Photo by Alexandr Bormotin on Unsplash By our staff correspondent The Balkan country has been a member state of NATO and the EU for almost 20 years, but oligarchs and politicians who are close to them are pushing it back to Russia’s sphere of influence Located at the crossroads between the West and the East, Bulgaria, which lies…
Photo by CardMapr.nl on Unsplash Having cancelled five national conferences because of Covid and then the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the UK Liberal Democrats finally took to the stage last week. Leader Sir Ed Davey’s speech met with strong applause, but when he delivered the line “If you…
Photo by Roman Iv on Unsplash On 9-10 March, the head of the regional council of Kirovohrad Oblast (region), Sergii Shulga, visited European institutions in Brussels to raise awareness about the future of his region in the EU and the global context. Kirovohrad Oblast is a region in central Ukraine that had a population of about a million…
Photo by Patrick Metzdorf on Unsplash A huge majority in the European Parliament have welcomed the so-called Windsor Framework. They say the new joint understanding “allows more flexible and more effective implementation” of the trading arrangements for goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain. It will, say deputies, ensure that both the EU’s Single Market and the Good…
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash The UK Government loves catchy slogans. From “Getting Brexit Done”, through the Covid campaign of “Hands, Face, Space” and now the latest asylum plan of “Stop the Boats”, slogans are a great substitute for action. As the Conservatives struggle in the polls the slogans are getting longer, such as the objective of…
Photo by Melissa Keizer on Unsplash A Belgian dog team has scooped a top prize at the world’s greatest dog show, Crufts. Roadrunners Beep Beep, took the top prize on Sunday 13 March, winning the flyball final at Crufts. Roadrunners Beep Beep is made up of dogs and handlers from across Belgium, mostly Flanders. The team successfully set…
Photo by Niloy Biswas on Unsplash Bangladesh is set for potentially explosive parliamentary elections in late December, a poll vital not just for the country’s own future but, it could be argued, also for the EU and wider international community. The reason is that it is felt that victory for the largely pro-India and pro-West incumbent government is…
Photo by Winston Chen on Unsplash Following his invention of the Rocket, in 1829 Robert Stephenson inaugurated the first inter-city railway in the world: connecting Liverpool and Manchester in the country’s northern manufacturing heartland was an obvious priority. Since then other countries have leapt into the future with high speed trains, while the UK struggles with one of…
Photo by Oleg Ivanov on Unsplash The EU has announced fresh new support for war-torn Ukraine. On Wednesday, the commission said it will ship 13,000 additional laptops, smartphones and tablets to the country. These have been gathered and will be delivered to Ukraine through the Commission-supported initiative “Laptops for Ukraine” scheme. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Commission has…
Photo by Matt Brown on Unsplash In recent weeks the British Government has been deluged with noise about the Northern Ireland Protocol, agreed with the EU following the UK’s departure, well before the text of any new agreement was revealed, writes Philip Bushill-Matthews. None of the noise came from European Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič, who remained diplomatically silent about the…
