Section: European Voice (EU)
EU democracy for referendummies
Europe seems to have gone on a referendum rampage, with almost every week bringing some kind of national direct vote on a political question. The coming British plebiscite on its membership of the EU is getting the most attention, but other votes in Italy (on oil and gas drilling), the Netherlands (on a trade deal with Ukraine) and Hungary (on...
Volodymyr Groysman heads fragile Ukraine government
KIEV — Ukraine got a new government Thursday, but the debilitating political crisis is likely only taking a short breather before the next round of confusion. Ukraine’s parliament easily approved Volodymyr Groysman, a close ally of President Petro Poroshenko, as prime minister — but the crucial votes needed to win a parliamentary majority...
Vladimir Putin’s view on Ukraine’s new PM: ‘Nothing’
Vladimir Putin told Russians in a marathon citizens’ phone-in Thursday that they should holiday in the Crimean peninsula rather than Turkey, and he “doesn’t even know” Ukraine’s new prime minister. And the Russian leader dodged a question from a 12-year-old who asked who Putin would save if Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko...
The secret US army study that targets Moscow
Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster has a shaven head and gung-ho manner that only add to his reputation as the U.S. Army’s leading warrior-intellectual, one who often quotes famed Prussian general and military theorist Carl Von Clausewitz. A decade ago, McMaster fought a pitched battle inside the Pentagon for a new concept of warfare to...
Interviews for top UN job put Europe in spotlight
NEW YORK — Europe may be facing criticism for political dysfunction but politicians from the European Union — and countries aspiring to join it — are front and center in New York this week as the United Nations interviews candidates to manage the 70-year-old institution. Bulgaria’s Irina Bokova, Portugal’s António Guterres and...
Donald Tusk says EU migration crisis is ‘never-ending’
STRASBOURG — European Council President Donald Tusk called the migration crisis a “never-ending story” for the EU and warned that there was no “Holy Grail” solution for tackling it. “We are faced with a tenuous, perpetual and multi-dimensional effort,” Tusk said Wednesday in a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg. “In fact, something...
Martin Schulz: Brexit could trigger ‘implosion’ of EU
Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, has warned of an “implosion of the EU” if Britain were to leave the European Union after the June 23 referendum. In an interview with German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung published on Tuesday, Schulz said that as a result of a Brexit other member countries will want “escape...
Dutch gave ‘old parties,’ not Ukraine, the middle finger
To anyone paying attention to the tone of Dutch politics or the mood across Europe, the outcome of the Dutch referendum on the association agreement between the EU and Ukraine — in which 61 percent voted No — did not come as a surprise. If elections were held in the Netherlands today, polls show Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom — equally...
NATO and Russia try to break the ice (again)
The NATO-Russia Council will meet in two weeks time, according to a statement Friday. Sources told POLITICO the meeting will take place on April 20. The crisis in and around Ukraine and the need to fully implement the Minsk Agreements will be on the agenda at meeting at the Alliance’s Brussels headquarters, the NATO statement said. Military...
German In the loop April 7: Referendum
Die Niederländer haben in einem Referendum das Assoziierungsabkommen zwischen der EU und der Ukraine abgelehnt. Mark Rutte, den niederländischen Regierungschef, trifft nun der Vorwurf, er habe nicht aktiv genug für das Abkommen geworben, sei regelrecht abgetaucht. Rebecca Harms, Fraktionsvorsitzende der Grünen im Europaparlament, sieht eine...
