In The News

Job Subsidies May Clash with EU Law

Carola Schlagheck November 15, 2002
EU antitrust regulation has placed strict restrictions on government subsidies to private businesses. The German government’s plan to create jobs by financing job placement agencies and temporary employment contracts may contradict EU policy, and infringement proceedings against the country are pending. For the one million Germans who benefit from publicly-subsidized employment, the results of...

European Union Set for Historic Expansion

Judy Dempsey October 9, 2002
The European Commission approved an expansion of the European Union that will take the regional bloc from 15 to 25 member countries by 2004. Several former Soviet states are joining the group, but Turkey's accession is still under negotiation. The expansion brings millions of new people into the EU's common market and also compels their national governments to enact EU-required...

Cows Can Fly While World's Poor Starve

Grace Sung October 3, 2002
European agricultural subsidy programs effectively give cows in the EU 1.40 euros per day to live on. Meanwhile, over 3 billion poor people around the globe struggle to survive on 1.3 euros each day. Combined with high tariffs on agricultural products to the EU, the massive subsidization of Europe’s largest farms puts farmers in developing countries at a competitive disadvantage. Despite...

Final Text of Environment Deal Hammered Out

John Mason September 3, 2002
With the understanding that environmental issues are not containable to any one region, representatives from all over the world have gathered at the World Summit on Sustainable Development to finalize a global agreement of cooperation. Issues on the table include universal access to clean water, globalization of trade and finance, new targets on renewable energy production, protection of fish...

Brussels Refuses to Back GM Food For Africa

James Lamont August 22, 2002
As globalization extends its reach, the use of technology becomes an issue that affects both advanced and developing nations. The United States has been supplying southern African countries with genetically modified (GM) crops as famine relief. But some NGO’s believe that the US is trying to use southern Africa’s poverty to push for global acceptance of genetically modified food. Although the WHO...

War On ‘Blood’ Diamonds Ramped Up

Ursula Owre Masterson August 21, 2002
Civil war has ravaged countries like Sierra Leone and Angola for decades. These conflicts, as much about money as about politics, often center around one of the African continent’s most precious resources: diamonds. Rebel groups often sell the gems to developed countries and use the profits to fund their fighting. After years of benefiting from the cheaper stones, Western governments, led by...

Europe Must Now Defend Itself

Quentin Peel July 7, 2002
The U.S. and the European Union (EU) still have not reached an agreement on the International Criminal Court (ICC), mainly due to the American fear that its own soldiers may face trials in a non-American court in accordance with the statutes of the ICC. In this article, the author argues that if the U.S. wants to block the renewal of the mission mandates of the ICC, it can either cut its...