Explainer articles about the issues you’ve always wanted (or needed) to know about.
Featured image, courtesy of JRC, European Commission When most of us in Europe think of African migrants – though it may hurt to admit it – images of crowded little boats braving the Mediterranean or knock-off handbag sellers lining tourist-filled boulevards may spring to mind. But is this the full picture when it comes to […]
It’s high time we talked about combatting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) – and without fuelling hate speech through our words. Last week, the End FGM European Network and the World Solidarity Forum (WSF) co-hosted a seminar in Brussels on how to sensitively and effectively discuss FGM and other forms of gender-based violence – to inspire […]
The financial technology sector has evolved enormously after the global financial crisis of 2008, and we seem to have entered a new phase in this exciting industry. To understand exactly what the impact of FinTech in the different spheres of this complex world has been, it can be helpful to visualise the data on investments in European countries from 2008 to today. Of the results that we can clearly identify from this map and the related chart, one of the most […]
In the wake of the green wave, we see renewed calls for a “system change”. But what exactly does that mean? Does anyone have any ideas? Ideas other than Anarchy, Communism or a return to Feudalism? When posed this question, those that shout loudest, tend to go quiet very quickly. But we don’t have to […]
One of the most common ways to have a positive influence on the planet and society is to devote most of your time to trying to find ways to solve issues that affect the world on a daily basis. It’s with this end goal in mind that an increasingly high number of people decide to […]
The debate about how to define thousands of people moving to a different country is still ongoing in Europe. Expats, migrants, refugees… Many words are used to define people moving from their own country to another. But what is the difference between these terms? What makes an expat an expat and a migrant a migrant? […]
Nobody likes taxes. Okay, that’s not true. There are students on every university campus, who live in social housing and have never paid taxes in their life. They will tell you that they fully support taxation. But let’s focus on those of us who pay taxes on a regular basis: working people. Most everyone of […]
After the surprise victory for Alexis Tsipras and the Syriza party in January 2015, many were expecting them to deliver on their anti-austerity pledges that they made to the Greek electorate in the lead up to the election. At this time, Greece was and still is going through a difficult period economically with their debts […]
The article was originally published (in English) on the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies blog: https://www.martenscentre.eu/blog/black-sheep-european-liberals. The European Liberals and particularly the former head of the ALDE Group in the European Parliament, Guy Verhofstadt, have made their reputation on the criticism of nationalist and populist politicians around Europe, including Salvini, Farage, Orbán and many […]
In April’s EU-U.S. Trade Relations meeting, U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland joked that he approached an official in the European Commission and asked, “What time is it?” The official promptly responded, “No.” With relations stalling on no(t yet), what can we look forward to seeing in upcoming EU-U.S. trade negotiations? Following the end […]