Section: European Voice (EU)
EU set for ‘dirty Brexit’
Forget hard Brexit or soft Brexit, European officials have been instructed to prepare for a “dirty Brexit.” Theresa May had hoped to use her first European Council meeting to prepare for smooth divorce negotiations early next year. But EU leaders were not in a cooperative mood. The U.K. prime minister’s confrontational Conservative Party...
EU leaders consider new sanctions against Russia
With France, Germany and Britain urging action, EU leaders will discuss pursuing new sanctions against supporters of the Syrian government — a thinly veiled reference to Russia, which has carried out devastating air strikes against rebels seeking to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad. The push for new sanctions at the EU’s autumn summit is...
EU’s long wait for permission to deliver aid to Aleppo
The EU is pushing to obtain security guarantees from the Syrian government and others before driving badly needed aid into the opposition-controlled part of Aleppo and bringing sick and wounded from the besieged area. Hundreds of thousands of civilians, as well as up to 1,000 rebel fighters, have been trapped in eastern Aleppo for weeks under...
Too big to not fail
EU leaders set out to think big at their autumn summit. Instead, they are on the edge of a big fail, before they even sit down to meet. A step-back discussion on long-term Russia policy has been hijacked by events in Syria. Hopes of sealing a trade deal with Canada have been dashed by regional Belgian lawmakers. And an effort to shift the focus...
Merkel and Hollande fail to ‘achieve miracles’ on Ukraine
The leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine talked late into the night about how to restart the long-stalled peace process in eastern Ukraine. The meeting in Berlin did not achieve any major breakthrough — but that was never the point. Rather, the goal was for the leaders to be able to say they met, they tried, they are still working at...
Why we lost the Brexit vote
ONDON — Nearly four months have passed since I joined a small group of aides in former U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron’s cramped Downing Street office to review his resignation speech one final time. Half an hour later, the man who had led Britain for six years, and the Conservative Party for more than ten, stood in front of No. 10...
EU should do more in Syria, influencers say
Policy insiders think Europe should step up efforts to resolve the Syrian conflict but are divided on how best to achieve peace. The POLITICO Transatlantic Caucus polled leading policymakers and influencers, including ambassadors, senior advisers from the Brussels institutions and MEPs, just days before EU leaders arrive in Brussels for...
Merkel, Hollande: We don’t exclude more Russia sanctions over Syria
BERLIN – On the eve of Thursday’s EU summit in Brussels, the leaders of Germany and France said they do not exclude additional sanctions against Russia over Moscow’s military involvement in the Syrian civil war. “What’s happening in Aleppo at the moment is a war crime — a true war crime,” French President François Hollande said...
Hillary Clinton plots mop-up of Trump’s global mess
Hillary Clinton’s campaign is already looking past Nov. 8 and is plotting out what she will do on the international front to reassure allies, deter enemies and otherwise repair the damage to America’s reputation caused by Donald Trump. The biggest challenge? Deciding where on earth the new president should start. “Everybody wants to...
Clinton plots mop-up of Trump’s global mess
Hillary Clinton’s campaign is already plotting out what she will do on the international front to reassure allies, deter enemies and otherwise repair the damage to America’s reputation caused by Donald Trump — should she prevail on Nov. 8. The biggest challenge? Deciding where on earth the new president should start. “Everybody wants...
