great delay, I must admit, I'm making a debut with a podcast upon request by zealos readers. For the first podcast I chose a different angle to look at EU summits in Brussels - language barriers. The podcast is in English. Hope you like it :) class="notIdented">

From Unification to Disunity and Back Again

“Europe of sovereignties and sovereigntism”. "A time to decide – together or goodbye!”. “A federation on the horizon, or just a mirage?”. “Euro-sceptics are killing Europe”. “Hollande and Merkel in a parallel reality”. “Who leads ...

Dude, Where's My Union?

The state of the European Union is not good. Not only that but there is not enough Europe in it, or enough union. This is Jean-Claude Juncker’s assessment after a year at the head of the European Commission. The address was the longest to date not only because the state of the Un ...

Work on a Major Part of the European Prosecutor's Office Is Frozen

It was exactly two years ago that the European Commission proposed the establishment of a single European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) to fight EU funds embezzlement. In the two years that passed progress made is negligible and proved correct the expectations that ...

Who Is Guy Verhofstadt?

It is extremely rare for Bulgarian society to get inflamed over a European subject and even rarer to be impressed by a European leader. It is Guy Verhofstadt who managed to accomplish that. His speech in the European Parliament on Wednesday morning during the debate with Greek Prime Minister Ale ...

The New European Council President Donald Tusk Is a Fighter against Hopelessness and Monotony

The first week of change in EU is already a fact. As of 1 December, at the helm of the European Council - the most powerful and policy-defining body in the EU - has stood Donald Tusk, the former prime minister of Poland. His very first activities set the tone of a significant change of the post, ...

The Non-Confidence Vote Against Juncker's Commission - Great Interest but not Interesting

The first one hundred days not having passed yet and the first political European Commission was subjected to a non-confidence vote because of its President Jean-Claude Juncker - a former prime minister and minister of finance of Luxembourg several terms in a row - who is deemed responsible ...

Can We Trust the Member States for the European Prosecutor's Office?

The more the discussions in the various EU formats deepen on the European Commission's proposal for a single European Prosecution's Office, the more the disagreements and uncertainties. The Italian presidency aims to accelerate the negotiations in the Council but it seems that they will continue ...

The First Political European Commission Will Work for Triple A Social Rating

On 1 November, the new and quite different European Commission has started work, led by the veteran European politician Jean-Claude Juncker. This is the date that marks the beginning of a huge change in the EU toward creation of genuine European politics. Should this be perceived in some member ...

Tibor Navracsics Is the Elephant in EU Room

The European Parliament has created an odd precedent by half approving (not final) Hungary's candidate for EU Commissioner Tibor Navracsics, whom the new European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker entrusted the Education, Culture, Youth and Citizenship portfolio. And the inherent duplici ...

From Magna Carta to Indyref

A 307-years-old union was put to its biggest test since its inception but the British have again proved that they are the creators of the modern democracy. The referendum on 18 September on Scotland's independence was a true lesson in democracy, especially at a time when it is seriously threaten ...

Federica Mogherini Is the Right Person for the Job

Around the selection of a new high representative for the EU foreign and security policy the thought that this post is usually given to a person with no foreign policy experience frequently crosses one's mind. This was the case with the first high rep after the introduction of this post with the ...

Finally a Strong and Government-like European Commission

Jean-Claude Juncker has proved, again, to be a master of compromise. The composition of the new European Commission, the distribution of portfolios and the new structure reveal the veteran prime minister's exceptional skills to manoeuvre among many and various interests. For the first time, the ...

The Point of No Return

In the EU, there is also a process of realisation of the threat Russia represents. Alas, the divergence in the way the Eastern crisis is being interpreted is still huge in the member states. The good news is that this is a major pillar in the new European Council president's mandate. The bad new ...

Is Angela Merkel the New EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs?

