The Roma are an integral part of Europe since thousands of years, nowadays a rough estimate of 10-12 million people; the largest ethnic minority present in all 27 states, in many of whom are recorded episodes of major violence and intolerance, which increase day-by-day.

Silvio Berlusconi has expressed his hope to bring Israel into the EU for “the Judeo-Chrisitan culture is the basis for European culture”. If Turkey and Israel become EU members a truly unified foreign policy will remain a dream and Europe will not be able to play an important role in the international scenario.

The cradle of nationalism, Europe can be a laboratory for rethinking cultural diversity in a global denationalized world: this is the challenge to intellectuals in Europe.

This interactive, dynamic debate takes place in the context of rising concern about climate change, and takes place just before the crucial meeting at Copenhagen of the United Nations Climate Change Conference.

The European Union agreed to set aside up to 15 billion euros per year to facilitate a green transition in developing countries. However, no agreement was reached on actually how to spend the money. The EU needs to stop bickering, stop prioritising the competitiveness of its companies, and stand up to its claims of global leadership on fighting climate change.

The Young European Federalists (JEF) announced new campaign actions against the EU’s visa regime towards other Europeans at their Congress in Florence this week-end. The actions will coincide with the 9th November 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The idea of Europe can only be the universal, which itself is a negation of all European ‘particularity’. In this apparent paradox contemporary Europe can find its historic mission as a transnational force in a nationalist world.

At least one of the two top posts in post-Lisbon Europe looks set to go to a Brit. But what effect will this have on the pro-Europeanism in the UK? Does it still exist?

Fashionable words come and go, but unfashionable ones just go. In Britain the word ‘pro-European’ – always a pariah word in the UK press and rightwing circles – shrivelled up and died a death early in this decade, with no-one but the small Liberal Democrat party to nurture it.

The last 6 months have shown both the anachronistic nature of the global status quo, and the lack of a political project that genuinely changes the logic of global politics. The European project, despite certain appearances, has the potential to introduce a paradigm shift to an era of transnationalism.

Only by embracing a European dimension will national political parties be able to regenerate in the era of globalization, argues John Palmer