Premier Wen Jiabao's latest visit to Europe demonstrated that Beijing has great hopes for its relationship with 'New Europe'. But this is risky for the European Union, as it undermines its ability to present a united front to China.
The prospect of a victory by François Hollande may be causing nervousness in Berlin and elsewhere, but the socialist candidate in the French presidential elections is a natural compromise-builder, and Europe should have no real reason to fear his victory.
As France votes in the first round of its presidential elections, the French people have been denied an analytically, politically honest and comprehensive engagement by the politicians with the real issues at hand in France and Europe.
The EU is due to decide on Monday whether to lift sanctions against Burma. Instead of lifting all sanctions the EU should follow a gradual approach and focus on targeted assistance and an ambitious social-responsibility framework for European companies.
Deeper EU integration is a sensible way forward but Poland will not support the institutionalisation of a two-speed Europe. The imperative for closer cooperation between the euro zone members should not be a means of dismantling the EU.
The case of Syria shows that Europe maintains a limited ability to shape its Southern neighbourhood. For the time being it remains a fairly insignificant political actor in the unfolding Syrian crisis.
This week's BRICS summit may be a shop window for the potency of the world's rapidly rising global powers, but on closer inspection there is a startling lack of unity between them.
As part of the ‘Reinvention of Europe’ project, ECFR is publishing a series of papers on the national debates within EU member states about the crisis and the future direction of Europe. The second paper in the series examines the Czech situation.
From our Reinvention of Europe series of National papers