Political Systems related content 

Special representatives face a pay cut. The European Union's ten special representatives in the Balkans, the Caucasus and Africa have reasons to feel slightly less special.

Six places for Europeans on board, but 13 nominations. The European Union could miss a 31 March deadline for nominations to the board of the UN Green Climate Fund, which...

ECA finds flaws in the design of projects funded by the EU through the UN. The European Court of Auditors (ECA) has found major shortcomings in the way that close to a...

Jean-Luc Onkelinx on his role explaining the EU to the UN, and the UN to the EU. It might not have the day-to-day excitement of a peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara or...

The UN's secretary-general and the EU's foreign policy chief have similar predecessors, styles and priorities – and a common need to find a voice. If Catherine Ashton...

The next head of the Food and Agriculture Organization has to make major changes. The European Union's farm ministers will today, in the course of their council meeting in...

The EU's place as an international power depends more on its actions than on its status at the UN. The European Union has suffered major set-backs at the United Nations in...

Major differences between member states on now to proceed. The summit revealed the large differences among member states on strengthening economic governance in the EU.

Van Rompuy unlikely to address summit of world leaders. The European Union has failed to win speaking rights at the United Nations General Assembly after opposition from...

Time for a new job for Cristina. In bureaucracy, as in politics, timing is everything. For ten years Cristina Gallach was spokesperson for Javier Solana, while he was the...

First president of the European Council faces being left in the cold in New York. The person who becomes the first president of the European Council may get star billing in...

Head of Human Resources

The UN, not the G20, is the forum in which to tackle the developing world's multiple crises. The EU's outgoing and incoming presidencies, the Czech Republic and Sweden, have...

Commission to announce details of new EU bodies; States divided over de Larosière proposals. Details of European Commission plans for the reform of financial...

MEPs call on the European Commission to drop funding for some UN programmes. Senior MEPs have urged the European Commission to drop funding for United Nations programmes...

Threat to block EU funding of some UN programmes. Members of the European Parliament's budgetary control committee have urged the European Commission to drop funding for...

The debacle in the UN could be the precursor to more clashes over human rights, with Europe as a target. The UN's Durban Review Conference – meant to “serve as a...

EU leaders are set to back proposals that would allow up to 60,000 EU troops to be deployed on a mission. Agreement on a set of French proposals to strengthen the European...

Battle-scarred veterans of the climate change negotiations share their experiences. To survive a UN climate change conference, participants need the patience of a saint, a...

The bloodshed in Congo may mark the end of European military interventions in Africa; the EU now has to work out how better to integrate its efforts with those of the UN and...