Only days if not hours after the Charlie Hebdo tragedy in Paris, some governments and many politicians in Europe called for more and tougher internal security measures. Undoubtedly, such action would compromise the civil liberties of European citizens, but those governments and politicians don’t seem to mind. It seems that for them, further sneaking citizens’ […]‘Internal security’ or how to compromise citizens’ rights and also make huge profits
January 22, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Only days if not hours after the Charlie Hebdo tragedy in Paris, some governments and many politicians in Europe called for more and tougher internal security measures. Undoubtedly, such action would compromise the civil liberties of European citizens, but those governments and politicians don’t seem to mind. It seems that for them, further sneaking citizens’ […]Russia to cut gas supplies again: can the EU get back to growth without a solid energy market?
January 21, 2015 by Leave a Comment
“Energy” is a word that may sound a bit alarming in the European Union nowadays. This happens because Europe has a problem: its energy supplies are not secure. The EU’s prospects of remaining a strong, independent economic and political player in the international arena will largely depend on whether the bloc will be able to […]The European Sting live from the World Economic Forum 2015 in Davos
January 20, 2015 by Leave a Comment
So it’s time. The most prominent economic and political congress in the world opens its golden doors today. More than 40 heads of state accompanied by an exclusive selection of 2500 business leaders and social entrepreneurs are arriving this evening in the small city of 10.000 inhabitants at the heart of the Swiss Alps. The 45th […]Breaking news: Juncker’s Commission mutant trojan horse is on the loose in Strasbourg
January 14, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday in Strasbourg the Parliament, allegedly, took a decisive stance against GMOs in Europe after so many years of letting the matter linger. Almost all European media came out to congratulate the vote that gives the right to the local governments of the member states to “opt-out” and be able to ban “locally” GMO production […]Eurasian Union begins: the giant modelled on the EU is Moscow’s biggest challenge
January 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment
On the first day of 2015, when all the world was waking up ready to taste what this New Year will be like, the treaty creating the Eurasian Economic Union took effect. The new EEU has now become a reality, allowing free movement of trade, services, and capital between Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia. What […]Can Kiev make face to mounting economic problems and social unrest?
January 5, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The time of truth for the European Union’s strategy on the Ukrainian question finally came. Brussels is about to let the poor country not only be dismembered, but what will be left of it will be pushed into an economic and political inferno. As it happens, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker essentially ‘ordered’ Kiev to “bring […]EU-Russia relations: the beginning of a warmer winter?
December 30, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The year 2014 has seen many changes and overturns in the EU-Russia relations, but although the New Year is just a few hours away, there is still time for the last swing. From both sides. Yesterday a few Russian media outlets reported that the High Representative of the European Union Federica Mogherini stated that Western powers […]Why and how did ISIS and Muslim fundamentalism gain momentum this year?
December 29, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The European Investment Bank chose the perfect timing at the end of the year to take stock of its support to Egypt, or probably not? On 22 December 2014 EIB published a Press release entitled “Supporting Egypt’s democratic transition: a priority for EIB totalling more than €800 m of projects financed over the last three […]Merry Christmas from Erdogan, Putin, Mogherini and the Polish firefighter
December 24, 2014 by Leave a Comment
One month is more than enough in international diplomacy to flip the world. During the last month of this long 2014 we were cought by surprise by the speed of the evolutions regarding the “EU-Turkey” project. Things were changing so fast every week of this December that even the most experienced analysts remained numb and thus preferred […]The British “nonsense”, the relaxed Commissioner and the TTIP “chiaroscuro” at this week’s Council
December 19, 2014 by Leave a Comment
“The EU and the US should make all efforts to conclude negotiations on an ambitious, comprehensive and mutually beneficial TTIP by the end of 2015”, was the first conclusion of the first day of the 18-19 December EU Council. That our EU leaders are in an unprecedented rush to conclude the “notorious” trade deal with the […]ECB’s trillion has to be printed and distributed fast before Armageddon comes
December 15, 2014 by 2 Comments
The latest Eurostat data on employment and industrial production for the Eurozone economy point invariably to stagnation, if not recession, while the long-term tendency of household consumption, as a percentage of GDP, appears falling. In short all the key growth indicators of the economy are quite disappointing, to say the least. The economic problems of […]Is a full course lunch, a new Commissioner and 2 million anti-TTIP citizens what you would call a “Fresh Start”?
