Guy Verhofstadt, a former Belgian prime minister, is President of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group (ALDE) in the European Parliament. His book Europe’s Last Chance. Why the European States Must Form a More Perfect Union will be published by Basic Books in January 2017.
As Russian President Vladimir Putin made plain during the US election campaign, the Kremlin is no longer playing by the rules that applied even during the darkest days of the Cold War. With voters hea… read more
Donald Trump's presidency will lead to an epic geopolitical shift: For the first time since 1941, Europe cannot rely on the US defense umbrella. Now that the EU is on its own, it must quickly build it… read more
Donald Trump’s threat to politicize the American justice system has received the backlash that it deserves, but his cynicism is unfortunately not unique to the US. The current Law and Justice-led gove… read more
The recent informal EU summit in Bratislava, Slovakia, was supposed to demonstrate solidarity and kick-start the post-Brexit reform process. But instead of displaying unity, the meeting revealed only… read more
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's recent meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, was ostensibly intended to bury the hatchet after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near its bor… read more
The UK's Brexit referendum has not had contagious effects in Europe, but EU leaders should not sit on their hands. With Britain gone, the EU will be less divided and finally in a position to deliver a… read more
A weakening of sanctions on Russia might please European populists, and a growing number of business leaders favor a softer approach as well. But when the EU's current sanctions regime expires next mo… read more
Europe’s refugee crisis is far from solved, but there are signs that the agreement finalized by the EU and Turkey on March 18 is reducing the flow of refugees and migrants from Turkey to Greece. The p… read more
Hungary and Poland are now jeopardizing hard-won European democratic norms – and thus undermining the very purpose of European integration. The sad reality is that, were they to apply for EU membershi… read more
