Sir, Regarding ‘Socialists, centre-right quibble over eurozone reforms‘: The Swedish prime minister’s arguments against an EU-17 Eurogroup summit are irrelevant at best. The most relevant way to coordinate Ecofin decisions on withstanding the impact of debt contagion demands the holding of an EU-17 summit and policy commitments going forward. Including non-euro members (e.g. the UK, [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Macedonia under pressure to solve ‘name dispute’‘: One more time we are seeing a typical Greek destructive anti-Europe policy in the guise of Greek foreign policy and Mr. Droutsas. I would like to make the following points: 1. There is also a prefix before the name ‘Macedonia’: ‘Republic of’. The term ‘Republic of [...]

Sir, It must be borne in mind that the dispute started when the Geneva police briefly detained a Libyan national, who happened to be Colonel Gaddafi’s son, for alleged assault and battery against two of his staff.  In a civilised European country, no-one is above the law and no-one should be allowed to molest someone else [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Canada vows to challenge EU seal products ban‘: This cooperation with Canada is inhuman indeed. I think that a large-scale debate should be initiated, to see if there is genuine demand for such products on the market. I myself would never buy any products made from seals. I agree with reasonable hunting, meaning [...]

Sir, As a Chinese national, I am all for the Chinese government’s decision to cancel the EU-China summit. When you have a summit with a supposedly “strategic partner”, you expect to receive treatment as such. If the Europeans cannot stop their outrageous way of asking the Chinese for economic cooperation on the one hand but [...]

Sir, Why is it that for so many, including members of South African Development Community (SADC), the penny still has not dropped in respect of President Robert Mugabe? In ‘Adolf Hitler: the Final Analysis’ (Spellmount, 2005), I produced compelling evidence that the Führer was suffering from chronic schizophrenia, and that this accounted for his bizarre [...]

Sir, In your article ‘EU warned of Russia’s Arctic appetite’, you wrote “Poignant, who is an historian by training, recalls that the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev made the historic mistake of donating Crimea to Ukraine”. Crimea wasn’t donated to Ukraine – this is a beautiful myth. The Parliament of the Soviet Union requested the Parliament [...]

Sir, The European Union (EU) is due to publish its long-awaited ‘Communication on Regional Integration in ACP countries’ soon. The document represents a welcome update of the EU’s strategy of supporting regional integration worldwide, last laid out extensively in 1995. In the intervening years, regional integration has leapt to the forefront of the global agenda, [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Interview: Russia not to blame for Caucasus war threat’: Ambassador Chizov obviously lives on a different plane from those of us who choose to base our judgements on facts and not propaganda. When the NATO secretary general offers to eat his tie in reaction to outrageous Russian claims (“NATO chief offers to eat [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Green Light from the Emerald Isle? Questions and Answers about Ireland’: In their paperPdf external , Hierlemann and Heydecker underline the important duty of Irish politicians to ensure that their citizens approve the Lisbon Treaty. So politicians should tell us ho to vote. How interesting. What happened to democracy? I thought the electorate [...]