JPaulHorne3nov11bxEurope must be grateful to Greece for dramatizing: how the Euro is fundamentally flawed; how the Euro’s failure could cause a financial-economic disaster; and how European Union (EU) leaders must, despite all their differences and electoral setbacks, cooperate to avoid a Greek tragedy.

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By Federico Santi, editorial assistant at European Affairs

Reactions to the victory of François Hollande, the first socialist to hold the French presidency since 1985, have dominated the news for days as leaders and observers around the world assess the impact that his victory, along with the tumultuous election in Greece, will have on the way Europe will deal with the current economic crisis and the swirling debate on austerity versus stimulus for growth.

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On March 21, 2012, The European Institute, in cooperation with the European Parliament's Liaison Office to the U.S. Congress, hosted a delegation from the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) led by Vice-President Alexander Alvaro.  Vice-President Alvaro and a panel including Danny Weitzner, Deputy Chief Technology Office for Internet Policy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Marc Rotenberg, Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center; and Christopher Soghoian, an Open Society Foundations Fellow discussed the implications of new data protection and privacy initiatives in both the EU and U.S. and assessed the impact of these initiatives, their dividing lines and the prospects for moving towards more closely aligned privacy policies between the European Union and the United States.  The discussion was moderated by Alan Raul, Partner at Sidley Austin LLP.

Putin’s Canny Politics in Russian Elections by Gregory Feifer in The Washington Post. Putin detractors in the U.S. and elsewhere may be premature in jumping on the United Russia party’s poor showing in the Duma elections as a sign that the leader is starting to lose his grip on power. In the view of this close Russia-watcher, it’s not the party, stupid, it’s Putin. United Russia is only a stalking horse. Recommended by European Affairs. (12/8)

On June 15, 2011, The Honorable Stephen G. Breyer, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and Ambassador Valentin Zellweger, head of the Directorate of Public International Law at the Swiss Foreign Ministry, discussed “Neutrality in a Multi-Polar World: Myth or Reality?” This important exchange on the relevance of neutrality in jurisprudence and for nations increasingly bound by regional and international commitments was moderated by Dr. Ruth Wedgwood, Director of the International Law and Organizations Program at SAIS.