Today’s Eurogroup summit of the 19 euro area heads of state and government is convened by Donald Tusk, the President of European Council in order to bluntly present Alexis Tsipras, the Greek PM with a final ultimatum; ‘comply or leave the Eurozone’. Of course this initiative was not Tusk’s, given that his mandate is rather […]Search Results for: Poland
A Monday to watch the final act of a Greek tragedy; will there be catharsis or more fear?
June 22, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Today’s Eurogroup summit of the 19 euro area heads of state and government is convened by Donald Tusk, the President of European Council in order to bluntly present Alexis Tsipras, the Greek PM with a final ultimatum; ‘comply or leave the Eurozone’. Of course this initiative was not Tusk’s, given that his mandate is rather […]AIESEC @ European Business Summit 2015: The power of an individual and how we can awaken Europe’s Youth
May 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Written by Gordon Ching, Global Vice-President and Chief Digital Officer of AIESEC International Young people across Europe are facing extreme difficulties in securing high quality employment, leaving many parts of Europe with a lost generation that is does not live up to its potential. While major EU initiatives have given young people a priority, there […]“Who do I call if I want to call Europe?” Finally a name and a number to answer Henry Kissinger’s question
December 2, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The much awaited succession ceremony at the EU Council took place yesterday in Brussels. Herman Van Rompuy, leaving President of the EU Council, handed over Europe’s top job to Poland’s Donald Tusk. Mr Tusk, who served as Premier Minister of Poland two times, is considered to be one of Europe’s most successful politicians of the past […]EU leaders agree on 2030 Climate and Energy Package: is “flexible” brave enough?
October 28, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The European Union Heads of State last week reached an agreement on what it was welcomed as “the world’s most ambitious” target yet for cutting carbon emissions. European leaders have defined the headline targets and the architecture for the EU framework on climate and energy for 2030, having signed a pact obliging the EU as […]EU’s core members are eyeing larger parts of arms trade and of world map
May 14, 2015 by 1 Comment
Last Friday, 8 May, the European Commission released two documents setting a path for defense and security cooperation within the EU. The reports will be presented in an upcoming discussion by the competent 28 Ministers on 18 May and the Heads of State and Government in the European Council of 25 June. The two documents […]From Grexit to Brexit: UK industry now says the in/out referendum is good for your health
February 11, 2015 by Leave a Comment
So it is like this. In politics you need to be a sheer opportunist. You have to grab every inch of opportunity available to polarise your electorate and get your message through. Britain’s Prime Minister Cameron, an old fox in UK politics, knows how to do this very well. Yesterday the annual conference of the British Chamber of […]10 months were not enough for the EU to save the environment but 2 days are
October 21, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The highlight in Brussels this week is certainly the EU Council of tomorrow, Thursday 23 October. The reason is not because it will be the last one presided by Mr Van Rompuy, but because the major topic to be discussed in the agenda is the EU climate targets 2030. It has been 10 months that the […]Negative inflation hits Eurozone, ECB to print and distribute one trillion euro earlier than expected
January 8, 2015 by 1 Comment
This week more indications emerged pointing to the possibility that the European Central Bank is to announce a government bond purchases programme sooner than expected. Negative inflation of -0.2% (deflation) in Eurozone during December (announced yesterday by Eurostat), brings this prospect much nearer. The latest information related to the government bond purchases by the ECB […]Hollande protects the euro from the attacks of extremists
May 14, 2014 by Leave a Comment
On 8 May, on the anniversary of the Allied Forces victory against Nazi Germany marking the end of World War II, François Hollande, the French president, used the occasion to defend the European project. He wished that all the French citizens could listen to what he had to say. To this effect the French president […]EU growth in 2015 to be again sluggish; Can the Juncker Commission fight this out?
