The process of EU enlargement took a major blow when it became apparent that once in the union, countries like Bulgaria and Romania can not be forced to comply with higher standards in fighting corruption and organized crime. The integration of different Western Balkan states (plus Turkey) is stalled at different stages and does not look like finishing anytime soon. The two countries with most serious chances of becoming the 28th and 29th member of the EU are Croatia and Iceland. The progress towards membership of both seemed straightforward due to their compliance with many EU’s policies,...

  No more meter readers... Loads of initiatives are being taken by European Union member states to fight climate change. Personally, I strongly believe that Brussels should focus on energy efficiency and alternative energies. Following the 27 EU leaders endorsement to the European Commission’s proposed 20-20-20 energy and climate change targets in March 2007, bureaucrats in Berlaymont Building worked on the so-called ”energy-efficient, low-carbon economy”. This action plan included several technology related initiatives to facilitate this transition in mentality, including Smart...

As I have already written, the speculations about the figure of the Bulgarian representative of the 2009-2014 European Commission have been going for quite some time now. The parliamentary elections in Bulgaria (held on July 7th 2009) have reduced the list of possible candidates to just two. The electoral success of the EPP-affiliated GERB has dramatically increased the chances of Rumyana Zheleva who is currently holding the post of foreign minister. Ms. Zheleva has been in the consultancy sector before becoming an MEP in 2007. She regained her seat in the European Parliament as a top-candidate...

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Preparing my favorite cooked breakfast of bacon & eggs with fried tomatoes and baked beans on toast I stumbled upon another sign of food inflation. While this depicted can of baked beans costs an unchanged 89 Euro cents in my local supermarket I get less product for the same price. Opening the 10 cm high can one discovers that it is only filled with 75% beans. Heinz has become generous with its tomato sauce which fills the top 2.8cm of the can and I can remember very clearly there used to be more beans in the can 2 years ago. Under the assumption that Heinz used to fill the cans with 90% beans...

The “European perspective” is key concept for integrating western Balkans into EU. The main carrot for ordinary people during this millennium has been visa-free travel after some 17 years of isolation. On 15th July 2009, the European Commission submitted its proposal on visa-free travel for citizens of Western Balkans countries. After a non-binding opinion of the European parliament on the EC proposal the Council comprising EU interior ministers will take the official vote and at best case free travel to Schengen area could be possible January 2010. But not for all! European perspective will...

ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet was quite complacent at the last council meeting. And for the first time since the beginning of what was first called subprime, then credit crunch, only to morph into a recession by now, markets seem to agree with Trichet. There is a glimmer at the far off end of the tunnel of hope. Euro interbank markets spreads are currently the lowest in a comparison with Federal Reserve Notes and Pound Sterling, Trichet was happy to tell an audience at the University of Munich on Monday. GRAPH: Mr. Market says there is less stress in the system than there was last year. The...

The “Srebrenica massacre” is the greatest triumph of  propaganda to emerge from the Balkan wars.(Edward Herman) The Srebrenica case is in headlines again – like during every anniversary – and also the story seems repeat itself from year to year. More light is however coming and the real (political) context is gaining space also in mainstream media.  Former Hague Tribunal spokeswoman Florence Hartmann referring the arrest of Radovan Karadzic told earlier, that as “Karadžić has finally been arrested, he can tell a lot about secret deals that led to the fall of Srebrenica....

So Jerzy Buzek was elected without any problems as the new president of the European Parliament. Of course, there are a few immediate things that can be said about this. He is the first president from the new EU states, his election is a clear evidence of the dominance that the EPP (and the right-wing forces) hold over the new EP. But I think there is another thing that should be emphasized here. Our colleague and top 3 guy Hristo was, to my knowledge, the first to announce anywhere on the internet that Buzek is set to be the new president of the EP. He posted the news on the 9th of April, which...

Catch this graph of brand new credit rankings by European credit insurer Coface: Stable at lower levels at best, no positive outlook anywhere. This chart found in Austrian daily “Der Standard“: GRAPH: European map by credit rankings. The eventual bottoming out of the global margin call is probably as distant as the year 2011. Important translation: “sehr hohes Risiko” means “very high risk.” Chart courtesy APA/Coface. Click for larger image.