Chinese diplomacy delivered a good lesson to Europeans with the official visits of Premier Li Keqiang to Britain and Greece last week. In both cases the Chinese offered deals that the British and Greeks couldn’t deny. In London, the Chinese Premier got a deal with the Bank of England which appointed one of China’s largest […]Greece may offer to China a European gateway
June 23, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Chinese diplomacy delivered a good lesson to Europeans with the official visits of Premier Li Keqiang to Britain and Greece last week. In both cases the Chinese offered deals that the British and Greeks couldn’t deny. In London, the Chinese Premier got a deal with the Bank of England which appointed one of China’s largest […]The 28 EU leaders show contempt for the European Elections results
June 2, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Despite the fact that the European Elections sent a resounding message of disenchantment and distrust for the European institutions, the leaders of the member states of the Union, in their last Summit in Brussels earlier last week, practically refused to take seriously the communication of the citizens, who voted or abstained from the balloting. […]The next EU President will first have to drink his tea at Downing Street
April 24, 2014 by 1 Comment
The fierce political race for the top EU job is heading to its climax lately. Roughly one month away from the European elections of 22-25 May and even the pigeons at park Leopold can feel the sigh of each and every of the 766 Members of the European Parliament. Many of them will have to […]At last some rules on banks
March 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The public outcry against bankers at last produced some tangible results in Brussels. According to a ground-breaking agreement struck between the European Parliament and the Irish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, bankers’ bonuses are capped at the double of their annual salaries. Secondly the capital requirements of the banks are increased to […]EU budget agreement rejected by the European Parliament
February 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Driven by the stubbornness of the British PM David Cameron, who was effectively supported by the austerity loving German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the EU Summit of 7-8 February agreed yesterday on the Union’s budget. Theoretically their decision binds EU spending for the seven year period of 2014-2020. The European Parliament however is of a completely […]Is a deal over EU budget possible today?
February 8, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The Anglo-German understanding prevailed today in Brussels and the European Union spending will be further cut, below the level proposed by the European Council President, Herman Van Rompuy, in November. Actual payments during the seven year period of 2014-2020 will be restricted to €908 billion, close to what Germany wanted and a bit more than […]What our leaders hide from us
February 8, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Europe had a very interesting day yesterday. Let’s see why. First was the British PM who delayed the EU Summit for five hours, then an agreement was announced to reduce the Irish sovereign debt by €20 billion and finally it was Mario Draghi, who helped contain the hike of the euro vis-à-vis the dollar, just […]London to say hello or goodbye to Brussels this week
February 4, 2013 by 2 Comments
Towards the end of this week, on 7 and 8 February, the 27 EU leaders will gather again in Brussels in a most crucial Summit, which is supposed to decide the financial means all the EU institutions will have at their disposal over the next seven years. In this respect this Summit will be different, […]London, Berlin, Paris to fight over EU budget
January 23, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The British Prime Minister, David Cameron is about to announce today in London, that if the conservative party wins the 2015 election, the UK should opt for a different relation with the European Union and then put it on a referendum for Britons to decide. In this case the relations between London and the mainland […]Britain in and out of the EU
January 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment
On the agenda of the Economic and Finance Ministers Council, the Ecofin, which is to take place in Brussels tomorrow there are two ground-breaking items. First on it is the Single Supervision Mechanism (SSM) for the EU banking industry, meant to audit and supervise over the 200 “systemic” banks of the Eurozone, under the guidance […]Cameron postpones speech in Holland
January 18, 2013 by 1 Comment
The European Sting is monitoring very closely what is happening in Britain over the burning issue of the country’s relations with the European Union. The possibility of holding a referendum about a possible exit is developing into a deeply splitting issue. Prime Minister David Cameron seems cornered in his own party by the group of […]Britain heading to national schism on exit from EU
January 13, 2013 by 1 Comment
Either the British conservatives have lost any sense of reality or they think that reality has to accommodate their problems. This time it was George Osborn, the Chancellor of the Exchequer who said that the European Union has to change or Britain will leave the club. For one thing being a British he knows very […]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 […]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 […]
