Site of the Month:
European Stability Initiative (ESI) is a site where you can find reports on South Eastern Europe and European enlargement Policy. Recent projects are about the situation in Turkey and EU policy on Visa-Free Travel for the Western Balkan.
UK
In a speech to congress in 1917, Woodrow Wilson said “the world must be made safe for democracy.” This was the attitude which took place after the end of the Second World War, when leaders in Europe wanted to make sure they did not fight again. 60 years on, and the people of Europe are now facing a new crisis, not of war, but of that democracy which Wilson spoke about 90 years before.
Now in use world wide, the term ‘Euroscepticism’ was coined in the 1980s by the British media as they reported on the various stand-offs between the Thatcher government and the European Commission. Since then in Britain the term has become associated especially with so-called ‘hard Eurosceptics’, i.e. persons who demand dissolution of the European Union, or at least complete withdrawal of their member state. British groups that are critical only of aspects of the EU (such as the ‘Euro No’ campaign which wants the UK to remain out of the Monetary Union) stress that they do not consider themselves ‘Eurosceptic’. The more radical groups, on the other hand, tend to embrace the term as a badge of honour