November 7, 2014 by Leave a Comment
It was last Tuesday when the European Commission (EC) met in Brussels to talk about the 2014 autumn economic forecast. Among others, the discussion was mainly about the sluggish growth and inflation, the impact of geopolitical crises in the EU economy as well as the significant economic performance of Ireland. Wrong growth forecasts The EC stated […]ECB to play down IMF’s alarms for deflation danger in the EU
October 31, 2014 by 1 Comment
It was last Tuesday when Peter Praet, Member of the Executive Board and chief economist of the European Central Bank (ECB), reported to two Belgian newspapers that there is limited risk of price deflation in the euro area. The Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) in the euro area and in the EU gained momentum after four […]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 […]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 […]Moscow’s Eurasian Union lost significance after the crisis in Ukraine
June 3, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Last Thursday 29 May, the Presidents of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan signed the last and most important document, the founding Treaty for their Eurasian Union, to have effect as from 1st January 2015. Four more countries Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have also expressed strong interest to adhere to this new politico-economic entity. The EaU […]EU voters not interested in the European Parliament elections. What’s behind this European Titanic?
May 14, 2014 by 1 Comment
It’s just a matter of few days, and around 350 million European voters will be called upon to choose their representatives. They are expected to go the polls to vote in elections to the European Parliament, the EU’s only directly elected body. Think about it, almost 5% of the globe’s population called to express its preference […]The Brussels bureaucracy blocks the Youth Guarantee scheme
April 10, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The fate of the Youth Guarantee scheme, constituted to help the under 25s to get a job or a training within four months after leaving the education system, is very characteristic of the importance attached to labour matters by the European decision makers and the Brussels bureaucracy in particular. According to the European Economic and […]Europe is now practically divided as in the Cold War
July 1, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Last week’s European Summit in an implicit way actually sealed the partitioning of Europe as in the Cold War. The European Sting has repeatedly reported and commented on this issue and analyzed the efforts, mainly by Germany, for this new division to be avoided. However, Berlin’s endeavors towards this direction were in vain. The European […]EU Parliament: No EU-US trade agreement without safe data
March 14, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The European Parliament, in a strongly worded and overwhelmingly voted resolution, set a definite condition for the legislature’s approval of the currently under negotiation EU-US free trade agreement (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership – TTIP). The condition is that American NSA’s mass surveillance practices be completely stopped. The relevant Press release clearly states that “Parliament’s […]230 Junior Entrepreneurs and over 70 guests attended the International Congress on “Entrepreneurial Skills for Youth”
March 15, 2014 by Leave a Comment
March 14, 2014 News Room The International Congress on “Entrepreneurial Skills for Youth”, organized by JADE, took place between 6th and 9th of March, in Brussels. The event gathered 230 Junior Entrepreneurs, of over 22 nationalities, representing 45 Junior Enterprises. Over 70 guests from businesses, entrepreneurs and corporations, European institutions, global organisations, foundations, educational institutions, […]
The true EU unemployment rate may have soared to 21.9%
April 11, 2014 by Leave a Comment
On top of the 26.2 million of the unemployed, averaging at 12% of EU’s working age population, there is another 10 million of underemployed par-timers who want to work more but they don’t find employment, plus 11.5 million more of working age persons who are available to work but not seeking (9.3 million) or seeking […]What the G7 wants to do in eastern Ukraine
April 28, 2014 by 4 Comments
It took only hours for the West and Russia to discover, after their 17 April Geneva agreement, that the situation in Ukraine is much more complicated than they wanted to make the rest of the world and the public opinion in their home countries believe. The belief that a few men, representing the Organisation […]Auditors say EU spending delivers limited value for money but the timing of their report poses questions
September 18, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Court of Auditors (ECA) in a report that was published yesterday reveals that the EU spends billions to help the rural economy restructure but with poor results, delivering “only limited value for money”. EU spending on agriculture be it production and producer subsidies or supporting structural investment plans has being traditionally criticised not […]Eurozone: Sovereign debt decreases for the first time since 2007
