The European Sting is Your democratic, independent and top quality political newspaper specialized in European Union News. Unique Features: iSting & Harry Sting
A careful reading of the text of conclusions of last European Summit, the 28 EU leaders undersigned yesterday night after two days of discussions in Brussels, proves that they don’t really care about the implementation of their own June 2013 decision to combat unemployment and social exclusion, as the European Sting reported last morning. However, […]
On 15-16 October 2013 Kyiv hosted the Fifth International Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Forum. Organized by the IBCentre and Association of Alternative Fuel and Energy Market Participants of Ukraine, this annual event has become a discussion platform for the key alternative energy stakeholders and regional experts in wind, solar, hydro and biomass energy matters, […]
The 28 EU leaders presently meeting in Brussels, seem to have chosen the ‘illegal migration’ and the ‘European pride’ issues as the main items on their agenda. This is the best way to avoid the burning social and economic issues, which torment “the richest continent” of the world, as the President of the European Parliament […]
The European Parliament finally voted in favour of the suspension of EU-US bank data deal, in response to NSA snooping. “The EU should suspend its Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP) agreement with the US in response to the US National Security Agency‘s alleged tapping of EU citizens’ bank data held by the Belgian company SWIFT”, […]
On the political level, the European Commission and the IMF have been warning Germany for months now about its inextricable over stretched internal fiscal and incomes double consolidation. Now the Commission comes back with an excellent economic paper, which employs a structural multi-country model and assesses the negative impact of fiscal consolidation measures undertaken in […]
The president of the European Economic and Social Committee, Henri Malosse, accompanied by the presidents of the Committee’s Employers’ group, Jacek Krawczyk, the Workers’ group, George Dassis and the vice-president of the Various Interests group, Ariane Rodert, met yesterday with the European Council president, Herman Van Rompuy, ahead of the European Summit of 24-25 October. […]
The fact that monetary policy is the only common policy applied invariably in the 18 still widely diverging Eurozone economies, means that the European Central Bank is the unique euro area institution, which thinks and acts on a really European level. In this respect, the latest statements by its President, Mario Draghi, are quite pertinent. […]
The announcement of the conclusion of the EU-Canada free trade agreement yesterday not only opens a new chapter in the history of EU-Canada relations, but the solutions agreed in sensitive chapters, like agriculture and animal products and public procurement will serve as a base for the under negotiation similar pact with the US. The Prime […]
Last Tuesday 15 October was the last day the 28 EU member states, and more so the 18 Eurozone countries, had to submit to the Commission for approval their draft budgets for 2014. It is the first time that the European Union member states and more particularly the euro area countries, before presenting their state […]
It’s more than a joke, it’s a clear deception or even an imperialistic attitude of the European Union, towards the countries wanting to join it, to tell them that they pass Commissioner Štefan Füle‘s test of the “five fundamentals”. Of course this doesn’t apply to Turkey or Iceland, because both of them seem to have […]
The Ecofin council, a regrouping of the 28 ministers of Finance of the European Union, yesterday confirmed the creation of the first pillar of the European Banking Union, by approving the regulation for the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) to be built under the roof of the European Central Bank. This was a rather typical procedure, […]
The Permanent Representatives Committee of the European Union (COREPER) approved yesterday an increase of the 2013 EU budget by €3.9 billion in order to cover outstanding payment needs. This amount complements the €7.3bn of the draft amending budget no. 2 approved by the Council on 9 July. The Council’s position on this draft amending budget […]
IMF – World Bank’s annual meetings and the G20 Finance ministers and central bank governors gathering in Washington D.C. this weekend proved two things; first that the world is more divided now, in the aftermath of the financial crisis and second and more important that the labouring millions of the globe in developing and […]
In view of the fast deteriorating relations between the European Union and the International Monetary Fund over the needed measures to confront the Greek Gordian knot and Eurozone’s banking sector problems, a culmination is expected in a few days. The exchanges between the two sides, recorded this week are indicative of the worsening climate over […]
International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde, in a Press conference held yesterday in Washington, ahead of the 2013 annual meetings of the World Bank and IMF set to take place this weekend, chose to directly confront Germany over the Greek Gordian knot. She repeated three times that the Greece’s Eurozone partners have reiterated on […]
It might not be much, but the European Parliament’s approval of the modernisation of the Professional Qualifications Directive to promote the intra EU mobility of professionals, is a giant step forward towards more Union, at a time when some countries long for less EU, by undermining the right of citizens for free movement within the […]
