EU Cohesion Policy: more than €1 billion for Cyprus for economic and social development and a fair green transition in 2021-2027

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. Following today’s adoption of the Partnership Agreement, the single operational programme and the Just Transition Plan for Cyprus, the EU will invest a total of more than €1 billion in the country between 2021 and 2027. The Partnership Agreement lays down Cyprus’ investment strategy […]

State aid: Commission approves €1 billion Cypriot scheme to support enterprises and self-employed individuals in context of coronavirus outbreak

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The European Commission has approved a €1 billion Cypriot scheme to support enterprises and self-employed individuals in the context of the coronavirus outbreak. The scheme was approved under the State aid Temporary Framework. Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: “This €1 billion […]

NextGenerationEU: European Commission endorses Cyprus’s €1.2 billion recovery and resilience plan

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The European Commission has today adopted a positive assessment of Cyprus’s recovery and resilience plan. This is an important step towards the EU disbursing a total of €1.2 billion in grants and loans under the Recovery and Resilience Facility. This financing will support the […]

EU deploys immediate assistance to help Cyprus contain devastating forest fires

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. Cyprus activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism on 3 July 2021, requesting support to tackle forest fires in the Limassol district. Responding immediately, the EU has rapidly mobilised rescEU aerial fire-fighting assets hosted by Greece and Italy. Firefighting planes have already departed from Greece, […]

Cyprus’s last chance to solve the Cyprus issue is threatened by its corrupt political elite

This article was written by one of our guest writers, Mr. Michalis Christou, one of the youngest candidates running in the upcoming May 30 parliamentary elections on the island of Cyprus and a philosophy graduate. The opinions expressed within reflect only the writer’s views and not The European Sting’s position on the issue. How can the […]

Cyprus: Joint Statement by the High Representative Borrell and Commissioner Ferreira on the electoral process in the Turkish Cypriot community

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The Turkish Cypriot community selected Mr. Ersin Tatar as its new leader. It is important now to see a constructive engagement with a view to reaching a comprehensive settlement and reunification.  The European Union supports the resumption of negotiations, under the auspices of the […]

EU-Turkey relations: Erdogan plays the refugee card while beefing up gas operations in the Eastern Mediterranean sea

EU accession talks with Turkey have been suspended as Turkey is showing poor results in upholding human rights, the rule of law, media freedom and the fight against corruption. Turkey is attempting though to change this situation and enhance its relations with the EU discussing current matters with the EU officials and especially with Germany […]

Turkey remains numb while its economy is expected to shrink further due to a cocktail of EU and US sanctions

The EU Council decided to impose sanctions on Turkey for continuing its illegal drilling operations in the Cypriot territorial waters violating the EU member’s sovereignty rights. The Turkish side however keeps claiming the natural sources in the area and insists on the myth that they have equal rights with the Republic of Cyprus. The under […]

EU-Turkey relations: EU considers imposing sanctions while Turkey keeps violating Cyprus’ sovereignty

Turkey continues violating the sovereignty rights of Cyprus by conducting a new illegal drilling operation on the northeast of the island. The EU had already urged Turkey last month to stop its gas drilling in waters around Cyprus. Thus the EU bloc will now have to intervene to resolve such disputes. However, Turkey kept on […]

The ‘yellow vests’ undermined Macron in France and the EU

Paris was a blockaded city this weekend. The government was forced to close down all the main tourist sites in the French capital. The Eiffel Tower, the Opera of Paris, the Louvre museum and tens of other sites which may attract the fury of the ‘yellow vest’ movement are closed and heavily guarded. Galerie Lafayette […]

German egotistic inward turn to badly hurt Europe after Merkel’s exit

Angela Merkel’s era in Germany definitely comes to an end. It coincides, not necessarily in a causal manner, with the extreme right and xenophobic rising tendencies in the country’s political and social structures. These developments will put not only Germany to a political limbo but they will also freeze the progress of the European Union […]

Agriculture and Fisheries Council

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commision. Main results Today we had key discussions on the future of our agriculture and fisheries. In the years to come both sectors will not only have to keep ensuring food security for Europe, but also meet the challenges of sustainability, innovation and generational renewal. […]

EU to Turkey: No other ties than €3+3bn to upkeep refugees

The EU-Turkey Summit in the Black Sea city of Varna last Monday was a chance for the Brussels dignitaries to throw a long list of severe European grievances in the face of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the Commission and Donald Tusk, President of the European Council , went to the […]

Minority governments ‘à la mode’ in Europe but can they last long?

