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 »

Economic woes are many times followed by political upheaval with extremist parties becoming populist parties and holding the support of the citizens of the countries they represent. Such is unfortunately what seems to be happening in Europe these days. Read the rest of this entry »

By December 1, Sweden, the current holder of the European Union’s rotating presidency, was to have passed a measure that would have given the United States wide ranging access to the EU bank accounts, particularly international transactions, as part of terror inquiries. Read the rest of this entry »

Forget about North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, foreclosures, … It is the chocolate bunny’s turn in the EU’s court of justice. A rule was handed there today at the request of Swiss chocolate maker Lindt on whether a chocolate bunny can be trademarked. Read the rest of this entry »

The Europeans woke up this morning to realize that their low participation in the voting for new members of their Parliament meant a big upset in many of their countries. The Center right parties won in large countries including France, Germany and Italy, while the Socialists were the big losers. Read the rest of this entry »

Exactly one week ago the US government issued its report on human rights with the findings of 2008. Europe was not absent from it. Some of the problems found were in Belgium accused of discrimination on the labor market; neonazi extremism in Austria and abuses against Gypsies in nine EU countries. Read the rest of this entry »

Austria had national elections this past Sunday. The results stunned the country as the governing coalition lost many votes opening the way for two populist far-right parties which made big gains. But it is not the first time that such a thing happens as less than a decade ago, in the year 2000, a far-right party won power for the first time since the Second World War. Read the rest of this entry »