The EU is facing three huge foreign policy crises with potentially tragic consequences for security. Alas, these crises have again revealed the Union's incapability to act as a community. Until recently the main speakers on the Eastern crisis were the Baltic states, Poland and Sweden. On the cri ...

Viktor Orban: It's Time for Regime Change!

Still not having completely experienced the taste of democracy, market economy and European values the Hungarians are again going through a regime change less than 30 years after the previous one. This was made crystal clear by another daring speech by Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban on 26 ...

The Juncker Precedent

There is no doubt that the European Parliament has won this time in the battle with the Council. However, there is a danger this victory to prove Pyrrhic. Jean-Claude Juncker has already been elected president of the European Commission, but the way the European Parliament tried to trade it ...

MEPs from EPP Group Asked Juncker To Create a European History Portfolio

A group of EPP MEPs have sent a letter to the new European Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, asking him the new European Commission to pay special attention on the legacy of totalitarian regimes and their crimes. The letter has been sent upon the initiative of Croatian MEP Andrej Plenko ...

Leaders Adopted a Strategic Agenda To Quell Juncker

Many things have happened for the first time in the EU at the last European elections. For the first time a president of the European Commission was nominated (Jean-Claude Juncker) after a pan-European election campaign and severe disputes in the European Council. For the first time, a president ...

David Cameron - The Steadfast Tin Soldier

A victory or a loss? Was it actually a war? After the severe confrontation between the British PM David Cameron and the rest in the EU over the election of a European Commission president, the assessment of the outcome depends on which side of the Channel it is made. The biggest loser, however, ...

EU in Rabbit Hole

EU is slowly falling into the rabbit hole. However, the EU is not an Alice but 28 Alices led by various degrees of curiosity to see is it really possible a talking rabbit to exist with a coat and a watch or a European Commission chief who can be a reformer and innovator, a supporter of a looser ...

More Powers for National Parliaments? This Should Have a Price

Former German President Roman Herzog joined the choir of reformers in EU who want more powers for national parliaments in the Union. In a special article, Mr Herzog calls for "defensive rights" of national parliaments against EU and for measures against over-regulation from Brussels. Bureaucracy ...

This Year's May 9th Is the Saddest So Far

I wrote this article for last year's May 9th, but I believe it is still valid today. With a few complements. First and foremost the title. Today it should be "This year's May 9th Is the Scariest Ever", because almost 70 years later Europe is (was?) again on the brink of a war. The memories of th ...

Bulgaria Needs a Roadmap for Euro Area Membership

To 30% of Bulgarian citizens, nothing has changed in the first seven years of Bulgaria's EU membership. 23 per cent believe that Bulgaria has sustained losses from the membership, while 36% believe that, on the contrary, the country has gained. This is a significant drop in comparison to the fir ...

Merkel Is Mutti Not Only To Germans But To All Europeans

2 weeks ahead of the long awaited visit by Angela Merkel in London, I myself had to go to the British capital. I have to admit that my heart was bleeding because I have the stamp on my ID documents saying "Bulgarian" and I was worried how exactly will I pass the border control after the hysteria ...

A Possible Reform of the EU Has Risks for Bulgaria

In the EU's older part, one of the main points on the public agenda is the future of the Union. Where to from now on? With whom? How? Treaty changes are being discussed and even leaving the Union. However, this is not a leading topic in the Community's newest part, as in some countries it is not ...

Who or What Kind Should the Next European Commission Chief Be?

Two paths are stretched out in front of the EU. One is to continue its business as usual but toward a slow and painful disintegration because of the quickly growing discontent with the status quo and the sense of unfairness and of failure. The second is to begin treaty changes and renegotiate th ...

The Netherlands Is Afraid of Low-Qualified Bulgarians

If it were not for the Iron Curtain, for sure Bulgarians and Romanians, but also Slovaks, Czechs, Poles and all the others for whom the Berlin Wall was an obstacle in front of their economic and individual freedom, would not have been the poor relatives who endanger the wellbeing of their wester ...

Greece - a Presidency of Failure or of Success?