With the Italian elections set for 4 March and anticipated to produce a hang parliament, four out of the five bigger European countries will be in political limbo for a good part, if not for the entire new year 2018. France is the only exception in this Euro-plague of political uncertainty. In some cases the […]

Destabilizing Lebanon after burning Syria; plotting putsch at home: King and Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia

Last week the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman, son of King Salman placed the Prime Minister of Lebanon, Saad Al-Hariri under house arrest in Riyadh and forced him to resign his premiership. The Sunni Lebanese premier has a double citizenship, Lebanese and Saudi Arabian. His family has extended business interests and wealth […]

Refugee crisis: Commission proposes a new plan urging EU countries to help Italy

The EU interior ministers gathered last Thursday in Tallinn to discuss Italy’s problem to deal with migration crisis together with the new Action Plan proposed by the European Commission to support Italy and increase solidarity in the EU. The refugee crisis continues plaguing Europe in 2017 as 101.266 migrants have entered the bloc by sea […]

The West castigates Turkey’s Erdogan for the ruthless political cleansing

Last week, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defied his western allies, who have called for restrain and the rule of law in the wide ranging purge of the country after the failed coup. With the basic human rights hindered, his ruthless cleansing of the military, the judiciary, the public administration, the education system and […]

Merkel had it her way with the refugees & immigrants but can Greece and Turkey deliver?

Early in the morning of 7th March, ahead of the first meeting in the series of the latest traumatic gatherings of the 28 EU leaders with the Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, this newspaper argued that the EU had to prove on that day it could remain in one piece. This didn’t happen then. Last […]

Migration crisis update: What are the chances of a fair deal at this EU Summit?

Everyone in Europe is putting all his money for the migration crisis ‘gamble’ on the EU-Turkey summit taking place this week on March 17-18 in Brussels. The 28 EU leaders had a bit more than a week now since the last summit to evaluate the proposals of the Turkish side and return to the table of negotiations in order to make a […]

Why impoverishment and social exclusion grow in the EU; the affluent north also suffers

The European Union which mobilizes its warships to keep the flows of poor and destitute refugees and immigrants out of its supposedly prosperous interior, at the same is impotent to offer to its own citizens not a prosperous life but not even a secure economic and social environment. According to Eurostat, the EU’s statistical service, […]

A new crop of EU ‘Boards’ override the democratic accountability and undermine the EU project

Last Wednesday 16 September the European Economic and Social Committee, an authentic representative of the European organized civil society, adopted an opinion aimed at improving the democratic function and the accountability of the EU decision-making bodies. The EESC acted at the request of the European Parliament. Actually, the Lisbon Treaty contains untapped potential to bring […]

Greece lost a month that cannot be found neither in “mini Summits” nor in Berlin

It has been one long month since the Greek deal on the Eurogroup of 20 February where Greece and the rest of the Eurozone agreed to give to the former a four-month extension of the loan agreement. However, the Greek government does not seem to cooperate with the three institutions (ECB, IMF, EU) to actively and urgently […]

EU Parliament: A catastrophic crisis management by European leaders

The European Parliament once more confirmed its reputation as the authentic channel transiting the social and the economic realities the European people have to endure to decision makers. Yesterday, the MEPs disagreed with the Commission President Manuel Barroso and Dimitrios Kourkoulas, the Greek deputy Foreign Minister speaking for the Council Presidency, that economic recovery was […]

The European giant tourism sector in constant growth

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 […]

Eurozone: Sovereign debt decreases for the first time since 2007

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% […]

EFSF/ESM boss tells half truths about Troika’s doings

Yesterday, Klaus Regling, the Chief Executive Officer of the European Financial Stability Facility and Managing Director of the European Stability Mechanism, went to the European Parliament and was questioned by MEPs, about the anti-crisis role and operations of the ‘Troika’, a construction made up by the EU Commission, the European Central Bank and the International […]

The European Parliament x-rays the troika’s doings

The European Parliament launched an investigation on the functioning and the legitimisation of the troika, made up by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The three institutions between them undertook to bail out, guide and audit the economies of four Eurozone member states which reached a point of no […]

The fatal consequences of troika’s blind austerity policy

When the ‘troika’, made up by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund was atypically formed first in spring of 2010 to bail out and audit Greece, its widely advertised purpose was to inflict an internal devaluation on this country. Later on the troika undertook to perform the same task […]

The financial crisis always prefers the south of Eurozone

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 […]

Eurozone’s bank resolution mechanism takes a blow

It is very interesting to note how the various sides reported on the workings of the first meetings of ECOFIN and Eurogroup councils after the summer break. Seemingly the 28 ministers of Finance and the 17 of them making up respectively the two bodies discussed all the burning economic and financial issues, from the disbursement […]

Ecofin: ‘The Friday battle’ for the banking union

The crucial character of this Friday’s Ecofin Council can be seen in the size of the Commission’s preparative memo. More than 3,000 words were needed for it. The text of yesterday’s Press release contains everything, from the specific economic policy recommendations to countries with excessive deficits, the entry of Croatia, the €10 billion capital increase […]

Eurozone: How safe are our deposits? Which banks will survive?

The Ecofin Council, the EU body that regroups the 27 Ministers of Finance, probably the most powerful institution of the European Union, is to conduct its regular meeting this Monday and Tuesday 13 and 14 May. On its agenda the main item will be a Commission’s proposal for a crucial Directive, establishing a framework for […]

Berlin and Paris pursue the financial fragmentation of Eurozone

The three EU independent authorities which supervise the financial sector of the Union, namely the European Banking Authority (EBA), the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), collectively known as the three European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs), issued yesterday their first joint report ringing the bell of Eurozone […]