Vladimir Putin’s ‘foreign agents’ law has become the authorities' go-to malign tool for their war of attrition against civil society (Photo: kremlin.ru) Ten years ago, I had the honour of speaking at news conference in Moscow with several of Russia’s…
Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia — which has been an EU accession candidate since 2005. First, Greece, then France, then Bulgaria, thew a spanner in the works (Photo: Mike Norton) After a long wait, the beginning for EU accession…
Beijing’s tacit endorsement of Russia's unprovoked aggression, has changed the calculation in Brussels (Photo: consilium.europa.eu) The West’s pivot to the Indo-Pacific, aimed at countering expanding Chinese influence, has won consensus among decision-makers in Washington, Paris and London over recent years.…
The controversial taxonomy faces a simple majority vote in the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday — and unusually, the result is far from certain (Photo: European Parliament) Two days before Vladimir Putin launched his illegal war on my home…
Climate change will continue to accelerate, oblivious to the machinations and myopia of EU bubble policymakers whose tired tactics cannot seriously address the challenge of our times (Photo: EUobserver) Monday (27 June) sees the EU energy council, where ministers will…
How many flags? How many members? (Photo: European Commission) Once perceived as the most powerful foreign policy tool in the EU’s toolbox, “enlargement’ lately has become only a source of frustration for countries that would like to join the club.…
Only this month, there were more stark warnings about further hacks (Photo: European Commission) It may have been slightly embarrassing for the EU when on 29 March the Hungarian news site Direkt 36 made known how the Hungarian foreign affairs…
Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon, launching the independence poll plan last week in Edinburgh (Photo: Scottish Government/Flickr) When Nicola Sturgeon, first minister of Scotland, launched her government’s new campaign for Scottish independence in Edinburgh last week, she sought to re-energise…
President Maia Sandu: ‘We demand no shortcuts and we don’t expect concessions' (Photo: Office of the president of Moldova) In the midst of the biggest security crisis in the region and in Europe, Moldova finds itself at a historic juncture.…
The besieged city of Taiz, Yemen (Photo: Wikimedia) On 7 April, 1,000 Yemenis gathered in the city of Riyadh, including politicians, academics, and activists. The representation of women and youth was great, and the conference came out with a new…