"My country has been tried in recent years to the point that no other member of the European Union ever has. It has been tried on account of its own mistakes, which went on for decades. It was even tried on account of structural weaknesses of the single currency". No, these are not the words of ...

We Definitely Need a New Deal on Europe

The initially considered as heretic idea of UK's Prime Minister David Cameron for a reform of the EU is expanding with such a speed that it catches many of the European institutions and citizens completely offguard. The London call is being joined by voices from Berlin, Stockholm or Amsterd ...

A European Federation of the Trifles

Recently, around the time of the tragic accident near the Italian island of Lampedusa, the European Commission was subjected to a relentless attack of questions during one of the regular press briefings in Brussels. An Italian colleague was persistently asking a spokesperson whether, indeed ...

A Controversial Start of Discussions on the European Prosecutor's Office

Do you remember the SAPARD trial? There is no way that you can forget it because it was a trans-European case of fraud with pre-accession funds for Bulgaria in which the German accomplices got effective prison sentences in Germany, while their Bulgarian partners were fully acquitted in Bulgaria, ...

PRISM Significantly Changed EU Attitudes for Personal Data

In January 2012, the European Commission proposed a radical reform of the European legislation on data protection so that it can be in line with the evolution of the online environment. Among the main changes the Commission proposed were common rules for personal data protection valid for the en ...

Gambling and Vote Buying To Be Included in the Fight with Organised Crime at EU Level

On September 17th, the temporary committee of the European Parliament has completed its work, after almost 15 months, on Salvatore Lacolino's report (EPP, Italy) via which the committee recommends legislative measures to counteract crime, money laundering and corruption. The last proposed amendm ...

UK: Should I Stay Or Should I Go!?

As the tradition goes, the partnership between the EU and UK is exceptional, literally - from one exception to another, from one opt-out to another. In the past year, the trend of opt-outs is returning in full blossom in the relations between Brussels and London as the culmination is expected in ...

The Rule of Law Mechanism Should Be Without Anti-Eastern Bias

In his state of the union address this year European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso mentioned the rule of law as one of the fundamental European values that is growingly under threat. It is not his first time to point out to that problem - in his last year's address he, too, said that ...

Barroso: EU Is Not the Enemy in National Beds. It's the Governments

European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso chose an unusual way to bid farewell to MEPs, the member states and citizens. During his traditional address about the state of the union the former Portuguese prime minister, who is nearing the end of his second term in office marking an entire deca ...

Barroso's Last Autumn?

A very dramatic European political season is looming up, marking the beginning of, may be, the first in EU's history common European pre-election campaign or, at least, these are the ambitions. In the end of May there will be not simply elections for MEPs that will take place almost simulta ...

European Prosecution - a Hope for European Taxpayers

"The criminals who take advantage of the flaws in legislation to embezzle money of the taxpayers should not be left unpunished because we do not have the appropriate tools to indict them", said Viviane Reding, vice president of the European Commission and commissioner for justice, on the occasio ...

Enrico Letta: Europe Needs a New Rationale

How should the EU continue its development in the future is an issue which has been discussed for several months now, confirming the perception that the Union is at crossroads. The debate already joined together or individually some of the founding members of the EU - Germany, France, The Nether ...

Meet the Small But Very Brave Baltic Tigers!

"There are different mentalities and different ideas about political responsibility in the North and the South". This is what Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite said in an interview for the German weekly Der Spiegel in April on the occasion of the first presidency of the Council of the EU ...

Politicisation of the European Commission Is a Problem

The European Commission is often called in textbooks and information leaflets a 'government of the EU'. This definition until the beginning of the eurozone crisis was not only not true, but had no chances of starting to come closer to the truth. Ever since the crisis has started, however, the Co ...

Mafia - a Substitute State

When recently I came across the words of Sicily mafia boss Giuseppe Abate, whose vision about politics is based on the simple thesis that "when you have hot sun, poverty and ignorance, politics is self-made", I told myself: "well, that's why in spite of our moderate climate, in our field the gen ...

