Talking to clarify and to inform; not just to make noise
First, these questions are typically the kind of issues which should be discussed within a Eurozone Economic Governance body, as proposed five years ago by Newropeans*, not when a crisis erupts, but rather on a regular basis; not in a non-Eurozone newspaper, but rather within specific Eurozone institutions. Not in a national parliament but rather at a European summit. Otherwise these declarations are just making the debate more obscure and therefore immediately becoming tools in the hands of speculators.

http://www.newropeans-magazine.org/content/view/11132/ 1

The problem with the view from the core countries is, again, not so much what it says, but what remains untold. As in the case of GIIPS countries, core countries do not show their populations what they do when they wear their European hat and, therefore, do not assume responsibility for their joint actions with GIIPS at the EU level. There is no discussion in the core Eurozone countries, for instance, over whether GIIPS countries were encouraged to spend excessively by a faulty design of the single currency, which was jointly decided by all member states, with core countries’ acquiescence. The decision to only frame moral hazard as a fundamental problem in 2010, after ten full years of collective free-riding over EMU rules, was a political one, driven by domestic, not European, interests.

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2013/11/20/the-eurozone-is-not-suffering-from-an-economic-crisis-but-a-crisis-of-national-politics/

The New Republic's John McWhorter just came out with an essay on why we should stop pretending French is an important language. The piece comes in response to a New York Times article about a new initiative from the French government to increase the amount of French instruction in American schools. To be sure, it's a little heavy handed for a foreign government to be attempting to quasi-infiltrate another country's education system. But here's why McWhorter's wrong, and why everyone should learn French, even if this guy's the one telling you to do it...

http://www.businessinsider.com/why-we-still-need-french-2014-2

Le 21 novembre 2013, le président ukrainien Viktor Iakounovitch, à la tête du Parti des régions au pouvoir depuis 2010, refusait, de façon inattendue, de signer l’Accord d’association avec l’UE. Ce camouflet infligé par un pays de plus de 40 millions d’habitants, qui joue un rôle géopolitique charnière, met en crise le projet de partenariat oriental offert par l’UE depuis 2009 à six pays frontaliers |2| et qu’elle estime contradictoire avec l’insertion de ces mêmes pays dans l’Union douanière et les projets d’Union eurasienne dominés par la Russie. Le soutien explicite des États-Unis et des diplomaties européennes aux manifestants – autant que le chantage russe sur les prix de l’énergie et les accords commerciaux – illustre l’importance d’enjeux économiques géostratégiques sous-jacents. En pleine crise politique, en décembre, l’envol du président ukrainien Ianoukovitch vers la Chine, avant qu’il ne se rende en Russie a été peu souligné : les accords croissants noués avec Pékin visent à atténuer les dépendances de l’Ukraine envers sa “troïka” – UE, FMI et Russie.

http://cadtm.org/La-societe-ukrainienne-entre-ses

• In the alleged US audio clip, which appears to date to Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych’s offer of top jobs to opposition MPs on 25 January, Victoria Nuland, a senior US state department official, is speaking to Geoffrey Pyatt, the US ambassador to Ukraine.

“So that would be great, I think, to help glue this thing and have the UN help glue it and, you know, fuck the EU,” she says.

• In the alleged EU clip, a senior EU foreign service official, Helga Schmid, speaks in German to Jan Tombinski, the EU ambassador to Ukraine. 
  She adds: “We have just issued a very strong statement on Bulatov and we are going in that direction [sanctions]. We just don't want to advertise it too loudly because we think it's more effective this way. It annoys me when the press is reporting that the EU is not on the side of freedom.”

Schmid notes: “I don't want that Cathy is put in a corner - this can hurt, politically. This doesn't work and Cathy will speak to [US secretary of state] Kerry about it.”

http://euobserver.com/foreign/123036?

Dies teilte das Gericht am Donnerstag in Karlsruhe mit. Geklagt haben kleine Gruppierungen wie die Ökologisch-Demokratische Partei (ÖDP), die Freien Wähler, die Piraten und die Grauen Panther. Durch die Sperrklausel falle es Kleinparteien viel schwerer, geeignete Kandidaten zu bekommen und Spenden einzuwerben, lautete die Argumentation.

http://www.euractiv.de/europawahlen-2014-000394/artikel/verfassungsgericht-urteilt-am-26februar-ber-drei-prozent-hrde-008526

El Fondo Monetario Internacional (FMI) ha advertido a Estados Unidos que "lo último que necesita ahora" es un nuevo y "prolongado debate" sobre el límite de endeudamiento federal, que se alcanzará en las próximas semanas.
... Por ello, el portavoz del Fondo ha insistido en la importancia de que el Congreso acuerde elevar el tope de deuda, actualmente en 16,7 billones de dólares. "Es esencial para reducir la incertidumbre elevar el límite de deuda de manera rápida y duradera", ha añadido Rice.

http://www.rtve.es/noticias/20140206/fmi-advierte-eeuu-delos-riesgos-otro-prolongado-debate-techo-deuda/873381.shtml

La Junta general insta al Gobierno central a retirar el anteproyecto de ley de reforma del aborto, tras aprobarse una proposición no de ley del Grupos socialistas y una moción de IU, que ha contado con el apoyo de UPyD, el voto en contra del PP y la abstención de Foro Asturias.

http://www.europapress.es/sociedad/noticia-parlameanto-asturiano-insta-gobierno-retirar-ley-oposicion-pp-abstencion-foro-20140207115811.html

Ahora bien, dejando de lado la siempre latente amenaza de involución, para los europeos uno de los grandes intereses que suscita el devenir político de Iberoamérica radica en el proceso de construcción bienestarista en el que están inmersos sus países, aun en diversos grados de desarrollo. Ciertamente, colean problemas de violencia e inseguridad, así como de brecha de rentas, por no abundar en las citadas inclinaciones populistas. No obstante, el ascenso de amplios sectores de la población a la clase media parece una realidad asentada, lo que constituye la mayor garantía para el mantenimiento de las democracias.

http://www.huffingtonpost.es/jesus-andreu/iberoamerica-bienestar-20_b_4730574.html?utm_hp_ref=spain

Experto en agitar la escena política cuando tiene el viento a favor, Geert Wilders, el líder xenófobo y anti musulmán holandés, ha escogido el día en que encabeza los sondeos nacionales de opinión para asegurar que su país remontará la crisis en cuanto abandone la UE. De celebrarse hoy las elecciones, previstas oficialmente para 2017, su Partido por la Libertad sería el más votado. A considerable distancia quedarían liberales y socialdemócratas, la actual coalición gubernamental de centro izquierda. 

http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2014/02/06/actualidad/1391700395_687075.html