In a 2006 Gallup poll, 9% of the Muslim world thought that the Q’ran should be the only source of national law; 46% that it should be a source. Unsurprising? And what if I tell you that this is not true but is the transposition of the results of a poll of Americans, [...]

The media (in this case one paper) have recently exposed the activities of dozens of members of the UK Parliament in claiming expenses, in some cases fraudulently, and in other cases against the spirit of rules set by themselves. The exposure of the British parliamentary malpractices is an excellent example of what the media [...]

The postponed 2008 EU-China summit took place in Prague on 20 May. The Beijing 2007 summit was followed by a joint declaration of over 47 paragraphs. The post of 23 December 2007 questions why such a statement has to be issued when very little of its contents were discussed at the summit.
However, after [...]

The new report made by Minority Rights Group International (MRG) gives a bare picture about worsening situation of minority rights in today’s Kosovo. Instead to return to their homes after ethnic cleansing implemented by Kosovo Albanians after Nato intervention 1999 minorities are beginning to leave Kosovo, because they face exclusion and discrimination. This negative [...]

By Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, President of the Party of European Socialists
You choose – but please don’t throw your vote away!
Like it or not, Europe is a part of your government, and Brussels is one of the seats of your democracy. There’s the Town Hall, regional government, national parliament and the European Union with its [...]

On June 1st, UN climate change negotiators will sit down in Bonn, Germany for the first official round of UNFCCC negotiations.  The players have held several meetings leading up to the official negotiations - and commentators, NGOs and industry groups have all been watching the choreographed dance between the EU and the United States, particularly [...]

We’d better face it: this Korean crisis is more ominous than any in the past 20 years or so. The Pyongyang leadership - shaky, bankrupt and fearful of change - is clearly on its last legs. What do Stalinist dictators do in such circumstances ? They flex their military muscle and, if they’ve got it, [...]

Needless to say, it is the innovation pipeline — from blue-sky research to entrepreneurial development to the markets — that transforms basic ideas into new economic building blocks safeguarding our prosperity and all that comes with it including the future of the European project.
Now, while in the United States a discussion has been launched to [...]

Together with two of my ERRIN Board Members, Sylvia Schreiber of Stuttgart Region and Valentina Pinna of the Lombardy Region Chamber of Commerce, I had the pleasure to participate at a Pro Inno Workshop focusing on their new Partnering Forum Initiative to be launched this summer. The meeting took place in Rotterdam on 12 [...]

Phenomenon of geothermal energy is not the discovery of our generation. At the very beginning of it, in 1852, Lord Kelvin focused his attention on natural heat as an enormous source of power at disposal for human being. On the other hand, knowledge on field of physics had been not enough developed in order to [...]

The leaders of the Blue Coalition, Ivan Kostov and Martin Dimitrov, asked the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to send observers to the forthcoming elections for the European Parliament (June, 7th) and national parliament (July, 5th) in Bulgaria.
The reason for this is the refusal of the Central Election Commission (CEC) yesterday to [...]

All goods are not destined to be marketable. We cannot limit ourselves to distinguish, as we often do, private goods that belong on the free market and public goods which, by nature or by destiny, need to be managed by public authority. In a modern society, it is necessary to distinguish between goods and services [...]

This is just irresistible for anyone, like me, who used to be a Serious Science Journalist before being sucked into the web:
Thanks to John Caswell for tweeting me onto this.
Yes, I admit it, despite earlier scepticism stretching back to 2007, I am increasingly using twitter, simply as a way of checking out interesting sites and [...]

Conventional climate policy relies on curbing emissions and fossil energy demand. Emission caps on utilities, oil refineries, steel and chemical energies are the principal tool for fighting against climate change. High taxes on gasoline and subsidies on renewable energies complete the tool box. 
This approach aims at making fossil energy more expensive and encouraging investment in [...]

Manufacturing industries and in particular, Europe’s electrical and electronic industries - have the potential not only to provide significant growth and employment in the EU, but it is they who will also provide solutions for today’s most pressing societal issues. These are some of the conclusion of the EU’s Competitiveness Council convening this week.  “We [...]

The US Congress is about to take its first ever serious action against climate change. We should applaud this fundamental policy reversal, but not hesitate to tell the USA that the action so far envisaged is far from making an impact on global green house emissions.
US legislation aims at reducing green house gases by 17 [...]

Press coverage by BBC and ITN. Plus: a new WWF-UK briefing paper that argues for demonstrating post-combustion capture on an existing installation rather than a new one.

One week till 7-June. Even less for countries voting on 4th. And the Y Vote Campaign goes through its maximal stand. Reaching Edimburgh for the last convention of the UK Tour, on the recent past we had “Sparks of Future” in Brussels, the closing ceremony for the Europe-wide campaign, where the European Students had the [...]

An exclusive roundtable hosted by Johnson & Johnson during this year’s Hauptstadtkongress debated the question whether the current healthcare system in Germany should compromise between the need to standardize treatments due to scarce resources and increasingly informed patients demanding the best treatment possible. Although panelists agreed that Germany may be leading in terms of standards [...]

L’Union européenne reste, aux yeux du monde, un exemple réussi d’intégration politique et de sauvegarde de la paix. Dans un monde marqué par les tensions et les inégalités, l’Union européenne cherche à transmettre son expertise en dehors de ses frontières. Un exercice difficile.
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Document collectif élaboré par Irenees, Institut de Ressources pour [...]