The new political stalemate in Portugal – after the President of the country send the 2013 government budget to the high court questioning its constitutionality – casts again doubts over Eurozone’s ability to manage the austerity policies needed, to secure a viable politico-economic path. In more detail, yesterday Wednesday 2 January, the Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva, […]Eurozone: Austerity brings new political tremors
January 3, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The new political stalemate in Portugal – after the President of the country send the 2013 government budget to the high court questioning its constitutionality – casts again doubts over Eurozone’s ability to manage the austerity policies needed, to secure a viable politico-economic path. In more detail, yesterday Wednesday 2 January, the Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva, […]The new EU “fiscal compact” an intimidation for all people
January 2, 2013 by Leave a Comment
All the major media of the world announced that as from yesterday 1 January 2013 the European Union has a new Treaty on Stability Coordination and Governance, known as “the fiscal compact”, which aims at imposing fiscal discipline in the Eurozone area, plus any other EU country wishing to join.Theoretically, the ultimate goal of the […]Eurozone 2013: Where to?
December 31, 2012 by Leave a Comment
In 2012, Eurozone not only managed to effectively counter its double-faced, credit and sovereign debt crisis, but also convinced the global financial community, that the single European currency is probably the safest deposit of value. The world responded positively by voting the euro at the region of 132 American cents. A fair price, to keep […]Is there a drug for every disease?
December 24, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Pharmaceutical firms in Europe have an awkward relation with their customers. The truth is that their selling prices and product licencing are directly or indirectly controlled by the buyers, that is governments, or government control health insurance schemes, offering almost free health services to citizens. As everybody knows governments are not only able to influence […]“Private” sea freight indexes hide Libor like skeletons?
December 22, 2012 by 1 Comment
The almost three centuries old Baltic Exchange is a private and closed platform, where around 60 shipping brokers based mainly in London are contributing voluntarily their cargo prices. On the base of those contributions the Exchange publishes benchmark freight price indexes for a round number of 70 sea routes and vessel categories. The indexes are […]European car industry: The Germans want it all
December 21, 2012 by 1 Comment
That the German cars are gas guzzlers is a fact beyond reasonable doubt, not because they are badly engineered, that they are not, but simply because they are usually powered by engines of many thousands of cm2 cylinders. Those powerful Mercedes, BMWs, Porsches, Audis and even Volkswagens produce hundreds of PSIs, but at the same time they […]Huawei answers allegations about its selling prices
December 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Two major Chinese providers of mobile phone equipment, Huawei Technologies Co. and the smaller ZTE Corporation, according to a Wall Street Journal report are under scrutiny by the European Commission, for allegedly offering their products at dumping prices. This report is still unconfirmed by the EU authorities. Its wording though is very carefully chosen by […]Why banks escape from competition rules but not pharmaceutical firms
December 7, 2012 by 1 Comment
Antitrust EU Commission services have an excellent record in identifying, monitoring, substantiating with facts and finally punishing cartels and dominant position abuses. This last week two concrete cases stand witnesses to that.Protecting consumers In the first case the European Court of Justice rejected an appeal against a General Court’s decision, which had upheld almost completely […]Do the EU policies on agro-food smell?
December 4, 2012 by Leave a Comment
If we believe what is written in the Treaties, in the European Union everybody is equal and the same flag of democracy waves above the heads of all. But wait a moment. What was that, some English writer, one George Orwell, said in his novel, the Animal Farm? Ah yes, that some are more equal […]Higher education becoming again a privilege of the wealthy?
December 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Over the past few years higher education tuition fees have skyrocketed all over the European Union. Last year thousands of British university students took it to the streets of London and the other major cities protesting against the planned increases of tuition fees. Incidentally, this really huge protest movement gave Scotland Yard the opportunity to […]Who really cares for the environment?
