The EU Commission has correctly translated the ideas emanated from the Brussels’ European Council of 23-24 October and accordingly adjourned confrontation with France and Italy over budgetary deficits and extra investment spending for 2015. European Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen responsible for financial affairs and the euro seems to have read very carefully the Conclusions […]EU to finance new investment projects with extra borrowing; French and Italian deficits to be tolerated
October 30, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The EU Commission has correctly translated the ideas emanated from the Brussels’ European Council of 23-24 October and accordingly adjourned confrontation with France and Italy over budgetary deficits and extra investment spending for 2015. European Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen responsible for financial affairs and the euro seems to have read very carefully the Conclusions […]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 […]The EU moulds a new compromise for growth and financial sustainability
October 16, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The whole world knows that the European Union has for decades been powered by a strong force; the Berlin – Paris axis. At times, when this relationship broke down, the EU came to a standstill. Obviously now this is again the case. Towards the end of last month the newly appointed French Prime Minister, Manuel […]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 […]Eurozone: Bankers-politicians rig keeps robbing taxpayers
August 20, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Last week the European Commission ruthlessly wrote the last chapter of the Slovenian financial tragedy. In it, this nation of only two million people was forced by Brussels to save with around €7 billion of taxpayers’ money (a bit less than one tenth of GDP) the overgrown, reckless, aggressive even fraudulent banking system of this […]Eurozone: GDP development heads to naught; the expensive euro serves only Germany
August 17, 2014 by Leave a Comment
A new Eurostat wave of data statistically confirmed that Eurozone is utterly moored in economic stagnation, with disturbing signs that this might even turn to recession. Most significantly, last week the EU statistical service issued an estimate that the euro area GDP idled with a zero growth rate during the second quarter. The same source […]The West and Russia impose a new order on the world
August 11, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The US led confrontation of the West with Russia has just generated the first tangible and sizeable losses for Europe. German equity values and EU agricultural exports to Russia registered heavy costs last week, while the New York Stock Exchange recorded only minor harms. Those developments came after the EU activated its last package of […]What next after more sanctions against Russia, will the Ukrainian civil war end?
July 28, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Even if the Kiev government accomplishes the conquest of eastern Ukraine by the force of arms, the West in general, cannot be sure of a viable solution in the long-term. It is impossible to pacify this region, without some form of autonomy. The obvious reason is the great numbers of the Russian speakers, the majority […]Russia and the EU ‘trade’ natural gas supplies and commercial concessions in and out of Ukraine
July 15, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Despite the willingness of the West (EU and US) to gradually cut off Russia from the western and central European economic volume, the gas pipelines are always there, supplying the rest of Europe with Russian combustible materials and reminding everybody that the Old Continent is still dependent on Russian fossil fuels. The ‘Euro-Mediterranean Platform on […]Is Europe misjudging its abilities to endure more austerity and unemployment?
July 8, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) worries about the “effectiveness of EU policies in bringing young generations back into the labour market”, and quite rightfully so. A steady stream of statistics confirms the assessment that the European economy has entered into a long-term stagnation and very low inflation period without visible exit from it, […]The Ukrainian crisis to destabilize Europe and the world for a long time
July 7, 2014 by 1 Comment
The Kiev government and the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko may be celebrating their military victory in ‘recapturing’ the rebel town of Sloviansk, but they don’t seem to mind much about the future. For one thing the pro-Russian rebels have not been defeated, at least not yet; they withdrew from the northern parts of the Donetsk […]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 […]How Cameron unwillingly helped Eurozone reunite; the long-term repercussions of two European Council decisions
June 30, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Last week’s European Council, bringing together the 28 EU leaders, adopted two groundbreaking decisions. The first one, to propose Jean-Claude Juncker as next Commission President with a 26 to 2 vote was largely expected, and the European Parliament will predictably endorse him. The other Council verdict, to relax the strict application of the Stability and […]This afternoon Britain will be once more isolated from mainland Europe
June 26, 2014 by Leave a Comment
This morning the European Council will carry out an unprecedented procedure. The 28 EU leaders are supposed to nominate Jean-Claude Juncker as candidate for European Commission President by qualified majority, in a vote that has never taken place before. Then, Juncker, or an unlikely other candidate has to be also approved by the MEPs. Up to […]Germany fears that Americans and Russians want to partition Europe again
June 16, 2014 by 1 Comment
The Western threat to punish Russia by blocking its associations with the European Union and the Atlantic economic volume over the Ukrainian crisis has a major drawback; the Russian supplies of natural gas which move Europe. Moscow says it will cut off its gas supplies to Ukraine if an agreement on pricing is not reached […]European Business Summit 2014 : The Sting Report, Day II – Business, Politics and EBS 2015
May 22, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Following the Sting’s report on Day I of the European Business Summit 2014, the report of the second day of Brussels’ most prominent conference is following here. As expected, the second day, full of back to back, even simultaneous, sessions all day long, was more interesting than Day I and gave us a glimpse of how European economy will look […]The European Sting @ European Business Summit 2014 – the preview
May 19, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The prestigious European Business Summit 2014 took place last week at Egmont Palace in Brussels. More than 1650 attendees this year, EU policy makers, businessmen and NGOs paid a visit to the business heart of Europe on 14 and 15 May. The European Sting, official media sponsor of the summit, as a keen follower of Europe’s most significant […]EU elections: The louder the threats and the doomsaying the heavier the weight of the vote
May 15, 2014 by Leave a Comment
All mainstream political leaders of Europe in the socialist camp, the liberals and the center-right parties, invariably exorcise nationalism and populism, as the gravest threats to the EU project. They are quite right to do so. It’s not only the future of the EU which is at stake. Nationalism and populism already threaten the very […]Germany and OSCE support an east-west dialogue in Ukraine without exclusions
May 13, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The West has lost the ball in Ukraine, while the Kremlin ruler tries to make the most out of it. What happened in Mariupol and Sloviansk cannot be justified. West’s allies in the country, that is the extreme right-wing groups and the mercenaries also working for the local oligarchs, proved uncontrollable and untrustworthy. At the […]Who threatens the lives and livelihoods of Ukrainians?
