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Irish perspectives on European governance

Will the Irish EU presidency get serious about political extremism in Europe?

We've all heard of Silvio Berlusconi's recent praise for Benito Mussolini on Holocaust Memorial Day. But he's not alone. The European Commission observes that political parties across Europe are seeking to win voters from extremist movements by borrowing their hate-filled language and imagery. And we know that these movements are growing. Have a look at this report on ethnic scape-goating in Europe, and at this comprehensive database on extremist movements active across Europe. Even national Read more [...]

Austerity in the Eurozone periphery

The latest issue of the online journal Intereconomics features articles about Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Aidan Regan and I wrote the article on Ireland. As we know well here in Ireland, they're an oddly-sorted bunch, because each faces a rather different set of domestic policy challenges. Each also has problems that need to be addressed in a wider European context, and they're not always the same problems. Read more [...]

Home truths about the Euro crisis

Jean-Claude Juncker said some remarkably candid things to the European parliament yesterday. His role as the chair of the Eurozone group of countries has given him limited scope to speak freely to date. Indeed he’s someone who is quoted as saying 'I’m for secret, dark debates'. Now that he’s about to step down, he’s made some extremely critical comments about the entire approach the EU has adopted in response to the crisis. I have some reflections on this, and especially on high and rising Read more [...]

Does the EU have a German problem?

For many decades, geostrategists commented that Germany was too big to live comfortably with its neighbours but too small to control them. After the Second World War, though, and especially after the creation of the EU and NATO, it appeared that Germany had adjusted its identity, its ambitions and its behaviour to the new reality of "tamed power" (as Peter Katzenstein called it). But Germany's place in Europe is now again being questioned. From the right, Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski calls on Read more [...]

Back to the future, again: Jews as a “national security risk”

Is this 2012 or 1932? As reported by CNBC, the leader of Hungary's third largest party has just used a televised session of parliament to call on the government to compile a list of all Jews in the country because, he says, they pose a "national security risk." Does this sound familiar? Even today, respect for the most basic human rights cannot be taken for granted in Europe. (If you're interested in this topic, see my other recent postings about neo-fascism on this blog.) Read more [...]

Another look at ‘Europe’s New Fascists’

This recent story from The New York Times offers several chilling illustrations of the growing threat that extremist groups pose to democracy and human rights in Europe. As I have written in earlier posts, the protracted nature of the current economic crisis inevitably broadens and deepens public support for extremist agendas. The answer is not to offer watered-down versions of the extremists' agenda, but to mobilise public opposition to all forms of xenophobia and hate speech and to ensure that Read more [...]

The real spectre haunting Europe

How safe is democracy in Europe? Observers of extremist political movements have sometimes described them as "self-disqualifying" -- that is, the louder they shout, the less they are heard (or at least listened to) by mainstream voters and parties. If this were true, and established democracies really have such a built-in circuit breaker, we would have little cause for alarm. The "nothing to fear" crowd will also point to the fact that 43% of extremist groups now active in Europe have been active Read more [...]

It’s time to stop digging

If Europe wants to get out of its current hole, it must first stop digging. Over the past four years, economic crisis management in Europe has been dominated by a narrow obsession with fiscal discipline. The narrowness of this approach reflects in large part the German political elite's misinterpretation of Europe's current crisis as a Greek crisis writ large, and a wider failure to understand that growth cannot resume if governments all cut spending in the aftermath of a major financial shock Read more [...]