Guy Verhofstadt

The writer, a former Belgian prime minister, is President of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group (ALDE) in the European Parliament.

Boris’s Big Lie

Three years after the United Kingdom’s Brexit referendum, the UK is no closer to figuring out how to leave the European Union, and what comes next, than it was when the result was announced. And now a Conservative Party leadership election to replace outgoing

Brexit demands a new British politics

The populist revolts in the United States and the United Kingdom have each reached a critical juncture. At the start of his third year in office, US President Donald Trump presided over the longest federal government shutdown in history.

Mark Zuckerberg has lost control of Facebook

When Mark Zuck-erberg, the chairman, CEO, and co-founder of Facebook, appeared before the European Parliament in May, I suggested to him that he had lost control of his company.

The Brexitisation of European Politics

Far from settling the question of the United Kingdom's future, the 2016 Brexit referendum and subsequent negotiations with the European Union have triggered a full-blown identity crisis and culture war in Britain.

Europe's populist fifth column

European security currently rests essentially on the Nato alliance and the principle of mutual defence, and on cooperation between national intelligence services working to prevent violence against people and national assets.

A blueprint to save the Iran deal

There can no longer be any doubt that “America First” means precisely that. In abandoning the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, US President Donald Trump rejected the advice of allies and showed an utter disregard for the interests of France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the broader international community.

Breaking the Brexit stalemate

March 29 marked exactly one year since British Prime Minister Theresa May invoked Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon, thus launching the formal two-year legal process by which the United Kingdom will withdraw from the European Union. In the first year, it is fair to say that the Brexit negotiations have had their ups and downs. But, on a positive note, substantial progress has been made in recent weeks.

Europe's Chance to Lead on Robotics and AI

At least since Mary Shelley created Victor Frankenstein and his iconic monster in 1818, humans have had a morbid fascination with man-made beings that could threaten our existence. From the American television adaptation of...

July 5, 2017
July 5, 2017

Containing the Trump threat in Europe

The political environment in Central and Eastern Europe is ideal for populists who refuse to participate constructively in the European project.

January 30, 2017
January 30, 2017

Theresa May's Trump Card

In the same week that British Prime Minister Theresa May outlined her vision for a “hard” Brexit from the European Union – withdrawing from the single market and the customs union – incoming US President Donald Trump met with Michael Gove, a leading Tory Eurosceptic.

September 26, 2016
September 26, 2016

Europe's leadership crisis

The European Union's list of crises keeps growing. But, beyond the United Kingdom's “Brexit” vote to leave the bloc, Poland's constitutional-court imbroglio, Russian expansionism, migrants and refugees, and resurgent nationalism, the greatest threat to the EU comes from within: a crisis of political leadership is paralysing its institutions.

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