European Institute

Clara O’Donnell, a European in every good sense of the word, departed this world on January 16 at the tragically young age of 30. In her too short life, Clara accomplished a great deal: both as remarkably gifted human being who lit up every room she entered, and as an accomplished scholar of the transatlantic community.

By Michael Mosettig, Former PBS Newshour Producer

The travels of Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy have demonstrated anew that in politics, timing is everything.

In a week in which French President Hollande's major economic press conference was overshadowed by the fallout from his extra-curricular activities and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's State of the State speech was lost in the George Washington Bridge scandal, Rajoy came to Washington for a three-day visit   with the wind of some better economic news at his back and allowing him to proclaim to President Obama and other audiences that his beleaguered country had turned a corner.

Alternative financing portals are proliferating throughout the European Union as more and more investors put their toes in the water of a new generation of high-risk start-ups they hope become a Skype, Rovio or Storify one day. With interest growing exponentially, though, questions are emerging about the adequacy of investor protections that new national regulations plan to address. The challenge ahead is to implement such protections without burdening entrepreneurs with regulatory overkill.