Section: European Voice (EU)
Why Obama waited
Democrats are finally getting their dream ticket, Clinton-Obama, eight years after many expected — and months later than some on Clinton’s campaign would have hoped. From the start of the 2016 cycle, two things were clear: First, Barack Obama was fully behind Hillary Clinton and more than happy to raise her spirits with cheerful...
Plan for life after Vladimir Putin
Europe faces important milestones in the next few weeks. Will the European Union continue sanctions against Russia? Will Britain withdraw from the union? Both decisions have the potential to weaken the European project, and could alter, whether directly or indirectly, the Continent’s relations with Russia. At this crucial juncture, Europe...
Inside the bitter last days of Bernie’s revolution
There’s no strategist pulling the strings, and no collection of burn-it-all-down aides egging him on. At the heart of the rage against Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party, the campaign aides closest to him say, is Bernie Sanders. It was the Vermont senator who personally rewrote his campaign manager’s shorter statement after the...
Trump and the world: What could actually go wrong
To hear Hillary Clinton tell it, letting Donald J. Trump anywhere near the Oval Office would be tantamount to inviting a nuclear apocalypse. The address she delivered from San Diego Thursday opened up a new front in the 2016 campaign: whether Trump can be trusted as leader of the free world. Calling Trump’s ideas “dangerously incoherent,”...
Sweden is the best at doing good: report
Support for global prosperity, equality, health and wellbeing helped Sweden dethrone Ireland atop the latest Good Country index. The table ranks 163 countries’ net contribution to humanity relative to the size of their GDP, based on 35 indicators from international organizations including the United Nations and World Bank. The Swedes’...
Russia’s top enemies: US, Ukraine, Turkey and Poland
Russians believe their main enemies in the world are the U.S., Ukraine and Turkey, and 62 percent have a poor opinion of the EU, according to a Levada Center poll that measures sentiments towards other countries. Belarus, Kazakhstan, China, India and Armenia are Russia’s five best friends in the world, according to the poll. The majority of...
MEPs say Juncker’s Russia trip will ‘strengthen’ Putin
A group of MEPs from the center-right European People’s Party said Wednesday that Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker should reconsider a trip to Russia planned for this month, claiming it will “strengthen” Vladimir Putin. In an email obtained by POLITICO, six lawmakers, representing several countries, wrote to the leader of the EPP...
Follow the leader on Twitter
David Cameron, Matteo Renzi and François Hollande are the EU leaders with the most Twitter followers, but a new study of digital Goliaths out Wednesday cautions that “a massive following does not always translate into influence.” The 2016 “Twiplomacy” report by PR firm Burson-Marsteller analyzed 795 Twitter accounts of heads of state and...
Romania’s president: Russia cannot intimidate us
Romania’s president on Tuesday dismissed threats by Vladimir Putin that Romania could be targeted by Russian rockets because it hosts elements of a U.S. missile defense shield. Moscow “cannot intimidate us,” Klaus Iohannis said during a security conference at the presidential palace in Bucharest. Putin last week warned Romania and Poland...
German foreign minister: Ease Russia sanctions ‘step-by-step’
BERLIN – German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier believes easing EU sanctions on Russia — provided it fulfils certain conditions — is an important element in the hunt for a solution to the fighting in eastern Ukraine. “We should be smart when it comes to dealing with these sanctions,” he told foreign journalists in Berlin on Tuesday. “To...
