Václav Havel used to say that his life was made up of a number of paradoxes. The life of the Czech Republic in its relationship with China is similar. It appears to follow a tumultuous path, mostly guided by ideological reasoning. The recent "reset" in the relationship with China, carried by left-wing governments, put the economy first but the situation could change in case of political alternation.
China and Hungary seem to live a honeymoon state. Business, as well as political interests, characterizes the current situation. Budapest wants China to consider Hungary as the gateway to Europe, and from Hungary, they can then further expand their presence regionally. Prime Minister Viktor Orban considers relations with China of great importance, while bilateral economic and trade relations are becoming increasingly close: a situation that causes mixed feelings among Hungary's neighbours and inside the EU institutions.
A failed deal, riots, a high death count, an emergency meeting of the European Council, multiple NATO discussions, threats of sanctions - this would be a short summary of the events that have taken place in Ukraine in the past month. And there is a good chance that a new emergency meeting of the European Council will be called in the coming week, because, despite what some people had hoped, the conflict in Ukraine is not settling. On the contrary, it is escalating.
Protests in Ukraine, from Euromaidan to separatists in the East, have been all around the news lately. But who are the people behind the news? Olena Chernova, a lawyer, President of the NGO Kyiv Initiative Group Alpbach and one of the many people on Maidan Square, talks about a generational divide and explains the current situation from a citizen's perspective.
The radical right in the coalition, protests in the East of the country, crisis with the sister state Russia: the provisional government has lost control over the situation in Ukraine. Helplessness and a lack of transparency seem to have replaced reconciliation and pacification under Arseniy Yatsenyuk's government.
A few weeks ago, Crimea was annexed by Russia. It followed a regional referendum closely watched by Russian troops on Ukrainian territory. Arnoldas Pranckevičius, External policies adviser of European Parliament President Martin Schultz, went to Ukraine many times on special missions before and during the crisis. In this interview, he sheds light on what it represents for the Europeans.
One of the main points of contention of the European Union’s Common Security and Defence Policy is the relationship of the CSDP with the existing NATO framework. This article aims to present the current status of this complex relationship and the problems affecting their co-existence.
Holding up a mirror to topics such as identity, immigration and Turkish society & culture, could the “New Turkish Cinema” be considered as an important instrument for Turkey on its long way to the EU membership?
Nearly 20 years after the beginning of the removal of border controls, the Schegen area constitutes one of the major achievements of the European integration. It gathers 26 countries among which 4 are not within the EU. It is often cited by Europeans as something they like about the EU. However, it has been put into question after the Arab Spring (spring 2011) and is currently undergoing a reform, which creates a great debate especially between several visions of European integration.
The European Union foreign policy is generally harshly criticised. The very fact that the EU might be an actor in international relations is often questioned. Indeed, the EU foreign policy has demonstrated in the years to have several shortcomings, and sometimes to lack the necessary consistency and efficacy. But this is not what this article is about.