I had the chance to spend my Erasmus in Belgium and Germany, one semester in each country. This was due to the fact I was doing French and German at university. The experience itself was definitely invaluable and both locations proved to be quite different for many reasons, however equally enriching.
The high drama that is unfolding following the coming to power in Greece of a new government led by left-wing SYRIZA, and similar trends in Spain with the most recent massive show of force by Podemos at Puerta del Sol in Madrid, signal a new era in European and possibly global politics. This is no passing phenomenon but rather an inevitable result of the unsustainability of the existing financial system and the way it is managed in the European context and beyond. This sort of “European Spring”, thankfully not bloody nor as chaotic as its Arab counterpart, can bring good and bad things, depending on how it will be handled by the main protagonists, including the Greeks themselves but also the Germans, other EU nations, and the EU and Eurozone institutions…
Where can you spend the day digging into one of the most sordid episodes of communism -the tragic end of Nicolae Ceaușescu- watching contemporary art …
The EU has decided to raise public awareness of its development work, by labeling 2015 as the European Year of Development. The Year was inaugurated on 9 January in Riga, Latvia, by the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Junker.
In this first “letter from America” I make a series of critical comparisons between New York and Brussels in an attempt to distil the best of both worlds, and hopefully infuse what is missing from one to the other. For Europe, which is the focus of this publication, this would mean less parochialism and more ambition for the future at individual and collective levels; more client orientation and more flexibility in employment conditions, while keeping an overall guaranteed social safety net that is the jewel of the “European model”; more openness to other cultures and influences, notably those from other EU countries but also beyond; much more openness towards and investment in new ideas, innovation and creativity; and an overall more optimistic attitude and can-do spirit…
Erasmus and student mobility across borders is not only the prospect of higher employability, meeting people from all over the globe or learning a new language. It is also the chance to meet your future partner! 27% of Erasmus alumni met their life partner during their stay abroad. Erasmus couples have produced nearly 1 million new babies since its implementation in 1987.
Every time a Greek, Spanish, French, or other European politician says: “this matter no longer depends on me, it’s Brussels”, what s/he is really telling his/her people is that “national politics has become irrelevant, you can vote for whoever you want, it does not make any difference, decisions are made elsewhere”. And yet, so far, true European politics has not come into existence to make up for that loss. It is a broadly held view that the process of European integration inevitably involves a progressive transfer of sovereignty from the national sphere to central institutions. In the course of EU history this question occupied a central place in the negotiation of the various treaties. Each transfer of such an abstract matter, as sovereignty, was painfully measured, negotiated and eventually incorporated into the treaties and daily practice.
So far the responses have been divided. France, the country most exposed to Greece’s debt due to its heavy bank and private lending, welcomed Syriza’s win. François Hollande vowed cooperation with the newly-formed Greek government, recalling “the friendship that unites” the two countries. But Germany’s Angela Merkel was more straightforward. Her spokesman said that Greece should continue to economic recovery and stick “to its previous commitments”. The European Popular Party leader, Manfred Weber, followed the same course, calling Tsipras electoral promises “empty”.
Radical parties across Europe widely welcome Greece’s electoral results. Left wing radical parties in the European Union congratulated Syriza’s Tsipras, with Spain’s Podemos welcoming the “real Greek president, not a delegate of Angela Merkel”.
You might be wondering… What’s just happened here? There’s no words to describe this photo! Just a few months ago the British actor showed important lack of hair. But… Ta-daa! Jude has reappear again with this incredible mane of hair, though he is equally attractive with more or less amount of hair. I guess it…
Chaos has always been a scenario for Greece, ever since the bailout. The mix was there: a bankrupt country, crippling unemployment, violent riots, weekly strikes, neo-Nazis in parliament, a rapid decline in living standards that turned into a humanitarian emergency. Outside Greece, in public analysis and private conversations, the possibility of the destabilisation of democracy came up every now and then, some kind of coup that would send the country to the extreme left or right. For those who indulged in these cassandric predictions the rise of leftist Syriza was a vindication: surely this is a rogue party, self-positioned on the Radical Left, with communist roots, and a populist rhetoric? Discussion of the Greek problem has always involved a degree of fear-mongering, which is useful in the manipulation of public opinion, but rather redundant in adding any nuance to our understanding of a foreign context. A useful key-phrase, if one truly wishes to understand Greece in crisis, is “structural reforms”.
