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In Brussels, Germans have shrugged off their postwar reserve and make no apology for shaping Europe’s future, taking key posts in EU institutions and pushing Berlin’s trade interests with vigor.As Angela Merkel forms a new coalition government after a third successive election triumph, the conservative chancellor can build on efforts, in place since her first term in 2005, that have increased not just the number of Germans in senior jobs in Brussels but the extent to which they answer to Berlin. And where that fails to ensure EU policy acceptable to the bloc’s biggest economy, Merkel has shown she is...

Europe should create a civilian and military crisis operations HQ under EU command, according to a report by center-right MEPs. The proposal, contained in a policy paper published on Tuesday (3 September) by deputies from the European People’s Party, the largest group in the assembly, said EU “heads of state and government have to start building standby forces under Union command.” It called for EU leaders to commit themselves to defining the union’s security interests, prioritizing its strategic objectives and linking these with operational deployments. They said this should include a definition of European defense interests and its geographical priority...

The EU needs to do more for international security, France and Germany have said, as they call for improved battle groups and the use of drones in civilian airspace.In a joint letter and ideas paper, dated Friday (26 July), the foreign ministers of both countries say that amid “asymmetrical threats”, the EU needs to “assume increased responsibility for international peace and security.” They add that they are committed to making a planned EU defense summit in December a “success” with “tangible results.” Among the results they are hoping for is agreement on improved “operational effectiveness” of EU battle groups, clusters...

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble warned on Tuesday that failure to win the battle against youth unemployment could tear Europe apart, and dropping the continent's welfare model in favor of tougher U.S. standards would spark a revolution. If U.S. welfare standards were introduced in Europe, "we would have revolution, not tomorrow, but on the very same day," Schaeuble told a conference in Paris. In recent weeks Germany, wary of a backlash as many in crisis-hit European countries blame it for austerity, has taken steps to tackle unemployment in the bloc, striking bilateral deals with Spain and Portugal. "We have to...

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Despite not being a member of the European Union, Switzerland is under intense pressure from Brussels to raise taxes as companies flee high-tax EU welfare states in favor of more business-friendly Swiss cantons. And if the nation refuses to bow down soon, so-called “eurocrats” are threatening retaliation. The Swiss government has been in discussions with EU bosses for over a year regarding Switzerland’s non-compliance with the “EU Code of Conduct for Business Taxation.” The EU’s goal, according to the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, is to eliminate what the supranational regime in Brussels calls “harmful tax practices” — low taxes which attract...

The economic crisis is leading to a rise in the number of people being trafficked for sex, hard labor or organ donation, the EU commission said Monday (15 April,) but the vast majority of member states have failed to implement an anti-trafficking law. While the Czech Republic, Latvia, Finland, Hungary, Poland and Sweden have transposed the law, the remaining 21 member states—including Bulgaria and Romania, from where most of the victims come—have not. … EU home affairs commissioner Cecilia Malmström put the rise in numbers partly down to Europe’s economic crisis, which has seen public spending slashed and GDP slump...

The eurozone sovereign debt crisis is far from over even though reform measures designed to address the roots of the problem are beginning to bear fruit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said in her New Year's address. In face of slowing economic growth, Mrs Merkel also warned that conditions could be more difficult in 2013 than in 2012. "I know that many people are naturally concerned going into the new year," she said. "And the economic environment will not in fact be easier but rather more difficult next year. But we shouldn't let that get us down; rather it should...

Serbians reacted angrily at the acquittal of a former Kosovo guerrilla leader by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), less than two weeks after the court freed two Croatian military commanders who were accused of war crimes, EurActiv Serbia reports. The acquittal of ex-Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) leader Ramush Haradinaj was met by fierce criticism of The Hague tribunalÂ’s work. Serbian officials said the decision was a blow to international justice and made the process of reconciliation in the region more complicated. Â… Belgrade considers that the tribunal has lost credibility and has shown bias in acquitting...

Tony Blair has said the EU would be better off with a directly elected president, as he warned deep political rifts between countries could lead to a break-up. In a move interpreted by some as a job application, the former prime minister said the EU could do with a strong leader approved by the people. … Europe’s millions of residents might feel “alienated” unless they have a direct say in who is governing them, Mr. Blair told the Nicolas Berggruen Institute on Governance. …

The head of the European Central Bank (ECB) on Sunday threw his weight behind a German scheme to allow the EU to intervene in countries' budgets and propose changes before they are agreed in parliaments. The EU should have the power to police and interfere in member states' national budgets, Mario Draghi told Der Spiegel magazine in an interview due to be published on Monday, saying he “completely supported” the suggestion by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble to give more autonomy to the EU's economic and monetary affairs commissioner. … "Several governments have not yet understood that they lost their...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she will use the gathering of EU leaders at the end of the month to push ahead with plans for a political union, including more sweeping powers to Brussels. "We do not just need a currency union but also a so-called fiscal union—more common budget policy," she told Germany's ARD television early Thursday (7 June). She emphasized that a political union was also necessary: "That means that step-by-step in the future we have to give up more powers to Europe and grant Europe more oversight possibilities." While there has been a concerted effort over...

Earlier this week the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project released a major report entitled ‘European Unity on the Rocks’. Its survey, involving more than 9,000 respondents across eight European Union nations as well as the United States, is the stuff of nightmares for EU officials desperately trying to keep the European project together against the backdrop of the biggest economic crisis in Europe since the 1930s. In the words of the report’s authors the European project “is a major casualty of the ongoing sovereign debt crisis,” with deep-seated disillusionment with the European single currency and the broader process of...

The European Commission has said it will soon bring forward plans for an economic and political union it says is necessary for the creation of debt-mutualizing eurobonds—one of the most controversial proposed solutions to the current eurozone crisis. "We need to reflect what kind of European union would be required to deepen economic and political integration, for instance so that joint issuance of debt would make sense for all member states sharing the single currency," economics commissioner Olli Rehn told MEPs on Tuesday (22 May). He said the commission would "soon" come up with a "medium to long term roadmap"...

EU foreign ministers have "warned" Israel that they will take a tougher approach to exports originating in illegal settlements on Palestinian land. The ministers in a statement on Monday (14 May) detailing Israel's long-term campaign to expropriate Palestinian farmers in the fertile West Bank said: "The EU and its member states reaffirm their commitment to fully and effectively implement existing EU legislation and the bilateral arrangements applicable to settlement products." Under current EU law, settlement products are excluded from preferential import tariffs granted in the 12-year-old EU-Israel association agreement. Israel is obliged to indicate the originating postcode of each shipment,...

European Central Bank (ECB) chief Mario Draghi has urged eurozone leaders to come up with a 10-year target for the common currency, saying they should accept more transfer of powers if they truly want a fiscal union. Held exceptionally in Barcelona instead of the ECB headquarters in Frankfurt, the monthly meeting of eurozone's central bank governing council on Thursday (3 May) was an opportunity for Draghi to explain what he meant last week when he said a "growth compact" is needed along with the deficit-cutting measures taken by most governments. "There is absolutely no contradiction between a growth compact and...