Section: European Voice (EU)
France ignores EU sanctions list, grants visa to banned Russian minister
France has defied an EU travel ban and granted a visa to Russian Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachev, despite the fact he is blacklisted from entering the bloc due to his support of Moscow’s annexation of Crimea. The Russian ministry confirmed Tkachev had been granted a French visa to head the Russian delegation at the World Organization...
Russia’s envoy to NATO says isolation policy has failed
Russia’s ambassador to NATO Alexander Grushko said that the alliance’s policy of isolating Moscow has been a failure. NATO’s strategy is, in fact, damaging to the military alliance, Grushko said to journalists in Brussels Saturday: “It is clear that if NATO continues to implement policies announced at the 2014 Wales Summit, it...
Obama’s Asian nuclear nightmare
President Barack Obama’s trip to Asia next week will be anchored by a stop in Hiroshima, where he will focus on its dark nuclear past. But Obama’s visit comes at a moment when U.S. and Asian officials fear the region is entering a newly dangerous atomic future, threatening Obama’s vow to roll back the spread of nuclear arms and...
Milo Ðukanović: Like it or not, Montenegro’s going West
It’s been a busy week for Montenegro’s Prime Minister Milo Ðukanović: The speaker of parliament was removed and the premier put a clutch of opposition politicians in his cabinet to form an interim government that will serve until October’s general elections, when Ðukanović intends to secure an eighth term. Then, on Thursday, he...
Bratislava braces itself for EU presidency, and so does Brussels
Slovakia is almost ready for its EU close-up, but not everyone in Brussels is confident the country can handle the starring role it will have in driving the union’s political agenda for the second half of the year. It won’t be the first member of its class of mostly small, Eastern European countries that joined the EU in 2004 to hold...
David Cameron, the accidental European
LONDON — David Cameron promised to end his party’s obsession with Europe. Instead his premiership will be defined by it. The British prime minister is all but certain to suffer his own ignominious departure if Britain votes to exit the European Union. To Cameron’s critics it would be a fitting end to a political career laced with...
Montenegro set to become 29th member of NATO
Montenegrin is rarely among the languages needed at NATO press conferences, but it was on Thursday after Prime Minister Milo Đukanović signed a protocol on the country’s accession to the alliance. Full membership is set to follow and Đukanović said he’s optimistic it will happen soon. “I believe this will be possible within a year,”...
Commission spares Spain and Portugal on deficit, for now
The European Commission has delayed its decision on potentially fining Spain and Portugal for exceeding the EU’s budget deficit limit of 3 percent of GDP. The college of commissioners on Wednesday said it is recommending to “the Council to recommend a durable correction of the excessive deficit in 2016 and 2017 respectively, by taking the...
Spain and Portugal could face EU sanctions over national budgets
The European Commission will decide Wednesday whether to issue fines to Spain and Portugal for exceeding the EU’s budget deficit limit of 3 percent of GDP. The college of commissioners may impose fines, which can be set at a maximum of 0.2 percent of GDP, delay its decision, or give the countries more time to meet targets. At last...
‘Putin-like?’ Not us, say Poland and Hungary in response to Bill Clinton
Poland and Hungary returned fire Tuesday after former U.S. President Bill Clinton accused the two countries of thinking that “democracy is too much trouble” and wanting “Putin-like leadership.” “Poland and Hungary, two countries that would not be free but for the United States and the long Cold War, have now decided this democracy is too much...
