EU/North America

The mass-scale sexual assaults in Cologne, Germany have inspired a political blame-game—but condemning women’s conduct or Europe’s open border policies won’t serve the victims of Cologne or the refugees who continue to need our protection.

While Germans are generally well-known for their efficiency, the situation at the asylum registration center LaGeSo (Landesamt für Gesundheit und Soziales) in Berlin is anything but. 

In his support of, in and for Paris, President Obama has emerged as the first real “Climate President” of the United States. Nevertheless, whether or not his country and predecessor will remain faithful to this legacy remains uncertain.

With a backlog of more than 350,000 asylum applications, Germany is under pressure to speed up the asylum process. But efforts to quickly process Syrian refugees shortchange Afghanis and others.

The reasons behind people’s radicalization are individual. However, anger over lack of social recognition often plays an important role. Salafism and Islamophobia must be tackled simultaneously.

The Brussels climate dialogue series that was held from the Climate Summit in Warsaw (COP19 ) until the Climate Summit in Paris (COP21) resulted in the following six key messages to build EU climate ambition in the international climate negotiations.

For his documentary a finnish filmmaker followed the coaltravel from Kuzbass to Helsinki. His plan: talking to people in the train about climate change. But they didn't want to talk with him.

Poland is a major coal producer. Miners there are well organised and have strong political leverage. There is a big question mark over how the new government want to approach EU climate policy. An analysis.

Coal is one of the dirtiest industries in Russia. Apart from hydropower, renewable energy is practically non-existent. Civil society groups that might push for more sustainable sources of power are few and far between.

Germany is phasing out nuclear power and has come to rely more on coal for its electricity. Despite a steep rise in renewable energy, the use of coal is endangering Germany’s ambitious target to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.