When the former German Defense Minister, Ursula von der Leyen, became President of the European Commission in December 2019, she pledged to transform the EU into a more relevant geopolitical actor. While Europe’s identity had for a long time been rooted in the idea of the Union exerting normative power, that is, influencing the global […]
MFF
If you hated Covid-19 in 2020, you will hate it more in 2021, under the Portuguese presidency of the EU Council. The mundane reason for this is that the period of presidency in the EU is not simply a time of pushing dossiers, dialogues and trilogues, but also one of visiting the country that holds […]
The last European Council was important to put the European Union on better tracks, culminating the long and dramatic effort which was undertaken by larger European and progressive forces to respond to the current unprecedented and multidimensional crisis. Nevertheless, daunting challenges are still ahead of us. The swift implementation of the agreed policy measures will […]
The Covid-19 crisis is having a devastating effect on the most vulnerable groups of society – and that are, often, children. In 2018 the situation was already unacceptable, with over 23 million children at risk of poverty and social exclusion. The current pandemic only exacerbates the situation. In particular, the wellbeing of future generations, especially […]
The seven-year financial framework and the recovery budget of the European Union have been taken hostage by a bitter dispute over the rule of law. The European Parliament (EP) asserts itself as a guardian of EU values, imposing its requirements at last on the spending machinery of the Union. The declaration by the four leaders […]
The time for adjustments and tinkering is over. Well before the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, inequalities and social injustice had mounted in most Western countries to a point where they produced widespread resentment and triggered an ‘authoritarian dynamic’: a rejection of diversity, a call for sanctioning outlying behaviour and for building walls to defend closed communities. […]
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