November 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The European Commission is famous for its practice to generously subsidise a large number of NGOs, which have been created almost exclusively for this purpose. That is, to swallow money from the European taxpayer and in return offer their tribune to Commissioners and other EU dignitaries to be exposed to media. This is a well-known […]EU to negotiate an FTA with Japan
November 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment
On 29 November 2012 the European Council decided to give the Commission ‘the green light’, to start trade negotiations with Japan, aiming at the conclusion of a Free Trade Agreement between the two sides. As Sting has already noticed the EU has embarked over the past few years on a huge operation, to conclude FTAs with […]Utmost hypocrisy emitted by EU’s energy regulation
November 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The major breakthroughs in the hot sector of energy all over the Old Continent materialised on national level, and on many occasions despite the Brussels directives. For example the North Gas Corridor, supplying Germany with huge quantities of Russian gas and increasing the overall dependency of the European Union on Russian energy resources, was not […]Regional policies slowed down by EU bureaucracy
November 27, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Despite the commonly recognised urgent need for more infrastructure projects aiming at interconnecting transport, energy and telecommunication networks in the 27 EU member states, clumsy inter-institutional cooperation between the main EU bodies, namely the European Commission, The Parliament and the Council, threatens to deprive such projects from already available resources. In this respect it was […]EU: Huge surplus in the trade of services with the rest of the world
November 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment
A regular criticism neo-liberal economist pen down against the European Union is that Europe is not competitive enough. They blame for that the high EU standards of social protection and the strict labour legislation. They fail to see however that the Eurozone and even the entire European Union, is highly competitive in the crucial sector of […]Is a uniform CO2 emission linked car taxation possible in the EU?
November 25, 2012 by 1 Comment
Motor vehicles have being for decades the easy target of many forms of taxation, especially in post WWII Western Europe. Taxes on acquisition, on ownership, on motoring, on licences are but a few. The initial idea behind, in the minds of politicians who supported the imposition of taxes on cars, was that private ownership of […]EU summit: Are the London Tories planning an exit from the EU?
November 23, 2012 by 1 Comment
It’s not the first time that the European Union leaders are divided between the paymasters and the receivers. However during their last Summit of Thursday and Friday 22 and 23 November the 27 heads of states and governments were divided in more than three groups and left the conference room blaming each other, for the […]Is there a cure for corruption in Greece?
November 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment
As Henry Kissinger said, corrupt politicians are defamation for the rest 10%. It seems that Greece is a classical paradigm of this. Not to forget that the architect and contractor of the Athens Acropolis died in prison accused of stealing some of the gold used to construct the Goddess’s statute. Today in this country, contrary […]The vehicles of our future
November 11, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Out of the fourteen altogether topics that the European Union policies and rules cover, the huge automotive sector is affected directly or indirectly by nine of them. Let’s count: Business, Economy-finance-competition, Employment, Energy and natural resources, Environment-consumers-health, External relations and foreign affairs, Regions and local development, Sciences and technology, Transport and travel. The car industry and markets […]Cheap sea transport with low cost seafarers
October 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The last Transport, Telecommunications and Energy (TTE) Council of the European Union dedicated to transport issues, took place in Luxemburg, towards the end of October 2012. The main item on the agenda came under the title, “Improving working and living conditions for seafarers”. Nothing is more misleading than this. Progressively it seems that the EU […]Google case: A turning point in competition rules enforcement
October 24, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Enforcing fair competition in the fast-moving digital markets, like in the Google case, is a fight against time. If the antitrust procedures take the long way of legal battles before the European courts, the possible competition law breaches may purport billions to the culpable party. That is why, Joaquín Almunia, Vice President of the European Commission […]European Union: From financial consolidation to deeper political division
October 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment
In June 2012 the 17 Euro-area leaders who made a giant step forward towards a closer Eurozone union, when back home, those on the giving side, namely Angela Merkel, pretended that nothing has changed, while the ‘winners’ made it look like a gift, which it was not. As for the 10 heads of states and […]Does EURES really exist?
October 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment
EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion László Andor has repeatedly said that, “free movement of workers allows EU nationals to look for a job in another EU country, to work there without needing a work permit and to enjoy equal treatment with nationals of the host country in terms of access to employment, […]
