The decision to postpone the EU council meeting solved – for the time being – one thorny EU question, writes Denis MacShane. What to do about Turkey’s new Sultan Erdogan and his non-stop aggression against EU member states, and core EU values?
Boris Johnson's obsession with obtaining a Brexit deal in June has over-ridden the need to act decisively in response to Coronavirus. But the signs of panic are emerging, writes Denis MacShane.
The surge in support for Green parties in the Swiss elections suggests that the Alpine country is shying away from right-wing populism and euroscepticism, writes Denis MacShane.
Boris Johnson is desperate to hold a general election, but why should opposition lawmakers give him a poll on his terms, asks Denis MacShane. Denis MacShane is the UK’s former Minister of Europe, and a former Labour MP. In politics...
Boris Johnson's prorogation of Parliament may have come as a shock to many but it has stripped away whatever remaining illusions there might have been that the Prime Minister was going to abide by British parliamentary traditions, writes Denis MacShane.
Will the EU honour its word to Tirana and Skopje or will Brussels – not for the first time – leave the Western Balkans stewing in its own juice? All eyes are on the reaction of EU foreign ministers to last week's inflammatory rhetoric by two Balkan leaders, writes Denis MacShane.
All is not what it seems in the UK, after Nigel Farage's Brexit party suffered a major setback in its bid to win a seat in the UK parliament, writes Denis MacShane.
With the Brexit camp in increasing turmoil, EU leaders would be wise to give Theresa May her extension and wait for the tide to continue turning, argues Denis MacShane.
It is now clear that the Brexit deal has not been changed and the demands of the hardline anti-European MPs for the Withdrawal Agreement to be re-opened have been rejected by the EU27, writes Denis MacShane.
Britain neither wants Brexit nor knows how to escape from it. The result is that everybody loses, and the camp of losers just gets bigger and bigger, writes Denis MacShane.
The deal agreed between the United Kingdom and the European Union has detonated the biggest political dispute in British politics since Neville Chamberlain came back from Munich in 1938 waving a leaf of paper and proclaiming he had won “Peace in our time”, writes Denis MacShane.
Vladimir Putin is now 66, the average age of death for a Russian male. He keeps fit so we can expect he will live longer than his fellow Russian men, whose standard of living and health care has not been at the forefront of his near two decades of rule, writes Denis MacShane.
A second referendum or an extension to Article 50 could be the only way to cut the Brexit Gordian knot, argues Denis MacShane as he reflects on a nightmare week for Theresa May.
As Theresa May returns from yet another European Council where she had nothing to say in concrete terms to her fellow 27 heads of government on Brexit, she could actually be copying the tactics of one of the most famous Roman leaders, writes Denis MacShane.
On the eve of the second anniversary of the Brexit plebiscite, nothing but nothing is clear on what the UK government’s policy is, still less on what the official opposition’s policy is. All the enthusiasm for Brexit has disappeared from political life in Britain, writes Denis MacShane.
A Brexiternity beckons for the years ahead, well past the next general election, as political, economic and policy shapers will debate and disagree on what kind of Brexit the UK wants and needs, writes Denis MacShane.
After Brexit, the rest of Europe will control freedom of movement sensibly without discriminating on grounds of nationality, adhering to the principle that has been in all European treaties since 1950, writes Denis MacShane.
UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has come in for plenty of criticism in his 19 months in post. But there is one area of foreign policy where he has been faultless and where indeed Britain can play a leading role in shaping Europe’s future direction of travel, explains Denis MacShane.
In March, Michel Barnier told me he had offered the UK a two-year transition period after April 2019 in which Britain could trade freely without tariffs or duties, provided London accepted existing EU rules and laws on social protection, environment and rights of EU citizens. Denis MacShane explains.
One of the more powerful arguments advanced in Britain by Eurosceptics – from hardline Brexit ideologues to polite rationalists who disliked many aspects of European integration - was that the European Union had a dreadful economic tale to tell this century, writes Denis MacShane.
So now we know that the main party leaders in Britain would vote to stay in the EU if there was a second referendum - hence the growing attacks on the government from those in the Brexit camp, writes Denis MacShane.