December 10, 2014 by Leave a Comment
It was last Monday that Mrs Cecilia Malmstrom, the newly appointed EU Commissioner for Trade, paid a visit to Washington to meet “our American friends”, as she calls them. That is to say, “Mike“, Mr Michael Froman, US Trade Commissioner and his team. To her surprise “our American friends” provided her with a full course lunch rather than […]EU’s Mogherini visits Turkey “to step up engagement” and highlight interests
December 9, 2014 by Leave a Comment
As announced last week through an official European Union statement, EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini and two other senior EU officials are visiting Turkey this week. The High Representative of the EU, together with Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement, Negotiations Johannes Hahn, and Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, Christos Stylianides, […]The financial war touches Frankfurt and Berlin
December 8, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Early next year the world is going to watch the culmination of the battle between Mario Draghi the President of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt am Main and Wolfgang Schäuble, the powerful German Minister of Finance based in Berlin. In this affair Draghi represents the will of the advanced world financial markets, including the […]How much more political is the new EU leadership? Does this include personal bend?
December 4, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Judging from their first days in office, the new leadership of the European Union appears functioning on a much more ‘political’ platform than their Barroso-Rompuy predecessors. Actually Jean-Claude Juncker the one month old President of the European Commission had cautioned us all about that in his inaugural speech. Nevertheless, nobody had thought that Donald Tusk, […]Iran nuclear talks’ deadline extended: the match is still open for many
November 25, 2014 by Leave a Comment
One year and one day has passed since the Joint Plan of Action (JPA) was forged in Geneva, on November 24 2013, between Iran and the P5+1 Countries. The interim agreement went into effect on January 2014, and its first extension deadline was set to 24 November 2014, the date that was originally seen as […]Bankers don’t go to jail because they are more equal than us all
November 24, 2014 by Leave a Comment
How come and despite the fact that bankers systematically and quite openly cheat hundreds of millions of people, usurping trillions from them, and the only ones of that trade that have been locked up in a penitentiary are the bosses of the three Icelandic banks Glitnir, Kaupthing and Landsbanki, which went bankrupt in 2008? All […]UK’s Cameron takes the field to speed up TTIP talks. Will “rocket boosters” work?
November 18, 2014 by Leave a Comment
In the last few months negotiations over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) seemed to have slowed down significantly. TTIP talks have never been too lively but it looks like the growing critics and the loud protests of late summer and early autumn made the whole process reach a sort of deadlock. The huge interests, […]The West definitively cuts Russia off from the developed world
November 17, 2014 by 1 Comment
Last weekend’s G20 Summit in Brisbane Australia in a direct way ineradicably mapped the abyss now dividing the West from Russia. American and European leaders including Barack Obama, Angela Merkel and David Cameron threatened Russia with more sanctions, meant to completely cut her off from western markets and besiege her economy, if Moscow doesn’t stop […]What can stop the ‘too big to fail’ bankers from terrorising the world?
