Section: European Voice (EU)
How Adolf Hitler Haunts Angela Merkel
Seventy years after Adolf Hitler’s suicide, Germany’s unconditional surrender in World War II and its isolation and breakup, the country is a colossus once again, and its chancellor was just named by Forbes as the world’s most powerful woman. Angela Merkel, one of the globe’s most respected and influential statespersons,...
POLITICO Pro’s Morning Tech: Facebook unbuttoned — French connectivity — Amazon tax
GOOD MORNING and welcome back to Morning Tech. Hope you had a splendid long weekend — while you’re caffeinating your way into Tuesday, here’s what you need to know about the world of tech politics and policy. As always, you can toss me tips and feedback at [email protected]. And don’t forget, if a tech savant forwarded you this...
Cameron to Juncker: EU ‘must change’
David Cameron began his whirlwind tour Monday to finesse the UK’s agenda for an EU referendum by breaking bread with Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and insisting, if politely, on the need for “change” in Brussels. At the three-hour “working dinner” — held at Cameron’s Chequers rural estate — the newly re-elected Prime...
NATO has never been more relevant
NATO is the centerpiece of US-European relations. The linchpin of the alliance is Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which states that “an armed attack against one or more of them [NATO members] in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all” and that all members are obliged to assist the state(s) under attack....
Modest Eastern Partnership summit ends modestly
RIGA — Expectations were pretty low going into the Eastern Partnership summit and in the end the meeting between European Union leaders and six post-Soviet republics lived up to that unambitious standard. Unlike the previous summit in Vilnius in late 2013, when thousands of Ukrainians had taken to the streets of Kiev to demonstrate in favor of...
Polish establishment rallies around Komorowski
WARSAW — Locked in a dead heat against an unexpectedly strong challenger, incumbent Polish President Bronisław Komorowski is warning voters that if they choose Andrzej Duda over him on Sunday then almost a decade of Polish foreign policy gains could be jeopardized. “You can’t choose people who would oppose Poland and the West,” Komorowski...
Cameron starts EU reform push
RIGA – British Prime Minister David Cameron will use his first post-election summit with his fellow EU leaders Friday to open talks on the changes to the way the bloc works ahead of an referendum before the end of 2017. The Eastern Partnership summit is aimed primarily at discussing the EU’s relationship with six eastern states — Moldova,...
Hollande’s calculated turn on Russia
PARIS — An unlikely new player has waltzed onto France’s political stage: Vladimir Putin. Two years away from a presidential election, French political leaders have split into two camps with regard to the Russian president. On one side, ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy and far-right leader Marine Le Pen have defended the annexation of Crimea...
The Baltic ‘Iron Lady’: Putin’s solitary foe
VILNIUS, Lithuania — Martial arts teach how to fend off larger opponents with decisive strikes and a nimble defense. Dalia Grybauskaitė, the president of Lithuania and a black belt in karate, has taken on Russia and Vladimir Putin over Ukraine. Her foe is a black belt in judo himself. And the leader of a neighboring country of 144 million, more...
Honey, I shrunk Britain
LONDON — During the British general election Ed Miliband scored a hit that few noticed. In a speech at Chatham House he accused David Cameron of pursuing an “isolationist” foreign policy that has led to the “biggest loss of influence for our country in a generation.” It’s the sort of charge that you might expect to hear from a Tory...