A Complete Failure of the Citizens' Dialogue with Viviane Reding in Bulgaria

A striking gap between what the Bulgarian citizens wanted to tell European Commission Vice President Viviane Reding and what she wanted to hear from them. One of the reasons is more complex and we can discuss till the end of time who is to blame because there is a complete absence of a real dial ...

Latvia Has Completed Its European Integration

Many ask the question why does Latvia need to join the eurozone at a time when this is hardly the most attractive club against the backdrop not only of the temporarily abating debt crisis, but also the differences about its future. This, of course, is hard to understand for countries that have n ...

Slovenia Wants a EU with Strong Central Government, Parliament and Bank

Completely conscious that he was jumping too high, the Slovene president managed only in 20 minutes to win and in the same time incite the European Parliament on the eve of a key EU summit at which it was planned another big step to be undertaken in deepening the European integration, but it see ...

Oresharski 450 - the Freezing Point of Bulgaria's Economy, Society and Politics

"All countries can govern themselves very well, if only they listen to the European Commission recommendations". This is what European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said half-jokingly asked by Bulgarian journalist Georgi Gotev to comment on the Gunter Oettinger's statement that Bulgar ...

Too High Expectations with the "Anti-Mafia" Committee in European Parliament

The special committee for organised crime, corruption and money laundering started its meeting on April 23rd with turning the spotlight onto an isolated case. The decision of the committee's chairwoman Sonia Alfano (ALDE, Italy) to raise the issue about a signal of an assassination threat for th ...

Should EU Drop Its 'Atom Bomb' on Hungary?

"Hungary is trampling over our common values and denying them to its citizens". "That's why there is a clear case to trigger Article 7.1 of the Treaty, because in Hungary there is a clear risk of a serious breach of the fundamental European values set out in Article 2". This is what Guy Verhofst ...

Contemporary Crime Requires Contemporary Solutions. Will We Have Them?

The next meeting of the committee on organised crime, corruption and money laundering (LIBE) in the European Parliament, scheduled for April 23rd in Brussels, is expected to be very busy. On the agenda is discussing the 744 proposals for amendments to the interim report for tackling organised cr ...

Vladimir Shopov: Bulgarians Are Unable To Generate a Vision for Their Future

2012 ended with protests in a small, northern Balkan country - Slovenia that evolved into a rebellion against the system. And 2013 marked the beginning of a series of protests in Bulgaria where everything seemed as if frozen forever in its inaction and lack of perspective. Hungary into the new ...

Hollande's Europe: Integration and Solidarity

There is no doubt that France and Germany are the motor of the European Union and this is especially evident from the appearances of the leaders of the two countries on European stage. But you will be mistaken to think that it is about their participation in the Council of the EU or the EU summ ...

Migrants Are Good for the EU and It Is Time We Admit That

The issue of benefits from migrants in many EU member states is often raised, although the negative attitude prevails. With the deepening of the crisis in many countries in the Union and the adverse forecasts for economic growth, however, the conversation turns into hysteria as recently happene ...

Everything on the Table

After David Cameron's speech about Britain's future relations with the European Union, not a few journalists and analysts compared it, to some extent jokingly, to the famous family phrase "Honey, we have to talk", which usually is a prelude to a parting and possible to a divorce. The desire for ...

Full Text of David Cameron's European Speech

This morning I want to talk about the future of Europe. But first, let us remember the past.Seventy years ago, Europe was being torn apart by its second catastrophic conflict in a generation. A war which saw the streets of European cities strewn with rubble. The skies of London lit by flames nig ...

David Cameron - the Heretic

David Cameron has a very serious flaw - he does not have patience. This is especially evident during his interviews, news conferences, statements in Parliament. He does not have patience to wait for a question to end before answering. This creates rather a feeling of haste, not as much of fast t ...

