This week the European Commission, and in order to be fair and precise, the European Commissioner Tonio Borg, tried once more to convince 500.7 million European consumers that the horsemeat and the Phenylbutazone scandal didn’t reveal any loopholes, in the EU food quality control systems. In a European Commission Press release issued at the beginning […]EU Commission: Once in every 20 beef meals you eat…horse probably with drugs in it
April 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment
This week the European Commission, and in order to be fair and precise, the European Commissioner Tonio Borg, tried once more to convince 500.7 million European consumers that the horsemeat and the Phenylbutazone scandal didn’t reveal any loopholes, in the EU food quality control systems. In a European Commission Press release issued at the beginning […]Tourism offers much to the EU gets a little
April 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The summer giant of European tourism woke up again from its winter hibernation and is about to favour the crisis and unemployment stricken southern regions of the Old Continent and not only. For a brief period of one week or so the entire population of countries in the misty and grey north travel southwards to […]EU fight against tax-evasion and money laundering blocked by Britain
April 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The informal Ecofin and Eurogroup councils that took place in the Dublin Castle this weekend had only one victim; the bank depositors. Tax evaders got away, with Algirdas Šemeta the EU Commissioner responsible for Taxation and Anti-Fraud, running after them brandishing only his “appetite for progress and action”. In reality no real progress or action […]ECB indicates south Europeans can endure more austerity
April 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment
According to a European Central Bank report which was published yesterday, the average household in south European countries like Cyprus, Greece, Spain and Italy possess more net wealth than their peers in the north (net wealth is defined as the difference between total assets and total liabilities). The obvious conclusion is that they can endure […]EU’s social crisis and unemployment to deteriorate
April 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment
During the 9th European Regional Meeting of the International Labour Office (ILO), which currently takes place in Oslo from 8–11 April, a study was presented showing that in the European Union the risks of social unrest have exploded over the past few years growing with the highest tempos in the world. Obviously this is a […]EU is officially in recession
April 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Eurostat, the statistical service of the European Union, confirmed yesterday with its regular third estimate, that during the last quarter of 2012 the Gross Domestic Product fell by 0.6% in the Euro area and by 0.5% in the EU27, in comparison with the previous three-month period of the same year. Eurostat’s third regular GDP estimation […]Facts and prejudices about work
April 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Union and more so the Eurozone countries change fast into service sector economies, increasingly favouring the transfer of the heavy production burden of industry and agriculture to the developing economies. This is not necessarily a negative development given that labour in services is generally less demanding, at least physically, and it is rather […]The vicious cycle of poverty and exclusion spreads fast engulfing more children
April 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment
According to a Eurostat study on people at-risk-of-poverty or social exclusion (AROPE), the ongoing economic and financial crisis has seriously affected the relevant indicators. Eurostat is the statistical service of the European Union. AROPE is the headline indicator to monitor the EU2020 Strategy poverty target. According to Euroastat it reflects the share of the population […]Can Eurozone stand economic and financial fragmentation?
April 3, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Eurozone unemployment rate peaked in February 2013 at 12% but this number says nothing about the real structural problems of the single money zone. The burning issue is the fast growing divergence of unemployment opportunities between the surplus countries in the North and the over indebted member states in the South, plus Ireland. According to […]Uncovered liabilities of €5 billion may render EU insolvent
April 2, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The deplorable tactics of practically all European Union governments to hide the problems under the carpet, for the next administration to confront them, couldn’t leave Brussels untouched. In this way the European Union budget for 2013 has been loaded with a huge burden of €16.2 billion of unpaid 2012 bills, a fact that threatens the […]The miserables and the untouchables of the economic crisis
April 2, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The worsening of social conditions for the poorer part of the population, in the years of the still ongoing financial and real economy crisis, is an easily predictable development. However it is a revelation and a pity to observe the difference of the degree and the way recession badly affects some, and at the same […]European Union: More taxes out of less income
April 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment
In the fourth year of the ongoing financial and real economy crisis, with government social spending severely cut and bank credit to households and businesses continuously shirking, tax increases remain the only sure thing in life. According to a study by two Eurostat authors, Elisabeth Joossens and Laura Wahrig, taxes in absolute terms surpassed the […]EU car manufacturers worry about an FTA with Japan
March 27, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), had expressed reserves over the EU Council and Commission initiative to start negotiations with Japan in order the two sides to conclude a far reaching Free Trade Agreement (FTA). ACEA was founded in 1991 and represents authentically the interests of the fifteen major European car, truck and bus manufacturers […]EU will not deliver on promises without democratic accountability
March 23, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The two main advisory bodies of the European Union, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and the Committee of the Regions (CoR) expressed their anguish over the growing distance between Brussels and the Peoples of Europe. Last Thursday on the occasion of the plenary session of the EESC, its President Staffan Nielson invited Ramon […]Eurozone in trouble after Nicosia’s ‘no’
March 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The comparison of repercussions from the Greek ‘yes’ and the Cyprus ‘no’, to the troika of EU-ECB-IMF proposals, concerning the bailouts of the corresponding economies, may produce political and financial implications for many Eurozone governments, the EU Commission and the International Monetary Fund. The Greek ‘yes’ is presenting very difficult problems in the longer […]High-technology manufacturing saves the EU industry
March 14, 2013 by Leave a Comment
According to a study by Eurostat, the EU statistical service, high and medium technology industries saved the manufacturing sector from a much larger fall during the difficult crisis years from 2008 until 2010. Still, the industrial sector has not yet fully recovered and in January 2013 compared to December 2012, seasonally adjusted overall industrial production fell […]Parliament ready to fight for a different EU budget
