Uffe Ellemann-Jensen
Uffe Ellemann-Jensen is a former Minister for Foreign Affairs of Denmark.
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2009-12-07
| As Winter approaches, many people in Central and Eastern Europe remember the chill caused last winter by Russia's deliberate cut-off of gas supplies. Until the EU establishes a common energy policy and a single market for natural gas, Russia will be tempted to use new blockades to continue the divide-and-rule policy that the world has witnessed since Vladimir Putin came to power.... read |
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2009-03-25
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So far, Europe’s leaders seem to be mostly preoccupied with finding national answers to the global economic crisis, with leaders of “Old Europe” reluctant to open up their coffers for “New Europe.” If this attitude prevails, the European Project could well become paralyzed, which not only would delay economic recovery, but would also generate dire political consequences.... read |
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2008-06-14
| Ireland has gained enormously from EU membership, rising from poverty to become of Europe's richest countries – and thus exemplifying the benefits of European integration. But now, having rejected the Lisbon Treaty, the Irish should do the rest of Europe a favor and withdraw from the EU.... read |
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2008-04-05
| By denying Ukraine and Georgia a "Membership Action Plan" and allowing Greece to veto membership for Macedonia, NATO's Bucharest summit sent two dangerous signals. First, Russia has successfully re-asserted its "sphere of influence" in Europe, and, second, all NATO member states are free to blackmail their partners into supporting their own narrow goals.... read |
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2007-04-30
| By refusing to offer any prospect of eventual membership, the EU is abandoning Ukraine – which once again finds itself in the eye of a political hurricane – and other post-Soviet countries like Georgia and Moldova, to Russia's drive to expand its sphere of influence.... read |
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2006-11-16
| Turkey has been given what looks like an ultimatum from the EU Commission: open your ports for ships from Cyprus within a month, or you may risk a halt to the EU accession talks now underway. At the same time, the Commission’s latest report on Turkey’s progress toward accession notes that political reforms have slowed down, further calling into question the country’s future EU membership.... read |
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2006-02-16
| Now that the conflict over the cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad is dying down, or so I hope, it is clear that the only winners are the extremists -- in the Islamic World and in Europe. ... read |
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2005-05-04
| May 9th will be the mother of all celebrations in Moscow. The victory over Nazi-Germany 60 years ago will be commemorated and the human sacrifices to this end honoured. So far, so good. But some nations will be missing from the party. Two Baltic presidents have decided to stay home, because their hosts are not willing to concede that there is more to the history of WWII’s end than the victory over Hitler. Their peoples had to face half a century of occupation because of a deal struck before the war’s onset by Hitler and Stalin, the so-called Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939 that divided Eastern Europe between Nazi-Germany and the Soviet Union.... read |
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2003-02-19
| French President Jacques Chirac has alarmed the EU candidate countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The French president has accused them of being "childish" and "irresponsible" in voicing their pro-US stance on the Iraq issue, and warned that their position could be "dangerous," as the decision to let them into the EU has not yet been ratified. ... read |
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A Better and Safer Europe
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Uffe Ellemann-Jensen 
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To many, myself included, NATO's enlargement to take in, among others, the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania -- which were once Soviet republics -- is an impossible dream come true. When the idea was first floated some 10 years ago, expansion into the Baltics was taken seriously by few people. Until recently, Russia's robust opposition to the idea posed a serious obstacle, because it sharpened the impression that Russia regarded its so-called "near abroad" as a zone of special interest and influence. ... read
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2006-02-16
| Now that the conflict over the cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad is dying down, or so I hope, it is clear that the only winners are the extremists -- in the Islamic World and in Europe. ... read |
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2005-05-04
| May 9th will be the mother of all celebrations in Moscow. The victory over Nazi-Germany 60 years ago will be commemorated and the human sacrifices to this end honoured. So far, so good. But some nations will be missing from the party. Two Baltic presidents have decided to stay home, because their hosts are not willing to concede that there is more to the history of WWII’s end than the victory over Hitler. Their peoples had to face half a century of occupation because of a deal struck before the war’s onset by Hitler and Stalin, the so-called Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939 that divided Eastern Europe between Nazi-Germany and the Soviet Union.... read |
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2008-04-05
| By denying Ukraine and Georgia a "Membership Action Plan" and allowing Greece to veto membership for Macedonia, NATO's Bucharest summit sent two dangerous signals. First, Russia has successfully re-asserted its "sphere of influence" in Europe, and, second, all NATO member states are free to blackmail their partners into supporting their own narrow goals.... read |
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2006-11-16
| Turkey has been given what looks like an ultimatum from the EU Commission: open your ports for ships from Cyprus within a month, or you may risk a halt to the EU accession talks now underway. At the same time, the Commission’s latest report on Turkey’s progress toward accession notes that political reforms have slowed down, further calling into question the country’s future EU membership.... read |
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2002-06-12
| Over the past 12 years all parts of the Baltic Sea Region experienced dynamic growth and development of their societies that enhanced the liberty and prosperity of their citizens. Estonia, Poland, Latvia and Lithuania moved from socialist poverty to the verge of EU membership. Russian cities like St. Petersburg and Moscow opened themselves up and began to boom. All of the postcommunist Baltic countries and regions gradually established the economic framework necessary to develop new and modern societies. ... read |
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2008-06-14
| Ireland has gained enormously from EU membership, rising from poverty to become of Europe's richest countries – and thus exemplifying the benefits of European integration. But now, having rejected the Lisbon Treaty, the Irish should do the rest of Europe a favor and withdraw from the EU.... read |
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2002-11-18
| To many, myself included, NATO's enlargement to take in, among others, the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania -- which were once Soviet republics -- is an impossible dream come true. When the idea was first floated some 10 years ago, expansion into the Baltics was taken seriously by few people. Until recently, Russia's robust opposition to the idea posed a serious obstacle, because it sharpened the impression that Russia regarded its so-called "near abroad" as a zone of special interest and influence. ... read |
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2002-04-19
| Atrocities cast long shadows. The Dutch government has resigned over the Srebrenica massacre of 1995, which occurred when the supposedly "safe" enclave of Srebrenica, supposedly defended by a battalion of Dutch UN troops, surrendered to heavily armed Serb militias. The massacre of at least 7,000 Bosnian boys and men followed. The Dutch government of Premier Wim Kok resigned after a report that it had commissioned accused the government of 1995 (also headed by Mr. Kok) of acting irresponsibly in underestimating the threats faced by Dutch peacekeepers. ... read |
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2002-10-14
| Once again, Irish voters are poised to vote Yes or No to the Treaty of Nice. Forgotten what that treaty is all about? Well, it is one of those all-too-frequent late-night compromises reached by EU heads of state and government that seek to slither around and through some practical problems while postponing others. ... read |
2009-12-07
