Pascal Delwit, is professor in political science and Dean of the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). In the past he was director of the Centre d'étude de la vie politique (CEVIPOL) and Dean of the Solvay Brussels School of Economics & Management. [...]

According to a survey carried out in 2007 by the newspaper “Het Laatste Nieuws”, 62,8% of Flemish think that Belgium will not last long, and 25,1% believe that the country's implosion will happen within few years. The country has been living ten years of political instability seemingly impossible to put [...]

“Barst Belgie!”, (Belgium can go to hell!) is the slogan of the ultranationalist, populist and secessionist party “Vlaams Belang” (Flemish Interest). It sums up the very delicate political situation of the country which, besides being the European capital, assumed the rotating EU presidency. The results of the latest national elections, [...]

In 2002, European  executives during the Barcelona Summit decided to guarantee access to kindergartens to at least the 33% of children under the age of 3, within 2010. At the end of the first decade of the new millennium, what are the results? Few places available, difficulties to access, financial [...]

In Italy euthanasia remains a taboo, from time to time being evoked by our politicians as a tool of propaganda rather than on the purpose of open a public debate on the ethical and legal boundaries that circumscribe the practise. Yet even in that bunch of European countries where it [...]

Active ageing and intergenerational solidarity are the issues on which European Union focus in 2012 for the common reflection. To help to fully well participate to the debate it will be useful to introduce notions and key worlds we are coming across. Ageing: according to last surveys conducted throughout Europe, the perception [...]

What organisations, bodies or places allow us to get in touch with Europe as protagonists? European Youth Capital (EYC) is the name that the Youth Forum Jeuness (YFJ) gives every year to a European town. It is a sort of relational study of European values in a number of fields: [...]

Last Thursday afternoon, the closing speech of Deputy Prosecutor Bob Piron was sharply interrupted by the President of the criminal Chamber of the Court of Luxembourg, Prosper Klein, who, astonished, jumped on his chair, goggled his eyes and asked his colleague to better explain what he was saying. That day, [...]

Why Poland has one of the most restrictive laws on abortion among Europe? The Member of the European Parliament Joanna Senyszyn, interviewed by West, has no doubts: "because it is a confessional state". Professor of economics and member of the Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Commission, she is renowned in [...]

In Catholic Poland, abortion is still a very sensitive issue. In what is considered one of the most restrictive countries in this field, in fact, the only law in this regard dates back to 1993 and provides for the voluntary interruption of pregnancy in only three extreme cases: - Sexual violence - [...]

On 27 and 28 October, in Lecce, the second Italian stage of the development education campaign named Sblocchiamoli: cibo, salute e saperi senza brevetti, was held. The campaign is co-funded by the EU Commission under the Knowledge Health and Food for All project and aims both at drawing the attention [...]

The Greek political landscape is extremely hot. The € 6.6 billions manoeuvre, launched on October 2, is the compensation for the €110 billions loan in three years promised by the European Union. Cuts of 30 thousands public employees are expected by the end of the year (in order to reach [...]

Housing condition Generally, Italian students live with their parents. Although this phenomenon is common in many other southern European countries, in Italy this situation is much more evident. 73% of Italian students live with their parents – only Malta has a higher percentage, 76%. In the Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway [...]

How do University students live and study? This is what the fourth Eurostudent survey focuses on. The research project is based on the results obtained from a questionnaire addressed to students coming from 25 European countries. It is a comparative survey analysing the situation of Italian students within the larger [...]

In a so difficult moment for Spanish economy, the Government has arranged a consultation with the so called “organizaciones de acciòn social”, in order to collaborate with them and contain the crisis. The “Programa Nacional de Reformas 2011”, focused on Spanish economic problems, expresses the need of a direct involvement of [...]

Two months before France's presidential election, Front National continues to rise in the polls, registering its best historical result. It is an unexpected success, especially if we consider that it was only one year ago that Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder and undisputed leader of the party, retired from political [...]

Twelve months after Front National established its leadership and four months before next presidential election, Marine Le Pen may represent a real shift in the French political landscape. Not only for the wide and strong citizens' approval it obtained, confirmed by a recent TNS Sofres survey, but also because, within [...]

