European Student Think Tank

Ger­many has taken the long road on its way to becom­ing the pro­gress­ive force that it is today. Their recent elec­tion to the Human Rights Coun­cil of the United Nations under­lines the level of trust and recog­ni­tion Ger­many has earned from the inter­na­tional com­munity. But des­pite the pro­gress it has made, right­ist extrem­ism in Ger­many remains a mat­ter of con­cern. It will take unity between all act­ors within Ger­man soci­ety in order to end the per­sist­ent prob­lems of intol­er­ance and hatred.

The Future of Europe group, com­posed of 11 EU for­eign min­is­ters, released a paper with ground­break­ing integ­ra­tion­ist pro­pos­als and a very real­istic approach: when His­tory is call­ing upon you, don’t wait for the oth­ers. Artus Galiay from the New Fed­er­al­ist takes a look at the pro­pos­als for a bet­ter future of Europe.

The out­come of twenty-six to one in favour of stronger integ­ra­tion and tighter fiscal and budget­ary rules has left the UK in the corner. Sel­dom has such a degree of unity been found among mem­ber states. Cri­ti­cism of Cameron was harsh and aggress­ive, but is London’s decision to remain out­side really that bad? Well, yes, but not neces­sar­ily. It might actu­ally be great news.

“Tur­key is not in Europe”. If you have ever found your­self in a dis­cus­sion on the future of the EU enlarge­ment and the Turk­ish case, I bet you have heard this over and over again. I did hear this a lot from the Turko-skeptics and every time I ask them the simplest yet most com­plic­ated ques­tion: which Europe are we talk­ing about?

Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism is dead. At least, accord­ing to many prom­in­ent EU-leaders. It’s a shame though, that they didn’t present a feas­ible altern­at­ive to the mul­ti­cul­tural soci­ety. Should we say our per­man­ent farewells to the mul­ti­cul­tural ideal, or should we instead try to reform it, giv­ing it a chance to sur­vive? I’ll try to answer that ques­tion below.