March 14, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Last Tuesday 12 March, when the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, was addressing an invitation letter to the 27 EU leaders for the spring EU Summit of today and tomorrow, he couldn’t know the alarming outcome of European Parliament vote on the austerity EU Budget.This draft Budget features a deficit for the […]Our present and future tax payments usurped by banks
March 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment
According to Eurostat, the EU statistical service, tax payments in absolute terms, kept rising in the Eurozone after 2009 and surpassed the pre-crisis levels in 2011. Given that all along this period most of the euro area member states applied austerity measures, by cutting social spending, it is common knowledge by now that the extra […]
False promises to Small and Medium Enterprises
March 8, 2013 by 2 Comments
After the minimal or zero success that the Small Business Act (SBA) of 2008 had recorded during the past four years, in failing to ease the life of Small and Medium Enterprises, the European Commission launched yesterday another similar initiative. This time the “Commission wants to simplify life for SMEs by easing the top 10 […]Eurozone examines the prospect of issuing debt paper jointly
March 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday, Eurostat, the EU statistical service, confirmed with its usual second estimate that Eurozone’s economy contracted by 0.6% during the last quarter of 2012. This is not at all a small figure. Given that the Gross Domestic Product in the 17 euro area of 17 countries is close to €10 trillion annually, a 0.6% loss […]Young and unemployed the perfect victims of ‘vultures’
March 2, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Slowly, but surely, unemployment in Eurozone keeps rising, posing growing pressures on economic policy planners all over the European Union. The problem has taken devastating dimensions in Eurozone countries applying the EU-ECB-IMF financial rehabilitation programmes (Greece, Portugal and Ireland), or self-imposed austerity measures as in Spain and Italy. More particularly in Greece, Spain, Portugal and […]Inflation keeps falling in Eurozone
March 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The downwards trend of Eurozone’s inflation rate is an infallible witness of the strong competitive base of home production on both fronts, that is manufacturing production and services. According to Eurostat, the EU statistical service, “The euro area annual inflation rate was 2.0 % in January 2013, down from 2.2 % in December 2012. A […]How wealthy people transmit this advantage to their children and grand children
February 27, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical service, published data on poverty and social exclusion risks for EU citizens in 2011, showing completely disappointing results. The interesting thing, however, is that Eurostat didn’t release similar data for previous years for comparison reasons. Given that the much-advertised by the Brussels EU bureaucracy, “Europe 2020 strategy”, has set as […]Rehn ready to sacrifice part of the real economy
February 25, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Last week, Ollie Rehn, the EU Commissioner responsible for the Economy, while presenting his “winter forecast 2012-14” for the Union, appeared not to bother with the prospects of the rising unemployment and the collapsing prospects for the young. Otherwise it cannot be explained why he said that, “The ongoing rebalancing of the European economy is […]The EU Commission does nothing about the food retailing oligopoly
February 23, 2013 by 1 Comment
The theoretically most competitive of all EU markets, namely the large food retailing business, is accused by its suppliers, regrouped in the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) of operating a real oligopoly. Despite this very important development, which poses an issue with ground-breaking repercussions on the way our ‘free competition’ economies operate, the European […]The EU pollution rights trading system frozen
February 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The recent collapse of the European Union emissions trading system (EU-ETS) revealed the flimsy grounds on which the EU has built its policy against the climate change. The idea was to make polluting expensive but not much so. How thin were the foundations of this system started to clearly emerge, when the economic crisis knocked […]The Commission breathless behind the horsemeat scandal
February 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The horsemeat scandal is still running free all over the European Union. Yesterday, a pompously named EU Commission group entitled, “Standing Committee of the Food Chain and Animal Health” (SCoFCAH), unanimously agreed in an extraordinary meeting, that the measures proposed by Commissioner Tonio Borg are adequate to counter the health and the fraud problem related to […]Consumers suffer three defeats
February 14, 2013 by Leave a Comment
European consumers suffered three blows yesterday. After having being informed that their beef burgers contained uncontrolled horse meat and secondly that the EU is ready to allow in American GMOs and animal products with hormones, came the Commission to recognise, that safety rules in the non-food product markets are inadequate. On this last issue the […]Horse meat runs faster than authorities…
February 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Every now and then, at irregular time intervals, the European food production chain is shaken by scandals that make consumers feel quite unprotected against the greed and the remorselessness of some producers and traders. Everybody understands that there are huge holes in the control and the food products labelling system, probably except the competent (?) […]Why Commissioner Rehn wants us all to work more for less
February 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday Commissioner Olli Rehn speaking at the regular monthly meeting of the European Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin), which regroups the 27 EU ministers of Finance, made a completely wrong evaluation of Eurozone’s economy present status, despite some quite superficial references to the real causes of the ongoing crisis. Let’s see all that in details. His […]EU plans pan-European network of cybersecurity services
February 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Union proposes the creation of a pan-European network of digital security services. Last week, Neelie Kroes, Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Catherine Ashton, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Cecilia Malmström, Member of the EC in charge of Home Affairs, made jointly the relevant announcement. They unveiled a plan for […]EU crisis aggravates structural differences, threatens cohesion
February 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment
According to a Eurostat analysis of EU27’s household final consumption expenditure, the Baltic countries and Greece are still suffering most from the economic and financial crisis. The two authors of the report, Christine Gerstberger and Daniela Yaneva, stress that consumption is a key indicator of citizens’ well-being, with housing, energy, transport and food accounting for […]EU Commission spends billions without achieving targets
February 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment
One after the other all the major EU Commission programmes widely advertised for their efficiency are being judged by the Court of Auditors as ill implemented and falling short of targets. Today it’s the municipal waste management, yesterday was the humanitarian aid to Africa and tomorrow God knows what. Mind you that the kind of […]
