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Europe

Clearing the Smoke, Part II: Federalists and Europhiles

In the first article of this series, I explained how the lack of conceptual clarity surrounding today’s political discourse is thoroughly annoying. For that reason, these contributions aims to clear some smoke and clarify som...
by Gilles Pittoors
2
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Europe

Clearing the Smoke, Part III: Monkeys Throwing Nuts

For this last part of my threefold contribution I will try to clarify what exactly is meant by populism, nationalism and independence. In my previous contributions, I have been rather harsh on both populism and nationalism, and...
by Gilles Pittoors
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Belgium

Over-Capacity, or what does the closing of Ford Genk teach us about Europe?

On Wednesday October 24th, the employees of the Ford factory in Genk, Belgium were given the news that the factory will be closed, and all employees will have to find another job by 2014. This obviously directly affects the 4.2...
by Gilles Pittoors
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Economy

Disciplined Growth: a new Franco-German engine for Europe?

From the very beginning of the European integration project, France and Germany have been at the core of the whole enterprise. It was German Chancellor Willy Brandt who joined French President Georges Pompidou at the very first...
by Gilles Pittoors
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Europe

Budget Negotiations and Inter-Institutional Relations

The recent EU budget negotiations have been subject to quite some debate and media attention, mainly because of their first-time-ever smaller total capacity and the row between Northern European states urging for more cuts and ...
by Gilles Pittoors
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Europe

The Game of Europe’s Shortcomings

Let’s get straight to the point using someone else’s words: “We have construction mistakes of Economic and Monetary Union and it is time to correct them. It is clear that the core of the current debate has a name: further...
by Gilles Pittoors
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Politics

What’s Next? Europe and the World in 2013

It is impossible and thus totally pointless to try and predict what the world will look like in 2013. Only a few weeks ago we were not even sure there would still be a world – luckily the Mayas rephrased their prophecy just i...
by Gilles Pittoors
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Europe

Subsidiarity, or the Conflict between Scale and Community in the EU

A while ago, I read an article saying that we should reconsider the division of tasks in the EU. It was a good article. The author essentially proposed to apply the principle of subsidiarity, which says that each policy area sh...
by Gilles Pittoors
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