News stories by Joaquin Roy, page 3

MADRID, Mar 31 (IPS) - The visit to Cuba of Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy on Mar. 23-24, and the forthcoming visit in May planned by French President François Hollande, have fast-tracked the agenda of relations between the European Union and Cuba.

SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE, Mexico, Nov 01 (IPS) - Mexico can charm, irritate, wound, inspire and confuse the casual visitor as well as the informed researcher. But no one is ever left indifferent by it. Mexico leaves an indelible mark.

BARCELONA, Sep 11 (IPS) - At last, after the obligatory summer break, the European Union (EU) has some new faces to fill the top vacancies on the team that began to emerge from the May 25 parliamentary elections.

BARCELONA, Jul 14 (IPS) - A few decades ago, even before the end of the Cold War and before and after Ronald Reagan's election to the White House, analyses regularly referred to U.S. decadence. At other times, it was Europe's turn for pessimistic descriptions, especially when it could not overcome its ambivalence over deepening integration, and above all because of the failure of its constitutional project. 

A year ago the fall of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt was greeted with general satisfaction and considerable relief. Was it already possible to glimpse (for example, in the spectacle of the Egyptian leader being judged bedridden in a cage) the difficulties that lay ahead for North Africa and the Middle East fulfilling the promise of the "Arab Spring"? asks Joaquin Roy, 'Jean Monnet' Professor and Director of the European Union Centre of the University of Miami.

The apparently eternal problem of Turkey's entry into the European Union seems even further from resolution. Ten years ago 70 percent of the population wanted to join the EU; today barely a quarter do, while fifty percent actively oppose the idea. This has become the largest obstacle, writes Joaquin Roy, ''Jean Monnet'' professor and Director of the European Union Centre of the University of Miami.

It is said that a French politician, asked whether Brazil had a good future, answered with scorn and knowing irony, "Brazil has always had, still has, and will always have a magnificent future." It would seem that the country has suffered for decades under this sort of stigma, writes Joaquin Roy, ''Jean Monnet'' professor and Director of the European Union Centre of the University of Miami.

Not long ago the people on this planet lived without the anguish of insecurity because they assumed that insecurity was the natural state of things, for everyone, rich and poor, powerful and weak. Now, and especially since the end of the Cold War and September 11, the landscape is different. The world lives in a state of tension and fear, writes Joaquin Roy, ''Jean Monnet'' professor and Director of the European Union Centre of the University of Miami.

The victory of Mauricio Funes, El Salvador's new president elect and candidate of the Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN), completes a striking movement to the left in Latin American politics. Today, with the exception of Mexico and Colombia on one side and Cuba on the other, the continent is governed by either the moderate left with social democratic leanings or by neo-populists, writes Joaquin Roy, ''Jean Monnet'' professor and Director of the European Union Centre of the University of Miami.