We must avoid adopting an ill-conceived charter that places too much faith in the market and a US-led Nato, argues Susan George.

Instead of relying on the border police, the EU should assess the effects of its own policies on the poor, migrant-sending countries. Unless the policies that perpetuate the conditions for poverty and injustice are changed, the reasons for migration will remain. Susan George reports.

Steve McGiffen considers the erosion of democracy, as more and more questions are predetermined by unelected officials in Brussels.

Corporate Europe Observatory reports on how industry is using the European Biofuels Technology Platform (EBTFP) to push for a bigger guaranteed market in biofuels, to the detriment of the environment and the world’s poor.

Nicholas Jones examines an EU initiative for news management which is already producing some agonised soul searching among Europe’s journalists.

The ALTER-EU report "Secrecy and corporate dominance - a study on the composition and transparency of European Commission Expert Groups" reveals that industry controls a number of the Commission’s most controversial Expert Groups, including advisory groups on issues such as “biotechnology”, “clean coal” and “car emissions”.

The people of Ireland have a chance to decide their country’s future when the Lisbon Treaty comes up for a referendum. But Brian Denny warns that the EU is preparing to ignore them.

The EU’s mania for privatisation is standing in the way of a solution to the growing crisis of water supply in Europe and beyond, says Steve McGiffen

Referendums killed off the EU Constitution, a ‘blackmail’ that Europe’s elites will now avoid by forcing through the Lisbon Treaty without debate, writes Susan George. And Tony Blair is just the man some of them want to lead the way in this new Europe

Two new reports highlight the unavoidable emergency of climate change, writes Paul Rogers, and the key responsibility of governments in taking radical measures to address it.

Brian Denny argues that the EU is dedicated to privatisation and the biggest attack on British workers’ rights for a generation.

Only the Irish will be allowed a referendum on the the Lisbon Treaty. Most of the rest of Europe will soon have to put up with institutions they once rejected. Le Monde Diplomatique reports.

David Morrison illustrates how the EU is complicit in the devastating Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip.

The European Transparency Initiative, set up to improve the transparency of lobbying of the EU, is in danger of creating a lobbying register that would achieve nothing of substance, write the the steering committee of ALTER-EU in an open letter to EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barrosso.

Is health care an essential service, or should it be subject to ‘internal market and competition rules’? Steve McGiffen warns us to beware the intentions of the European Commission.

Claire Rodier speaks to l’Humanité about a planned EU directive on deporting illegal immigrants.

Europe’s new notion of ‘flexicurity’ represents the most fundamental attack on trade union rights since the end of World War Two. Brian Denny looks at the details.

Eoin O’Broin interviews veteran activist Susan George about the EU Reform Treaty and how to build a truly progressive EU.

Last week, the European Union (EU), under pressure from the United States, sent a 1,800-strong “rule of law” mission—the largest in the bloc’s history—to replace the United Nations mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). The EU mission’s job, writes Paul Mitchell, is to reform the police, prisons and judiciary and pave the way for Kosovan independence, which the US wants the provincial government to declare early next year.

The defeated EU Constitution has been repackaged as the Reform Treaty, which does not say a single word about social Europe. Rejecting it is crucial to save democracy, says Susan George.