January 14, 2005: The European Union asks Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to stop the violence against Israel. Luxembourg’s foreign minister comments on the search for peace in the Middle East and Europe’s challenging relationship with the United States. Read more »
February 1, 2005: The President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Horst Köhler, arrived in Israel today for an official four-day state visit. His speech tomorrow before Israel’s parlament, the Knesset, is controversial. Should he speak German or English? Read more »
February 9, 2005: Germany’s extreme right-wing party, the NPD, is making inroads in eastern Germany among younger voters, where unemployment is twice the national average. The party has changed its tactics in recent years, giving it a "modern" image. Read more »
February 14, 2005: Thousands gather in Dresden to remember the 60th anniversary of the firebombing of the city on February 13-14, 1945 by Allied bombers. For German chancellor Gerhard Schröder, the occasion was a chance to warn against the attempt to rewrite history. Read more »
February 24, 2005: President George W. Bush visits Germany at the start of his 2nd term in office and makes an effort to mend the bilateral relationship with the "great nation" in the heart of Europe. Despite the good effort by both sides, differences remain. Read more »
March 4, 2005: A representative survey taken in Germany during the latter half of February 2005 shows that Germans consider Russian President Vladimir Putin to be more trustworthy than U.S. President Bush. Germans also now consider gratitude toward the USA unnecessary. Read more »
March 11, 2005: When the EU added 10 new members in May 2004, job markets in Western Europe were to be protected from an onslaught of cheap labor by a 7-year transitional period. Clever businessmen have now found a loophole, adding to Germany’s unemployment woes. Read more »
March 24, 2005: European Union finance ministers agree on easing the limit on deficit spending for participation in the monetary union, the euro. The decision is a concession to the monetary union’s largest members, France and Germany. Will it destabilize the euro? Read more »
March 31, 2005: When Pope John Paul II was unable to conduct Saturday evening mass before Easter, conservative Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger took his place. Some see Ratzinger as the Vatican’s number two man. Will he become the first German pope in nearly 1000 years? Read more »
April 8, 2005: Will the price of oil reach $100 a barrel by the summer? That’s a possibility, according to some EU experts. How will the European Union meet its needs for crude oil, with North Sea supplies diminishing and no new European source in sight? Read more »
April 14, 2005: When George W. Bush visited Germany in late February, German chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s call for Nato reform was
not on the meeting agenda. For Schröder, the venue for U.S.–European dialogue shouldn’t be limited to Nato. Read more »
April 18, 2005: Last week’s Hanover trade fair witnessed the signing of several billion euro deals between leading German and Russian companies. German chancellor Schröder and Russian President Putin called the agreements "historic". Read more »
April 21, 2005: Reaction in Germany to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s selection as the new pope was understandably overwhelmingly positive. For the tabloid press in Britain, however, Pope Benedict XVI provided a favorite target: Germany under Hitler and the Nazis. Read more »
April 27, 2005: German chancellor Gerhard Schröder exhorts the French people to ratify the proposed European Union constitution. A national referendum is being held in France on May 29, and recent polls show that opponents of the treaty are in the majority. Read more »
April 28, 2005: Yesterday’s maiden flight of the new Airbus A380 was a big success and sends an important signal to Airbus customers and the airline industry. With the A380, Airbus has a corner on a market where Boeing apparently has no desire to compete. Read more »
May 3, 2005: A debate in the German Bundestag over the 1915 Armenian massacre highlights the challenges facing Turkey’s bid to join the European Union. The European Parliament in Strasbourg demands that Turkey admit its responsibility for the massacre. Read more »
May 8, 2005: 60 years after World War II ended in Europe, German chancellor Gerhard Schröder and his Secretary of the Interior, Otto Schily, accentuate different aspects of Germany’s liberation from Nazi dictatorship in May 1945: Who freed the Germans? Read more »
May 12, 2005: 60 years after World War II ended in Europe, Germany’s far-right party, the NPD, was denied permission for a protest march near the new holocaust memorial in Berlin. Although another route was approved, the march was cancelled due to protests. Read more »
May 17, 2005: On May 12 Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, approved the new EU constitution by a wide margin. The German senate, the Bundesrat, is expected to approve the treaty just two days before the French referendum. What happens if the referendum fails? Read more »
May 23, 2005: Voters in Germany’s biggest state have voted the party of chancellor Gerhard Schröder out of office. After 39 years the governor of Nordrhein-Westfalen will not be from the SPD, leading Schröder to call for an early national election. Read more »
May 27, 2005: According to CDU foreign policy expert Wolfgang Schäuble, if the CDU wins the election for chancellor it will honor Germany’s vote for EU negotiations on Turkish EU membership – with the understanding that the outcome is totally open. Read more »
May 29, 2005: French voters have rejected the proposed constitution for the European Union by a clear margin. Since all 25 EU members must approve the constitution, the French veto means that the proposed treaty cannot take effect as planned. Is this the end of the EU? Read more »