How is it possible to defend on one hand the people free choice to no give birth to disabled foetus and, on the other hand, defend disabled people reproduction right as well as their freedom to plan a family? The question of balance of rights is a very interesting one and [...]

Forced sterilisation of disabled women is a very delicate issue because of its implications with the controversial theme of eugenetics. After a brief historical description of the phenomenon, it is now the time to come back to present and to the case brought before the European Court of Human Rights [...]

This issue was raised by a case brought before the European Court of Human Rights by five of the 15'000 disabled women who, in France, were forced to undergo sterilisation operations. The case, known as Gauer and Others v. France, is still pending but, since the beginning, it has ignited [...]

In France the cuts in public expenditure have transformed the month of September 2011 in a very complicated one for the families that wanted to enrol their children in nursery schools. Because of the reduction of teachers (around 9000 people lost their jobs in primary school) this year 500 classes [...]

Unlike what happened in Great Britain, in France the reflection on social economy has not been enhanced by politicians. In May 2010, in order to promote an economic system that may respect the environment and human beings, twelve of the most important representatives of Third Sector signed a call for [...]

In France, the Public Administration employs 49% of public servants, 2 millions and 100 thousand people.  However even in the country that for years has been a model for the rest of Europe, the equality man-woman in the world of employment is a goal hard to reach. A detailed study realized [...]

Bike-sharing recently turned 46. The idea can really claim  to be an old one, although for many years it was regarded as an eccentric habit for small municipalities or proto-environmentalist movements. Until Copenhagen, in 1995, launched the service onto its flat and calm streets. But the "public bicycle" did not [...]

In 2002, European  executives during the Barcelona Summit decided to guarantee access to kindergartens to at least the 33% of children under the age of 3, within 2010. At the end of the first decade of the new millennium, what are the results? Few places available, difficulties to access, financial [...]

In Berlin, there are around four thousand homeless people. How do they survive German ice-cold winter and its temperature of up to twenty degrees below zero? Every year, on November 1, the municipality of Berlin launches a program aiming at helping the homeless in this period of the year. About [...]

Among Turkish first-generation immigrants arrived in Germany in the 60s as “guest workers”, there also was Ms Yildiz’s father. Ms Yildiz was born near Smyrna 56 years ago and, after an early childhood spent in Turkey, she joined her father in Berlin with her mother in the early 70s. “At least [...]

Fifty years ago, in Germany the gestarbeiter politics, that influenced all the European migration policies till now, was born. The immigrant comes and goes. Doesn’t become a citizen, he is purely and simply a temporary worker. He arrives alone in the host country without his own family [...]

The Merkel government is under attack. The opposition points the finger at the Minister Kristina Schröder’s policy in favour of the families: “enough with financial support to married couples”, declared the SPD deputies, Grüne and Die Linke. It would be better investing in childhood facilities and implementing maternal and paternal [...]

One more stop for the health reform. According to German Health Minister, Daniel Bahr (FDP), the key points of the new Health Act were supposed to be showed off on last Friday. It did not happen. While the CDU and FDP would like to add more services for dementia in [...]

The German Ministry for Labour and Social Affairs has recently published the “Berufsbildungswerke”, an interesting handbook concerning vocational training programmes for disabled people. Such a vade mecum shows that the professionalization programmes for young disabled people are very well structured. On the one hand, indeed, they focus on professional training. On [...]

Germans will have ten euro more in their pockets. Or at least this is true for those benefiting from social welfare allowance. The German Government has, indeed, given its authorisation to increase of 2.74% – ten euro – the amount of the social and unemployment benefit, the so called Hartz [...]

It is the biggest EU Islamic community, after the French one. We are talking about the Muslims living in Germany. As well as the other Muslims in the world, they are now celebrating the holy month of Ramadan, going from August 1st to August 31st. In Berlin, Piranha Culture has [...]

As for social economy, Germany represents an atypical case. In 2009, at the height of the economic crisis, the German Government decided to implement a “social market economy”. Even if it is different from “social economy”, these two models have some specific values in common. In Germany many principles that [...]

Even the powerhouse of Europe needs a change. The admonition is given by Olli Rehn, European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs. From a survey on the economic policies of the EU countries carried out by the Commission, it emerges that in Germany there would be too few jobs for [...]

