José Ignacio Torreblanca
A specialist in European affairs, José Ignacio Torreblanca is professor of Political Science at UNED, National University of Distance Learning (in Spain). He writes a blog of debate and analysis on Europe. After directing the Opinion section at El País, he moved to El Mundo as a regular columnist. He is also director of the Spanish bureau of the European Council on Foreign Relations.
The best that Spain can do for Europe at the moment is to bring common sense, avoiding tropes and backlashes and to strengthen the resolve of other Europhile countries. 
On 1 October the government of the Generalitat of Catalonia hopes to hold a referendum on independence that has been declared illegal by the Spanish Constitutional Court. The case is more comparable to Brexit than to the last Scottish referendum, the opinions editor of the newspaper El País argues. 
In Brussels – as in Paris – the terrorists were targeting Europe, and what it stands for, as much as individual countries. That is why our response must be collective, argues political scientist José Ignacio Torreblanca. 
Faced with huge numbers of migrants and refugees arriving in Europe, the EU should put in place a coherent immigration and asylum policy, while reinforcing development efforts and peace initiatives in conflict-torn countries, political scientist José Ignacio Torreblanca argues. 
Although the EU does not formally recognise the state of Palestine, many European countries recently did so, showing that Europeans are becoming less indulgent with the Israeli government’s behaviour and that international sympathy for its cause is dwindling, says political scientist José Ignacio Torreblanca. 
The new Brussels executive is passing before the European Parliament. If Parliament was able to choose the Commission’s president, it can also dismiss commissioners that are not to its liking: a contradiction that weighs on the relations between institutions. 
Europeans thought that Russia would turn itself into a liberal democracy and get closer to the EU. But his re-election in 2012, Vladimir Putin has blocked the modernisation of his country, as shown by the crisis in Ukraine. 
Faced with David Cameron’s threat to veto the nomination of the former prime minister of Luxembourg to lead the European executive, the only way to ensure respect for democracy is to make Juncker’s candidacy the subject of a vote in parliament. 
When Presseurop launched in 2009, nobody thought the euro's future would soon be threatened or that the Union would be at risk of implosion. Presseurop has charted all these travails, and has helped Europeans better know each other; a first effort towards achieving the elusive concept of European public space. 
Europeans are placing more hope in the September 22 German general elections than in May 2014 European elections. But German politicians are right to care about their country's own problems first. 
Discipline and budget cuts: The cure prescribed for the Eurozone no longer has unanimous support. Unfortunately, voters can not settle this debate as it is between unelected officials, foremost among them, is the European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs. 
The latest Eurobarometer figures are showing clearly what the election results have been hinting at one by one: hit by the crisis, Europeans have lost their confidence in the EU. After having saved the euro, we must rescue the legitimacy of the EU – and before the 2014 elections. 
The year 2012 seemed pretty dangerous for the eurozone and the whole of the EU. But the worst did not come to pass, especially since Angela Merkel made concessions, which allowed Mario Draghi, President of the ECB to intervene. However, in 2013, Europeans will still have to remain vigilant. 
Awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the EU has left many perplexed. However, notes political scientist José Ignacio Torreblanca, a reminder of the long “European civil war” that began in the 19th century should be enough to justify it. 
The economic woes endured by Greece, Spain and Italy, as well as the intricacies of Germany’s decision-making process, have long hogged the stage. But one country remains crucial to Europe’s future, where the debate on Europe could be revived: François Hollande’s France. 
The crisis afflicting the economy and the banking system have led Spain to the brink. But the country’s problems, like those of Europe, have the same origins: the dominance of national interests. The solution? New institutions built on political voluntarism. 
The spectre of a Greek exit from the Eurozone has once again been raised by the political crisis in Athens: a scenario that is all the more dangerous for Spain, which is now more vulnerable, and one whose consequences would be geo-political as well as economic. 
Notwithstanding its social and political consequences, the Bundesbank and Angela Merkel's government are still advocating the austerity, which has been in force in Europe for the last two years. It is high time we stopped the damage, argues Spanish political analyst José Ignacio Torreblanca. 
Americans believe in the god of war, while Europeans are inspired by the goddess of love, wrote American thinker Robert Kagan in 2002. But after Iraq, Afghanistan and the European crisis, this controversial thesis reveals a surprising reversal of perspectives. 
In the wake of a terrible year in 2011, the worst may be yet to come warns political analyst José Ignacio Torreblanca. The crisis could force EU member states to choose between Greece and Great Britain. And once again, everything will be decided in Germany. 
Mariano Rajoy's right-wing Popular Party is set to win the Spanish general election this 20 November and apply more austerity. But as long as Germany fails to assume its responsibilities at a European level, the new government will be powerless to solve the country's crisis. 
After the demonstrations in Greece and the Indignados in Spain, popular protest has spread across Europe and, with the Occupy Wall Street movement, crossed the Atlantic. Be it direct or representative, the very idea of democracy is under scrutiny, says José Ignacio Torreblanca. 
Contrary to the EU, wading through a sea of economic troubles, an increasingly confident Turkey goes to the polls on the 12 June. This emerging political and economic power, and not Europe, is fast becoming a model for the nascent democracies of the Middle East. 
While the Libyan crisis unfolds before gates of Europe, the High Representative for EU foreign policy is totally absent from the scene. "One wonders if the post still makes sense," writes analyst Jose Ignacio Torreblanca.
During major crises, every major power has a clearly defined diplomatic doctrine which it applies according to its interests. As revolution spreads across the Arab world, it’s the EU found its own, argues columnist José Ignacio Torreblanca. 
In view of the crackdown in Tunisia, the EU ought to apply the same policy of “smart sanctions” that had some sway on Alexander Lukashenko’s regime in Belarus back in 2006, urges political analyst José Ignacio Torreblanca.