Debt Swallows Everything in Spain

One of every three euros that the Spanish government plans to spend in 2013 will go to servicing the public debt.

EU Seeks Protection from Emerging Economies

For many years, the European Union (EU) and its individual member states counted among the strongest advocates for free trade, arguing that it would boost economic growth and welfare both at home and abroad.

Multilateralism is at a Crossroads

Multilateralism is at a crossroads. This is a crucial matter for environmental and sustainability issues, as we have seen in the Rio+20 Summit, and for trade and other economic matters. The G20 Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, focused precisely on improving our collective response to the current economic turbulence, which is at the heart of developments in the European Union (EU) as well.

Serbians Unite Against Nickel Extraction

A popular Serbian proverb quips that when it comes to politics there are as many opinions as there are people in this central European country of seven million.

Stevia, a Flourishing Business in Spain

On a parcel of land a few kilometres outside the southern Spanish city of Málaga, unemployed activists are growing 2,000 seedlings of stevia, a plant used by the Guaraní indigenous people for centuries as a natural sweetener that is awakening ever greater interest in Spain.

Ivorians Deal With European Stink

Nouma Camara, a 40-year-old tailor, remembers waking up on Aug. 20, 2006 to a smell he described as “something catastrophic.” His home in Akouedo village, in Côte d’Ivoire’s commercial capital city of Abidjan, lies adjacent to a large, open-air dumpsite where toxic waste had been dumped the night before.

Will India Still Supply Cheap Drugs to the World?

India may be famous for the Taj Mahal, its religious ceremonies, Bollywood films and one of the highest economic growth rates in recent years. But more importantly, India has had a positive global impact through its supply of vast quantities of low-cost, good-quality generic medicines, which have saved or prolonged millions of lives.

South Invited to ‘De-Grow’

“We should find the way, with our small degrowth movement in the global North, to align ourselves with the environmental justice movement originating with indigenous peoples from the South,” Catalan ecological economist Juan Martinez-Alier said at the third international degrowth conference in Venice, Italy.

Spain at Risk of Chronic Protests

Over the past year and a half, Spain has been caught up in constant street protests against measures taken to combat the severe economic crisis. But some say the movement has failed to come together around concrete proposals.

GEORGIA: Anti-Turkish Sentiments Grow as Election Date Nears

Rooted in longstanding historical, religious and economic differences, Georgian animosity toward neighbouring Turkey, Georgia’s fifth-largest investor, appears to be growing in the Black Sea region of Achara.

Exports Worth Their Salt in Crisis-Struck Portugal

A promising alternative in Portugal’s profoundly depressed domestic market are incentives for traditional exports which, due to their high quality or uniqueness, do not face fierce foreign competition. “Flor de sal”, the country’s premium hand-harvested sea salt, is one of these products.

Alternative to Wikileaks Arises in Iceland

With the imprisonment of Bradley Manning and detainment of Julian Assange, WikiLeaks is effectively on hold. But that does not mean that leaks and whistleblowing activities have stopped.

Second Chance For an African Green Revolution

As the world searches desperately for ways to boost food production by at least 70 percent by 2050 to feed an increasingly hungry planet, many are looking to Africa as the place where a large part of this potential can be realised, mainly for its huge portion of arable land.

Hotline Gives a Voice to Victims of Turkish Police Violence

Most countries in the world have an emergency telephone number for the police. But in Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul, an emergency telephone line has been launched for victims of police violence.

Xenophobes Find Police Protection in Greece

Panahi Gholamhousein (22), an Afghan refugee who spends his days in a room that is barely five square metres with his wife Zarmina (18) and their 19-month-old daughter Zahra, has hardly left his place in downtown Athens since he was beaten up and robbed nearly a month ago.

EU Cap ‘Only Boosts Biofuels’

The European Commission has announced it will limit the amount of crop-based biofuels used in transport, but its newly proposed measures are not nearly enough to curb the disastrous impact of the EU's biofuel policy around the world. Its effects will only worsen, activists say.

Little Concern for the Environment in EU-Central America Agreement

The Association Agreement between Central America and the European Union (EU) will increase environmental and social pressures on the region, warn experts and activists. But some observers stress its potentially positive impacts.

Czechs Weigh Human Rights Against Business

The Czech foreign ministry has insisted the country’s support for human rights is “not for sale” after calls from the prime minister to drop “fashionable political causes” such as supporting the Dalia Lama and the jailed Russian pop group Pussy Riot.

Carbon Trading Scheme Close to Collapse

By 2020, countries that are signatory to the Kyoto protocol will have accumulated more than 17 billion tonnes of surplus emission reduction permits, a new study shows. This enormous surplus not only drives the carbon price close to zero, but also jeapordises the chances of reaching a new global climate deal.

Small Islands Push for New Energy

Most islands are well endowed with one or more renewable energy source – rivers, waterfalls, wind, sunshine, biomass, wave power, geothermal deposits - yet virtually all remain heavily or entirely reliant on imported fossil fuels to produce electricity and power transport.

UNESCO Meet Boosts Traditional Medicine

Jean-Pierre Georges Foucault is a former scientist who is used to dealing with fact and evidence. But when a friend became ill and had excruciating pain, he accompanied her to a traditional healer who, with the placing of his hands, managed to effect a reduction in the pain.