“Democratic Backsliding” in Poland and Hungary (8/4)

By Claire Swinko, Washington

Poland, an EU member country with a rich post-Soviet era history of upholding democratic values, has come under fire in recent months for its “democratic backsliding”— the so-called reversion toward authoritarianism based on non-democratic values and lack of respect for the rule of law and basic fundamental freedoms. 

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EU Announces “Open Skies” Arbitration Action Against U.S. Over Norwegian Airlines (7/29)

By Brian Beary, Washington
 
Europe’s patience finally ran out. After waiting more than two years for U.S. authorities to give a fly permit to an Irish-based subsidiary of low-cost Norwegian airlines, the EU Commission has told Washington that it will launch arbitration proceedings against it for breaching the 2007 EU-U.S. Open Skies agreement. “I find it regrettable that this is the outcome,” EU Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc wrote in a letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. Bulc said that formal notification that the agreement’s arbitration clause was being invoked would be made “in the coming weeks.”
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The Message from France (7/22)

By Michael D. Mosettig

For two top officials of a beleaguered French government, their mission to Washington had multiple purposes: to reassert their country's central role in the war against the ISIS and Al Qaeda terrorist networks and to reassure opinion leaders that the European Union can rebound from the shock of Brexit.

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