Political systems

From France's point of view, that undermines the whole point of European integration, namely, to prevent war with Germany and provide a platform for amplifying French power.

For as long as London actively championed enlargement and Berlin was basically supportive, Paris could not hope to block enlargement.

The annual Athens Democracy Forum has developed into a fixed point from which we can evaluate the health of democracy globally. Among other things, this year's meeting highlighted the need for democracy to be seen to be delivering goods to the public, and for its institutions to inspire trust and participation.

They also include policy recommendations for improving media literacy and tackling disinformation, coping with the "geopolitisation of technology" and thwarting foreign authoritarian influence.

Reassessing 1989

The Parliament has rejected a motion proposed by the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) calling for resuming the parliamentary "blitz control" every first Wednesday of the month, a Focus News Agency reporter said. 

Varhelyi might appear to be an apolitical bureaucrat. But he has loyally defended Orban's policies in Brussels for years. The Orban government has not afforded diplomats and other technocrats any independence and those whose careers have advanced during the past decade have had to display full loyalty to the regime.

For the EU, this means developing a new plan for the Western Balkans that is less about Enlargement and more about projects and programs that address immediate core problems involving regional structures, laws and institutions that have led to state capture, dysfunction, and instability. 

Is Humour the Best Antidote to Tyranny?

British-American author Andrew Keen has been travelling the globe to investigate what he calls "the contemporary crisis of democracy" for his Keen On Democracy podcast series.

In this episode, he talks to Michael Zantovksy, a Czech diplomat, writer and human rights activist, on how to fight authoritarianism with humour.

President Klaus Iohannis on Friday, August 23, the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Fascism and Communism, released a message in which he underscores that this day compels us to reiterate "firm" condemnation of both ideologies, in all their forms, and to remember the innocent victims of those regimes.

The EU is undergoing this succession process while besieged by well-known internal and external challenges: demographic, social, and economic pressures abound, while Europe is more a geopolitical chessboard upon which global powers are playing than a player in its own right.

Moldovan deputies voted on Wednesday to scrap their much criticised "mixed" voting system, made it easier for Moldovans living abroad to vote, and restored the former proportional voting system.