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2020
Beyond the silent cash-machine – smart solidarity
5/2020 27 April 2020Europe needs more solidarity and financial transfers, these must strengthen the values that connect Europeans, not undermine them.
A Mitsotakis Plan – who needs to act?
4/2020 3 April 2020Why should Germans, Dutch, Swedes and their leaders care about a possible tragedy on distant Greek islands where more than 40,000 refugees and migrants live crammed together in dismal sanitary conditions?
Aegean Plan 2.0 – preventing a disaster in the times of Corona
3/2020 20 March 2020The EU and Turkey have a common interest to support more than 3.5 million refugees now in Turkey; to control mobility in the face of the biggest public health crisis in a century: and to provide humanitarian assistance to more than 2 million displaced near the Turkish border in Syria.
The Gambia Plan – Beyond empty words and threats: how a breakthrough is possible
2/2020 17 February 2020It is in The Gambia's interest to see its diaspora thrive in Germany. It is not in its interest to see it disappear. It is The Gambia's interest to help those in Germany who want an agreement.
Hamster in the Wheel – Credibility and EU Balkan policy
1/2020 16 January 2020EU Balkan enlargement is only possible if it is deeply transformative. None of the current candidates and potential candidates have a chance of joining without a deep transformation.
2019
How the rule of law dies … is this possible inside the EU?
7/2019 16 December 2019National courts are central pillars in the EU legal architecture. They must defend the norms and enforce EU rules in all member states directly.
Coup de grâce – Delors and squaring the circle – Norway in the Balkans
6/2019 26 October 2019What is needed is a process that does not replace accession and yet is different; a process that promises EU influence and is also attractive and credible to Balkan publics and leaders.
Gambia Plan – win-win with Africa – the 11th commandment
5/2019 29 July 2019Nobody in The Gambia wants a return to the tragedy of recent years, when tens of thousands were captured and mistreated in Libya and huge numbers died on the "backway" to Europe.
The Hypnotist – North Macedonia this summer – In Memoriam Dejan
4/2019 28 April 2019The EU also needs to show that it keeps its word to leaders who reach out to neighbors and minorities at home in a true spirit of reconciliation
Tolstoy, Causes, Poland and the Aegean
3/2019 15 April 2019Do think tanks matter? Do the things they write ever "cause" anything? And how would we ever know?
Poland's most dangerous politician – Juncker's legacy
1/2019 27 March 2019The European Commission needs to take Poland to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) as soon as possible for infringement of the EU's fundamental values and principles, focusing on disciplinary procedures and the executive's control over judges.
2018
Human rights with teeth (I) – Battle of Europe
9/2018 8 December 2018The legitimacy of the Council of Europe matters. Its destruction would be a harbinger of much worse to come. What is needed are bold measures, both in the Committee of Ministers and in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
Red Lines, Rotten Apples and human rights in 2019
8/2018 19 November 2018This is the right moment for European democracies to send a strong signal that certain red lines should not be crossed and that certain types of behaviour are intolerable and unacceptable.
Dark twins – Viktor, Matteo and the Drowning of Europe
7/2018 16 August 2018They have called for "cleaning our cities, street by street" and "mass expulsions". With so little to distinguish their views they are in fact ideological twins: Viktor and Matteo, defenders of a darker, illiberal Europe.
Win-Win for Europe: Defending democracy in the Balkans – and in Poland
6/2018 22 June 2018France, the Netherlands, Germany and others need to do more than put things on hold. They need to propose a constructive policy which is tougher, more transparent, and more credible than the current accession process.
European tragedy – the collapse of Poland's Rule of law
5/2018 29 May 2018No member state of the EU has ever gone as far in subjugating its courts to executive control as the current Polish government has done.
Spring cleaning – the corruption report on the Council of Europe is out
4/2018 23 April 2018Is this the end of a dark decade and the turning point in the biggest scandal in the history of the Council of Europe?
Making history? Macedonia and Elysium
3/2018 4 April 2018For Athens and Skopje to succeed in 2018 where their predecessors failed both governments need a mutually beneficial breakthrough they can defend in front of their domestic audiences. They need to help each other to deliver.
Macron, Italy and the mirage of mass return
2/2018 18 March 2018The current policy debate on migration and asylum in the key European capitals remains deeply confused over both values and instruments. Without clarity of thought no effective and humane policy will ever emerge.
Balkan crises, imagined and real: Bosnian elections – PISA gap
1/2018 31 January 2018Bosnian leaders and international officials in Sarajevo have warned that unless there is an urgent change in the state election law Bosnian democracy might come to an end in October 2018.