Eurogroup 2.0

A stage of the Eurogroup evolution (the eurozone finance ministers) has officially ended on January 21st when the first permanent president of the format, Jean-Claude Juncker, was replaced by the young Dutch Minister of Finance Jeroen Dijsselbloem. The selection of the new president was accompan ...

European Customs Raise the Level of Security

Each year the European customs cross 2 billion goods, amounting to 3 300 billion euros and customs duties worth 16.6 billion euros are collected. Contrary to the common perception in Bulgaria that the customs are only a duties collection state body, in the past 40 years the EU has additionally t ...

One Subject with Many Unknowns - a European Political Party

In September 2012, when Jose Manuel Barroso presented a proposal for changes in the legislation related to the European political parties, euinside asked: Will the European political parties create European politics? Three months later, when the Constitutional Affairs Committee in the European P ...

The Moment for Formal Division of Europe into at Least Two Is Approaching

It is all evident that quite soon will come the moment when the federalist-inclined politicians and countries in the EU will have to count themselves. Ideas for the future of Europe have literally flooded the European public domain in the beginning of the new political autumn, which also marks a ...

Will the European Political Parties Create European Politics?

Finally, the moment of federalists in the EU has come, whose ideas have so far been repelled with disdain and the words "at the moment we have more important things to do than drawing a future federation". It was not that long ago (2011) when one of the outspoken members of the European Parliame ...

Europe Is Our Future*

On November 28th will be the 1st anniversary of Radek Sikorski's, Poland's foreign minister, message from Berlin which inflamed passions and divided Polish society. Then he called on Germany to act and said that he feared much more Germany's inaction than Germany's power - words-taboo in Poland ...

The Court in Karlsruhe: Politicians Have to Offer Solutions for the Future of the Eurozone

For months Europe and the whole world have been expecting the decision of the German Constitutional Court on the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Euro Area, also known as the Fiscal Compact. The Court had to answer the question wh ...

Europe Is One

The European Union is in a systemic crisis. This crisis is also economic, social and political in the sense that it is a crisis of confidence - not only of the financial markets but also among the member states and the citizens of the EU. This is what European Commission President Jose Manuel Ba ...

The European Union Needs a New Fundamental Myth

Political exotic, extreme populism or politics as usual is euroscepticism, practised by an increasing number of political parties across Europe? Whose enemy is mistrust in the EU and who is afraid of it? Those are some of the issues to be discussed in public on 4 September, Tuesday, at 10 am dur ...

The Future of the EU in 10 Minutes

On May 9th, the day of Europe, the European Commission has launched a questionnaire on the future of Europe. In it the citizens are called to answer to several short questions as for their general visions about how the EU should look like in 2020 so for more specific everyday life issues. Accord ...

A Comparative Read of Versions 1 and 2 of EU's Fiscal Compact

The fiscal compact, agreed at the European Council on December 8-9 2011 has to be ratified by 15 countries in order to enter into force, according to the second draft of the treaty, presented to the member states in the working group on Friday (January 6). This is one of the essential novelties ...

European Commission Wants to Take Control over Schengen

Whatever decision, related to the reintroduction of internal border controls in the European Union, will be taken by the European Commission and will be implemented together with the member states, and the European Parliament will be duly informed about the foreseen measures. This is the essence ...

The pan-European list is the biggest problem of the electoral reform

Almost no interest at all was shown in the news conference of British MEP Andrew Duff (ALDE) on his proposal for an electoral reform to be realised before next European Parliament elections in 2014. In spite of the lack of interest however, Mr Duff emphasized precisely on the criticism by outlin ...

Sweden and Germany are blocking the creation of a European private company

Sweden and Germany are the countries that have again postponed the adoption of a regulation for the creation of a European private company with limited liability. This happened during the latest Competitiveness Council in Brussels this week, during which the latest Presidency compromise proposal ...

