The editorial team of Katoikos
Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović will become Croatia’s first female president following a narrow victory over the incumbent Ivo Josipović. This has been a male job ever since the country became independent after the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991.
Latvia’s six-month presidency of the Council of the European Union comes at “a critical time for Europe”, according to Jean-Claude Junker, President of the European Commission. In his visit to Riga on 7 January, Mr Junker welcomed Latvia’s Presidency and the country’s priorities for the upcoming semester.
Nearly half a million Ukrainians have fled the country since April. More than 387,000 went to Russia, and among them most were Russian speakers from the east. The official count by the UN is 4707 dead since the Ukrainian revolution turned violent at the end of February 2014.
Lithuania has become the 19th member of the euro joining its Baltic neighbours Estonia and Latvia. It is also expected to be the last to enter the monetary union for several years. This is a move with geopolitical and economic implications. The country comes on board the Eurozone with a growing economy.
When the Greek conservative party failed to gather the necessary 180 votes to elect a president in the third parliamentary vote, snap elections were called, and the European press diagnosed a political crisis. Within days it became evident that this was not the case. Elections were set for 25 January.
In a lukewarm compromise among its main parties, the European Parliament declared on 17 December 2014 that it “supports in principle recognition of Palestinian statehood and the two-state solution, and believes these should go hand in hand with the development of peace talks, which should be advanced.” This comes in the wake of similar, and stronger, votes in European national parliaments. It is not enough; the EU needs to drastically review its approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in light of the growing sense of unease across Europe regarding Israel’s aggressive settlement policy, and the lack of progress in the peace process.
