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The Graveyard of ‘Fortress Europe’: Migration crisis in the Mediterranean one year after Lampedusa

On 3 October 2013 a boat carrying over 500 migrants from Eritrea and Somalia sunk off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa, leading to the deaths of over 350 people; a few days later, a second incident occurred adding at least another 34 lives to the death toll. Following the tragedy of Lampedusa, the EU and its member states pledged that an end must come to migrant deaths in the Mediterranean, with the EU Parliament calling the incidents a turning point towards a new policy guided by ‘solidarity and responsibility’.[1] One year on, the pledge echoes hollow as new reports of incidents across the Mediterranean surface weekly.

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Mobilisation for elections in Ukraine: Risk-assessment in frames of the military conflict

On July 24th two parliamentary factions left the “European choice” coalition in the Ukrainian parliament.[1] This coalition was formed in February as a result of the Maidan protests. On August 25th, after a month of the coalition breakup, president Poroshenko exercised his constitutional right to dissolve parliament and call for elections, which are likely to be held on October 26th.

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