As the England Expects have picked out correctly: the fact that the EU has started to collect CVs from Croatia is good sign that their accession is near. The wheels of the beaurocracy are turning slowly. Link: Epsoforum Croatia.
 

Chinese Permier Wen Jiabao met the European Commission in Brussels on 30 January, as part of a tour taking in Davos, Berlin, London and Madrid.  Paris was excluded because President Sarkozy recently met the Dalai Lama.  Germany was previously punished and relations have been reasonably restored.
Timing
“This visit is intended to have a lot of symbolic [...]

Tony Barber writes about the latest round of the great Balkans naming game: Macedonia (a country that could not enter NATO and is not allowed to use its name in the United States because of a Greek veto over it) decided to rename an EU-funded cross-Balkans infrastructure project after its great conquering ruler, Alexander the [...]

The small, and newish independent state has applied for EU-membership and is heading towards an early election. The opposition claims that the long-time prime minister and president, wants to head the polls before the world economic crisis hits the country more severly. However, Mr Djukanoivic can claim that after the declaration of independence, in which [...]

Six months of the French Presidency drew to a close at the end of December, and with it a very hectic period of meetings and conferences for ESU staff.  But what was the outcome of all this frenetic activity in terms of higher education policy at the European level?  Were there some real achievements, or [...]

The European Union spent €2.4bn last year on “biased information campaigns” to “promote itself and its central aim of ‘ever closer union’,” alleges a new study by Open Europe, a UK-based think tank. But the report’s findings were denied by the European Commission, which said it “makes no apologies” for supporting schemes such as the [...]

After fierce demonstrations against the government the prime minister had resigned on Monday. The new government may apply for EU-membership, which will be viewed very favorable by the European Union. The head of the new caretaker government is lead by Johanna Sigurdardottir, who is also the first openly gay female premiere in the world.
Iceland will [...]

The UN General Assembly chose January 27 as the official day for the commemoration, as it was on this day in 1945 that Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp. Throughout Europe, tributes will be paid to the 53 million people who died during World War II, of whom 31 million were civilians.
Commemoration has [...]
 

The Obama €825 economic stimulus package, as approved by the House of Representatives, contains a “Buy America” steel provision. Public works projects funded by the bill may only iron and steel made in the US.
This is most unfortunate as it could influence the stimulus plans of other countries.  A widespread protectionist, beggar-thy-neighbour approach would be [...]

Childcare is a 21st century public service - it gives children a great start to their education and learning to live and play with other children, and it frees to look for paid work, it creates work, it brings together the community.
In 2007 the Party of European Socialists ran a campaign to encourage governments to [...]

Especially if you did not like the logo of the Czech Presidency, here is the opportunity to raise your voice. You can vote on the proposed logos of the Spanish/Belgian/Hungarian presidency troika. I still keep asking why are we turning the European Union into a logo factory - I believe that logos used for a [...]

Despite the positive signals of demographic stabilisation in the developed world and China, global population keeps increasing at an unsustainable rate. Every year it grows by about 80 million, the equivalent of the German population. UN projections for 2050 expect global population to reach more than 10 billion in the worst hypothesis, 8.4 billion in [...]

Following Defence Secretary Robert Gates attack on China for manipulating its currency, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appears to be criticising the policy of the previous administration (of which Gates formed part).  “We need a comprehensive dialogue with China,” Clinton said, not just an economic one
She said that the Obama administration is working to design [...]

This is just a short analysis about BloggingPortal.eu, “the new place to read EU blogs and keep yourself updated on the EU blogosphere” (Kosmopolito). I know there’s been already quite a buzz a few days ago about the launch of this new collaborative portal but I’d like to share my personal thoughts with you.
Description
BloggingPortal.eu is [...]

Press release by La Quadrature du Net, European Digital Rights (EDRi),
Working Group on Data Retention (AK Vorrat), and Netzpolitik.org, 2009-01-28:
EU proposal puts confidential communications data at risk
Civil liberties groups La Quadrature du Net, European Digital Rights
(EDRi), AK Vorrat, and Netzpolitik.org are urging the European Parliament
to heed advice given by the European Data Protection Supervisor Peter
Hustinx [...] 

In the opening even of Think About It three blogging MEPs answered the questions of European bloggers. Richard Corbett (Socialist) said he does not allow for comments because another organized party would immediately fill it up. But all comments are welcome in e-mail. Christofer Fjellner (People’s Party) has a bilingual blog. Jules Maaten (Liberal Democrats) [...]

Susan Rice, US Ambassador to the UN, has warned that Iran must meet U.N. Security Council demands to suspend uranium enrichment before any talks on its nuclear programme.
Hopefully, this continuation of the previous administration’s closing policy will not prevent the talks beginning.  She told reporters that, “The dialogue and diplomacy must go hand in hand [...]

There is no agreed definition of “think tank” nor is it always obvious how it differs from a research centre or academic body.  The essence of a think tank, in my view, is an organisation which advocates public policy solutions/recommendations.  Its objective is to influence policy/decision-makers and opinion-formers rather than increase knowledge generally.  To be [...]

Amazingly, Muammar Qaddafi wrote an op-ed in the International Herald Tribune on 22 January.  He advocates a one-state solution but a prerequisite is the right of return for the Palestinian refugees: this is a non-starter.
However, the constructiveness and balance of the article deserve attention, whatever the Libyan leader’s motive for having the article published.  [...]
 

Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Geithner stated in his confirmation hearing that President Obama believed that China was manipulating its currency.  This has been a consistent American view but hitherto no action has been taken against China.  What significance is there in the statement?
Does it herald a tough line being taken which could lead to a declaration [...]