On Wednesday, October 14, 2026, Maastricht welcomed a distinguished visitor. Before traveling on to Brussels for the European Council meeting, Cyprus’s President Nikos Christodoulides stopped at Maastricht University to talk to students and Studio Europa. The venue could hardly have been more symbolic that evening. It was here in 1992 that the Maastricht Treaty was signed, laying the foundation for today’s European Union. More than three decades later, Christodoulides used t

Picture 1: "Greenland Security Agreement Ceremony" “For over 100 years, Presidents have known the strategic importance of Greenland, but NONE of them were able to do anything about it,” posts US President Donald Trump on his own social media platform, Truth Social, on September 18th, only one day after the White House announced a deal with Denmark granting the US a permanent and larger military presence in Greenland. Further down in the post, Trump claims himself “to be the P

A woman helplessly rummages through the remains of others, Searching desperately through the container filled with wasted potential. Her mind screams—scrutinizing the rich and sympathizing with the poor, Sympathizing with her friends, her family. She reaches further down, praying to find a dirty, used piece of cloth. She would be happy to find one. No, not happy—elated. The splitting pain in her head has remained constant, As constant as the reoccurring waves of the ocean. E

In Deep Water “Taxez les riches, pas notre avenir”, “Sois jeune et révolte-toi”, “Moins de répression, plus d’éducation”.* Here are some slogans that were seen over the last few weeks in the student protests that have flooded the streets of France. Since mid-September, dozens of thousands of students have been protesting to claim a better quality of education and better recognition of their rights by the government, and the movement has recently extended to a larger social m

Beaucoup de maux “Taxez les riches, pas notre avenir”, “La jeunesse s’exprime, la police réprime”, “Moins de répression, plus d’éducation”. Voici quelques-uns des slogans observés ces dernières semaines lors des manifestations étudiantes qui ont envahi les rues des villes françaises. Depuis quatre semaines, des dizaines de milliers de lycéens et d’étudiants manifestent pour réclamer une meilleure qualité de l’enseignement et une meilleure reconnaissance de leurs droits par le

The EU has long been criticized for failing at foreign and defence policy. Amid seismic shifts in the global order, Europe hasn’t stepped up to the challenge; it has merely stumbled from one crisis to the next. Clearly, heightened cooperation and the pooling of sovereignty are necessary prerequisites to empowering Europe to compete with other world powers. Thus far, in the crucial field of foreign and defence policy, the EU has failed to do so, a failure underscored by the re

Today I whisper tales of arachnids and mankind, of the forestry and of beauty, Beginning with the misery of a spider, who crawls below and above, seeking shelter in every possible direction. The spider, who shrieks upon the sights of the human, and buries himself within the earth. Each morning is reset once more — the same life, the same deafening fear. The drum of our footsteps echo in his mind, beating louder and louder with every passing minute. His desire to live freely

Image credit: Yuichiro Chino via Getty Images “The only winning move is not to play”. These were the words of investor Michael Burry when talking about the staggering rise of tech companies' stock market values caused by the revolutionary progress and promises of AI. At first glance, hearing the professional investor and former hedge fund manager discourage the general public from investing seems surprising. But Michael Burry is not only known as the cliché of a high-profit-s

The Power of Love “A new science of politics is indispensable to a new world.” There is no doubt that Ursula von der Leyen had a somewhat similar idea to Alexis de Tocqueville’s sentence in Democracy in America, when proposing the “Associate Membership to the European Union” to the Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney. © European Union, 2026 Here is what you need to know, in a nutshell, before you start reading this article: On September 16th, in her annual speech on the

I hope I brought out the frozen beef for lunch. “Ma’am … “ I can’t imagine the extra hours I would have to put into our dinner had I not. “Sorry, excuse me ma’am…” Wait, what about the frozen vegetables? I worry, gently rubbing my fingertips against my forehead, smoothing the lines that are starting to form. Voices begin to resound around me, but I can't seem to find where it's coming from. With my hands over my ears, the sounds become muffled. But it’s not enough. I need i

