Background

BRUSSELS | In front of a small tree, just a stone’s throw from the magnificent European Parliament building is Martin Pigeon adjusting the sound on his early model portable microphone. His French accent shines through when he starts speaking to his audience; “this tree was planted a couple of years ago by SEAP, the...
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It is rare that the European Parliament is unanimous. But when the Parliament voted on a legal proposal on child pornography it was exceptionally concordant. Over five hundred MEP’s voted in favour for a new directive. Two voted against. Europe in the Worlds-editorial office wanted to know why. One of the two MEP’s who...
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  BRUSSELS – The EU is running out of Dutch interpreters. If nothing is done, many Dutch interpreting booths might by 2020  remain silent.
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  Brussels Dec. 4–It’s hard but humorous to imagine world leaders getting together to play computer games.  Yet that’s what EU and US leaders were doing in early November, when they decided to simulate their cyber-defense capabilities and test their skills.  Unfortunately, neither side saw it necessary to use computers when training for a...
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Things are not going really good nowadays in Spain. Recession, economic stagnation, upcoming elections and not knowing what is going to happen in the following years are some of the main issues that worry Spanish society at this moment. The biggest one is unemployment, which is over 20% now. Almost 5,000,000 people in Spain...
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Imagine that you have to plan in which room you are going to spend the night three months ahead. You have to be reachable for at least one hour a day, 365 days a year. And if you miss out on three tests you are not allowed to practice your profession for one year....
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The coffee is alright, but it’s the cannabis that has long attracted tourist from around the world to the famous Dutch coffee shops.  In these designated places, marijuana and hash can be bought and smoked legally and without the fear of prosecution. Since cannabis use is still grounds for criminal activity in much of...
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UTRECHT – It are the two boys who were granted access to the party as long as they promised to behave themselves. However, almost five years after their accession into the EU and under the watchful eye of the chaperoning Union, Romania and Bulgaria demonstrate that nasty old habits sometimes die hard.
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By: Wyatt McCall and Annica Lindstrom If Europe was a feuding family, it would be time to seek professional counceling.Like most struggling families these days, their problems are financial. Greece has been the black sheep of the family, having been childish with its money, spending too much, working too little, and all the while...
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By Michael Huguenin, Piers d’Orgee and Steffen Hesseldal Windfeld-Hansen European Union budget commissioner Janusz Lewandowski has indicated the EU will continue to provide rebates to member states that are net contributors. Speaking at his presentation of the 2009 EU Budget, Lewandowski warned that the EU couldn’t ignore the sacrifice made by net contributing member...
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By Steffen Hesseldal Windfeld-Hansen, Michael Huguenin and Piers d’Orgee The Eurozone’s current overall growth is in stark contrast to the condition of some individual states. Their situation is altogether less than acceptable. While Germany, the economic powerhouse, sits somewhat appeased with its best quarter for economic growth since the reunification, there are a few...
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The fall of the wall has brought about a revival of Jewish life in Berlin and the Rykestrasse Synagogue in Prenzlauer Berg In an inner courtyard in a quiet street with five-floor apartment buildings in the former East Berlin residential neighborhood Prenzlauer Berg, is one of the most significant Jewish sites in Berlin: the...
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Confrontation, discussion, friction.  After the fall of the wall, Germany’s oldest and most prestigious cultural institution, the “Akademie der Künste”, was in search for a new identity. A reflection of a process of reunification which took place in every field of German society.  Two academies existed: an Eastern socialistic and a Western independent version...
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Peaceful Revolution in the GDR district of Prenzlauer Berg: Gethsemane Church. Protests, hunger strikes, Stasi-spies and a concerned and angry crowd: the Gethsemane Church was the centre of resistance in Prenzlauer Berg against the communist government of East Berlin in October 1989. The protestors were able to get in contact with sources outside of...
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As the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany became one state twenty years ago, a lot of things changed in Germany. One of the most visible aspects was probably the troop withdrawal of the Allies that followed a few years after the wall fall in 1994. The soldiers disappeared and went...
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The former GDR workers’ area Prenzlauer Berg has gone through a change into the currently hippest city quarter of Germany’s capital city with the highest birth rates of whole Berlin. School enrolment figures rise steadily. Many former GDR school buildings are today reused for the same purpose. But school life in the quarter has...
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Besides a huge commercial center, Potsdamer Platz has by 2009 also become Berlin’s center of moving images – and an icon of the versatile image of Berlin. A symbol of the rise of Berlin around 1900, the square had completely lost its significance during the Cold War – there was literally nothing there. Ever...
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History is a lesson, which tells you often a lot about the future. But for Germany, their history is a particular case. It’s not that much of a lesson, but something, which they keep on bumping up to. Chancellor Angela Merkel proved that once again to the US congress two weeks ago. Instead of...
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