Guest post by Dagfinn Høybråten, Chair of the GAVI Alliance Board and Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers. He was previously Norway’s Minister of Health. World Immunization Week, which is being celebrated around the globe this week, is an important opportunity to highlight the power of immunisation in protecting children against life-threatening diseases, including [...]

Last time the EU agreed on its seven-year budget was in December 2005, at a summit hosted at the time by the UK Presidency, under Tony Blair. Reading back into our archives, it is surprising how relevant the debates have remained today. Based on the 2005 experience, we could also risk making one prediction: The [...]

EU als Politische Union – Wer versagt: Politiker oder Bürger? Finanzkrise rauf, Zukunft der Europäischen Union runter, so geht das seit Wochen und Monaten. Wenn wir ehrlich sind, wird die Diskussion schon seit Anbeginn der europäischen Einigung apokalyptisch geführt. Denken wir nur an die Eurosklerose der 70er und 80er Jahre. Die derzeitige Krise in Europa ist [...]

Guest post by Andy Langenkamp, political analyst for ECR Research and Interest & Currency Consultants. Unemployment in the eurozone is at historic highs. Economic growth data are equally depressing while confidence is low among producers and consumers. In short, the stock market rallies of recent months are premature. The European “patient” will not get better [...]

Guest post by Hristiana Grozdanova and Anna Maria Barcikowska. Since the autumn of 2008, the financial crisis and its implications has dictated the EU policies. The pressures on EU governments to control expenditure continue to be enormous. Defence has not remain immune raising important questions how Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) of the EU can [...]

Guest post by Dmitry Chernyshenko, President and CEO of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games. Sports ministers and stakeholders from across the EU met last week at the SportsVision2012 conference in Copenhagen, organised by the Danish Presidency of the EU, to discuss vibrant and healthy sport for all, with a focus on increasing participation in sports [...]

Guest Post by Yannis Kechagiaras, Msc graduate in international relations, LSE. The Greek nation sends out a distress signal: we cannot bear the burden of new cuts on salaries, wages, pensions, allowances; we cannot pay out more special contributions and irregular taxes; we cannot afford saving the state. Greek people are literally cash-strapped: around thirty [...]

Guest Post by Dan Luca Introduced by the new Treaty of Lisbon, the Council has a president for 2.5 years – extendable for another 2.5 years. As the first ever president of the Council, Herman van Rompuy is almost at the end of his first term and is likely to be reappointed for a second [...]

Guest Post by Paul Whaley, Editor, Health & Environment Last week, EFSA delayed publication of its opinion on the use of thresholds of toxicological concern (TTCs) in risk assessment. And it was right to do so: TTCs are not only unlikely to be sufficiently protective of human health, their deployment would fly in the face [...]

Guest post by Dan Luca & Nienke van Leeuwaarden. An interesting approach is taken by Stefan Lehne, visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe, about the European External Action Service (EEAS). The big paradox seems to be that since the EEAS has become active – European foreign policy is less visible and effective than before its existence. [...]