The European Parliament is making another step toward federalism

Would you vote for a Member of the European Parliament, selected from a European list and not from a national one? And would you do that while in the same time voting for an MEP from a national list too? Maybe the answers to these questions at a European level would help a lot when implementing ...

Poland is now officially taking the relations of the new EU with Eastern Europe

Poland's role in the relations with Eastern-European countries is extremely important and this is why Germany and France intend to enhance the cooperation between the European Union and its Eastern partners with Poland's assistance. This is what German Chancellor Angela Merkel said during her vi ...

The Madrid compromise unblocked the establishment of the European diplomatic service

The Spanish Presidency of the European Union has ended with many unresolved issues, but with one big breakthrough - the Madrid compromise on the European External Action Service. The creation of the Service, one of the most important consequences of the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty was ...

Is a common European diplomacy possible?

The European Parliament succeeded in winning valuable points in the battle for the future European External Action Service. High Representative of the EU for Foreign affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton in her turn won the hard battle with MEPs who had accepted her with skepticism and ru ...

EU's diplomatic service is now in the hands of Parliament

The European External Action Service will be able to perform a limited number of consular activities, the EU ministers of foreign affairs have agreed at their General Affairs Council in Luxembourg on Monday. They have reached a compromise also on the possibility head of EU missions to be represe ...

Baroness Ashton with a new plan for the European diplomatic service

The first European diplomat Catherine Ashton has made changes in her proposal for the structure of the new European External Action Service (EEAS). It is expected the new structure to be discussed by the foreign ministers of the 27 EU member states at their Council in Luxembourg on April 26. But ...

Sofia is hoping to get one EU ambassador

Bulgaria will consider a success getting one head of mission position from 32 announced vacancies for heads of EU diplomatic missions in third countries. The procedure is part of a regular rotation of diplomatic representatives, which so far headed the delegations of the European Commission. Wit ...

The diplomacy of the Baroness or the baroness of diplomacy

The first European diplomat Catherine Ashton succeeded in proving her critics they were wrong, winning the right to disperse the biggest development budget in the world. According to baronesses' proposal for the new European External Action Service (EEAS), she will get key powers in the manageme ...

Ashton: We need to respond like Europeans!

How far is the European Union ready to go in its foreign policy depends on its capability to overcome internal contradictions, as well as on being more united. This conclusion came up during the debates in the European parliament on the Annual assessment of EU activities in the area of foreign a ...

Sofia wants eurodiplomats to be selected on a geographic principle

The Bulgarian position for the new European External Affairs Service (EEAS) states that the distribution of posts must be based on a geographic principle, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Vessela Cherneva said. She explained that currently the main idea was the appointment of ...

Undiplomatic about the European diplomatic service

When she announced in the European Parliament that the creation of the new European External Affairs Service as one of her priorities, the then candidate for the first EU diplomat Catherine Ashton hardly realised what a headache this could cause her. A month later baroness Ashton was caught in t ...

Anniversary meeting of the Council of the European Union

3 thousand meetings of the Council of the European Union: the anniversary meeting was of the Council of Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs. Probably you have heard many times "today there is a meetings of the General Affairs and External Relations Council, or of ECOFIN, or of ...

Bulgaria will take an active part in the new diplomatic service of the EU

A Working Parliamentary Group has been created to help establish the new European Service for External Affairs. Participants from all member states will discuss their positions, the role of the Service, its composition, the mechanism for ambassadors' and special envoys' appointment as well as it ...

John Bruton: Europe is facing difficult challenges

As Europe emerges from the crisis, it confronts three major long term challenges: rising debt levels made worse by an aging population, tension between national and community institutions, and excessive dependence on imported energy. In a very timely and deep analysis the former EU ambassador to ...

Economy and climate are the priorities of Herman van Rompuy

Around the hearings of the Commissioner-designates, the activities of the new permanent president of the European Council Herman van Rompuy were a little ignored. He took the post officially on the 1st of January. In a speech in Madrid for the beginning of his term as well as the start of the Sp ...

