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 [...]

Crisis is a really bitter pill to swallow. European leaders, obliged to solve this situation through cuts to social expenditure and welfare system, know that very well, whereas citizens protest, rally and strike. If, indeed, on the one hand leaders have to cut expenditure, on the other they have to [...]

Many considerations arise when reading “The fourth Disability High Level Group Report on the "Implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities” published in May. One reflection, in particular, concerns the discrepancy between future political intentions and the measures currently adopted by Governments, especially in the [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Politicians aside, German debate on integration raised a barrage of comments from several known members of the civil society with a migrant background. Sibel Kekilli, the poster girl for Turkish immigrants in cinema said in a recent interview to Der Spiegel that the new generation of immigrants was [...]

Attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany have "utterly failed", Chancellor Angela Merkel recently said. According to Ms Merskel the so-called "multikulti" concept - where people would "live side-by-side" happily - did not work, and immigrants needed to do more to integrate - including learning German. The leader of the [...]

One country borders on the other, and both overlook the same dark water of Northern Sea. Geographic contiguity that means also a common veneration for munificent and efficient welfare state. And yet the differences between German and Danish welfare are many: for instance with regard to nurseries. In fact, [...]

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 [...]

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 Italy, women do not live in a positive situation. The failure of the Italian gender equality is testified by  the recent “Shadow report, thirty years Cedaw - Work in progress”, carried out by the Women’s International Network for Solidarity. While reading the report, it is difficult not to find [...]

On 23 June 2011 the Algerian writer and journalist Amara Lakhous presented in Rome, at the Gallery “Alberto Sordi”, his last novel “Un pirata piccolo piccolo” (An average little pirate) published by E/O. Actually, this is the author’s first novel. He wrote, indeed, this book before 1995, when he decided to [...]

Amara Lakhous’ life is the story of a successful immigrant. Amara Lakhous was born in Algiers in 1970. After majoring in Philosophy, in 1995 he decides to leave his home country and moves to Italy. In Rome he earns a doctorate in Cultural Anthropology at the Università La Sapienza. He [...]

Do you want to know everything about the country you are going to visit? From today on it’s possible. In Italy is available a multimedia guide that provides for information about rights and obligations concerning medical care abroad. The practice is very simple. Indeed, it is enough just to link [...]

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 [...]

The European countries where, with some limitations and restrictions, 16 year olds are allowed to vote are Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary and Slovenia. In the other countries the subject is currently being debated and youths are getting organised in order to obtain this important right. But what is happening in [...]

Is this really the right time? Will the most serious economic crisis after 1929 launch womenomics? Will Italy finally be part of the advanced countries both from an economic and civil point of view? What Italy still misses is the qualitative and quantitative support of women. The percentage of the [...]

How can Italy become a country for young people? The answer is quite complex because the problem depends on a combination of factors. Italy has a rapidly ageing population and a very low fertility rate. Against this background it should, in theory, offer much more opportunities to the few young [...]

Generally speaking, the differences among national groups prove that most of the immigrants investing in highly qualified education are women, especially those who seem to be the "protagonists" of the migration plan (Lodigiani, Martinelli, 2003: 164; Santagati, 2007: 62). These women have, indeed, a strong desire of emancipation and they [...]

Among the main consequences of the movements of population, the negative effects of immigration are often highlighted, in particular to the detriment of the countries of origin of the migrants and the serious difficulties that these people find in integrating in the host societies, in keeping in touch with their [...]

To conclude our reportage on the rights and protection of homosexual people in Europe, we have interviewed Renato Sabbadini, first openly gay city councillor in Bergamo (Italy, 1995-2004) and since 2008 secretary general of ILGA- International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association. How does the Old Continent rank, compared to [...]

Some years ago, the eminent American scholar David North wondered why democratic governments, regardless of their positive purposes, could not manage to wipe off illegal immigration. The reasons were essentially three: the burden of the interests that were deriving benefit from it. The paradox of international laws that only recognize [...]

Interview avec  Abdeslam Marfouk, expert d'immigration et chercheur à Université catholique de Louvain (Belgique).1) Vous avez justement mis en évidence un changement important concernant l’immigration: la féminisation. Tout à fait. Je dirais que aujourd’hui, dans le monde, d’une manière générale, presque un immigré sur deux est une [...]

Since the half of the XVIII century to the immediate Second Post-war period the bicycle has been one of the most loved and accepted status symbols of a society that was rapidly changing. A smashing vector for independency and emancipation of women and for the spread of new trends (for [...]

European immigration is the mother of modern immigration. For the simple reason that the huge army of men, women and children who, between 1870 and 1914, emigrated from the Old Continent, to seek their fortune Overseas, was the cause of the solution of continuity between the nature of the old migration [...]

Immigration and demography are an intricate skein of problems difficult to disentangle and in which is not even easy to find one’s bearings. A brainteaser that was born from the original sin of the coarse blunder of reverend Malthus at the end of ‘700: population is necessarily limited by the [...]

“Every migration – warned Hans Magnus Enzensberger in the first memorable pages of “The Great Migration” – “provokes conflicts, regardless of the causes that determined it, of the objectives that it sets itself, of the fact that is spontaneous or forced, of the dimensions it takes”. It is difficult to [...]

In some countries of the USA the liberalization of Marijuana seems to be the next step. Especially after that the Obama’s administration announced the legal consumption of this light drug for people affected by cancer and terminally ill persons. A anti-prohibition wind that seems to be going beyond the boundaries [...]

Lyme disease, Elephantiasis, Japanese Encephalitis, River Blindness. These are the so called neglected tropical diseases (NTDs'), that still kill million of people in the less developed regions of the globe. But this is the point. Are we sure that these humanity’s worst afflictions are a phenomenon limited to the developing [...]