The old continent could once offer itself as the model for a new world. No longer: the EU’s universalism is crashing against rising global states (China, India) and forces (religion, nationalism). The response to Ireland’s referendum is a foretaste of serious political crisis to come, says Ivan Krastev.
There is something unreal and profoundly disturbing about [...]

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So far so good, but it still takes two to tango and the EU is not making the right moves, Bingran Dai of the Centre for European Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai tells ISN Security Watch.
“The problem is that the atmosphere has changed drastically since 2006 and the Chinese public and the government feel [...]

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AS WESTERN countries scramble to deal with Russia’s increasingly energetic espionage efforts, their security services are hurriedly rehiring some of the seasoned spycatchers they let go in the past years.
But at the European Union attitudes are still worryingly dozy. Russian spying in Brussels and Strasbourg, say those who try to keep an eye it, is [...]

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The European Union cannot agree over how to deal with Russia. That suits the Kremlin just fine
SEEN from outside, one might imagine that the European Union (population 495m, GDP of $16.8 trillion) was a rather intimidating neighbour for Russia (population 142m, GDP of $1.3 trillion). Yet the reality is the other way round. In recent [...]

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As France jockeys to rejoin the command structure of NATO, a senior French official said Tuesday that, for the first time, conditions were right for Europe to become a more serious player in defense.
Jean-Pierre Jouyet, the European affairs minister, said that the United States was more open than ever to a French push for a [...]

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A REPORT on security challenges to the EU will bluntly warn the union’s summit next week that Europe could face conflict with Russia over access to energy reserves in the Arctic and a dangerous surge in immigration due to the impact of climate change.
And the report warns that the EU must address the reality that [...]

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In a speech today, Liam Fox spelt-out what the Lisbon Treaty means for defence alliances. As he sees it, the treaty would cause greater integration of European security forces, to the detriment of NATO: “The Lisbon Treaty should be viewed as a warning to the British public and Atlanticists across Europe.
On a recent trip [...]

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The EU is easily the most popular and successful empire in history, for it does not dominate, it disciplines. The incentives of Europeanisation - subsidies from Brussels, unfettered mobility, and the adoption of the euro currency - are too great not to want. Brussels today rivals Washington with its swarms of lobbyists, including dozens of [...]

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Russia is taking advantage of its energy exports and the European Union’s lack of unity to influence the bloc’s member states in their foreign policies, a recent report says. “While EU leaders believe that peace and stability are built through interdependence, Russia’s leaders are working to create a situation where the EU needs Russia [...]

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Europe has lost the plot in trying to cope with a resurgent Russia under President Vladimir Putin, who is dictating the agenda in his dealings with European capitals, according to a study published yesterday.
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A ‘Power Audit’ of EU 27-Russia relations
Despite its economic strength and military might, the European Union has begun to behave as [...]

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German ex-chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has urged EU powers to stop backing Poland on trade and to counter US missile shield plans, or risk another unfriendly summit with Russia next month.
Speaking to press at a book-launch in Moscow on Saturday (8 September), he described Poland’s outstanding veto on a new EU-Russia treaty as “narrow-minded nationalism” and [...]

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Bukovsky and BelienVladimir Bukovksy, the 63-year old former Soviet dissident, fears that the European Union is on its way to becoming another Soviet Union. In a speech he delivered in Brussels last week Mr Bukovsky called the EU a “monster” that must be destroyed, the sooner the better, before it develops into a fullfledged totalitarian [...]

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Russia and the European Union have engaged in a diplomatic courting ritual this week as if between equal partners, trying to clear the way for a trade and energy summit on Friday. But who, exactly, needs who? German commentators whiff an elephant in the room.
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EU-RUSSIA SPAT DEEPENS.
Diplomats from the West have embarked on a week of what Condoleezza Rice calls ‘intensive diplomacy’ to patch up frayed relations with Russia. The problems are wide-ranging, but an EU- Russia summit this Friday looks ready to fail because of bickering over oil, pigs and Soviet war memorials.
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Destroying other Blocks
However, the problem with accepting everybody who comes knocking is that, European countries that want to join the political body are given all sorts of conditions to meet. Meanwhile, the Union is proposing special status to African countries such as Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, and even Mauritania. The only links binding these [...]

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Russia’s ongoing political offensive against Estonia — and implicit challenge to the European Union — constitutes the first serious attempt to reverse the post-1991 status quo in Europe. Moscow seems to be targeting Estonia as a first test case of such a process.
Further Russian challenges to the existing European order are likely to ensue if [...]

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EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Russia and China are trying to counter EU efforts to secure fresh energy supplies in Central Asia, the EU’s top regional envoy, Pierre Morel, has warned, with analysts worried Turkey could also start competing with European interests if its EU accession hopes fade.
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Tensions between Estonia and Russia are placing an added strain on relations between Europe and the Kremlin. The European Union has sharply criticized the Russians’ failure to protect diplomats after the Estonian and Swedish ambassadors came under attack in Moscow.
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When Vladimir Putin made his hard-line speech at the February 10 Munich conference on security, the Turkish public got truly excited. Many saw in the speech the makings of a new Cold War, and this time around instead of fearing a rising Russia the sentiment was favorable towards Moscow – as a counterbalance to an [...]

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VILNIUS, April 25 (RIA Novosti) - EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs and European MPs have urged Russia to abandon using energy as a political weapon and resume oil supplies to Lithuania.
They adopted a joint statement saying that Russia and the EU are mutually dependent on energy, and that the majority of problems arise from political [...]

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It appears that the EU is quite happy about this situation. On Jan. 29, Laurence Nardon, director of the space policy program at the French Institute of International Relations, told Newsweek that a Russian revival would give the EU a better hand during talks with NASA because it would allow them to say they wanted [...]

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