- Article Information
- Category: April 2012
- Created on 19 April 2012
By European Affairs
After years of transatlantic debate, the controversial U.S.-EU passenger name record agreement was finally ratified on April 19 by the European Parliament by a wide majority of 409 votes in favor, 226 against and 33 abstentions.
- Article Information
- Category: Roundtables
- Created on 19 April 2012
On April 19, The European Institute, in cooperation with the Embassy of Latvia, welcomed Andris Vilks, Latvian Finance Minister, Ilmars Rimševics, Governor of the Bank of Latvia, and Jeffrey Baker, Director of the Office of Europe and Eurasia of the U.S. Treasury Department, to a roundtable breakfast discussion on Latvia’s economic recovery and its lessons. Emphasizing key qualities in their government’s approach, Mr. Vilks and Mr. Rimševics explained how these might be applied towards wider strategies involving other European nations in crisis. Mr. Baker singled the flexibility of its labor market as being instrumental to Latvia’s turnaround.
- Article Information
- Category: Roundtables
- Created on 17 April 2012
On April 17th, The European Institute, in cooperation with the Embassy of Latvia and the Embassy of the Russian Federation, held a breakfast discussion on the Northern Distribution Network (NDN) and its potential transformation into a key economic and commercial transcontinental corridor. Panel speakers, including Aivis Ronis, Latvian Minister of Transportation; Oleg Stepanov, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of the Russian Federation; Antonio de Lecea, Principal Adviser at the Delegation of the European Union; The Honorable Robert Hormats, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment; and Susan Kurland, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Transportation, offered their perspectives on current efforts to shift the NDN from a military logistics system into a viable commercial link between Afghanistan and the international community. Beyond economic benefits, the panel speakers indicated that the harmonization of regional attitudes, as well as transnational movement of ideas, promise to be products of this ongoing process to establish a “modern Silk Road.”
- Article Information
- Category: EA April 2012
- Created on 16 April 2012
The main challenger to President Nicolas Sarkozy in the hard-fought French election contest that culminates in a few weeks is a man virtually unknown outside his own country – François Hollande. To the surprise of many people outside of France, the polling data has consistently shown the incumbent trailing his opponent, including in the widely expected situation in which election turns on a run-off between the two men. Long-time stalwart and one-time leader of the Socialist party, Hollande, 57, has had little international exposure during his decades as a French parliamentarian. So who is he? And if he is elected President, what is likely to change in U.S.-French relations or in France’s position inside the European Union?
- Article Information
- Category: EA April 2012
- Created on 16 April 2012
Is the Obama administration edging quietly towards an historic shift in U.S. national security strategy? Is a change in the works going far beyond the “pivot to Asia” and troop drawdown in Europe announced by the President in January as the first outcome of the Congressionally-mandated need to cut defense spending?
More Articles...
© COPYRIGHT THE EUROPEAN INSTITUTE 2009
You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from our site and redistribute by email or post to the web.