The EU membership renegotiations are already leaving David Cameron behind, but he can still seize the initiative again.
Alexis Tsipras’ visit to Moscow this week drew a terse response from Angela Merkel, but no deal has been announced.
Alexey Nikolsky/Ria Novosti/Kremlin Pool/EPA/AAP
After all night talks in the Belarusian capital Minsk, the outcomes of the four party talks in the so-called Normandy format (Ukraine, Russia, France, and Germany) have neither brought a major breakthrough…
Greek PM Antonis Samaras gets the Merkel treatment.
EPA/Maja Hitij
A joke that is often told among European leftists these days portrays the current situation between Germany and Greece quite accurately. An officer at the passport control at Athens airport asks a tourist…
Anti-Islamic protesters on the march in Berlin.
Bernd Von Jutrczenka/EPA
A rally in Dresden has attracted some 18,000 people, all marching under the banner of Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident. The sudden appeal of this group, known as PEGIDA, has…
Merkel in the middle as Greek debt clouds the vote.
Hindrik Sijens
Germany has sent the message that a Greek exit from the eurozone might be the lesser of two evils. It has been interpreted as a warning to the Greek electorate ahead of its January 25 election as left-wing…
What would a Eurozone trade agreement with Australia involve?
AAP/EPA/KAY NIETFELD
Harald Sander, Cologne University of Applied Sciences (CUAS)
Shortly after the G20 summit in Brisbane, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced initiatives to increase trade and investment relations between Germany and…
We can work this out Angela, please.
Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire
Angela Merkel is a pragmatic politician. But even pragmatism has its boundaries. And David Cameron is finding out just what those boundaries are as he tries to push her for concessions on the issue of…
The German switch to green electricity has demanded quick thinking.
Martin Capek
Germany is well on its way towards having a predominantly green electricity supply. The transition from nuclear and fossil fuel electricity to using renewables is happening faster than anyone had anticipated…
With France remaining economically stagnant, Italy falling back into recession, and Greece and Portugal still struggling to stand on their feet, the international community often looks to Germany, not…
Whether or not MH17 was shot down on purpose or was just a ghastly mistake, international opinion is overwhelmingly that the airliner was downed by separatist rebels and that they were trained – and their…
Even Angela Merkel now seems to agree that austerity has run its course. When Italy’s prime minister, Matteo Renzi, together with other European leaders, led a fresh charge against the ill-fated policy…
Nationalism is no alternative: Germany prepares to vote.
EPA/Marius Becker
No country takes European Parliament elections more seriously than does Germany. Many posters have adorned lampposts around the country since mid-April and discussions in the media centre round the parties…
Eine kleine Bundeskanzlerin: Merkel addresses both houses of parliament.
Oli Scarff/PA
Angela Merkel’s visit to London could hardly have been given a bigger billing; a speech to both houses of parliament, lunch with the prime minister and then tea with the Queen. David Cameron clearly had…
Should Tony Abbott follow Barack Obama’s example and apologise personally to Indonesia leaders over the spying scandal, as Obama did to Angela Merkel?
EPA/Andrew Harrer
The contrast between Australian prime minister Tony Abbott’s self-defeating response to spying allegations with Indonesia and US president Barack Obama’s reaction to smooth its similar row with Germany…
The Indonesian president, and his government, have experienced a serious loss of face at a time when they least wanted it.
EPA/Abror Rizki
When The Guardian Australia and the ABC broke the news that Australian intelligence agencies had been monitoring the phones of Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, his wife and leading Cabinet…
Waning influence: is the US on the decline as a world power?
Pete Souza, The White House
For presidents, like sports team managers, the tough weeks tend to outnumber the jubilant. But even by the standards of an unforgiving job, Barack Obama could be forgiven for feeling unusually buffeted…
‘Why don’t you borrow my cell, Angela, it’s secure…’
Cyrus Farivar
Revelations about the extent of the American National Security Agency’s (NSA’s) global communications surveillance have raised considerable media and political attention. The fact that the NSA not only…
When in 1987 Margaret Thatcher won the third of her three elections in the UK, she was at the height of her powers. She governed in almost monarchical style, her (internal and external) opponents either…