Married to an Italian for over 30 years and with two children who are dual nationals, I did not until recently seek an Italian passport, writes Sir Graham Watson. My UK passport was headlined ‘European Union’ and gave me a right to work and reside anywhere in the EU. Since Brexit, the number of UK…
Author: Guest Contributor
The European Elections of 2024
I was first elected in 1984 as a pro-EU Conservative for a Yorkshire UK constituency. Since then, I fought no less than six more Euro-elections, mostly as a member of the Christian Democrat/Conservative European Peoples Party group, writes Edward McMillan-Scott. But when David Cameron, then UK premier, formed a new nationalist Conservatives and Reformists group…
Taiwan’s Indispensability in Preparing for Future Pandemics
The three years of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a terrible loss of life and exacerbated health inequalities. The global economy slumped and, worldwide, people’s lives were affected, writes Dr. Hsueh Jui-yuan This experience demonstrated that the present global health governance framework is not effective in responding to threats to global health. Although COVID-19 is…
Defending Europe: Forget the big guns and aim for ‘smart’ warfare
Photo by UX Gun on Unsplash Giles Merritt, founder of Friends of Europe, warns that increased defence spending on ‘white elephant’ projects risks starving more innovative ones that could revolutionise military thinking. Ukraine’s David may not have felled the Russian Goliath, but so far he’s stopped him in his tracks. The significance of how Ukraine unexpectedly stalemated Russia’s…
EU sanctions against insurance companies and the risk of environmental disasters
Alessandro Bertoldi, Executive Director of the Milton Friedman Institute, invites the EU to revise the sanctions regime against insurance companies to reduce the risks of environmental disaster in light of a recent naval incident and oil spill off Tobago. On the 7th of February, a critical incident unfolded off the south shore of Tobago when…
Azerbaijan a model of global peace
Photo by İltun Huseynli on Unsplash With the backdrop of the fourth industrial revolution ushering in a new era of transformation, the developed nations of the world—particularly those capable of maintaining their military and economic stability—have become active participants in international projects and the focal point of the emerging new order. They are thus attempting to ascertain their…
Should Northern Ireland Have a Vote in the European Parliament Elections?
“It does seem a bit odd that if you are a French citizen living in Bali, then you can vote in the European Parliament elections, yet if you are an Irish citizen living in Belfast you can’t,” writes Else Kvist. Questions were raised at the UK Parliament, as to why Irish and British citizensliving in…
Is Europe Ready for a Trump Presidency?
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash There is a good chance that Donald Trump will return to the US presidency in 2025. That would endanger European interests, but Europe is not investing in mitigating the risks, writes Ian Bond. In less than a year, the next US president will be inaugurated. Donald Trump, who has just thumped his…
UK Constituencies Abroad
Photo by Matt Brown on Unsplash European Britons (The Association) was born out of the belief that all UK passport holders have a universal right to be enfranchised where ever they happen to legally reside, writes Paul Fisher. If resident in the UK, that means being directly represented by voting in all elections and referenda. If resident outside…
The Mystery of the Missing Kalashnikovs
Photo by Thomas Tucker on Unsplash In a story worthy of Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle’s Detective Sherlock Holmes, according to the Armenian Minister of Internal Affairs Vahe Ghazaryan the Armenian military has somehow managed to lose 17 000 assault rifles from their armouries, writes Sarah Miller. The main assault weapon of the Armenian military are Russian produced Kalashnikov rifles,…