May 6, 2014 by Leave a Comment
People who fail to recognize that the stalemate in Ukraine cannot be resolved unilaterally by military force are not only very dangerous but are political, if not common law, crooks. For example, the appointed by the Maidan ‘regiments’, Interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a lieutenant of the corrupt ex-Prime Minister Jylia Tymoshenko, while in Odessa […]NEC @ European Business Summit 2014: The Digitally Enabled Grid
May 5, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Written by Ciro Scognamiglio, responsible for the market and regulatory analysis at NEC Corporation’s Centre of Competence for Smart Energy Solutions in EMEA For the third time in history, Non-predictable Renewable Energy Sources (NPRESs) were the number one electricity source across the EU in terms of added installed capacity according to the EPIA (European Photovoltaic […]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 […]The ECB proposes a swift solution for SMEs’ financing
April 8, 2014 by 1 Comment
The European Central Bank is deeply worried about the ability of Eurozone’s SMEs to access bank financing at a reasonable cost and under competitive terms. The present business loan stalemate has already bitten into the growth prospects of the euro area, mirrored in the dangerous fall of inflation rate towards the deflation zone and the […]Youth unemployment: No light at the end of the tunnel
April 8, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Last Friday the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) held a public hearing on the implementation of European Union policies to counter youth employment. EESC is a consultative body made up by representatives of Europe’s socio-occupational interest groups and others (employers, workers and various interest groups). It gives its members a platform to express their […]Tackling Youth Unemployment
April 5, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Written by Arnaud B. Muller, AIESEC ICHEC, LCVP TM When asked to write a piece about youth and employment, my first reaction was: they did not choose the right topic. They had better gone with youth and unemployment, because let’s be honest, this is mostly what we hear nowadays and most definitely something most young […]Obama, Crimea and the TTIP pill
March 28, 2014 by Leave a Comment
It was two days ago, Wednesday 26 March, that the President of the USA paid us a visit here in Brussels and caused a congestion chaos in the Belgian capital. The reason of his visit was to sell. To sell ideas about freedom, NATO membership ‘upgrades’ and a bit of shale gas. As sales are […]The European Sting @ Mobile World Congress 2014, Creating What’s Next for the World. Can EU Policy follow?
March 10, 2014 by Leave a Comment
It was the end of February and the time for the world’s biggest annual mobile technology event had come. The rendez-vous was given at the same place as last year; at the beautiful capital of Catalunya, Barcelona, that is also the Mobile World Capital. The European Sting was media sponsor of the world’s most magnificent […]MasterCard @ MWC14: Innovation in times of regulatory uncertainty
March 8, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Written by Javier Perez, President of MasterCard Europe It was that time of the year again. At the end of February, Mobile World Congress opened its doors in Barcelona for a week. This year’s edition saw the presentation of a myriad of innovative solutions in the mobile space. Some of the new devices and solutions […]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 […]How to test if Kiev’s ‘Maidan’ was an authentic revolt or a well-planned operation
February 27, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The difficulties to formulate a new government in Ukraine are obviously related to the country’s economic stalemate, the deepening east-west division and the inextricable situation in the energy sector with only supplier, the Gazprom Russian monopoly. All that may be very real and difficult to solve equations. However, there is an additional factor, the importance […]The new Kiev rulers ask $35 billion from the West
February 25, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The new rulers of Kiev now demand from the West 35 billion in an aid package, without making it clear if this is in dollars or euros. As they say ‘after the meal comes the bill’ and the West has to come up with a convincing support scheme, because Ukraine can turn around and change […]Can the US deal a blow to EU and Russia together over Ukraine?
February 24, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Within 24 hours the agreement that the European Union brokered in Ukraine was turned into a worthless paper by around 200 MPs and some hundreds of heavily armed ‘protestors’ in Kiev. Given that the power behind this radical change in the Parliament couldn’t be Russia or the EU it has to be Ukraine’s proper oligarchs, […]Russia won’t let Ukraine drift westwards in one piece
February 22, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Somebody must stop this person heading Europe’s diplomacy in the External Action service. Yesterday Catherine Ashton broke all limits in two successive statements, one for Libya and another for Ukraine. Even if she doesn’t mind her own credibility and political correctness, her bosses in, London, Berlin and Paris have to think again if she adds […]