November 13, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Last Monday 10 November the Financial Stability Board, an international non-binding body based in Basel which comprises government and central bank officials from G20 countries had a bright idea for the lenders. They admitted that the 30 “too big to fail” major world banks should retain at least 20% of their risky assets in own […]Europe votes against GMOs but the Council votes for TTIP
November 11, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday afternoon good news came out of the European Parliament; good news for the anti-GM (Genetically Modified Organisms) movement and hopefully for the EU too. The Environment Committee of the European Parliament (ENVI) voted in favour of the right of the member-states to ban GMOs from their territories with 53 votes to 11 and 2 […]The banks first to benefit from the new euro trillion ECB plans to print
November 10, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Last week, all the major media reported a deep division in the Governing Council of the European Central Bank, over a Mario Draghi policy proposal to pump more freshly printed money into the struggling Eurozone economy. Nevertheless, the European Sting very early in the morning of Thursday 6 November, before the meeting of the Council, […]Brussels wins game and match in Ukraine no matter the electoral results
October 27, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday’s election in Ukraine, even if after countless countings over the next days it gives President Petro Poroshenko’s Block a clear victory, is not expected to change anything to the better for the war-torn country. Kiev held this election in the loyal regions and the pro-Russian rebels in Luhansk and Donetsk are to hold theirs […]10th ASEM in Milan and the importance of being one: EU’s big challenge on the way to China
October 21, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The 10th Asia-Europe meeting (ASEM) in Milan, Italy, concluded last Friday after two full days of work. The meeting was established in 1996 and it has since become a key forum for new cooperation proposals between Europe and Asia. Russia-Ukraine question has probably been the this edition’s hottest topic under the spotlight, as Milan summit […]Russia accepts what the EU has to offer and settles to negotiate with Ukraine
October 20, 2014 by Leave a Comment
This time the Europeans did it without the Americans in Ukraine. They managed to convince Russia to guarantee unobstructed natural gas supplies for the war-torn country and the EU for ‘at least’ during this winter. They did it last Friday in Milan, northern Italy, during the EU-Asia leaders meeting. The German Chancellor Angela Merkel took […]EU makes key TTIP document public as protests get louder
October 14, 2014 by 1 Comment
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, known as TTIP, has always been largely criticized, and this is not news. However, the demonstrations that took place across Europe on Saturday, with large numbers of events in 22 countries across Europe, might tell that the time of huge protests against the agreement is here. Tens of thousands […]How close is the new financial Armageddon? IMF gives some hints
October 13, 2014 by 1 Comment
Six years after the Western financial system collapsed under its immeasurable greed for easy money expressed as an insatiable thirst for risk, the American and European banks and governments are 30% deeper in debt. Few of them can duly repay without major problems of the most dangerous political kind. It is even more alarming that […]Can one FTA and 110 lobby meetings make the dirty oil clean in Europe?
October 8, 2014 by Leave a Comment
So it happens again. The EU is compromising its own policies to endorse trade and business. What’s wrong with that? Just an equivalent environmental damage of 6 million cars in the European roads by 2020. It was only yesterday morning that the European Commission issued a controversial proposal that undermines its own 2020 targets to […]“Health and environment first of all”, EU says with forced optimism after 7th round of TTIP talks
October 7, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Last Friday the United States and the European Union concluded the seventh round of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership talks in the US. After a year of negotiations in both Washington and Brussels, and many notable obstacles on the way, the diplomats last week displayed some optimism. The official outcome was that the process […]Canada and EU officially sign the trade agreement that could open-up the road to TTIP
September 30, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Last Friday the European Union and Canada officially marked the end of five years of negotiations and talks: the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the two parts was signed. The agreement was presented by the outgoing Commission President Manuel Barroso, the European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and Canada Prime Minister Stephen Harper […]EU cracks under the weight of its policy on the Ukraine-Russia nub
September 29, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The Ukrainian civil war, with the two sides patronised respectively by the West (EU and US) and Russia, has now deeply divided the entire Old Continent. On Friday 26 September Hungary decided to cut off its secondary supplies of Russian natural gas to Ukraine. Last June, after Moscow cut its direct deliveries of gas to […]Europe again the black sheep at the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors
September 25, 2014 by
Last weekend the much anticipated G20 Finance Ministers’ and Central Bank Governors’ meeting happened in Cairns, Australia. It was very supportive and positive as far as the implementation of the necessary measures to boost the global economic growth in terms of GDP by an additional 1.8 per cent till 2018. This will be done through investments […]Turkey presents a new strategy for EU accession but foreign policy could be the lucky card
September 24, 2014 by 1 Comment
Last Thursday, September 18, while the entire continent was looking towards Scotland, Turkey announced a new strategy to join the EU. Despite the tensions that characterized the country’s recent history, which is made by protests, brutal actions by the police, attempts by the government to shut down social platforms such as Twitter and You Tube, Turkey has […]
