As if history wanted to remind everybody what will be the outcome of direct foreign intervention in a region or country divided by internal differences, the Bosnians took it to the street to end a fallacy of governance at a time when Ukraine is about to follow suit in this direction. Kiev’s political elite, the […]Russia and the West to partition Ukraine?
February 21, 2014 by Leave a Comment
As if history wanted to remind everybody what will be the outcome of direct foreign intervention in a region or country divided by internal differences, the Bosnians took it to the street to end a fallacy of governance at a time when Ukraine is about to follow suit in this direction. Kiev’s political elite, the […]The Swiss will pay dearly for voting out fellow Europeans
February 11, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Xenophobics, racists and far right political extremists all over Europe have celebrated a razor-thin win of 50.3% in a Swiss referendum last Sunday, favoring an initiative “against mass immigration”. The vote was introduced by the country’s far right-wing Swiss People’s Party and was meant to block the free entry of EU citizens in the country, […]Brussels enraged with Swiss referendum result to keep out EU citizens
February 10, 2014 by 1 Comment
This morning the European Union clearly showed its complete disappointment, with last Sunday’s result of a referendum held in Switzerland, where with a narrow majority of 50.3%, the people of this country approved a “mass immigration” initiative, imposing quotas on European Union citizens entering the Alpine Confederation. The narrow approval of this new law is […]Sochi not far away from Ukraine
February 8, 2014 by 1 Comment
On the day the Russian organizers of the $51 billion Winter Olympic Games staged the opening ceremony in Sochi, the European Union found the opportunity to talk to Moscow about pigs, European pigs. Yesterday, Friday 7 February, Health Commissioner Tonio Borg called once more on the Russian Federation to “engage in constructive talks on the […]Parliament compromises on Banking Union but sends market abusers to jail
February 6, 2014 by 2 Comments
Yesterday the European Parliament confirmed its willingness to regulate the EU’s financial sector with determination and the obvious intention of convincing the 500 million European citizens that ordinary people matter more than bankers and derivative dealers. Of course all that is happening ahead of the May European elections. To this effect, the plenary of the […]Poor Greeks, Irish and Spaniards still pay for the faults of German and French banks
February 3, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Government deficit decreased substantially in the third quarter of last year and reached -3.1% of the GDP in Eurozone. This is just one decimal point away from the 3% benchmark, set by the Treaty of Maastricht and the strict EU economic governance Regulations (the famous ‘two’ and ‘six’ packs). The gap between government income and […]Eurozone: In vicious cycle of disinflation and unemployment?
February 1, 2014 by 1 Comment
Eurostat, the EU statistical service, announced late yesterday evening that in December unemployment remained at the persistently high level of 12% since October, while inflation took a new downwards turn to 0.7% in January, from 0.8% in December. It’s difficult to say which one of the two developments is more alarming. On both accounts Eurozone […]The mother of all fights about inflation, growth and banks
January 28, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Reading two accounts by two different people, about what happened in the Eurogroup meeting yesterday in Brussels, gives a clear indication of what will be decided in the ECOFIN Council today. Ollie Rehn, Vice-President of the European Commission and member of the Commission responsible for Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Euro, and Jeroen Dijsselbloem, […]ECOFIN: Choosing between the re-unification of Eurozone and a stalemate
January 27, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Tomorrow’s Economic and Finance Ministers Council (ECOFIN) set to be convened in Brussels, the first under the Greek Presidency, will have the crucial task to decide on the construction of the European Banking Union. In view of that, the European Parliament sent a letter to the Greek Presidency of the Council, rejecting both the legal […]War of words in Davos over Eurozone’s inflation/deflation
January 27, 2014 by Leave a Comment
During the last two days, Friday and Saturday, of this year’s Davos gathering of the rich and powerful, an intense debate about Eurozone’s inflation or rather deflation, divided once again the Old Continent between Germans and…anti-Germans. Ollie Rehn, the Finn European Commission Vice-President and Commissioner responsible for finance and the euro, said that the currently […]EU-Russia summit in the shadows of Kiev’s fumes
January 25, 2014 by Leave a Comment
In the shadows of fume of the protest fires in Kiev’s Independence Square, the 32nd EU-Russia summit is expected to take place in Brussels this Tuesday. It will end with a working lunch, without an official dinner being held. The EU side dropped it as an indication of deep concern about Moscow’s role in Ukraine. […]High level political talks didn’t break the stalemate in Ukraine
January 24, 2014 by 1 Comment
Yesterday Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych held talks with the leaders of the opposition as he promised to EU President Manuel Barroso during their telephone conversation earlier on the day. But this was all Yanukovych did to fulfil his promise to the EU leader. After many hours of talks, the leaders of the Ukrainian opposition coming […]Commission sets moderate greenhouse gas reduction targets for 2030
January 23, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday, the European Commission took the middle, not ambitious path, on the burning issue of climate protection. It chose to propose rather conservative targets for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and energy production from renewable resources, easy to achieve and not demanding extra efforts in the investments front. To this effect, early yesterday, José Manuel […]Income inequality threatens the socio-political structures in developed countries
January 21, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of IMF, is not renowned for her social concerns and sensitivities. Yet, while speaking last week at the National Press Club, in Washington DC, about “The Global Economy in 2014”, among other important policy proposals for the world to exit the era of the “seven weak years”, she didn’t forget to […]Iceland won’t talk with Brussels about EU accession
January 20, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Iceland has two very good reasons to freeze its EU accession talks until the tiny country holds a referendum on it. Icelanders think twice when it comes to money and fish. On money their views differ widely from what the EU thinks about it and when it comes to fish, Iceland also has quite diverging […]IMF’s Lagarde indirectly cautioned Eurozone on deflation
January 16, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Weak growth is threatened by deflation in the developed world, while emerging markets have to overcome the financial turbulences that lie ahead, due to forthcoming restrictive monetary policy by the US central bank, the Fed. This is what IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said yesterday, speaking at the National Press Club in the U.S. capital. […]Eurozone has practically entered a deflation trap
