Taking time out of the Greek crisis, Chancellor Merkel set off on a tour of the Western Balkans (8-9 July), reassuring the nations of Albania, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina of her support for their eventual joining the European Union. The three Balkan countries have long been campaigning to be part of the 28-nation bloc and see their candidature jeopardized by the EU’s preoccupation with what is happening with Greece.
The Hungarian Parliament has intensified the country’s anti-immigration drive by passing new legislation tightening asylum rules and giving the go-ahead for the construction of a fence on the Serbian border. This counts as the latest in a series of moves taken by Fidesz – the governing party – to curb immigration and limit the number of refugees.
The “No” has won a landslide victory in Greece´s referendum on the draft agreement presented by “The Institutions” on 25 June with more than 61% of the votes cast. Greece’s governing party, Syriza, had strongly campaigned for the “No” and two-thirds of the Greeks who went to the polls on Sunday backed them up.
The Eurogroup has refused the Greek government’s request for a bailout extension and Greece in now in arrears with the IMF. Mr. Tsipras is back, though, with a request for a new bailout just days before the scheduled referendum…
EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker made an appeal to the Greek people in a rare emergency press conference (29 June) in Brussels, urging Greeks to vote “yes” on Sunday’s referendum. “I will say to the Greeks who I love deeply: you mustn’t commit suicide because you are afraid of death,” pleaded Mr. Juncker. The fate of…
The European Council meeting on Thursday and Friday, 25 and 26 June, exposed divides between EU member states on asylum seeker distribution quotas. After a wrangle overshadowing other issues…
The US intelligence establishment must have been very confident that their surveillance methods would never be discovered by the surveilled individuals in order to risk wiretapping European leaders. Otherwise, it is difficult to understand how on earth they decided to gamble those relationships with some of their closest European allies in exchange for information obtained…
The Juncker investment plan was backed by the European Parliament in a vote on Wednesday, 24 June. The plan, aimed at creating jobs, fostering economic growth and tackling record high unemployment…
The heads of state and government of the Eurozone met on 22 June in Brussels to attempt to find an agreement on the continuation of Greece’s bailout. A sense of urgency accompanied the summit, resulting from the imminence of a potential Greek default and a run on deposits in Greek banks. At the conclusion of the Summit, President of the European Commission Juncker stated that he was “convinced that we will come to a final agreement this week, because we have to.” In anticipation of the Summit, Greece submitted a final proposal containing new measures for addressing its economic and financial situation, which were discussed by the finance ministers of the Eurogroup prior to the Summit
Eurozone finance ministers met in Luxembourg on Thursday in the hope of reaching a deal that would see Athens receive the last €7.2 billion of the bailout aid. Hopes were quashed once again, however, as the failure to reach common ground extended the talks to Monday. The emergency summit was scheduled after EU leaders learned of the collapse of the Luxembourg talks. Next week’s meeting will take place only days before the debt repayment deadline is due. If Athens fails to reach an agreement with its creditors by then, it will risk defaulting on its debt and, very likely, exiting the Eurozone. This is a last-ditch effort to find a solution to the crisis