June 1, 2005: Dutch voters have followed the example of the French and rejected the proposed EU constitution. With two countries against the treaty, the EU constitution is finished. What influenced the Dutch to vote against the European unification process? Read more »
June 5, 2005: The European Union with its 25 members is today’s greatest trading block and produces one quarter of the world’s economic output. However, because of its dependence on imported energy, the EU is an economic giant standing on feet of clay. Read more »
June 14, 2005: By rejecting the proposed EU constitution, French and Dutch voters have sent a clear warning to Ankara: If Europe’s citizens are allowed to decide whether Turkey will become a member of the EU, the answer will be no. What course might Turkey take? Read more »
June 20, 2005: European Union leaders failed to reach agreement at their summit meeting in Brussels on the EU budget for 2007-2013. 190 years to the day after the battle of Waterloo, the face-off between France and England ended in stalemate. Who is to blame? Read more »
June 27, 2005: Following the rejection of the EU constitution, some Europeans have lost confidence in the euro. Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers have revised their projections downward for the value of the euro by year’s end. Is the euro on its last legs? Read more »
July 1, 2005: Two recent political novels on the Turkish domestic book market have made waves in Turkey and elsewhere. Both novels describe a Turkish military victory over the United States. Does their popularity reflect an anti-American trend in Turkey? Read more »
July 8, 2005: A poll conducted on behalf of the "American Jewish Committee" shows that nearly half of those Germans surveyed belief that the Jews use the holocaust to advance their own political interests. Germans seem to be forgetting the holocaust, too. Read more »
July 17, 2005: Concerns about possible terrorist attacks in Germany are fueling calls for tighter surveillance and security measures to combat terrorism. The discussion complements laws recently enacted for better domestic tax enforcement and control of demonstrations. Read more »
July 24, 2005: According to political scientist Andrei S. Markovits, anti-Americanism gives Europeans who are often quite different from each other a sense of commonality. "Swedes and Greeks can agree on the fact that they are not American," says Markovits. Read more »
August 1, 2005: Following the no vote in France and the Netherlands on the proposed EU constitution, enthusiasm for continued eastward expansion of the European Union has lessened considerably. Many EU citizens believe that the EU is already too large and unmanageable. Read more »
August 11, 2005: The desire to be a member of the European Union is so attractive to those countries bordering on the EU that the EU has the potential for greater influence and power worldwide than the United States, according to British political analyst Mark Leonard. Read more »
August 16, 2005: With his back to the wall three years ago, German chancellor Gerhard Schröder gained favor with voters and alienated President George Bush with his call for "no blood for oil." Is history repeating itself in this year’s election? Read more »
August 19, 2005: World Youth Day 2005 in Cologne brings thousands of pilgrims to Germany for the country’s largest religious convention since World War II. What effect will the six day festival of faith have on the Pope Benedict’s native country of Germany? Read more »
August 25, 2005: How will different tax rates within the euro zone affect the euro in the long term? Analysts believe the euro can only succeed if tax rates and economic policy within the euro zone are harmonized. One simple example of the problem is the price of gas. Read more »
September 7, 2005: German environment minister Jürgen Trittin offends Americans with his criticism of U.S. environmental policy the day after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. Are his remarks the reason why the German government donated to the relief efforts? Read more »
September 19, 2005: The September 18 election in Germany surprised everyone. For the first time since World War II, the outcome of a national election did not provide a clear indication of who will be the next German chancellor. Is Germany headed for a period of instability? Read more »
October 16, 2005: Four weeks after the September 18 election, CDU leader Angela Merkel is set to become Germany’s first woman chancellor in a grand coalition with the SPD. The SPD will have considerable influence in the new government. Did Merkel concede too much? Read more »
November 22, 2005: Angela Merkel was elected the first woman chancellor of Germany today. The union of CDU/CSU and SPD promises to be a mixture of water and oil for the new chancellor. 51 of Merkel’s own coalition delegates voted against her in the Bundestag vote. Read more »
December 2, 2005: In her first meeting as German chancellor with Turkish prime minister Recep Erdogan, Angela Merkel emphasized that agreements are to be kept, a reference to the start of negotiations with Turkey on EU membership. Has Merkel changed her mind on the issue? Read more »
December 20, 2005: Former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder accepts a job as chairman of the supervisory board for a Russian-German joint venture to build a natural gas pipeline through the Baltic Sea. The move highlights Germany’s dependence on Russian energy. Read more »
December 25, 2005: Which direction will the European Union take in determining its future? Will it be a "core Europe" as advocated by Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt? Or will the EU try to revive the European constitution as proposed by Angela Merkel? Read more »
