The EU has made progress on the construction of a banking union, by agreeing on common rules for dealing with failed banks. The downside is that these rules won’t kick in until 2015.
Although opening up these questions to voters feels dangerous to those standing against a British exit from Europe or a Scottish exit from the UK, it would be more dangerous yet to ignore calls for change.
Councillors in Berlin have voted to follow in the steps of Amsterdam and launch the first cannabis cafe.
One of the most worrying aspects of the Eurozone crisis has been its effect on democracy. Sonia Alonso argues that while the crisis has weakened democracy in several countries, particularly with regard to the implementation of austerity policies against public opposition, this should not be understood as the imposition of technocratic policymaking from Brussels. She writes that national governments have a tendency to downplay their responsibility for European decisions, with national actors in both core and periphery Eurozone members having more scope to shape policy-making than they present to their electorates.
The shipwreck that claimed the lives of more than 350 mainly Eritrean asylum seekers off the Italian island of Lampedusa last month has focused Europe’s obsession with irregular migration on the area of the Mediterranean separating southern Italy and Malta from North Africa. But this treacherous stretch of sea represents only the final leg of a lengthy journey filled with hazards.