“We, devoted allies in the very meaning of this word, have common interests and common concerns, as well as common actions to settle them.  The last is proved, in particular, by firm support from Poland of the prolongation of NATO mission on Baltic States Air Policing", -- said the President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves during yesterday’s and today’s meeting of the Heads of states of Estonia, Latvia and Poland held in Warsaw. READ MORE

Potential large shale gas deposits in Europe have raised hopes that the old continent may in the future rely less on oil and natural gas imports from Russia. However, fears of potential environmental effects of hydraulic fracturing and the lack of a clear policy by the European Union have led to the suspension of shale gas exploration in France and Bulgaria in the past year. In April, environmental protests spread to Romania raising concerns that shale gas exploration could be stalled in yet another EU state. READ MORE

The environmental group Food & Water Europe has accused the Polish author of a European Parliament report on shale gas extraction of resorting to “Cold War” rhetoric against Russia to support the industry’s development. In a statement released on Monday, Food & Water Europe blasted the draft report by MEP Bogusław Sonik (European People’s Party) on the environmental impacts of shale gas and shale oil extraction activities. Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Europe, also accuses the report’s author of anti-Russian bias.—EurActiv, 18 April 2012 READ MORE

One of the more pernicious obstacles to rational policy-making is the "ratchet effect": the tendency for policies, once adopted, to acquire a life of their own and to become resistant to change, even when they have ceased to be useful. For example, you can be confident that we will all be wasting time in airport security lines decades from now, long after Osama bin Laden's death. Existing security measures may not pass a simple cost-benefit test, but what political leader would dare relax them? READ MORE