January 29, 2014 by Leave a Comment
During the third quarter of 2013 euro area government debt decreased in absolute terms for the first time since the end of 2007. According to Eurostat, the EU statistical service, at the of the third quarter of 2013, the government debt to GDP ratio in the euro area also decreased to 92.7%, compared with 93.4% […]The EU to bear the cost of eventual sanctions against Russia
March 4, 2014 by Leave a Comment
It’s easy for Washington and London to threaten Russia with far reaching economic sanctions, but very many countries and businesses in continental Europe don’t see it that way. The US and Britain after having actively supported the ‘Kiev revolution’ which ousted Victor Yanukovych from the Presidency, now insist that the West imposes tough economic measures […]How the EU sees its own and Russia’s role in Ukraine
March 7, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Donald Tusk, the Prime Minister of Poland, after yesterday’s European Union summit of its 28 leaders convened to examine the situation in Ukraine, termed it as stormy. He added that the sanctions against Russia the 28 decided were very limited but still, given the deep divisions of the leaders, he said those measures were the […]Eurostat: Real unemployment double than the official rate
January 21, 2014 by 4 Comments
Gender distribution in selected labour categories, age 15-74, EU-28, 2012 (Eurostat graph) Eurostat, the EU statistical service, revealed that the true unemployment rate in Eurozone during the third quarter of 2013 was much higher than the ‘officially’ recognised percentage of 11.5%, according to the definition of UN’s International Labour Organisation. Including the three forms of […]The European giant tourism sector in constant growth
January 30, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The tourism industry is undoubtedly a flourishing sector of the EU economy. However it suffers of an increased sensitivity to events like the 11 September 2001 catastrophe, which can harm its potential on a global scale. Even an airplane accident can undermine its activities for a long time. That’s why it is considered as a […]Ukraine: turning challenges into opportunities
March 26, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Last Friday Ukraine and the EU signed the political part of the Association Agreement. Although deliberately diminished in Europe, the significance of this event is unquestionable for Ukraine and its government ad interim.
Political association is taken in Kiev as a sign of European acknowledgment and recognition at a time of continuing threats from Russia. The economic part […]EU sets ambitious targets for the Warsaw climate conference
November 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The UN climate conferences are the kind on international tribunes, where the European Union can present its opinions with pride. It’s not only that the EU has unilaterally set a target to cut down green-house emissions by 20% below 1990 levels by 2020, but also because this programme is on track to achieve targets. On […]The EU accuses Russia of bullying Ukraine to change sides
November 26, 2013 by Leave a Comment
It took four days to European Union two presidents to grasp the magnitude of the Ukrainian full U-turn, with Kyiv signing the Moscow led customs union, after cashing in the advance of EU’s financial aid. The unprecedented complete turnaround of Ukraine’s foreign policy took place last Thursday and the President of the European Commission José […]Not much of a help the new EU Directive on pensions
November 27, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Labour mobility within the European Union is considered as the main decompression mechanism of social and economic pressures, created by differences in growth rates between member states. Looking for a job or working in another EU country has been praised by politicians and Brussels bureaucrats as the best way to increase the overall competitiveness of […]The financial crisis always prefers the south of Eurozone
December 12, 2013 by 1 Comment
It’s very interesting to study how incomes and consumption in the worst hit countries coped with the financial crisis and the concomitant severe austerity measures imposed by the ‘troika’ of auditors/lenders. The European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund formed this ‘troika’ in 2010, to deal with the risk of insolvency […]German and French bankers looted the Irish and Spanish unemployed
December 30, 2013 by 1 Comment
According to a Commission‘s new ‘on-line state aid to banks benchmarking tool’ published on 20 December, between October 2008 and December 2012 the EU member states provided €591.9 billion (4.6 % of EU 2012 GDP) of capital support (recapitalisation and asset relief measures) to the financial sector (banks). It was not only that. The same […]
