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Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Investment disputes and populist politics undermine EU-Mercosur trade deal
Portugal and Argentina, who currently hold the European Union and Mercosur presidencies, have made ratification of the EU-Mercosur free trade agreement (FTA) a priority...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Top 5 fastest-growing renewable energy sources
Renewable energy sources are important when trying to win the fight against climate change. They allow us to stop relying on fossil fuels for...
Cyprus
From Ayia Napa to digital data, Cyprus turns its focus from tourist mecca to business hub
Tourism has often been touted as the lifeblood of the Cypriot economy, but after COVID-19 sent airport arrivals plunging by 84% last year, the...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Climate: The Mediterranean Kettle
The transmission belt between scientific discoveries and public awareness often gets jammed due to problems of language and diffusion channels. However, certain alarms cannot...
Germany
The Portuguese EU Council Presidency’s ambitions for digital recovery amid the pandemic
It has been two months since António Costa’s Cabinet took over the presiding over the EU Council and announced the delivery of a fair,...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Now is the time for real climate action and to deliver on 1 point 5!
“Uniting the world to tackle climate change” is written in bold letters on the website of the COP26 Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. From...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
A nuclear reactor in an earthquake zone
Ten years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, an old power plant in Slovenia is about to be allowed to run till 2043. Austrian politicians...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
The Council of Europe, human rights instruments and citizens are the trinity for Scrutiny
Following a story written recently by Commissioner Dunja Mijatovic, the following article will endeavor to explore further why the Tromso Convention (the Norwegian International...
Energy
From nuclear to hydrogen: How the town closest to Fukushima rose from disaster with a vision of renewable energy in only 10 years
March 11, 2011, was a day I shall never forget, a day when the people of Namie in northern Japan lost so much and...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Blinken: America will lead with our values
The United States will embrace its role as a world leader and rally international partners to take on pressing global challenges.In his first major...
Albania
Serbia donates vaccines and spreads goodwill in the region
Over the past few weeks, Serbia has donated thousands of much-needed batches of vaccines to the countries, spreading goodwill as well as a sense...
Armenia
Post-Soviet foibles lead to European nowhereness
Before I get into the thrust of today's business, I'd like to preface my argument by stating unequivocally that nobody can find former Soviet...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Humanitarian crisis in the Central African Republic
The European Union has recently been criticized for not doing enough to promote the cause of democracy in the Central African Republic (CAR). This...
Belgium
No human rights without the right to know
Access to information legislation was first seen in Sweden in 1766, with parliamentary interest to access information held by King Adolf Frederick. Finland followed...
China
Disinformation and the efforts to counter its effects can undermine human rights
Disinformation is a phenomenon often thought of in relation to electoral interference, subversion of democratic processes or foreign state influence operations. While all of...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Bad stimulus: Government payments to individuals are a terrible way to solve America’s structural economic problems
The new Democratic administration is poised to make its first proud step in delivering on its electoral promise to build back (America) better: the successful...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Damming rivers is terrible for human rights, ecosystems and food security
There’s some good news amidst the grim global pandemic: At long last, the world’s largest dam removal is finally happening.The landmark agreement, which was finalized in November...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Sanctions against Russia will strengthen Putin’s grip on power
The jail sentence for Russia’s most prominent opposition figure, Alexey Navalny, and the aggressive treatment of peaceful protesters across Russia has once raised questions...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
UK charities in the post-Brexit storm: Everything must change so that nothing changes
After dominating European political news in recent years, Brexit has finally become a reality. Since January 1, 2021, European Union law no longer applies...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
What if Nord Stream 2 transports hydrogen?
Hardly any other energy project is currently the subject of geostrategic questions like Nord Stream 2, the pipeline between Russia and Germany.Nord Stream 2...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Pandemic may have left over 250 million people with acute food shortages in 2020
Beyond the questions surrounding the availability, effectiveness and safety of a vaccine, the COVID-19 pandemic has led us to question where our food is coming...
Georgia
Understanding Georgia’s current political situation
Georgia has been facing a political crisis for more than three months, which reached its peak on February 17. A Tbilisi city court sentenced...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Changing commodities
Remember those straightforward days of managing supply and demand? That was the simple way in which we could price all the commodities we needed...
Greece
Turkey starts exploration in the Aegean
Following the issue of an advisory note (Navtex) blocking an area in the Aegean between the Greek islands Limnos, Skyros and Lesbos from February...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
The creation of a federal Europe is a fool’s errand
There's a news website that frequently crops up on my social media feeds that takes the concept of Europhile to heights hitherto unexplored. You...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Containing the wave of counterfeits
The danger of counterfeits bought on the Internet and delivered by post is frequently highlighted, but a new study has shown that container loads...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Is Facebook’s Oversight Board a much-needed fix for the platform’s many ills or a PR stunt?
