European Institute

(September 27)  Kosovo’s President, Fatmir Sejdiu, abruptly announced his resignation today after the nation’s Constitutional Court ruled that he had violated the country’s constitution by simultaneously holding the presidency and the leadership of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK).

Ever since the creation of the Euro in 1999, it has been fashionable in some quarters to prophesy the failure of Europe’s single currency. As EU Ambassador João Vale De Almeida pointedly noted, economist Milton Friedman had famously predicted that the European currency would not be able to withstand the first real “crisis.”

(Sept. 22, 2010) The world of Swedish politics was stunned by last Sunday’s elections, when the anti-immigration party (Sweden Democrats) won 20 out of the 349 parliamentary seats; a first since its’ founding in 1988 (see New York Times). Party leader Jimmie Akesson has described Muslim population growth as the biggest external threat to Sweden since World War II. The governing Center-Right coalition of Prime Minister Frederik Reinfeldt failed to win a parliamentary majority, falling just 3 votes shy of the necessary 175 seats. The Social Democrats, in turn, suffered their worst showing since 1914. Prime Minister Reinfeldt has pledged not to work with the far-right Sweden Democrats, and if the still uncounted ballots from Swedes living abroad do not tip the results, he may well have to seek to widen his governing coalition elsewhere.

Germany’s decision to extend the licenses of the country’s 17 nuclear plants – and thus delay a long-planned calendar for a phase-out of nuclear-generated electricity -- reflects a wider and growing shift across Europe in favor of the nuclear option as a key component of countries’ energy mix.