Yet no one should write off Europe.

January 7 Russia shuts off all gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine.

Europe may be better off with stop gap measures.

In this sense, 2013 got off to a good start in Europe and the United States.

But Germany does not bear the main responsibility for killing off the vision of political Europe.

The top ranked countries, where children are best off, are the social democracies of Western Europe.

All over the world in the US, Europe, and China stimulus programs have paid off, as expected.

Southern Europe was experiencing a sell off of sovereign debt and a massive withdrawal of private capital.

We Czechs are 100 European, and were even when the Iron Curtain cut us off from democratic Europe.

Europe would be infinitely better off if Germany made a definitive choice between Eurobonds and a eurozone exit, regardless of the outcome indeed, Germany would be better off as well.

With Sarkozy off his back, ECB President Jean Claude Trichet might feel freer to cut interest rates to counter the impending economic slowdown in Europe.

Within a mobile and open Europe, there can be no fencing off of foreign cultures contact cannot be avoided.

And, unfortunately, Europe is not only doing nothing to hold off or reverse its decline it is accelerating the process through its own behavior.

But Europe can succeed in this task only if its various constituent cultures do not seal themselves off from one another.

Whatever this plan s impact in practice, the political message is clear when in doubt, Europe is better off sealing its borders.

Great Britain, also known as Britain , is an island in the North Atlantic off the north west coast of continental Europe.

Almost daily, the United States and Europe brandish threats to impose economic sanctions or cut off development assistance unless some vulnerable government accepts their political strictures.

China may regard the nineteenth century experience of a windswept island off the northwest coast of Europe as an odd source of inspiration.

Europe clearly would be better off with Chirac weakened than strengthened, even if it means a temporary slowing of the pace of integration.

In Europe, that means agreeing on burden sharing for re capitalizing countries where deficits and debt have cut off market access or led to prohibitively high borrowing costs.

That would be a good thing. With Sarkozy off his back, ECB President Jean Claude Trichet might feel freer to cut interest rates to counter the impending economic slowdown in Europe.

Only a price reduction would create current account surpluses and enable the crisis countries to pay off their foreign debts. It is time for Europe to come to terms with this remorseless truth.

COPENHAGEN 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.

Its societies are much more egalitarian, while convergence among them is still a long way off (this is, indeed, the great task that Europe faces).

All of this is bad news for Europe, because once this global crisis is over, Europeans will simply have become less important. And, unfortunately, Europe is not only doing nothing to hold off or reverse its decline it is accelerating the process through its own behavior.

The supply stand off between Russia and Ukraine of 2009 made these worries crystal clear in Europe, where gas imports are set to rise to 86 of demand by 2030, from 57 in 2006.

PS Don't get off! Don't get off! Don't get off!

In Europe, by contrast, there is almost no aggregate shield and almost no automatic support for member states in trouble better off states simply extend a conditional helping hand to prevent default.

A disorderly disintegration resulting in mutual recriminations and unsettled claims would leave Europe worse off than it was when it embarked on the bold experiment of unification.

But can the West afford to remain aloof? Russia started off its year as G 8 president with a crisis over gas supplies to Ukraine, and even threatened Europe with rerouting its gas exports to Asia.

The story of Abdul and his children highlights an obvious, if overlooked, truth Far from seeking to scrounge off Europe, thousands of Syrian exiles are desperate to return home as soon as it is safe.

So I scraped the slime off and I sent it off to Aberdeen.

At the same time, they will undermine their own international influence, allow others to play off Europe against America, destroying as well what chance remains for rebuilding the West with a reformed America.

Europe needs refugees to prosper, and the refugees need Europe to survive.

Pakistan matters to Europe, and Europe could matter much more to Pakistan.

Southern Europe needs to deflate to restore competitiveness vis à vis northern Europe.

Borrow a lot of money, pay it off, pay it off, pay it off, get down to near zero, and bang! World War I.

Where are you off to?

He stated that he (i.e., the German) was headed off ... seen off ... and ... written off .

We rise to an astronomical level, around 118 percent of GDP, But we pay it off, pay it off, pay it off, and then, what's this?

Suppose my children have to pay off the debt to you that I incurred. They will be worse off.

If the euro breaks up in disarray, the common market and the EU will be destroyed, leaving Europe worse off than it was when the effort to unite it began, owing to a legacy of mutual mistrust and hostility.

Master control off. The hell with it. Way off.

Last Taxi to Europe

China s Gift to Europe