About: Italy
Member states must not let Commission stand against Italy alone
The rejection of Italy’s draft budget by the European Commission on Tuesday is unprecedented in the history of the Stability and Growth Pact. Member states cannot sit idly by but must take a more active role in the political conflict over fiscal sovereignty.
Ireland’s Yes vote ushers in a new era for women’s rights in Europe
EU institutions should be emboldened to take concrete actions to defend reproductive freedom across the whole of Europe after Irish citizens voted massively in favour of repealing the country’s abortion ban, writes Caroline Hickson.
Blocked humanity
The Dublin regulation, allocating asylum claims to the first port of call on a migrant's journey, is unfit for purpose. The European Parliament has come to a shared position that guarantees fair treatment of refugees and shared responsibility in the EU. Now it's up to member states to do their share, writes Cornelia Ernst.
Europe’s quiet offensive against people helping refugees
Three years ago today (31 October), EU pressure on Italy forced the end of one the EU’s most successful humanitarian missions, ‘Mare Nostrum’, a search-and-rescue operation that in just one year brought 130,000 refugees safely to Europe’s shores. Ben Hayes and Frank Barat look back on three years since the end of Operation Mare Nostrum.
Climate coalition: Pray the G20 succeeds where G7 failed
Italy, Germany and France’s over eagerness to insist that the Paris Agreement is non-negotiable was a golden ticket for Washington’s climate change deniers. Europe shot itself in the foot, warns Corrado Clini.
Migration: A safe investment in humanity
Instead of a responding to today’s migration challenges from a position of strength, Europe has reacted in fear. This has to change, warns Eugenio Ambrosi.
Southern Gas Corridor’s dubious contribution to energy security
Advertised by the EU as the silver bullet that will free Europe from its dependency on Russian gas, the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) is highly unlikely to ensure energy security and might in fact end up channelling Russian gas, warns Xavier Sol.
Tunisia underestimates imminent North Africa refugee crisis
Tunisia has signed agreements with the EU for the return of illegal Tunisian immigrants and to host asylum seekers from other African countries. But Tunis is now denying those deals, writes Mourad Teyeb.
As Russia’s gas market gets weaker, Europe gets stronger
The Southern Gas Corridor, pipeline interconnectors and LNG terminals, particularly in the northeast, have slowly but steadily been weakening Russia's pipeline hegemony, writes Agnia Grigas.
Does corruption threaten Europe?
Current debate rarely attributes the rise of populism in European politics to the perceived prevalence of corruption. Yet public opinion often shows that citizens believe their representatives to be corrupt, write Laurence Cockcroft and Anne-Christine Wegener.
CETA and the crumbling Grand Coalition
European Parliament President Martin Schulz hasn’t vacated his post yet but talk of the Grand Coalition falling apart is already rife in Brussels. Final approval of CETA could be a huge opportunity for the socialists to claw back some ground, writes Pieter de Pous.
From Brexit to Trump: Transatlantic Allies in an era of unpredictability
Brexit and the election of Donald Trump as US President is not just a test for EU leaders and institutions, it’s test of free citizens in free societies, write Geoffrey Harris and Tim Oliver.
Europe’s ‘working poor’ and populism are on the rise
Driven by a labour market recovery, EU citizens’ opportunities for social participation have improved slightly for the first time since 2008. But not everyone is benefiting. A high risk of poverty persists in many countries, especially in southern Europe, warn Daniel Schraad-Tischler and Christof Schiller.
Joy and despair in European statistics
Europe needs more than temporary growth to boost its economy, write George Friedman and Antonia Colibasanu.
Financial crime knows no borders: Europe needs to join forces to fight it
Criminal activity knows no borders, so the European Commissioner for Justice and two MEPs here reiterate the need for Europe to come together and set up a European Public Prosecutor that can stop criminals in their tracks.
More services integration needed to reinvigorate Europe
Goods can be traded freely across the EU, but the same cannot, in practice, be said of services. Less restrictions in the sector would yield enormous economic benefits, argue Arup Banerij, Doerte Doemeland and Sanja Madžarević Šujster.
The major stumbling block of the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict needs its mediators to come to an interim agreement that benefits both sides, while international actors, like the EU, have to differentiate between the factors at play in the Caucasus, writes Dr Gulshan Pashayeva.
Understanding the state of the economy is crucial to business success
A prerequisite for helping European businesses succeed in the new digital and mobile economy is understanding the economic environment in which they operate, writes Facebook’s Nicola Mendelsohn.
New EU border guard agency is no magic bullet
The European Union’s new border guard agency is meant to remedy the failings of its predecessor, Frontex. Dr Lisa Watanabe asks whether the EBCG will be endowed with what Frontex lacked.
Outsourcing European border security – ‘at the whim of foreign dictators’?
If Europe wants to stabilise itself against the relentless pressure of South-North migration — a must rather than an option now — taking matters into its own hands is the only sustainable way forward, argues Leopold Traugott.
Emissions injustices committed against Greece must be corrected
The EU established its criteria for awarding free CO2 emission allowances in 2013. However, it failed to take into account the tough economic conditions that lay ahead, writes Georgios Andriotis.
First Brexit, next stop United States of Europe and a Norse League?
In December 2011, EURACTIV.com’s partner, Milano Finanza, published a scenario put together by British historian Niall Ferguson. It concerned Europe in 2021 and his predictions are already starting to materialise.
The EU’s collective security: Stronger together!
The people of Europe are facing a multi-faceted security challenge that they need to confront together, whatever the outcome on 23 June. "Collective security" needs to be placed at the very heart of the European construction, write Jacques Delors, António Vitorino, Pascal Lamy, Enrico Letta and Yves Bertoncini.