David Cameron needs to put British national interest before his party’s interest. Angela Merkel has now left the door open for the British government to rebuild alliances and regain its position in Europe. It is in the British national interest that the government embraces that opportunity.
The crisis in the Euro Area is enmeshed in an evolving global, and European, financial and economic crisis. Its dimensions are profound, historical, and structural. It raises the stakes in European integration to new heights.
There has been much sound and fury but little progress in Euroland in the days following David Cameron’s veto at the meeting of the EU heads of government in Brussels on 11 December. Far from them saving the Euro, they agreed to differ on some things, and agreed to delay on others.
Merkel’s actions over the EU fiscal pact have been likened to a game of chicken. They are more akin to tightrope walking while composing an opera. Lurking in the background is the threat that the markets will lose faith and tear the whole edifice down. Either way, this pact will not be the last word.
Not supporting the people of South Ossetia in their determination to make their voices heard and their votes count undermines the credibility of EU efforts to promote and support democracy and sends a message that it may yet be possible to get away with stealing elections.
Following the failure of the Constitutional Treaty, the EU has engaged in an effort to bring itself closer to the people. The role that functional and symbolic identity triggers can play in overcoming historical divides and in generating a sense of identification is of high significance.
The death of Qaddafi is, naturally, a very public symbol that his reign of oppression is over and will not return, but this is not the end of the story for Libyans, the UN or NATO. The campaign to maintain peace between the various factions could prove to be more difficult than the defeat of Qaddafi’s forces.
Perhaps, looking back at the EU’s performance in the Libyan crisis in five years’ time, the best lesson to (re-) learn is that the EU is not good at hard security policy, but does a very decent job when the task is about dealing with the aftermath of conflict. Stable democracies cannot be built on the battlefield. They require a whole different set of capabilities than what NATO can offer.
Police brutality is now part of everyday life in Greece. Violence from extreme political circles of all directions is on the rise, and an overall feeling of everyone-against-everyone makes evident the crumbling of Greek society.Thus, the only thing that Greek Police seem to be good at is to provoke indignation.
The 1995 Srebrenica genocide was a shameful event in modern European politics. The Srebrenica Resolution, adopted in January 2009 by the European Parliament, represents a significant ‘normative’ initiative that once again has proved the relevance and effectiveness of the European Union as an appreciable normative power in international politics.
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