EU’s Lisbon Treaty comes into force
and more from the European agenda…
Posts Tagged ‘germany’
Party time for Berlin!
In State of Europe on November 9, 2009 at 11:19
People walk next to a miniature representing the Berlin Wall placed on the bricks at the site of the former wall near the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin November 8, 2009. As the highlight of a 5-million euro ($7.4 million) celebration marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, a 1.5-km (one mile) long segment of the Wall will stand for two days along its original route in front of the Brandenburg Gate to the Potsdamer Platz. The row of 1,000 20 kg dominos standing 1.5 metres apart — painted in bright colours by school children and rising 2.5 metres high — will be toppled at the end of a gala ceremony as a symbolic tribute to the collapse of the Wall 20 years earlier.
REUTERS/Pawel Kopczynski
Times Online: Berlin all fired up for wall-to-wall partying – by Peter Millar
Tomorrow night, at the climax of the biggest official party seen in Europe, with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, hosting Gordon Brown, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, and Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president — to name but a few — the slabs will crash into one another like dominos, representing the chain of events that 20 years ago brought the cold war to an end. The first “domino” will be pushed over, fittingly enough, by Lech Walesa and Miklos Nemeth, the veteran Polish and Hungarian anti-communist campaigners. They will be joined by two other main actors in the drama of 1989: the former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and Hans-Dietrich Genscher, the then West German foreign minister. Read the rest of this entry »
Not easy to choose the Europe’s first president…
In EU Foreign Policy, State of Europe on October 27, 2009 at 02:59On “the President of Europe”
from Nosemonkey’s EUtopia
The proposed President of the European Council is very far from being “President of Europe” – either in terms of profile or power.
Whoever lands the job (and it’s highly unlikely to be Tony Blair) will have practically zero influence on anything, acting instead as little more than a moderator between the governments of the member states as they continue to run the EU show. And will be in office for just two and a half years – which is no time at all in EU terms (hell, it’s just taken more than a decade to get agreement on a treaty which doesn’t solve half the problems it was meant to…)
Membership by 2015?
In Islam in Europe, TR-US relations, Turkey and Armenians, Turkey and Cyprus, Turkey in Europe, Turkish foreign policy on October 7, 2009 at 14:15That’s a Foreign Ministry hope or fantasy. I am not too pessimistic about the EU membership process but it is a bit early. Super-slowness is the rule and targetting 2015 is to fasten the process which could disorient all the parties:)
Ah well, while EU membership process is a little peripherialized in the current state of Turkish foreign policy making, still it makes news, still happenings. A huge roundup on related issues:
People gather under The Eiffel Tower, lighted in the colours of Turkey as part of events marking the “Season of Turkey in France”, in Paris October 6, 2009. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
Turkish FM: “Turkey seeks EU membership by 2015″
Turkey is counting on joining the European Union by 2015 to bolster both its and the EU’s global role, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said on Friday. “Even 2015 is too late, not only for us, it will be too late for the EU as well,” Davutoğlu said at the European Policy Centre in Brussels.
The Eiffel Tower is seen lighted in the colours of Turkey as part of events marking the ‘Season of Turkey in France’, in Paris October 6, 2009. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes Read the rest of this entry »
Turks may not have liked the German election results
In State of Europe, Turkey in Europe on September 27, 2009 at 23:11
source: Hürriyet
updated: 28 Sept 2009- 18:20
Turkish newspapers lament the results as triumphant center-right coalition means continuing obstacle to Turkey’s EU membership (see Hürriyet)
Victorious Merkel vows recovery
German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledges to focus on reviving Europe’s largest economy after winning a second term in office.
A good round up by Grahnlaw:
German elections and the European Union
by Grahnlaw
The German elections have caused a shift in the federal parliament Bundestag, and they will bring in a new government coalition (Bundesregierung). The conservative parties, the Christian Democratic CDU and the Bavarian CSU, suffered some vote losses, but remain the largest group by far.
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