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Stefaan De Rynck

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Stefaan De Rynck

Monthly Archives: March 2014

Crimea and Kosovo, one stands where one sits

22 Saturday Mar 2014

Posted by Stefaan De Rynck in EU Politics, Leadership

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Crimea, EU, Kosovo, Putin

Vladimir Putin stated on Tuesday that Crimea and Kosovo are both break-away regions where an ethnic minority used its unilateral right to secede from their state. He accused the US of applying double standards in international law in order to fit American interests. But Kosovo cannot be compared to Crimea. For starters, Russia opposed Kosovo leaving Serbia, while it supported Crimea leaving Ukraine.

Look at the Tatars come and go in Crimea - Copyright Reuters

Look at the Tatars come and go in Crimea – Copyright Reuters

I am not a foreign policy expert, but teaching regional autonomy at university makes one appreciate the crucial importance of both process and motives when the territorial integrity of a country breaks down. The military intervention against Milosevic’s troops in Kosovo came after China and Russia vetoed such a move in the UN Security Council. In the absence of a UN mandate, NATO justified dropping its bombs on Serbia because of massive human rights violations against Kosovars, and because of the risk that the conflict would reignite regional instability in the Balkans. Kosovo was seen as a test for the international community’s “Responsibility to Protect” civilians against their own sovereigns after the experiences of Rwanda and Srebrenica.

Here is another important difference. While Russia acts alone in Crimea, Western countries acted multilaterally in Kosovo. And NATO acted only after months of diplomacy and attempts at ceasefires, with China and Russia supporting UN resolutions that condemned the excessive force used by Milosevic. A parallel process with Ukraine Continue reading →

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What kind of EU democracy is emerging?

10 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by Stefaan De Rynck in EU Politics, Leadership

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Bové, EU democracy, EU elections, Heller, Juncker, Schulz, Tsipras, Verhofstadt

All political party candidates for the European Commission Presidency are known since last Friday when the majority of European People’s Party delegates in Dublin designated Jean-Claude Juncker from Luxembourg as their top man. The social-democrats put forward the German Martin Schulz, who made his political career in the European Parliament. Former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt will defend the blue liberal colours, while the Greens opted for a Franco-German duo, with José Bové, the alter-globalizer farmer from France, and Ska Heller, a multi-lingual German MEP in her early thirties and one of the surprises coming out of these primaries, together with the far left Alex Tsipras who is a member of the Greek Parliament.

EU election result since 1979 - From far left to far right - Note: orange is eurosceptics; grey is non-affiliated, and dark blue is conservatives

EU election result since 1979 – From far left to far right – Note: orange/black is eurosceptics; grey is non-affiliated, and purple is conservatives

Discussions on the EU’s democratic deficit tend to be waged in terms of the presence (or not) of democracy in Brussels decision-making. But various types of democracy exist, and democracy itself is a relative category. On a side-note related to this, the Economist’s democracy index includes 13 of the 28 EU countries in the category “full democracies”, with 15 others such as Italy, Hungary and Romania are in the second-best “flawed democracy” group.

What does the process of appointing the candidates for Commission President and their profile tell us about the type of democracy that is emerging in the EU? Continue reading →

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Most recent posts

  • Crimea and Kosovo, one stands where one sits
  • What kind of EU democracy is emerging?
  • The German Judge and the Italian Banker

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