Foreword : This article is the introduction to a series of articles on the role of the European Union in the water supply and sanitation sector in relation to the German, French and Dutch systems. The latter being a thesis subject, the study will be spread over several years. At ...
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USA – Political and military consequences of the US mid-term election, by GEAB
Political consequences: Towards an aggravation of US leadership weaknesses (leaders facing a loss of legitimacy, economic context of recession, diplomatic deadlock in Iraq/Iran/North Korea…) The recent choice by American voters, who have violently rejected the policy followed for six years, is nothing other than a loud cry for help [1] . ...
Read More »Civil society and the European Union institutions
By Marco Caselli 06/10/2006 I Introduction The paper presents some preliminary results and reflections arising from an ongoing research project on the role – actual and potential – of civil society in the construction and consolidation of the European Union, in the latter’s life and functioning, and in the ...
Read More »EU Borders – The end of the myth of eternal enlargement
abstract GEAB N°6 16/06/2006 Turkey-Ukraine, two countries which will not join the EU / The Balkans, last enlargement of the next 20 years / Russia, the key to solve the EU-Turkey problem The increasing difficulties of the process of Turkey entering the European Union contrasts with the progressive entry “piece ...
Read More »The EU needs a democratic reshuffling of its institutions’ geography – Practical criteria
{Three new criteria to take in account for allocating institutions to a city/region. Euroring 1 area will become a vast European metropolis energized by high-speed trains (Thalys and EuroStar), fast and cheap planes and new information technologies. Meanwhile the growing complexity of the EU system (both in terms of political ...
Read More »Transatlantic divergences on threat evaluation – or the question of the Alliance’s « added-value »
Abstract GEAB N°4 16/04/2006 This question of the Alliance’s « added-value » is at the core of all the discussions which will lead to the “great debate” (or “great washing”) of the Riga summit. A military alliance is worth anything if it can protect from the military threats anticipated ...
Read More »A certain idea of the Netherlands
by Jos de Beus 29/03/2006 “An interesting era is always an enigmatic one, which promises little rest, prosperity, continuity, security” Paul Valéry, Variété (1938), quoted by Eugen Weber The Hollow Years, France in the 1930s, London Sinclair-Stevenson, 1995, p.3. The distance of two related European peoples The Netherlands, recently, has ...
Read More »Laicity (secularism): A Highly efficient instrument of social peace
by Masha Loyak 17/03/2006 With the French law against conspicuous religious signs, the outer world gets a glimpse of a key-instrument of France’s social-engineering invented along centuries of internal conflicts : laicity. At a time of growing internal and international social conflicts, it may be good news that this French ...
Read More »The future of the EU constitutional project: Analysis of the converging capacity among the various institutional players
Abstract GEAB N°2 16/02/2006 The internal difficulties of the member-states in continuing the European constitutional project were detailed in GEAB Nr1. This month, LEAP/E2020 undertakes to analyse the converging capacity on this subject of the various institutional players. It was indeed one of the three requirements defined in this field. ...
Read More »Europe must urgently move from a’non-proliferation’ policy to a’controlled proliferation’ policy
by Franck Biancheri 19/01/2006 Imagine the United States, without nuclear weapons, surrounded by Mexico and Canada that would possess them. Or France surrounded by countries possessing the atomic bomb without having it itself. How long would it take for Washington or Paris to reject a Non-Proliferation Treaty and start building ...
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