For the past year, leaders of the Global South have resisted Western pressure to take a tougher position against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by seeking to broaden the discussion to include a global order they see as being built on—and perpetuating—political and economic inequities. It seems that effort may be bearing fruit.
EU officials are still digesting the result of Turkey’s general election, which saw the presidential race head to a second-round runoff. While President Erdogan’s antagonism toward Europe has won him few friends in Brussels, many are also wondering if the runoff might present a case of “better the devil you know.”
The aftermath of Romania’s post-communist transition, particularly the struggle to overcome corruption, left a toxic legacy that hampers Bucharest’s ability to exert influence over EU decision-making to this day. But Romania’s reluctance to be proactive in policy debates within both the EU and NATO has now become problematic.
Europe’s eyes are focused on Liverpool in the U.K. this week, as the city hosts the 67th annual Eurovision Song Contest, the most-watched annual live television event in the world. In the past, Eurovision has always tried to keep politics out of the contest. But the war in Ukraine has changed all that.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis won the country’s 2019 elections promising to stabilize Greece’s economy and enact a law-and-order security agenda. In his own way, Mitsotakis has delivered on those promises. Nevertheless, he and his ruling party face an uphill battle to hold onto power in the upcoming snap elections.
The Russia-Ukraine war has had major global implications. Some disruptions appear relatively straightforward to solve, but the realm of information security does not lend itself to quick fixes. Central and Eastern Europe provides several hard-learned lessons in how Russian disinformation is used and how it might be countered.
The European Commission has proposed harmonizing national criminal laws against corruption and increasing anti-corruption penalties across the European Union. But some Eastern European member states, like Hungary, Poland and Romania, have bristled against the EU interfering in their national practices.