Friday 13 means in many countries bad luck. France, Austria and seven other countries in Europe are probably agreeing with that now as yesterday, January the 13, the US based ratings agency Standard & Poor’s cut France and Austria triple -A rating by one notch to AA+, and downgraded the other seven countries -Spain, Italy, Portugal, Malta, Cyprus, Slovakia and Slovenia two notches. Read the rest of this entry »

As we already reported on May 6, the influx of African migrants trying to reach Europe has created concern in some European countries and has given a reason to others to try to reform the rules of the Schengen accord with the aim to reimpose border control in the EU. On Wednesday, Denmark announced plans to set up customs booths at land border crossings, harbors and airports. Read the rest of this entry »

The Arab Spring is bringing unexpected consequences to the EU. The increasing influx of migrants from Tunisia and Libya has created a dispute between Italy, the country through which most migrants enter the EU, and France, the country where most of them want to go due to their knowledge of the language and the many Tunisians already living in it. Read the rest of this entry »

While the world is watching the Middle East protests with concern, Europe is likely to receive the brunt of it with the influx of refugees fleeing their countries some for fear of their lives and some looking for a need to get food and jobs. Apart from Italy which is already tending the arrival of large numbers of Tunisians and Egyptians to the Lampedusa Island, other European countries had not yet had any noticeable increase of Middle East people. Read the rest of this entry »

While the Egyptians, after more of two weeks of protests that brought the ousting of Mubarak, were beginning to celebrate what they perceived as victory even though the military has now all the power (see articles in KeyboardPolitics from Feb. 2 and Feb 10), a different kind of protest against a prime minister was taking place this past Sunday in Italy. Read the rest of this entry »

Wars, killings, hunger… we are so used to it daily on the news that we seem to have become immune to it or hardened to others suffering. But a picture of the covered bodies of two dead young gypsy girls on a beach in Italy Read the rest of this entry »