In Dublin, today’s elections already have a certain result: rage gave way to resignation. With all the consequences for who is in power. In particular for Fianna Fail, the party which has been at the helm of the Irish government since 1922. What is the dark evil which changed the Celtic [...]

In 2002, European  executives during the Barcelona Summit decided to guarantee access to kindergartens to at least the 33% of children under the age of 3, within 2010. At the end of the first decade of the new millennium, what are the results? Few places available, difficulties to access, financial [...]

Jeanie Johnston was a tall ship known for ferrying Irish emigrants from the South of Ireland to North America between 1848 and 1855. As the effects of the famine worsened, she made 16 trips from Ireland sailing to Quebec, Baltimore and New York. Today the boat is a tourist attraction. It's [...]

In a difficult moment like the one we are living, characterised by a strong economic crisis, even the funds dedicated to a noble institution such as civilian service will be drastically cut. Throughout the years, this has led to a dramatic reduction of both projects and voluntary people involved in [...]

For Italian women, reaching top positions seems to be an impossible mission. The debate anticipating the approval by the Italian Parliament of the gender quota law (establishing that companies’ Boards of Directors have to include one-fifth women in 2012 and one-third within 2015) has much more in common with other [...]

It’s named Nautilus and it is a project promoted by the Ministry of the Interior and Connecting People to foster the socio-labor integration of immigrants. To know more West got in touch with Prof. Morcellini, Head teacher of the Science of Communication Faculty and Director of the Communication and Social [...]

3) Why, according to you, the Italian government has not yet recognized the LIS as a full-formed natural language, even though there have been proves that has its own syntactic structure and local dialects as any other oral language? An opinion unfortunately still widespread is that the knowledge of the [...]

After the controversial debate aroused in Italy regarding the law proposal C. 4207 on the legal recognition of the Italian Sign Language (LIS), Dr Cristina Caselli, researcher at the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies of CNR, answered to our question on the matter. 1) How the approval of the draft law [...]

On 27 and 28 October, in Lecce, the second Italian stage of the development education campaign named Sblocchiamoli: cibo, salute e saperi senza brevetti, was held. The campaign is co-funded by the EU Commission under the Knowledge Health and Food for All project and aims both at drawing the attention [...]

According to the last study carried out by Almalaurea in 2010, one year after graduating, 18% of master’s graduates are unemployed [1]. Compared with 2008, the percentage increased 7 percentage points. In addition, it is more and more difficult for these graduates to get a stable job. In Italy, indeed, we [...]

In Italy graduates are not considered a resource. At the end of their University path, indeed, unlike most of their fellow students in Europe, it is much more difficult for them to enter into the labour market and find a job. Many of the Italian graduates have unstable jobs, are [...]

The German Ministry for Labour and Social Affairs has recently published the “Berufsbildungswerke”, an interesting handbook concerning vocational training programmes for disabled people. Such a vade mecum shows that the professionalization programmes for young disabled people are very well structured. On the one hand, indeed, they focus on professional training. On [...]

According to the Italian national law regulating tuition fees, students are required to pay Universities an amount of money decided autonomously by the different institutions. On that regard, the Ministry of Education has established that such amounts cannot be higher than 20% of the FFO (Ordinary Funding Service). Universities are [...]

In 2002, European  executives during the Barcelona Summit decided to guarantee access to kindergartens to at least the 33% of children under the age of 3, within 2010. At the end of the first decade of the new millennium, what are the results? Few places available, difficulties to access, financial [...]

The elderly is not the same than in the past. For example, older people can now enjoy standards of living and lifestyles absolutely unthinkable in comparison with thirty years ago, thanks to increasing life expectancy and a general improvement of health conditions. The change has had obvious repercussions in every [...]

Less rich and more poor. As a consequence of the financial crisis that is affecting Spain since the 2008, not only the income has decreased, but its distribution has become more and more unequal. In 2010, the wage differences among different social classes has reached its all-time high. Spain has [...]

The 829 deaths should not be forgotten in the bat of an eye. Neither in 43 years of history. ETA victims’ families, at least, refused to do it. The previous week announcement of the end of terrorist violence carried on by ETA was not welcomed by the victims associations, that [...]

