The European Union seems to have finally concluded that the ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ is a basic ingredient in Egypt’s political future and there will be no long-term viable solution of the present stalemate in this country without it. Despite the fact that the EU’s High Representative Catherine Ashton has adopted, along with the rest of the […]EU unfolds strategy on the Egypt question
July 12, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Union seems to have finally concluded that the ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ is a basic ingredient in Egypt’s political future and there will be no long-term viable solution of the present stalemate in this country without it. Despite the fact that the EU’s High Representative Catherine Ashton has adopted, along with the rest of the […]ECB is about to lend trillions to banks
July 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The institutionalisation of the Single Resolution Mechanism to deal with failing banks, a new tool to complement ECB’s Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), two cornerstones in building the European Banking Union, cannot be accomplished correctly, if member states were allowed directly or indirectly to support with public money their failing or about to fail banks, in […]Why the ECB suddenly decided to flood banks with money?
July 10, 2013 by 1 Comment
It was not a coincidence that the Governing Council of the European Central Bank suddenly decided unanimously last week to further relax its monetary policy promising more and cheaper loans to all banks, exactly at a time when the US central bank, the Fed, is about to start calling back the trillions of dollars it […]Where is Egypt leading the Middle East and the Mediterranean economy?
July 8, 2013 by Leave a Comment
There is no doubt that the Egyptian experiment of democratic political and economic transformation of the country by the Muslim Brotherhood has failed in every respect and the West recognised it. No wonder why no western government or the UN termed the intervention of the Egyptian army and the toppling of President Mohamed Morsi, as […]Bugged Europe accepts US demands and blocks Morales plane
July 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment
If the plane of a European Union head of state or government, while passing over a Latin American country, had been forced to land by the country’s military and civil authorities, and then searched for 15 hours, say by the Bolivian police and secret agencies, the entire EU political establishment would have climbed at the […]EU-US trade talks go ahead despite Prism and civil rights breach
July 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Apart from the largely hypocritical cries by European politicians mainly in Brussels about civil rights breaches, the only concrete and immediate implications that the American PRISM scandal could have had on EU-US relations refers to the Free Trade and Investments Agreement that the two sides are about to negotiate. For one thing European citizens are […]EU-US trade agreement talks to be affected by American bugs
July 3, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Bugging EU institutions’ premises and members states’ offices in the US by American secret agencies may seriously affect the progress of negotiations for the conclusion of a Free Trade and Investments Agreement between the two largest trading partners of the world. While the first reactions by EU dignitaries, after the revealing publications by Der Spiegel […]EU: 13 major banks may pay fines 10% of worldwide turnover
July 3, 2013 by 2 Comments
In a long-awaited decision, Joaquín Almunia, Vice President of the European Commission responsible for Competition Policy, accused thirteen western giant investment banking groups and two support bodies that those banks created a trust, setting prices in the over the counter trade of Credit Default Swaps and Derivatives, a multi trillion business. The Commission’s investigation covers […]The US bugged Europe: Is this news?
July 2, 2013 by Leave a Comment
It took a new wave of publications by major European media (Der Spiegel, Guardian) about the bugging of EU’s and EU member states’ offices in the US by the American secret services, to wake up the European Union leaders. Yesterday all three European Union presidents and at least two Commission vice presidents issued statements asking […]EU secures more and cheaper energy supplies
July 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Last Friday 28 June the Commission welcomed the selection of route for the Azeri natural gas flow to Europe that the Caspian country’s producers made on that same day. Of course it is the ‘Southern Corridor’ through Greece and Albania and under the Adriatic Sea to Italy, then to many EU countries. It’s the Trans […]Azerbaijan chooses Greek corridor for its natural gas flow to EU
June 26, 2013 by 1 Comment
Azeri officials are visiting Athens today to announce their choice of the ‘Greek corridor’ for the flow of their natural gas towards the central European Union countries, to reach them after crossing also the Adriatic Sea in a deep water pipeline to Italy. Let’s folow the facts. Very early last Monday morning the European Sting […]Azeri natural gas will keep the EU warm soon
June 24, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Ilham Aliyev, the President of Azerbaijan was in Brussels on Friday 21 June for a good reason. The giant state oil and gas company of his country, Socar, has reportedly agreed with the Greek authorities to acquire the National Natural Gas System Operator (DESFA) S.A. of Greece, owner and operator of the country’s natural gas […]Counting spillovers from the fast track EU-US free trade agreement
June 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment
In a day when the US economy got good marks from the IMF for growth and the appropriate monetary easing by the Fed, last Friday 14 June the Foreign Affairs (trade) Council of the European Union also gave the green light to the European Commission to enter into formal bilateral trade negotiations with the United […]European Union disenchanted with Turkey
June 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The accidental coincidence of the visit of the European Commissioner Štefan Füle, responsible for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy to Turkey last week, with the crtical moment when the events in Istanbul’s Taksim Square were at their peak, may affect negatively the relations between the EU and this country. Negotiations over Ankara’s roadmap to become one […]China confirms anti-state-subsidy investigation on EU wine imports
June 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday, only a few days after the European Commission decided to impose provisional anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese solar panels imported in the EU, the Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the European Union issued a Press release where the spokesperson of the Mission confirmed that the Ministry of Commerce of China, in response […]EU imposes provisional anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese solar panels
June 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Today the European Commission has decided to impose provisional anti-dumping duties on imports of solar panels, cells and wafers from China. The relevant Press releaese goes like that,”This decision follows a thorough and serious investigation and extended contacts with market players. As the market for and imports of solar panels in the EU is very […]Commission’s action against imports from China questioned