January 8, 2014 by Leave a Comment
With consumer price developments in Eurozone remaining below the one percentage unit for many months now, disinflation (falling inflation) is just some decimal points away from deflation (negative inflation). Yesterday, Eurostat, the EU statistical service, released its estimate for the December headline inflation at 0.8% , down one decimal point from 0.9% in November. This […]Berlin ‘orders’ the EU Parliament to compromise
December 23, 2013 by Leave a Comment
As expected the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz strongly criticised the agreement reached in the European Council by the 28 EU leaders, on the plan for the enactment of the Banking Union. He said, “The slower and inefficient a system is, the more expensive it will be”. However the Federal Minister for Finance […]The Parliament sets the way for the European Banking Union
December 18, 2013 by 1 Comment
The final shape of the European Banking Union will be served as dessert on the dinner table of the 28 EU leaders on Thursday night. According to the invitation letter that Herman Van Rompuy addressed to the heads of states and governments on the European Union “Over dinner, the focus will be on economic and […]A day that Berlin and Brussels would remember for a long time
December 17, 2013 by 1 Comment
It was not by accident that the President of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi chose the right time to ring the danger bell against a “bad Banking Union”, while speaking yesterday in the Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Parliament. Obviously, he wanted to be heard by the new German government which is expected […]Ukraine turns again to the EU for more money
December 13, 2013 by 2 Comments
Yesterday’s development, with half the Ukrainian government under deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Arbuzovin in Brussels to discuss and possibly sign the Association Agreement with the EU, in exchange of more financial aid of the order of at least €18 billion, is a clear sign that the country is really in dire straits. Last week President […]Bank resolutions set to remain a national affair
December 12, 2013 by 1 Comment
Negotiations over the drafts of three key directives destined to mark the future of Eurozone, namely the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive, the Bank Deposits Guarantees Schemes and the Single Resolution Mechanism remain so elusive, that every minister of Finance when leaving Brussels last Tuesday night set the focus on what his or hers home […]Who cares about the unity of Ukraine?
December 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment
During the weekend, the new wave of pro-EU protests in central Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, against the government’s last minute decision to drop out from an agreement with the European Union and instead sign one with Russia, shows the deep division between the pro-western and pro-Moscow parts of the population of this country. For one […]Britain and Germany change attitude towards the European Union
December 4, 2013 by 1 Comment
Two different developments, completely unrelated with each other, at least in the first reading, took place yesterday and may shape the future of the European Union in the near future. In the first instance the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, on official visit to China, had a quite unpleasant morning yesterday being badly molested by the […]Ukraine pays the price for lying between Russia and the EU
December 3, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday, it was a difficult day in Brussels with the EU’s Eastern Partnership under stress, because of the violent suppression of the pro-western street protests in Kiev. This same day the Russian President Vladimir Putin – the architect of Ukraine’s changing sides and joining Moscow’s Eurasian Union – chose to go to Yerevan to meet […]Who is culpable in the EU for Ukraine’s defection to Russia?
December 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The 350,000 to 500,000 people who protested yesterday, even violently at times, in the centre of the Ukrainian capital Kiev, belonged, theoretically, to the three opposition parties, which had organised the rally. Unquestionably however, all Ukrainians believe that President Viktor Yanukovich – who decided at the last minute to turn down an Association Agreement with […]EU Commission indifferent on Court of Auditors’ recommendations
November 28, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Only a few days after the European Court of Auditors, the independent audit institution of the Union, said that EU money is spent with “little interest in the results achieved”, the Commission published its own assessment on the effectiveness of EU spending, alleging that the “EU budget (is) increasingly an investment tool”. The ECA is […]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 […]Ukraine takes EU money and runs to sign with Russia
November 22, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday, Ukraine threw away in the dustbin EU’s ultimatum issued last Monday by the Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevičius during the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels. Lithuania currently holds the EU Council Presidency, representing the entire Union. Linkevičius said that “Ten days remain for Ukraine and the European Union to take crucial […]Ukraine undecided over a strategic partnership with the EU
November 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The Eastern Partnership, EU’s major and expensive initiative to extend its influence up to the southern borders of Russia is faltering dangerously. Ukraine doesn’t seem ready to sign the Partnership, after Armenia recently rejected it. This is the second opening of the European Union to Eastern Europe, after the successful historic enlargement of the Union […]The Commission tells Berlin it is legally obliged to help Eurozone out of stagnation
November 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The time has come and the European Commission gave to Germany in writing, what has been so far aired orally. In this respect, Brussels tells Berlin that it is legally obliged to abandon its egotistic austere and protective policies and help itself and the entire Eurozone enter again in a sustainable growth path. Let’s take […]The financial future of Eurozone on the agenda of Friday’s ECOFIN council
November 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The agenda of the Economic and Finance Ministers’ Council (ECOFIN) of 15 November in Brussels is very heavily loaded. The ‘Taxation of savings incomes’ and the ‘Revision of the Anti-Money Laundering Directive’ may be major issues, but the first reading of Commission’s proposal for the creation of the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) will haunt […]A sterilised EMU may lead to a break up of Eurozone
November 12, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Ahead of the ‘The European Employment Forum’ which takes place in Brussels today and tomorrow and according to its organisers is ‘the annual networking forum for everyone involved in employment and enterprise within the EU and beyond’, there was an increased activity over the burning issue of jobs and unemployment in Europe. To this effect, […]