The EU is exaggerating in its attempt to show its achievements

The trainee at the Institute for Market Economy (IME) Alexander Ivelinov heavily criticizes in a paper the 10 most important achievements of the Eu for 2009: building the road to economic recovery; cheaper mobile telephone communications; attraction of resources to fight dementia; a new light on ...

New rules for VAT within the EU from 1st of January 2010

From the 1st of January new rules for VAT will apply within the EU. The place of taxation is determined by where the goods are supplied. This not only depends on the nature of the goods supplied, but also on how the supply is made. For example if an Estonian manufacturer hiring a machine in Esto ...

The Services Directive is finally in force

As of 28th of December 2009 the long-expected Services Directive is already in force. It was endorsed by EU member states in December 2006 aimed at facilitating the internal market of services. But the adoption of the directive caused a lot of disputes which extended the deadline for its enterin ...

A possibility for a common European patent system

The EU ministers of economy agreed on the creation of a regulation for a Community patent to cover the whole EU and to give opportunity for only one application for a patent. According to the Lisbon Treaty such decisions could enter into force only after negotiations with the European Parliament ...

The Catholic Church in Bulgaria welcomed the Lisbon Treaty

The Lisbon Treaty contributes to the fundamental law of the EU a new parameter which is of great significance for the roles of the Churches in the Community, writes in a statement the Catholic Church in Bulgaria on the occasion of today's entering into force of the Lisbon Treaty. Article 17 of t ...

The issue of exchange of tax information in the EU remains disputable

Another serious dispute is expected at the ECOFIN Council today in Brussels. The dispute is regarding a package of measures, aiming at better tax management within the EU. A part of the package are amendments in EU directives on savings taxation and tax recovery, as well as anti-fraud agreements ...

Bulgaria doesn't have a nomination for the 2 posts in the EU after Lisbon

So far Bulgaria does not have a nomination for the posts of the High Representative for the Foreign Policy and security and for a president of the European Council (more popular as the president of the EU) and that is why the country is awaiting the Council to discuss informally on the 29th and ...

Uncertainties are surrounding the new European Service for Foreign Affairs

With the Lisbon Treaty entering into force, the ratification process of which might end quite soon, the EU will have a new European Service for Foreign Affairs. However, there are still a number of uncertainties surrounding its formation, structure and which competences of the Commission to take ...

A new candidate for foreign minister of the EU

The last British governor of Hong Kong and former European Commissioner, responsible for the external affairs of the EU Lord Chris Patten is the latest nomination for a European foreign minister, foreseen in the Lisbon Treaty. However, the new treaty is still pending entering into force which wi ...

NDSV has doubled its result at the European elections

After 8 years in the ruling of Bulgaria, the NDSV (The National Movement for Stability and Progress)led a European campaign and continued to insist for the European issues even on their press conference today, devoted to the election results. The president of the election staff of the party Mari ...

The Blue coalition will ask for manual count of votes

The Blue coalition again called on GERB to consider unification for the elections for the National Parliament because the results of GERB are not that good. They have e a serious victory in Sofia, but everywhere else their result is not persuasive but together with the Blue coalition they can ac ...

The DPS is very happy with the successes of the right parties

In his typical philosophic style the leader of the DPS (Movement for rights and freedoms, perceived as the party of the Turkish minority in Bulgaria) Ahmed Dogan expressed last night satisfaction from the successes of the right parties. "In the right political space there is interesting movement ...

For BSP the European elections were only a training for the Parliamentary vote

"We all realise that these elections are a peculiar first round of the Parliamentary elections and that is why we tried in this campaign to say what we've done, what we haven't achieved in the framework of this coalition and, together wit this, to give a clear vision of the future of the country ...

The results in the rest of Europe

In the Czech republic the right forces have lost and will send to the EP only two representatives and the socialists, instead, will send 7 representatives in the group of PES. This is what the preliminary results who up to 1 o'clock Bulgarian time. The Czechs will not have an MEP in the group of ...