June 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment
According to European Commission’s procedures, the legal dead line for a decision to be taken on the imposition or not of provisional tariffs on European imports of Chinese solar panels, expires tomorrow 5 June. It must be noted however that the EU Trade Spokesman John Clancy, when issuing a Press release on 27 May noted […]Germany to help China in trade disputes with Brussels
May 27, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The visit of the new Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of China and party secretary of the State Council, Li Keqiang to Germany paid tangible dividends. After meeting with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel he got an official and public promise from her that Berlin will intervene in the Brussels procedures, to cool down […]EU Parliament shows its teeth in view of 2014 elections
May 24, 2013 by Leave a Comment
One year ahead of the European Parliament elections and the legislators are showing to the Commission and the Council their teeth, which have been sharpened by the Treaty of Lisbon. Practically nothing can be done in the European Union without the consent of the Parliament. A trilateral agreement (Parliament, Council and Commission) is needed on […]Commission threatens Chinese firms with trade penalties
May 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment
European Union Trade Commissioner, Karel De Gucht, announced yesterday that, “The European Commission has today taken a decision in principle to open an ex officio anti-dumping and an anti-subsidy investigation concerning imports of mobile telecommunications networks and their essential elements from China”. Without naming individual firms this Commission decision is directly targeted against two international […]Why the West supports the yen’s devaluation and Japanese over-indebtedness
May 13, 2013 by 1 Comment
While the ministers of Finance of seven major industrialised countries making up the G7 council agreed pompously last weekend that monetary devaluations should not be used as a home economy revitalisation tool, Japan doing exactly that got a pat on the back and was given the green light to continue on the same path. The […]The G7 fails to agree on growth but protects the big banks
May 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Once more the world got together in the G7 group of the industrialised nations and asked Germany to spend more in order to help the rest of the Eurozone and the globe start growing again. The last time was in Washington during the Spring Conference of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, where […]Commission: Do it like the Americans in the food sector
May 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Only some weeks after the European Union consumers learned that they were eating low quality and contaminated with phenylbutazone horse meat, having paid for it as if it was prime quality beef, the Commission chooses to release its proposal for a new Directive, providing for less controls and higher fines and charges. The new legislation […]Hostages to a rampant banking system
April 26, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Commission presented yesterday its European Financial Stability and Integration Report (EFSIR) at a joint conference with the European Central Bank (ECB) in Brussels. Overall, the report concludes that “despite improvements, the financial crisis continued to exert a significant impact in holding back economic growth in 2012”. Earlier today, Friday 26 April, the European […]What are the real targets of EU’s efforts to fight tax evasion?
April 24, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Algirdas Šemeta, the European Commissioner responsible for Taxation Audit and Anti-fraud announced yesterday in very low tones the creation of a new consultative committee in Brussels, under the name of “tax good governance platform”. This was a very disproportionate outcome, after the widely advertised Commission’s initiative to crack down on tax evasion in the European […]EU Council: The US airlines may freely pollute the European air
April 23, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Union dignitaries could at least have waited for the American Secretary of State, John Kerry, to leave Brussels before offering him yesterday our European dignity as a gift, for his first official visit to the EU capital city. The day that Kerry set his foot on Brussels, the European Council revoked the obligation […]Everybody for himself in G20 and IMF
April 22, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The G20 meeting of this last weekend evolved in the shadow of the confrontation between the US Secretary of Treasury, Jack Lew and the German Federal minister of Finance Wolfgang Schäuble. Obviously the subject of this antithesis was the reluctance of Eurozone to apply the American recipe for economic growth. That is the issue of […]The EU threatens to impose extra import duties on Chinese products
April 12, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The powerful EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, announced yesterday its proposal for a new legislation targeted at strengthening the protection of home businesses and products from external competition. It’s a clear effort to help the Union’s economy overcome a deepening recession. The new legislations will be in force early in 2014, after being approved […]The EU Diplomacy in North Korea promotes peace or war?
April 8, 2013 by 2 Comments
It was last Friday that the seven EU embassies located in Pyongyang received a formal warning by the North Korean regime to evacuate the premises and leave the country as soon as possible. As it was explicitly stated by the world’s most obscure totalitarian regime, the local authorities could not guarantee their safety after the […]EU threatens Japan to suspend FTA negotiations if…
March 26, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The two Presidents of the EU, José Manuel Barroso of the Commission and Herman Van Rompuy of the Council couldn’t fly yesterday to Tokyo for the EU-Japan Summit, due to the ongoing developments around the Cyprus issue. This was not enough however to impede the beginning of negotiations for the conclusion of a Free Trade […]The Eurogroup has set Cyprus on fire
March 18, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Eurogroup’s decision to impose a haircut on all bank accounts held in Cypriot banks, even on balances bellow the until today “theoretically” guaranteed benchmark of €100,000, may become a boomerang for the entire Eurozone and will certainly set the island once more on fire. Who is to say that this will not have a devastating […]Is South Korea set to lose from its FTA with the EU?
March 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The recent announcement (issued at the highest level by three presidents; Barack Obama, Herman Van Rompuy, Manuel Barroso), that the European Union and the United States were ready to start negotiations, aiming at the conclusion of a far-reaching Free Trade Agreement (FTA), sounded the alarm to other EU’s major trading partners and more so in […]Commission considers anti-dumping duty on Chinese solar glass imports
February 28, 2013 by 1 Comment
The European Commission launched today (Thursday 28 February), an anti-dumping investigation into imports of solar glass from China. According to the relevant official announcement, “The initiation is based on a complaint lodged by the association European Union ProSun Glass, which claims solar glass from China is being dumped in the EU at prices below market […]
