Why the Union List on invasive alien species is so important. Intensive luggage searches at customs looking for… fruit? You may have seen it on the TV programme Border Security. The Australian version of this programme follows the country’s customs. They have to deal with all kinds of matters, including drug smuggling or the import…
Bringing mass tourism to a halt: How Slovenia is putting sustainable tourism on the map. The small, central European country of Slovenia has been discovered by more and more tourists in recent years. And rightly so, because the little country has an awful lot to offer. From the lively and trendy capital of Ljubljana to…
Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union and national parliamentary elections. 1 July marked the beginning of the fifth Spanish presidency of the Council of the European Union (‘the Council’). The Council has a rotating presidency, meaning that every six months, another Member State chairs the meetings. From 1 July 2023 until 31…
More mining as a solution but also an obstacle to a climate-neutral 2050. In 2020, the European Commission presented the Green Deal, an outline of plans for the European Union to halve CO2 emissions by 2030 and even make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. It is an ambitious but also necessary goal as…
Why period poverty is not as far removed as it may seem. On December 6, 2022, the Tweede Kamer (House of Representatives) of the Dutch government passed a motion supporting free menstrual products for people with low income in the Netherlands. In 2023, an additional €2 million is allocated to fight period poverty. The promise…
Why the EU fails to solve the Migrant Crisis. In recent years, Europe has faced a significant migration crisis as millions of people have fled war, persecution, and poverty in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. The crisis has placed a huge burden on countries in the European Union (EU), particularly those located on the…
The awkward relationship between privacy and law enforcement. George Orwell’s ‘1984’ foreshadowed a terrifying dystopian reality, in which each individual is subjected to the far-stretching surveillance techniques of the state. The Edward Snowden revelations in 2013 showed that Orwell’s reality was perhaps closer than ever, pointing at large-scale data-collection which even went as far as…
An overview of all participants in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023. Some people schedule their Sundays around Formula 1 races, some people live for the Champions League, and some wait all year to see people from all over Europe (and beyond) perform on a stage. Yes, we are part of the last group and we…
Explanations for the rise of right-wing nationalism in Sweden and Italy. In the first article on right-wing nationalism in Sweden and Italy, we explained how right-wing nationalism as an ideology grew during the past elections in these two countries. We compared some of the central election themes of the right-wing nationalist Sverigedemokraterna (Sweden Democrats, SD)…
Examining the rise of right-wing nationalism in Sweden and Italy. Sweden and Italy. Two countries that, at first glance, have fairly little in common. Yet it turns out that Sweden and Italy are a lot more alike than initially thought – at least socially and politically. Whereas Sweden has always been known as a social-democratic…
Recent articles
Bringing mass tourism to a halt: How Slovenia is putting sustainable tourism on the map. The small, central European country of Slovenia has been discovered by more and more tourists in recent years. And rightly so, because the little country has an awful lot to offer. From the lively and trendy capital of Ljubljana to…
Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union and national parliamentary elections. 1 July marked the beginning of the fifth Spanish presidency of the Council of the European Union (‘the Council’). The Council has a rotating presidency, meaning that every six months, another Member State chairs the meetings. From 1 July 2023 until 31…
More mining as a solution but also an obstacle to a climate-neutral 2050. In 2020, the European Commission presented the Green Deal, an outline of plans for the European Union to halve CO2 emissions by 2030 and even make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. It is an ambitious but also necessary goal as…
Conflict and Defense
Some recent developments of the war in Ukraine highlighted. Exactly one year ago, on 24 February 2022, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began. At the time, this website covered the war several times from different perspectives. For instance, one could read articles about the European Union’s (EU) reaction to the invasion, the role of social media…
On Thursday the 24th of February 2022, a shadow that many thought had been left in the dustbin of history descended once again over the European continent. In a sudden and unprovoked attack, the Russian Federation invaded Ukraine from three sides, swiftly ending any hopes for a peaceful resolution to the escalating tensions caused by…
A brief overview of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Let us take a trip back to the beginning of summer 2021: several news outlets were headlining an event that brought renewed attention to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, but the cause for its flare-up came from a fairly unexpected place. This time, it was the world…
Climate and Sustainability
Why the Union List on invasive alien species is so important. Intensive luggage searches at customs looking for… fruit? You may have seen it on the TV programme Border Security. The Australian version of this programme follows the country’s customs. They have to deal with all kinds of matters, including drug smuggling or the import…
Bringing mass tourism to a halt: How Slovenia is putting sustainable tourism on the map. The small, central European country of Slovenia has been discovered by more and more tourists in recent years. And rightly so, because the little country has an awful lot to offer. From the lively and trendy capital of Ljubljana to…
More mining as a solution but also an obstacle to a climate-neutral 2050. In 2020, the European Commission presented the Green Deal, an outline of plans for the European Union to halve CO2 emissions by 2030 and even make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. It is an ambitious but also necessary goal as…
International Relations
Why the EU fails to solve the Migrant Crisis. In recent years, Europe has faced a significant migration crisis as millions of people have fled war, persecution, and poverty in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. The crisis has placed a huge burden on countries in the European Union (EU), particularly those located on the…
In 2004, the European Union announced its desire to form what it called a “ring of friends” through its Neighbourhood Policy. However, eighteen years later, it seems that this dream has turned more into one enormous nightmare, with tensions threatening the Union’s eastern and southern flanks. In the hopes of surrounding the European Union…
Opinion Piece Today our guest writer Henk Keilman provides his perspective on authoritarianism and capitalism in China and the West, arguing that despite China’s successes, in the long run only democratic countries will succeed in providing sustainable economic prosperity. The EU and its predecessors were founded after WWII for three key reasons: ending the endless…