On May 1, 2013, The European Institute hosted The Honorable Rosen Plevneliev, President of the Republic of Bulgaria who discussed Bulgaria’s role within the European Union and the transatlantic relationship. President Plevneliev emphasized the importance of the European Union as an historic and global force, highlighting  two of its biggest achievements: a common currency and spreading democracy East. The President also outlined the transformation his own country is undertaking to ensure a more transparent government, a stronger economy and the greater well-being and progressive future for its citizens.

By Michael D. Mosettig, former Foreign Editor of PBS News Hour

It was hardly an enviable assignment, but Italian Economic Development Minister Corrado Passera has been making the rounds in Washington trying to persuade U.S. officials and think tank audiences that the recent national elections were not a disaster for his country and the European Union.

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By Dan Mahoney, European Affairs Editorial Assistant

Top leaders from Serbia and Kosovo have had significant bilateral meetings in Brussels recently, raising some faint glimmers of hope for progress toward a more constructive relationship between the two former combatants. 

 

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bod.burghardt

 David Cameron is playing political football with the most important European achievement after the wars - and although he is doing so for home consumption he is dangerously appealing to popularism elsewhere.

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By European Affairs

In the highly anticipated speech on the EU today, British PM David Cameron laid out a plan to renegotiate Britain’s role in the EU after British general elections in 2015, to be followed by an “in-out” referendum on continued EU membership by the UK.

For initial reaction to the speech across Europe see the attached compendium from the BBC.

Full text of the January 23 speech can be found here.

See also last week’s Michael White’s piece in ”European Affairs” on Britain’s eternally ambiguous relationship with the European Union.