In case you haven’t noticed, the great European crisis is the biggest political game changer in postwar history. READ MORE

Back in 2011 the NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen issued a public warning, noting that the aggregate reductions in military spending in Europe totaled USD 45 billion, which is jeopardizing the viability of the Alliance and the US-European relations. Since then, bogged down in the Afghan war and faced with the economic downturn and the need to reduce budget deficits, military spending of the EU countries decreased even more. The U.S. share of total expenditures NATO has grown from 63% in 2001 to almost 75% today. Military budgets of the Alliance from 2009 to 2013 declined by about 8.5%, and tend to decrease in the future. If in 2009 the total level of defense spending in Europe amounted to USD 256 billion, in 2013 - USD 234,3 billion of the 28 NATO countries only the United States, Britain and Greece held its own requirements on the amount of military spending at 2% of GDP. Even Britain and France were forced to go on ways to reduce defense appropriations. As a result, last year for the first time Asian military spending exceeded European. READ MORE

The public in Ireland is proud of what has been achieved under Ireland's presidency of the EU Council after some tough years. For the Irish people, the presidency has given them a newfound sense of pride and restored a tarnished reputation, says Lucinda Creighton. READ MORE

Signing the EU-Ukraine association agreement in November hangs in the balance, Poland’s foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski said after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg. READ MORE