The blank screen in front of me begs me to come up with words I cannot think of. Words are often inadequate to describe reality, let alone to understand it.
Brussels bilingual? Brussels francophone? Both and neither!
Tuesday, 01 March 2016 19:03 Written by Philippe Van Parijs
The Kingdom of Belgium, you must have read somewhere, is a federal state that consist of two big monolingual regions and a tiny bilingual one. Is that so? Not quite.
“Сrimea is Ours!” or what the occupants will never understand
Friday, 19 February 2016 20:01 Written by Andrii Lavreniuk
The 20th of February will mark two years since the start of military intervention and temporary occupation of the Ukrainian Autonomic Republic of Crimea by the Russian Federation.
We have seen it before in other countries - democratic elections resulting in a new government with an absolute or slim majority in the parliament.
Britain has never been an enthusiastic member of the European Union – and soon it could be the first to leave. With a referendum expected as early as June, the In and Out camps are neck and neck in the polls.
A Glass Half Full: Europe's 2015 in Perspective
Sunday, 17 January 2016 18:45 Written by Willem van den Berg
As 2015 came to an end, two cities on opposite sides of the world shut down due to safety concerns: alert levels were raised to their highest, schools and business were closed, and transport was restricted.
After spending two intense weeks at the climate negotiations in Paris I return to Brussels with my heart full of hope and inspiration. This is not due to the outcome of the UN summit, but to the people power I witnessed on the streets.
Brussels Lockdown and the Worldwide Focus on Molenbeek
Wednesday, 09 December 2015 16:33 Written by Bleri Lleshi
Brussels was on lockdown for almost a whole week after the terrible terror attacks in Paris on 13 November.
For the past 2 weeks i have attended several meetings in Brussels with representatives of religious communities and philosophy groups to discuss the problem of religious radicalization in European youth. Notwithstanding the opinions and ideas expressed, I felt an atmosphere of solidarity, all united against extremism.
Saving Europe’s Economy From Going Down the Drain
Thursday, 03 December 2015 18:02 Written by Philippe Legrain
The horrific Paris attacks look set to have an enduring impact on Europe in all sorts of ways, from tougher border controls to better intelligence sharing. But fortunately they are unlikely to do much harm to the economy.