Denis MacShane Archives

All eyes are on elections in Britain, France and soon Germany but quite the most bizarre election seen in Europe since the end of communism is due to take ten days after the British poll next month, writes Denis MacShane.

After the Trump-like picture of Theresa May signing her Article 50 letter, there was nothing new in her statement in the House of Commons, writes Denis MacShane.

A new menace is stalking the Western Balkans: the region's political leaders themselves. Many are now retreating from serious engagement with Europe in order to play internal political games, writes Denis MacShane.

Europe’s foreign policy supremo, Federica Mogherini, is off on a mission even more difficult than getting Iran and the US to agree their nuclear deal, writes Denis MacShane.

Watching Theresa May in a hotel room in the capital of a small European nation, not in the EU, has been a surreal experience. Her insistence that every other EU leader had to accept that their citizens cannot any longer travel to the UK on the terms they can today seemed borderline impertinent, writes Denis MacShane.

Sir Ivan Rogers is not a Foreign Office smoothy, the kind of charming brilliant dip who used to live in the Rue Ducale and out-negotiate the Eurocrats with effortless ease, writes Denis MacShane, reflecting on the sudden departure of the UK's envoy to the EU.

The sensationalist press coverage of the High Court ruling on Brexit is not justified by what actually happened and is likely to happen, says Denis MacShane.

Theresa May’s has spent nearly every waking moment since leaving university thinking about her Conservative Party to which she has devoted all her life, writes Denis MaShane.

Labour could be at the forefront of exposing these inconsistencies and incoherence of Brexit. But first, the party has to overcome its own confusion and mixed messages, writes Denis MacShane.

As all eyes focus on Brexit - where everything has changed but nothing has started - there is another proud European democracy which would like to shut its doors to immigrants but keep open the EU’s doors to its goods and services – Switzerland, writes Denis MacShane.

Imitation may be the most sincere form of flattery. But it is doubtful if anyone in Switzerland is thanking the City and big bank spin doctors who have come up with the idea that London should seek a Swiss-style relationship with Europe once Brexit is fully consummated, writes Denis MacShane.

US Vice-President Joe Biden has chosen this week to come to what is still Europe’s great unfinished business – the West Balkans. Can Biden knock any sense into his Serb hosts? Unlikely, says Denis MacShane.

Anyone ever tried to get from Athens to Skopje or Pristina? It’s a journey from hell as the excellent Aegean Airlines, which links all the region’s cities, have eliminated Macedonia and Kosovo from their satellite map, writes Denis MacShane.

Britain’s new Prime Minister, Theresa May, has wasted no time in telling Europe and the world that Britain wants to be somewhere else, writes Denis MacShane.

In English politics, we are witnessing the truth of Marx’s maxim that history repeats itself, first as tragedy then as farce, as the man who led the Brexit campaign in order to become prime minister now suddenly renounces his ambition, writes Denis MacShane.

A remain vote would give David Cameron unprecedented power to lead EU reform. But Denis MacShane asks if he will be quite such a Europhile once the dust has settled on the referendum and his job is secure.

The main result of the UK’s Super Thursday election is that every party leader lost, writes Denis MacShane, Britain's former minister for Europe.

The Remain camp will have to find different  enthusiastic advocates and reasons on than trade deal queues to convince voters if Brexit is to be defeated, Obama's trip was not a game-changer.

The Brexit campaign is throwing up the oddest of paradoxes.  Having been elected as a leftist hammer of the Conservatives, the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has now decided he wants to ensure David Cameron stays as Prime Minister by joining ranks with him to urge a defeat of the Brexit camp in the referendum on 23^rd June.

David Cameron’s unenthusiastic, eurosceptical campaign to remain in the EU risks provoking voter apathy and dooming the UK to more years of disengagement with European affairs even if Brexit does not become a reality, writes Denis MacShane.

This will go down in history as the losers’ European Council. David Cameron has fashioned a lose-lose  game plan in which both the UK and the EU will emerge weaker from his plebiscite politics, writes Denis MacShane.

UK Eurosceptics in favour of Brexit will not be persuaded by Juncker’s words in Strasbourg, writes Denis MacShane. The Commission President has simply reinforced British stereotypes of migrant laborers.

Hardly anyone has noticed that Denmark is holding an EU referendum tomorrow - but the result could shape the Brexit debate, argues Denis MacShane.

Since David Cameron's electoral victory in May and his announcement of an in-out referendum on the EU, Queen Elizabeth has been the only senior British leader to speak out for European unity, writes Denis MacShane.