Current Affairs

Britain’s Children’s Newspaper – subtitled, ‘The Story of the World Today for the Men and Women of Tomorrow’ – was a remarkable and mature publication for youngsters. On 8 October 1938, with dark clouds of war looming, the newspaper ran a visionary editorial describing Europe as ‘one Brotherhood’ with a ‘common interest which binds its […]

Prince Harry, Sir Elton John and Liz Hurley are among a group of celebrities suing the Daily Mail publishers, Associated Newspapers, for what they describe as “abhorrent criminal activity”. Their legal action claims they have “compelling and highly distressing evidence” that they have been “victims” of  “gross breaches of privacy by Associated Newspapers”. The group […]

Conservatives, have you forgotten what your party in power used to stand for regarding Europe? For most of the past seven decades, Tory governments did more than any other to bring us closer to our continent. After all: It’s because of the Conservatives that the UK applied to join the European Community in the first […]

After a summer hiatus for the Conservative leadership campaign, there was much expectation of Liz Truss following through on her stated plans for the Northern Ireland Protocol. Recall that she had been the lead minister for the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill and that she had done much during the campaign to court the support of […]

The editorial by UACES, the University Association for European Studies and EUradio, looks at the parliamentary elections in Italy on Sunday. We welcome Dr Malin Stegmann McCallion, from the University of Karlstad, in Sweden.

Should Europe be seriously worried about the latest developments in Italian politics or simply shrug its shoulders and tick off the forthcoming parliamentary elections as yet another convulsion of a chronically unstable system? I have just received a nice envelop from the Italian Consulate in Paris with all the materials to vote to renew the […]

We’re very happy to open the second season of our weekly “Ideas on Europe” editorial by UACES, the University Association for European Studies. And to start off the season, we welcome – just like last year! – Simon Usherwood, from the Open University, in England.

On 23 June 2022, the European Union granted Ukraine and Moldova the coveted status of EU Candidate countries. For both countries, the acquisition of an EU Candidate status amid Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine is of high geopolitical but also symbolic importance. Nevertheless, Ukraine’s and Moldova’s path to EU membership is likely to be thorny, as they have much “homework” to do.

Although an increasing number of political decisions are taken at the European Union (EU) level, national politics remains the prime arena for democratic debate. This deprives the EU of a key source of democratic legitimacy, while showing how national politics are increasingly 'ruling the void'. In my article for JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, I argue that national political parties can provide a solution to both challenges by organisationally linking the national and European levels.

As the attention of the European public opinion has turned to Ukraine, it is our duty and responsibility not to leave the accession plans for the Balkans fall into oblivion, writes Marilena Koppa. Photo by Christian Lue on Unsplash. Nineteen years after the Thessaloniki Summit that offered an accession perspective to the Western Balkans, the […]