GERB: Bulgaria should become an energy centre of the Balkans

The MEPs from GERB (Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria), which, according to the exit polls, will be around 5, will stand for Bulgaria becoming an energy centre of the Balkans, for Bulgaria's membership to the Euro area and for the euro funds. This is what the leader of the party ...

Latvia also has its Superman

For the reasons, at least officially related to cost-effectiveness, local municipal elections took place simulatneously with European Parliament elections. And this combination dominated over the compaign. The main emphasis due to number of reasons were municipal elections. This leaves a strong ...

The main question of the European elections in Bulgaria

The leading question at the European elections right now in fact is not who will be the Bulgarian representatives to the European Parliament, but how the parties are scoring before the Parliamentary elections on the 5th of July. This is what one can feel in the atmosphere at the international pr ...

30 years later

Today's European elections are not the first for Bulgaria but are the first for Bulgaria together with the other member states. And more - 2009 is the 30th anniversary of the first elections for European Parliament. But in 1958 the member states were only 6 and the MEPs were 142. Now we have to ...

To vote or not to vote? This is the question

Probably many of you know that today we vote to choose the Bulgarian representatives to the European Parliament. Equally probable is that many of you will not go to the polls for many, good reasons: to do as much as possible of the housework, in fact it is a holiday, to repair the car, to see an ...

ORJ casts doubts that its campaign is too expensive

Order, rule of law and justice (ORJ) cast serious doubts on whether how they can afford such an expensive pre-election campaign and whether they will be able to fit in the limit of 1 mn levs (0,5 mn euro) expenses for the campaign. This is what representatives of non-governmental organisations, ...

In Britain the European elections have started today

In Britain people vote to choose MEPs today together with local elections. But if we, in Bulgaria, have the feeling that something must change at any price, in UK the situation is not very different. There the scandal with the MPs that have abused with their positions and money, is on the way to ...

The European elections' campaigns across EU

The European elections campaign is in its peak now but this year, like before, the main issues in member states again are internal. euinside asked some of its colleagues across EU how the campaigns in their countries go on. Here's what Patrick Smyth, Foreign Editor at the Irish Times wrote, espe ...

The sunset of Europe - it depends on us

The European elections that would be held in all member states between the 4th and the 7th of June this year, as always, pass under the shadow of internal political scuffles in member states. It is extremely rare to hear about Europe and its purpose in the world. But this is regretful because, e ...

The costs of no constitution

The European Commission is considering the idea of preparing a report of the costs of not having a constitution, but you already have prepared such a report. How expensive is the lack of a constitution for the EU? JO LEINEN: The costs for the citizens and for Europe not having the new treaty - t ...

The Internal Market of the EU

One of your priorities, Commissioner McCreevy, is the removal of all cross-border restrictions and barriers in front of the internal market for services. What is the main challenge against the backdrop of the strong opposition among some member states to accept the Services Directive? CHARLIE MC ...

New world order

The Centre for European Reform - a non-governmental organisation, based in London, published a new research of its ex-director on foreign policy Mark Leonard. His essay is called "Divided world - struggle for primacy in 2020" and forecasts that in the framework of this 13-year period the world n ...

Europe 2050

In the beginning of September the foundation Finnish Roman Institute organised an international seminar in Villa Lante, near Rome with the main topic the European history and its consequences in the present. The idea of the organisers is scientists, journalists and artistic people to discuss Eur ...

European consitution and God

European bishops have created a group, called Group of the Sages whose main task would be to prepare a report about the European common values. This step though might provoke serious debate about the necessity of including Christianity in the texts of the European constitution. The constitution ...

India and China are a threat to the EU

One of the main theses of the British presidency of the EU is that India and China are a great challenge to the economy and, actually, for the survival of the EU. This fear is one of the reasons why the UK requested transfer of money from the CAP (Common Agriculture Policy) to the Lisbon strateg ...