Newsletters

For anybody interested in understanding contemporary Turkish politics and the court cases which look into the dark world of ultranationalist associations the Malatya murder trial is a good place to start

One of the nice things about knowledge is that it increases for everybody once it is shared.

Is Europe a continent in decline? What kind of foreign policy can such a continent pursue?  

Europe's border revolution – the attempt to implement on a continental scale a post-national approach to border management which provides both more liberty and more security – is going strong.

Today's relationship between Turkey and the EU is like a Catholic marriage: divorce is not an option for either side. The only question is whether the couple will be a happy one.

It should be obvious that in a country with an estimated 2,738,551 German Turks (Turkish citizens resident in Germany, German citizens who were once Turkish citizens and those with at least one Turkish citizen as a parent) Islam "also belongs to Germany".

To those in EU capitals who prefer a slowing down of the enlargement process the fact that Macedonia, a Western Balkan front runner and candidate, is stuck is even welcome.

What has come of the Rose Revolution almost six years later? And what is at stake in Georgia today?

To suggest that Sweden, Germany, the US and other countries are motivated by spite, enmity or an all-powerful Armenian Diaspora is not serious.

In Turkey, both secrecy and impunity for those defending the state against its enemies at home and abroad were long taken for granted. 

The non-violent revolutions of 1989 were the result of huge crowds driven "by a desire to be normal". One aspect of this normality is the ability to openly criticize authorities. 

Far from being exhausted, the EU's soft power and conditionality remains a powerful tool to bring about far-reaching changes that are in the interests of citizens across Europe. 

The importance of visa free travel for the people of the Balkans has been a constant theme of our work for years. It also runs like a red thread through all the films of our Balkan series Return to Europe.

The idea that Albania is somehow un-European – Europe's own Heart of Darkness – has only recently begun to fade. It is high time. 

As part of our contribution to broaden and deepen the European debate on future enlargement, we are glad to offer you a manual to the Swedish enlargement debate as background to the upcoming Swedish EU presidency.

This is a time for taking concrete decisions concerning visa free travel to the EU for the citizens of Western Balkan countries.

No single topic poisons relations between Turks and Armenians more than the 1915 destruction of the Armenian communities of Anatolia, and the question of whether it constituted genocide.

Applying for a Schengen visa remains time-consuming, costly and stressful. People throughout the region perceive the visa requirement as personal rejection. They are unable to reconcile it with the offer of a future in the EU.

Our aim is to offer you a familiar experience, but online: you visit a friend and soon find yourself spending an hour in front of her shelf, making a list of all the interesting books which you might want to get.

Committed EU presidencies can make a difference, as Germany and Finland (in 1999) and Greece (in 2003) have shown. But will the Balkan countries play their cards right?