Europe in action! (by Guy Sevrin). The European Union, our Union, faces many challenges. The current crisis, on a scale without precedent during the last 50 years, has worsened unemployment and further accentuated social inequalities. The financial system has been shown to have serious deficiencies. Our public finances have greatly deteriorated as a result and must be restabilised … MORE

The draft “direct trade” regulation: a short legal analysis (by Constantinos Lycourgos). In July 2004, in the aftermath of the referenda on the Annan Plan for a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem, which resulted in a positive vote by the Turkish Cypriot community and a negative one by the Greek Cypriot community, the European Commission tabled before the EU Council two … MORE

The AKP government’s Kurdish predicament (by Tozun Bahcheli and Sid Noel). Ever since the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) ended a year-long ceasefire on 1 June 2010, Turkey has been gripped with violence and fear. Scores of Turkish soldiers and Kurdish fighters have been killed, renewing anxieties among Turks and Kurds alike regarding the prospect of a peaceful end to the long-running … MORE

Turkey’s frontline foreign policy (by Shlomo Avineri). A few months before he became Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s chief adviser, met with a group of Middle Eastern academics and policy experts, including Arabs and Israelis. With his academic background and immense erudition, he succeeded in painting, on a wide … MORE

The Cyprus talks: on the road of no return? (by Van Coufoudakis). After thirty-six years the consequences of the Turkish invasion are still evident in Cyprus. Witness the continuing occupation of nearly 37% of the territory of an EU member by a country aspiring to become an EU member. Witness the continuing and documented violation of human rights and Turkey’s total disregard of its … MORE

The limits of participation: Greek government’s interrupted attempt to gain trust (by Stella Ladi). The lack of trust in democratic institutions and in the effectiveness of governments has led Western democracies to the search of a new contract between governors and governed. The Papandreou government has followed this trend by introducing new instruments of public participation … MORE

The sovereign debt crisis (by Monroe Newman). With the news full of the sovereign debt crisis, with governments mustering remedies for it, and with the stress full of people objecting to its real and potential impacts, it may be useful to keep some … MORE

The forthcoming elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina (by Predrag Vukovic). The Dayton Peace Agreement (DPA), initiated on 21 November 1995 and signed in Paris on 14^th December 1995, by the governments of Bosnia, Croatia and rump-Yugoslavia brought the three and a half year Bosnian war to an end. Fifteen years have passed and Bosnia is still experiencing the same problems of ethnic … MORE