IMF economists, Kalpana Kochhar and Roberto Perrelli, in their study entitled “How Emerging Markets Can Get Their Groove Back”, posted yesterday by iMFdirect, give a rather frightening response to this question. They conclude that “we estimate that emerging market’s “potential” growth needs to be revised down”. IMF Economic counsellor and director of the Research Department, […]
Predictably, regional statistics on employment, incomes and the risk of poverty could mirror in a more accurate way, how the economic crisis has affected the more deprived and the moret affluent regions of the European Union. National averages can serve well the comparative analysis between EU’s member states. Regional data however would go deeper in […]
A proposal for a resolution on the EU-China investment and market access agreement will be discussed in the October 8 plenary session of the European Parliament. A vote is scheduled to follow on the same day. The resolution, drafted by Helmut Scholz (GUE/NGL, DE), was passed by 25 votes to 2 with 3 abstentions, during […]
Quite unexpectedly, EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht announced yesterday night the cancellation of 2nd Round of Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations in Brussels, due to the US administration shutdown. His counterpart, United States Trade Representative Ambassador Michael Froman informed him that “due to the ongoing furlough, the US Administration will not be […]
Mario Draghi, the President of the European Central Bank, had three messages to send yesterday to Eurozone’s political leaders. He did that while answering journalists’ questions, after the regular monthly meeting of the Governing Council, which left the basic interest rate unchanged at 0.5%. For the first time Draghi puts a big question mark over […]
Unemployment in Eurozone remained unchanged last August at 12% in relation to July, when it had slightly receded, compared with the 12.1% in June. This marginal reduction of unemployment in July was hailed as an indication that Eurozone is about to abandon its long term recession, an estimate also based on a marginal increase of […]
The Transport committee of the European Parliament (TRAN) blocked yesterday with 21 votes to 13 an EU Commission’s proposal to rearrange flight times for pilots and cabin crews. If the uninformed reader had only the chance to read just the Press release issued afterwards by the responsible, or rather irresponsible, Commissioner and Commission Vice President […]
While the political scenery in Italy and Greece – the two key countries in Eurozone’s fight against sovereign excessive debt – could be termed as critical, their economic prospects do not seem discouraging at all. In this respect Italy gained a positive assessment from the IMF last week. The Fund’s report points to the zeroing […]
The Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI), despite a mild rise in September by 1.6 points in the euro area is still below its long-term average (100), and oscillates around the levels of the third quarter of 2010. However if it continuous on its present upwards course, it may soon recover losses of three years. In […]
During this week in Brussels there was a lot of talk about Europe’s industrial competitiveness. The Competitiveness Council, part of the Council of the European Union, is currently meeting in Brussels, on September 26-27, for the first time formally under the Lithuanian Presidency. This Council brings together the EU ministers responsible for the single market, […]
The European Commission took action yesterday to unlock the double stalemate over the approval of both, the 2014 EU budget and the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020. The MFF sets the spending ceiling of all EU bodies at €960 billion for the next seven years. To overcome the dead-end Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski responsible for budgets, proposed […]
The very likely formation of a grand coalition government in Germany, led by the CDU-CSU Christian democrats, under Chancellor Angela Merkel and comprising the SPD socialists, will not be without tangible results in at least two crucial fronts. The wages of Germany’s hard working millions and the long overdue rearrangement of Eurozone’s banking system, are […]
Past the German elections, the President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, must have left free to take some steps forward in his quest for the accomplishment of the European Banking Union, and promote the defragmentation of Eurozone’s financial markets. Speaking yesterday in a hearing at the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of […]
Angela Merkel’s personal triumph in the German elections yesterday will not change the European political scenery much but it will certainly affect the way some things are done in Brussels and probably in Berlin, if the socialists of the SPD finally join the winning Christian democrats of CDU-CSU in a grand coalition government. In any […]
A special purpose Committee of the European Parliament adopted this week a package of measures to fight organised crime, corruption and money laundering, setting out an EU action plan for 2014-2019. Blocking organised crime’s financial assets and incomes are on top of the list. This special Committee on Organised Crime, Corruption and Money Laundering of […]
The European Commission published yesterday a study on Value Added Tax (VAT) evasion and fraud in the 27 EU member states, estimating the lost state incomes from this source at €193 billion only in one year, 2011. This is the difference between the actuall and the potential receipts from VAT, that is the VAT GAP. […]
Another €460 million should be added to the 2014 EU budget spending said yesterday the European Commission. This is a direct challenge to the Council’s position presented last week in the European Parliament shaping a severely cut down 2014 EU budget. The Commission asks additional funding exactly for those programmes that the Council wants to […]
