Guy Verhofstadt proposes that the East European EU countries which are still oustide the eurozone adopt the euro as a parallel currency. The proposal concerns Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Romania.
I’m not sure this is a very good idea. If the euro was introduced as a parallel currency in the [...]

That’s the question to ask these days to people you met in the meantime. Well, if you or them are at least 30 years of age.
There are moments, like 9/11, when everyone remembers what they have been doing, feeling and experiencing. By the way, the wall also fell on 9/11, but written the European way [...]

Edward Lucas, a prominent analyst, says that Russia is pushing the USA out of Europe, trying to set up a condominium in the old continent between itself and countries such as France, Germany, Italy, to the detriment of Eastern Europe.
Recently another knowledgeable specialist, Ariel Cohen, said that there is “little appetite” these days in the [...]

East European leaders may be bargaining for a fairer deal on climate funding, however the impression remains that they are less interested in the subject, compared to their colleagues from ‘older Europe’.
I was discussing this with my friend Jan Vitasek, a Czech journalist, yesterday night in the Council meeting, while EU leaders were having dinner. [...]

The Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin has punished Bulgaria for not being as pro-Russian as he wants, by excluding it from the South Stream gas pipeline and by abandoning the project of an oil pipeline from the Bulgarian Black Sea city of Varna to to Greek port Alexandroupolis.
Indeed, Russia has had a consistent policy of [...]

After the Irish ‘yes’, the Lisbon Treaty has already been ratified politically. Two presidents’ signatures are missing to complete legally the ratification process. The Polish one appears to be motivated by the will to extort concessions from the EU as much as he can, and the Czech one simply doesn’t like the EU reform treaty.
I [...]

I’m not very optimistic these days. Either the Irish will say no (níl) to the Lisbon Treaty, which I think they will be wise enough not to do this time, or the Czech ‘no’ (ne) camp around Klaus will keep the ratification on ice for several months, waiting for the British Tories to come on [...]

The Commission is transparent enough to make obvious the huge East-West gap in the EU administration highest posts’ distribution.

The data are appalling.

At the highest level of the administration, AD16, there are 37 civil servants from across the EU, of which zero East Europeans. At the next level AD15, there are 235 civil servants, [...]

My compartiot and good friend Irina Bokova was elected yesterday night Director General of UNESCO. You can find details here.
I have worked under Bokova in the mid nineties, when she was deputy foreign minister, responsible for European integration, while I was a diplomat in Brussels, accredited to the European Communities. I think Bokova made a [...]

I don’t believe that ‘Europe’ comes from the name of a Phoenician princess, abducted by Zeus, who assumed the form of a bull. Sculptures inspired by this legend, in front of EU institutions in Brussels and Strasbourg, fail to impress me.
Instead, I know that Europa was a dioecesis of the Thracian province of the Roman [...]