When Facebook announced plans last May to establish its Oversight Board, an independent review body to be tasked with handling user complaints, many analysts...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Ukrainian president fools EU with cheap stunts while killing his country’s future
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was elected in 2019 as the antithesis of his predecessor, Petro Poroshenko.
73 percent of the voters were so pissed off...
Analysis
The aftermath of a rare visit to Moscow that went badly wrong
People remember moments. Over the years, Josep Borrell, the EU's foreign policy chief, has stressed the importance of talking to Russia. And so, against...
Analysis
Is Turkey Biden’s “ally from hell”?
Ten years ago, The Atlantic ran as its cover story a piece titled “The Ally From Hell”. The article followed the raid that killed al-Qaeda...
Armenia
Good cop, bad cop? How the US and Europe want to deal with Erdogan’s Turkey
These are not good times for Turkey’s relations with the West. European diplomats in Ankara refer to a downward spiral to describe the relationship....
Israel
The world can learn more than meets the eye from Israel’s vaccine program laboratory
Israel is rolling out the coronavirus vaccine at breakneck speed, having already given a first dose to almost 50 per cent of the population. Consequently, the country...
Austria
Troubled anniversary
The Visegrad 4 of Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland has been a tremendous success. Together we joined the EU and NATO bringing...
Medicine
Making peace with nature is possible if we start now
Even amid a pandemic, 2021 can go down as the year we made peace with nature and set the planet to healing.As COVID-19 upends...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
How online propaganda grew more insidious as 2020 election day approached
Partisan disinformation to undermine 2020’s presidential election shadowed every step of the voting process last year but took an unprecedented turn when the earliest...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Bureaucratic hubris: The Commission’s 2020-2027 integration action plan is set to replicate Sweden’s failure
The Commission's integration action plan for the coming budget period is a lengthy, empty, bland political word-salad of tired phrases, wishful thinking and blatantly...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Why the EU is walking a rule of law tightrope
In recent years, there has been rising concern within, and outside of, the European Union in relation to measures seen as threatening the rule...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
A cross-generational and cross-sectoral recovery for the European Union
The first address of the European Commission since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic was highly anticipated by all citizens of the EU. President...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Why American labor laws need a major update — the PRO Act is a great start
When workers at Orchid Orthopedic Solutions tried to form a union, the company quickly brought in five full-time union-busters to torment them day and...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Stop the erosion of human rights in Europe
In an unprecedented fashion, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the fore a tremendous increase in human rights violations in 2020 throughout the world....
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
“Splinternet”: Goodbye free Internet?
Twenty years ago, the internet emerged as a global playground where information was shared freely. Today, everyone has a different idea of how it...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Media freedom is in danger
It is a paradox that during the COVID-9 pandemic, the importance of trustworthy information increased, but at the same time, the situation for the...
China
Understanding the complicated politics and geopolitics of the coup in Myanmar
On February 1, 2021, Myanmar’s military—known as the Tatmadaw—invoked Article 417 of the 2008 constitution, dismissed State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, and arrested...
Germany
Poland’s dangerous new direction
I am deeply concerned for Poland. Something is changing, and I’m afraid a country I care about deeply is moving in a very dangerous...
Iran
Iran’s November atrocity – justice still sought after fifteen months of silence
On November 15, 2019, Iran was on the brink of what felt like a peaceful revolution. In the early hours of the morning, against...
Albania
An advocacy for giving precedence to the EU’s Copenhagen Criteria in the Western Balkans
Among the precious little remaining friends of a quick EU enlargement towards the Western Balkans, the threat of non-friendly powers encroaching in the region...
Economy & Business
The UAE is a natural partner for Europe’s sustainable future
The EU continues to show global leadership in addressing climate change. With its European Green Deal and climate objectives shortly to be enshrined into...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
A lightning quest for COVID-19 vaccines is our only hope
As we’re entering the new year, the WHO reports the world count of COVID-19 cases of almost 100 million, and the number of deaths...
Austria
New sanctions against Russia are inevitable
The sentencing of Alexey Navalny to three and a half years in a penal colony, on trumped-up charges, was a grotesque infringement of elementary...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Europe must stand with Hong Kong
In November 2019, I was part of the international delegation that observed Hong Kong’s District Council Elections in the Sixth District. The elections were...
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