cafebabel.com

Student guide: community-supported agriculture in France

('Craig James Willy',) — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 17:00:00 -0000

The system of associations for community-supported agriculture (French initials AMAP) has been growing in Europe over the last 20 years. In recent years, student 'AMAPs' have multiplied on campuses. From Nantes to Palermo, a look between pickers and carrots

Li Kequiang's in Europe, and Europe knows it

('eurotopics',) — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 14:15:00 -0000

The Chinese vice-premier is in Europe. He has signed billion-dollar business agreements and promised to purchase the government bonds of ailing EU countries like Portugal. Does this cheque book politics conceal the dictatorship's true motives? The Iberian and Austro-German press have raised the alert

Young African footballers thrive in Europe

('Nicola Potter',) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 10:30:00 -0000

There may be football academies and Fifa regulations aplenty in Europe, but talented African minors haven't always had the best experiences in the promised land

Satirists Clark and Dawe take on eurozone crisis - in 2 minutes 35

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 13:30:00 -0000

We're always a bit baffled by the ins and outs of the eurozone here at cafebabel.com - so it was nice to catch this little Youtube video circulated by the FT's chief economics commentator. Hilarious, though frightening

Salma Yaqoob: the other left in UK elections

('Sarah Truesdale',) — Tue, 04 May 2010 10:45:00 -0000

A cocktail of otherworldliness, pacifism and explosive environmentalism is taking over the UK in the lead up to the general election on 6 May. The Guardian has called the Respect party leader 'the most prominent Muslim woman in British public life'. Respect is eager to get back in touch with the 'common people'

Sweden's Cecilia Malmström: 'I'm a politician. It’s not my task to impose an identity on people'

('Pierre-Anthony Canovas',) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 11:00:00 -0000

The Gothenburg-based politician, 41, has been EU affairs minister since 2006. We talk institutional reform, economic crisis and Turkey in part III of a special edition marking the six-month Swedish presidency of the EU, which began on 1 July

The principle behind 'fishing for compliments'

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 07:15:00 -0000

That’s what our outgoing Italian editor was constantly doing to us at cafebabel.com. In tribute (to herself), she looks at how the act itself is about man hunting for humanity, especially when confronted with globalisation and the atomisation of modern society

Five years of enlarged Europe – no longer a land of gold

('Gemma Turner',) — Mon, 11 May 2009 11:23:23 -0000

Five years on from the great European expansion into the east, the eastern and western members are still oceans apart. The distance is not only geographical and the differences not only ideological

CAP? The queen farms on EU money

('Annie Rutherford',) — Tue, 05 May 2009 10:00:44 -0000

Normally the EU doesn't shrink from using showing citizens with golden plaques and stardust whereabouts European money goes. With regards to cereal, meat and milk this is somewhat different. The agricultural subsidies, which were originally meant to support the agricultural community, now flow in quite different directions. Latest news titbit from Brussels

HandiCAP: freedom-hunting French farmers, as European as Parisians

('Annie Rutherford',) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 11:57:25 -0000

Young farmers in the region of Auvergne worry about their future, which is being over-organised by a too liberal Europe. They want to give vent to their anger at the upcoming European elections in June 2009

Got a solution for a powerful Europe?

('Lindsey Evans',) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 12:55:06 -0000

Voter abstention, traditionally high in European elections, reveals more about the lack of politicised debate about Europe than it does about any real apathy among its people, who seem – in fact – to be looking for a meaning in this project

Lisbon strategy: how does Europe fit into today’s world?

('Gemma Turner',) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:39:00 -0000

Europe’s privileged geopolitical situation is under threat. In the context of globalisation, climate and demographic change and the high cost of energy and food, Europe has to rethink its strategies

Radar station for US anti-missile defence on Czech soil?

('Susannah Readett-Bayley',) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0000

But it hadn’t banked on such a large opposition from two thirds of the population and such an angry reaction from its future neighbours. A return to the cold war?

Berlusconi's back

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:00:00 -0000

Add a dose of alcohol abuse and hail Europe’s volunteers and globalisation - it’s your latest news from Brussels

Batman, goats and internet in Cavas do Monte, Portugal

('Martyn Hawkins',) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:00:00 -0000

The living conditions in the north Portuguese mountaintops of S. Pedro do Sul have hardly changed in hundreds of years. Bit by bit, however, the uniting, modernising world is moving in, and the children are moving out

'Were the US to go under, the world would turn to the Euro'

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 00:00:00 -0000

The five-year-old Euro may be trading above the dollar, but a stronger currency can damage Europe

David Calleo: 'free trade is the last great religion of the West'

Sat, 27 Jan 2007 12:00:00 -0000

On the eve of the global Davos Economic Forum, North American intellectual David Calleo describes his vision of the role Europe plays in globalisation

Paper mills of discord along the Uruguay River

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 12:00:00 -0000

By building pulp mills, Finnish global corporation Botnia 'is willing to export pollution' along the binational stream, Argentina claims. Their announcements of further highway blockades is disrupting trade and travel

2007: A Space Odysseus

('Sarah Turpin',) — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0000

Homer's hero is now travelling the length and breadth of the world wide web. With Germany’s six month presidency in full swing, the Goethe Institute has designed a virtual journey for artists. How is Europe searching for itself?

Eco-marketing in a shrinking global economy

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 12:00:00 -0000

Europeans politicians are catching onto the voters’ awakening interest in the environment. Is ecology compatible with politics?

H20 on land, sea and air

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 06:47:00 -0000

Dried water, artificial rivers, icebergs in the Thames or space agencies searching for artificial water are just a few of the methods used to fight the current water shortage

Montenegro goes on sale

Mon, 25 Sep 2006 12:41:00 -0000

For years the unspoiled beauty of Montenegro used to be the best kept secret in Europe. Now the sights of old Venetian squares, spectacular mountains, bays, sandy beaches are once more a favourite destination for globe-trotters around the world

Europe’s anti-terror alert systems are out of tune with each other

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 12:24:00 -0000

The planned terror attacks uncovered in London are putting the alert systems of every European country to the test. Find out how these work and which alert levels are currently in place.

The leopard prowls the Silk Road

Tue, 05 Sep 2006 05:07:00 -0000

Kazakhstan holds a key position on the Asian highway network which criss-crosses 32 Asian states. At the used car market “Barys”, traders discuss the merging of Europe and Asia

ASEAN and the EU: singing from different hymnals

Tue, 05 Sep 2006 02:00:00 -0000

As regional integration accelerates in Asia, ASEAN might one day resemble the former EEC. I talked to Ludo Cuyvers, professor of economics at the University of Antwerp, who says such comparisons are premature.

Lidl cracks the whip

Mon, 21 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0000

Lidl supermarkets are a familiar sight in malls around Europe, popular among students and cash-strapped families. But according to the German services employees’ union, ver.di, Lidl supervisors repress their workers and enforce 45-hour work weeks.

Opium, the green gold of Afghanistan

Mon, 26 Sep 2005 16:00:00 -0000

Despite the efforts of the United Nations and the government, the production of opium continues to grow, inundating Europe with tonnes of heroin.