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Tony Barber

European Comment Editor

Tony Barber is European Comment Editor of the Financial Times. He is a former foreign correspondent in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Poland, the former Soviet Union, the US and the former Yugoslavia.

In 2012 he was awarded the Medal of Gratitude by the Solidarity Centre in Gdańsk in recognition of his work in support of freedom and democracy in Poland. He wrote the introduction to Mud Sweeter Than Honey, a book on communist Albania by the author Margo Rejmer.

Email Tony Barber @TonyBarber8  on Twitter (link opens in a new browser window)

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  • Saturday, 16 December, 2023
    Europe Express
    Is Russian foreign policy succeeding? Premium content

    Vladimir Putin’s aim of disrupting the US-led international order is closely tied to his war of expansion in Ukraine

  • Saturday, 9 December, 2023
    Europe Express
    Support for Europe’s left wanes as fresh faces in Italy and Greece struggle to turn the tide Premium content

    Internal splits and election setbacks form a trend despite a likely Labour victory in the UK

    A protester with a banner that reads ‘what is urgent is the planet, in the hope of having a pension’
  • Sunday, 3 December, 2023
    EU economy
    Island strife: Greece serves Germany a dose of its own medicine 

    A former minister in Athens turns the tables with a proposal that recalls unwelcome advice during the debt crisis

  • Saturday, 2 December, 2023
    Europe Express
    Russia struggles with a demographic crunch Premium content

    Efforts to raise birth rates and increase the population are making little headway

  • Saturday, 25 November, 2023
    Europe Express
    Populists seek dividends from a climate change backlash

    Hard-right parties make gains in Europe by exploiting fears that incomes and ways of life are under threat

    Defaced election campaign posters in Kaufbeuren for Germany’s Green Party. The red lettering reads ‘AFD’, the name of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, ahead of the regional election in Bavaria last month
  • Friday, 24 November, 2023
    FT News Briefing podcast12 min listen
    What the Dutch far-right win means for the EU

    Record net migration to the UK post-Brexit

  • Thursday, 23 November, 2023
    Instant InsightDutch election
    Far-right Dutch victory puts European liberal democracy on defensive

    Geert Wilders’ success will make it harder for EU to forge common stances on migration, Ukraine and enlargement

    Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right Freedom party (PVV)
  • Thursday, 16 November, 2023
    FT SeriesBest books of the year 2023
    Best books of 2023 — History

    Tony Barber selects his must-read titles

    Montage of book covers
  • Sunday, 12 November, 2023
    Serbia
    Serbia is a poor fit for EU enlargement plans

    Democratic backsliding and a foreign policy close to Russia cast doubt on whether Belgrade really wants to join the club

    Aleksandar Vucic sitting at his desk looking down at documents
  • Saturday, 11 November, 2023
    Europe Express
    EU and Russia square up over Georgia Premium content

    Brussels recommends candidate status for a south Caucasus state where Moscow’s influence remains strong

    Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili addresses a rally in Tbilisi after the European Commission announced its recommendation that member states should grant Georgia candidate status
  • Tuesday, 7 November, 2023
    ReviewHistory books
    The Revolutionary Temper — what drove the French to overthrow the monarchy?

    Robert Darnton digs deep into 18th-century France to find the roots of the political unrest that culminated in 1789

    An engraving shows people gathered by a tree. Some hold telescopes or books, some chat. In the centre stands a woman in elaborate 18th-century dress
  • Saturday, 4 November, 2023
    Europe Express
    New German party defies conventional labels Premium content

    An already fragmented political landscape is bracing for the arrival of the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance

    Sahra Wagenknecht
  • Saturday, 28 October, 2023
    Europe Express
    War exposes cracks in European foreign policy Premium content

    Disputes among governments and in societies as well as quarrels in Brussels disrupt the quest for a united front

    A pro-Palestinian protest in Barcelona, Spain
  • Saturday, 28 October, 2023
    ObituaryNatalie Zemon Davis
    Natalie Zemon Davis, pioneer of microhistory, 1928-2023

    Her groundbreaking work moved beyond queens and kings to recover the lost voices of people on society’s margins

  • Saturday, 21 October, 2023
    Europe Express
    Dismantling illiberalism in Poland Premium content

    A new government will have its work cut out to roll back the rightwing nationalist capture of the state

    Donald Tusk does a peace sign
  • Wednesday, 18 October, 2023
    European Union
    History casts a long shadow over EU’s enlargement plans

    Disputes over national identities and minorities are emerging as an obstacle to the bloc’s expansion in eastern Europe

    A depiction of Alexander the Great in the Battle of Issus
  • Saturday, 14 October, 2023
    Europe Express
    Turkey’s republic enters its second century Premium content

    Legacies of Kemal Atatürk era resonate in the age of strongman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

    People shopping in Istanbul
  • Saturday, 7 October, 2023
    Europe Express
    Ageing Europe tries to boost birth rates Premium content

    Pronatalist policies in countries such as Poland and France have mixed results as governments seek to fill labour shortages

    Two elderly women walk along a street in Altdoebern, Germany
  • Saturday, 30 September, 2023
    Europe Express
    Battling corruption in Ukraine Premium content

    Postwar reconstruction and EU membership will depend on overcoming a decades-long legacy of graft and illegality

  • Saturday, 23 September, 2023
    ObituaryGiorgio Napolitano
    Giorgio Napolitano, Italian statesman, 1925-2023

    The first former communist to serve as head of state, he played an indispensable role in overcoming the 2011 eurozone crisis

  • Saturday, 23 September, 2023
    Europe Express
    A tug of war in Poland and Slovakia Premium content

    Elections in the two central European countries will test support for Ukraine and measure the appeal of illiberalism

    People in a rally near the Slovak National Uprising square under the slogan “For a Decent Slovakia”, against corruption and to pay tribute to murdered Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova
  • Saturday, 16 September, 2023
    Europe Express
    Rethinking neutrality in Europe Premium content

    Austria, Ireland, Malta and Switzerland will probably not join Nato but changes in defence and security policies are coming

    Swiss federal councillor Viola Amherd, Austrian defence minister Klaudia Tanner and German defence minister Boris Pistorius
  • Saturday, 2 September, 2023
    Europe Express
    Reviving the German economy Premium content

    The ‘sick man of Europe’ label made its debut in 1998 but it seems overdone to apply it today

    Ben Hickey illustration of a brown bear with one of its hind legs caught in a steel bear trap - howling in pain.
  • Wednesday, 30 August, 2023
    Russian economy
    Russia still has options to sustain its creaking war economy

    The Kremlin’s apparent aim is to tough it out and see if the political tide turns in the US elections

    People visit the Victory Museum in Moscow. Russia displays many classic symptoms of a wartime economy, such as inflation, labour shortages, rising government expenditure and deficit financing
  • Saturday, 26 August, 2023
    Europe Express
    Scandals fuel Austria’s far right Premium content

    The rise and fall of Sebastian Kurz is one symptom of a political system in deep trouble

    Sebastian Kurz and Viktor Orbán
Previous page You are on page 1 Next page

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