A statesman without a state
How Jean-Claude Juncker surprised everybody during his State of the European Union address.
Tagged Jean-Claude Juncker
Mr Juncker’s White Paper
The European Commission issued a “White Paper on the Future of Europe” as its contribution to the soul-searching in Brussels.
The never-ending struggle of Syrian refugees
By Deniz Torcu
When I was working for a UNESCO Commission in Turkey a couple of years ago, we had started receiving dozens of phone calls from the Southern Turkish border with Syria, from refugees desperately trying to get in touch with some authority that could help them get settled in a camp or help them get to the EU
Different approaches to the refugee crisis
The refugee crisis has revealed rifts among EU member states trying to cope with the influx of asylum seekers who hope to make their way to the wealthier parts of Europe. EU leaders are acting in very different ways: some, albeit very few, are taking the humanitarian high ground, while others are either cherry-picking which refugees are permitted to enter their countries or closing their borders altogether.
“There is not enough Union in this Union”
First State of the Union address to the European Parliament by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker State of the Union 2015: Time for Honesty, Unity and Solidarity Strasbourg, 9 September 2015 Mr President, Honourable Members of the European Parliament, Today is the first time during my mandate as President of the European Commission…
European Parliament Year One (I): Asymmetrical Political Shocks
It’s been one year since the European Parliament inaugurated its eighth legislature on 1 July 2014. Whenever the question of the lack of democratic legitimacy is mentioned—a problem almost unanimously acknowledged in the Union—everybody turns to the European Parliament as the entity called to be the solution.
Euro Summit ends without conclusions but offers optimism
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
