Europe

35 years ago, workers at the Lucas Aerospace company formulated an ‘alternative corporate plan’ to convert military production to socially useful and environmentally desirable purposes. What are the lessons for greening the world economy today?

The lack of debate on EU's emerging policies on security is not just about "sleepwalking into a surveillance society”, it is also turning a blind eye to the start of a new kind of arms race, one in which all the weapons are pointing inwards.

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The German government's involvement in land policy is reflected through its support for technical land administration and management in more than 20 countries, while the engagement in redistributive land policies like land reform is almost non-existent.

The NeoConOpticon report, released by the Transnational Institute (TNI) and Statewatch, reveals the extent to which Europe’s largest defence and IT contractors are benefiting from a €1.4 billion EU “security research” programme that has the explicit aim of fostering a European Homeland Security industry to compete globally with the USA in a fast growing market.

For the most part of its history, the Belgian Official Development Assistance (ODA) focused on narrow agricultural productivity issues. With the slow but steady insertion of Belgian ODA into the
international development community’s priorities, instruments and methods, Belgium started to focus on broader rural development.

EUOBSERVER / COMMENT - Most Europeans have probably never heard of the European Defence Agency, which celebrates its fifth anniversary this month. Yet, this little known EU agency has slowly created a basis for the development of common military projects. While its achievements can certainly not be called spectacular, in the context of the problematic nature of European defence cooperation, the EDA has shown more potential than its predecessors.

Diverging national interests in the areas of procurement and defence industry policies still impede much of the agency's planned progress.

EU policy is shaped not only by politicians but often strongly influenced by external experts, who are also often representatives of certain interests.

An examination of the contrast between the EU‘s professed aims for supporting regional integration in Latin America with the actual experiences of the different regions in LA with which the EU is seeking to sign Association Agreements.