TAG: Democracy
UN expert ‘alarmed’ by UK politicians’ attacks on green protesters
LONDON — British politicians are putting environmentalists at risk of “threats, abuse and even physi...
8 months ago
EU mulls ‘Industrial’ twin for Green Deal as election pressure bites
BRUSSELS — Move over Green Deal, there’s a new buzzword in town — and just in time for the EU electi...
8 months ago
Net zero meets the NIMBYs: Inside the battle for the UK’s biggest solar farm
EYNSHAM VILLAGE HALL, OXFORDSHIRE, England — On a winter afternoon, dozens of local residents pour into a drafty village hall, tucked away in the picturesque English countryside. They wear thick coats and skeptical frowns, and are here to fight plans to b...
6 months ago
Expect Russia to do ‘whatever possible’ to reassert influence in Bulgaria, outgoing PM warns
Bulgaria's outgoing Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov spent his mandate trying to boot out the Russians, and has no doubt that Moscow will redouble efforts to recover its influence now his administration has collapsed. Denkov, who stepped down on Tuesday, tol...
6 months ago
‘Blood minerals’: EU accused of fueling conflict with Rwanda deal
Europe’s hunger for minerals for its electric cars and microchips is sparking accusations that it is inflaming conflict in eastern Congo, one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises that has killed 6 million people over recent decades.The outrage was pro...
2 months ago
Pragmatism over principle: Europe’s Greens adapt to survive
BRUSSELS — Europe’s chastened Greens are preparing to trade idealism for influence. After taking a beating in last month’s European Parliament election and losing a quarter of their seats, the environmentalists are scrambling to remain relevant as surging...
2 months ago
Labour’s top policy priorities
LONDON — Keir Starmer has arrived in Downing Street with his new Cabinet. So what are their first priorities?Big-ticket items include decarbonizing the electricity grid by 2030, building 1.5 million homes over five years, hitting long-missed health servic...
2 months ago
Sánchez triggers anger by picking ally for Spain’s central bank
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez appointed a close ally as the head of Spain’s central bank, ending the latest chapter in a bitter struggle between the country’s two largest parties over political appointments.Wednesday’s naming of José Luis Escrivá,...
1 month ago
Europe is betting everything on getting richer
BRUSSELS ― It looks a lot like a continental midlife crisis.Politicians are searching for answers and they're finding a Europe that is grayer, less dynamic and less innovative than ever before. They're betting everything on turning the economy around, eve...
3 weeks ago
Power games over Ukraine’s electrical grid spark rule-of-law fears
KYIV — Ukraine’s devastated energy grid is fast becoming a focal point for European concerns about rule of law in Kyiv, with Western allies fearing a political power grab is under way that may imperil efforts to keep electricity flowing this winter.The fl...
3 weeks ago
The EU was built on red tape. Now it wants to slash it.
BRUSSELS ― For decades, the European Union loved to regulate. Now, it wants to do the opposite.Where once, the "Brussels Effect" saw the EU set laws and standards the rest of the world couldn't help but follow, soon there will be a European commissioner f...
3 weeks ago
Too fast, too furious: Paris speed limit crashes into right-wing opposition
PARIS — France's new transport minister hadn’t even been on the job for a week when he sat down with Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo in a last-ditch effort to get her to reconsider a controversial policy: slowing the speed limit on the capital's main ring road.T...
2 weeks ago
Top UK civil servant Simon Case quits
LONDON — Britain's most senior civil servant Simon Case confirmed his resignation on health grounds Monday after a controversial four-year tenure heading up the government machine.The U.K. government announced Monday afternoon that Case would stand down a...
2 weeks ago
Meloni’s street protest crackdown prompts concerns of growing repression in Italy
ROME — Giorgia Meloni may have persuaded the European establishment that she is the respectable, even vanilla, face of nationalist right-wing politics, but a crackdown on street protests at home is amplifying concerns about Italy's increasingly illiberal...
2 weeks ago