In 2002, European  executives during the Barcelona Summit decided to guarantee access to kindergartens to at least the 33% of children under the age of 3, within 2010. At the end of the first decade of the new millennium, what are the results? Few places available, difficulties to access, financial [...]

The elderly is not the same than in the past. For example, older people can now enjoy standards of living and lifestyles absolutely unthinkable in comparison with thirty years ago, thanks to increasing life expectancy and a general improvement of health conditions. The change has had obvious repercussions in every [...]

In front of the historical importance of the first financial bill of the new Cameron age, many observers and some nostalgic, had dreamt about the return of the Thatcherism. But analyzing carefully the spending review goals, contents and method, can be honestly affirmed that the dream won’t become reality. [...]

Between all the Prime Ministers elected in last years in the western world, the British one, David Cameron, didn’t seem to be the most revolutionary. But after that the first act of his Government has been, last 20 Octobers, the launch of a very hard and for many aspects historical [...]

Bike-sharing recently turned 46. The idea can really claim  to be an old one, although for many years it was regarded as an eccentric habit for small municipalities or proto-environmentalist movements. Until Copenhagen, in 1995, launched the service onto its flat and calm streets. But the "public bicycle" did not [...]

In 2002, European  executives during the Barcelona Summit decided to guarantee access to kindergartens to at least the 33% of children under the age of 3, within 2010. At the end of the first decade of the new millennium, what are the results? Few places available, difficulties to access, financial [...]

The elderly is not the same than in the past. For example, older people can now enjoy standards of living and lifestyles absolutely unthinkable in comparison with thirty years ago, thanks to increasing life expectancy and a general improvement of health conditions. The change has had obvious repercussions in every [...]

Iceland is the first country in the world as regards the quality of life, especially for women. Thus, it is interesting to understand the reasons lying behind such a social development. On this purpose, we would like to outline the economy of a country whose unemployment rate constantly drops (6.7%) [...]

It is not simple to build a democratic country. Tunisia is trying to do so after the January revolution, which caused the fall of the twenty-year Ben Ali's regime and his escape to Saudi Arabia. This is what we discuss with Hamza Chourabi, the president of the association Demokratie Tunesien, [...]

Everything started one year ago. The nth police abuse of power, the usual neglect of institutions, a country – Tunisia – governed for more than twenty years by the same person, President Ben Alì, who had established a corrupt and brutal regime. For Mohammed Bouazizi that was too much, the [...]

Without women, democracy is incomplete; that is the implicit assumption of the report published on October 21 by the Inter-American Commission on Human rights (IACHR) which analyses women’s political participation in South-American countries. The IACHR points out significant examples of progress with regard to the political participation and representation of women [...]

The Turkish legislation exposes the history professor to a steady fear of being prosecuted because of his opinions on the events of 1915 concerning the Armenian population, hence limiting his freedom of expression under art.10 of ECHR. This is what the European Court of Human Rights established in its judgement [...]

Despite being very far away from us, the Philippines exported workers all over the world because of an exceptional rate of population growth, which makes it the twelfth most populated country in the world, with its 94 million inhabitants. A controversial law, the “Reproductive Health Bill” aims now at stopping [...]

One the effects of globalisation, which has not been adequately analysed, is the prominent role played by islands within the global geo-political landscape. It is as if the lack of territorial continuity gave them a special status. A well-known example is that of Guantanamo, in the southeast Cuba, the site of [...]

One shoot is enough, to rekindle the nationalism. Afërdita Dreshaj does know it well, as she posted on her facebook wall a photo together with Anja Saranovic; two girls who friendly embrace themselves, as many others do. But it is not so. Afërdita is miss Kosovo, Anja is miss Serbia; so [...]

Intelligent people are, for someone, extremely charming. Unfortunately, their admirers will have to resign themselves to the idea that they are not interested in sex. That is what emerges from an article published by the American magazine “Psychology Today”. The article is based on a survey carried out by the sociologist [...]

Andrea Mancia is a journalist and he is the vice-director of the newspaper "Liberal". He invented the blog aggregator Tocqueville.it and now leads the newspaper notapolitica.it. His main interests are American politics and society. Indeed, he founded in 2004 a personal blog called rightnation.it dealing with American current affairs. We have decided [...]