Or: A Letter of Thanks to the Maastricht Diplomat Part 1: 16th September, 2023 On the 29th of August, 2023, 14:30, in the Franz Palmzaal of the Maastricht University School of Business and Economics, Dr. Sascha Hardt briefly mentioned a list of books that first-year students of the LLB in European Law had to acquire for the first period of their studies. A very prepared student asked Dr. Hardt to reiterate the titles, and she took note of them. Many of us took a picture of th

“They made us burn everything we had… documents, clothes, even family photos.” South African recruit on arrival in Russia The recruit had left South Africa months earlier after responding to what he assumed was a legitimate security training offer in Russia. Instead, he was forced into a paramilitary unit and sent to the front lines in Ukraine. He was not alone. Dozens of South Africans, Zimbabweans, and Kenyans described the same manipulation tactics by the Russian milita

Across Europe, undocumented people are increasingly framed as a problem of control, with the discussion often turning into talk about borders and returns. Political discourse often suggests that if reception is reduced, access is restricted, or financial support is withdrawn, undocumented people will simply leave. However, the reality described by social workers in Dutch night shelters tells a different story. When the state withdraws, people do not simply disappear. They bec

Are you a fan of crime series, perhaps even true crime stories? Have you ever watched “True Detective”, “Sherlock”, or maybe even glanced at an episode of “Mindhunter”? If you have, have you ever considered what originally drew you to these shows? These series offer insight into human nature and societal norms, which can change over time. The crime stories depicted often date back decades, making them fascinating to explore. They frequently are modern echoes of past injustic

Dear Reader, if this week’s headlines felt like they were snagging on the same thread, it’s because they were. There is no such thing as a localized crisis anymore. Whether the high-stakes rooms in Tehran or a tense interception in the Mediterranean, the news this week has seemed to circle on one uncomfortable question: How quickly can a fire in one corner of the globe set the rest of the world ablaze? The answer, as we’ve seen over the last seven days, is: instantly. We are

Forty years Todya is January 1, 1986. Spain joins the European Economic Community (EEC) and becomes its twelfth member, joining alongside Portugal. These two countries, barely out of the shadow of dictatorship, integrate into the alliance with the promise of long-lasting democracy. Forty years after the Mediterranean enlargement, Spain is at a crossroads, led by its socialist Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez (image). Between the regularization of 500,000 migrants and its high-

Music and Politics have one essential thing in common: they both permeate and affect our lives every single day. Yet their connection runs deeper than shared ubiquity. My argument here is that listening itself, the act that music trains and politics so often abandons, is a fundamental civic practice. Before one can agree, resist, vote, or dissent, one must first tune in. In an era defined by noise, reaction, and polarization, the most radical act available to us may be the si

In Europe’s eastern periphery, beyond the checkpoints and Soviet monuments of Transnistria, another kind of battle is unfolding: not one fought on front lines by armed adults, but one taking shape in classrooms, youth camps, and spaces meant for education and play. For nearly three decades, the territory temporarily occupied by Russia along Moldova’s eastern border has existed under the effective control of Russia-backed authorities. While the conflict itself, a long-running

Art law is quite an interesting multidisciplinary field. Although it seeks to regulate the protection and sale of artworks, many other branches of the law intervene to facilitate that, such as IP, contract, tax and criminal law. In my previous article A Beginner's Guide to Buying Art, another Maastricht Diplomat exclusive, I have already touched upon the dangers of the art market, which arise from its mystique and its proneness to anonymity: coming across looted art and art m

The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about – Oscar Wilde. Hello again, Welcome back to Loosely Talking, where we reflect on our lives between the cobblestones. So we need to address our absence. After taking 10 days to recover from Kingsday and a week to lock in for the thesis, we are officially back with lovely inspiration to work from! One of which was the amazing FLS Fashion Show that took place on Saturday. We always love to see student cre