It was last week when the leaders of Italy, France, Germany and Spain met in Paris with the African leaders of Chad, Niger and Libya to discuss on how to manage the influx of migrants through Libya and across the Mediterranean. Emmanuel Macron, the French president, hosted the summit and mentioned that refugee crisis is […]EU and African leaders to jointly tackle the migration crisis across the Mediterranean
September 6, 2017 by 1 Comment
It was last week when the leaders of Italy, France, Germany and Spain met in Paris with the African leaders of Chad, Niger and Libya to discuss on how to manage the influx of migrants through Libya and across the Mediterranean. Emmanuel Macron, the French president, hosted the summit and mentioned that refugee crisis is […]Is euro to repeat its past highs with the dollar?
September 4, 2017 by Leave a Comment
The strengthening of the euro vis-à-vis the US dollar is taking alarming proportions, puzzling markets and the European Central Bank. The Eurozone single currency has gained 14% from the beginning of the year, with the tempo of appreciation accelerating. It gained around 10% during the summer. For around three years, the ECB has been following […]China and UK relations post Brexit as EU addresses Chinese takeovers
August 30, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Chinese acquisitions of European companies have attracted the attention of the EU’s largest economies, who requested from the Commission to play a more active role on deciding whether these takeovers are ‘politically driven’ or not. The president of the EC, Jean-Claude Juncker, in turn, is expected to announce plans on how to manage foreign investments […]At last Britain considers a super-soft Brexit
August 17, 2017 by Leave a Comment
After more than one year, the Brexit road map has been more or less drafted between the two opposing groups of the governing Tories, the hard Brexiteers and the Bremainers. Minister for Finance, Philip Hammond, and Trade minister, Liam Fox, leaders of the Bremainers and Brexiteers respectively, jointly wrote an article published in the last […]Has the EU economy truly revived from the financial crisis?
August 16, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Last week the European Commission published a press release regarding EU’s recovery from the financial crisis where it is mentioned that the EU, after 10 years since that start of the crisis, is back to growth because of the EU influential actions. What is more, it was announced yesterday that Germany’s gross domestic product in […]The ECB accuses the politicians of inaction, continues injecting billions to banks
July 13, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Last Saturday 8 July the Belgian newspaper De Standaard published an interview with Peter Praet, Member of the Executive Board and chief economist of the European Central Bank. Praet said it plainly “We do say that we still need a long period of accommodative policy before we are ready”. What he means by ‘being ready’ […]Trump ‘used’ G20 to side with Putin and split climate and trade packs
July 10, 2017 by Leave a Comment
While protesters were dynamically trying to reach the part of Hamburg where the G20 leaders of the largest economies of the world were gathered, the most powerful politicians of the globe were reduced to the status of viewers, in the Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin spectacle of rapprochement. Trump also ‘used’ the G20 to tell […]PM May fosters chauvinism, declares trade war on Europe
July 6, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Theresa May, the British PM seems to be so badly cornered by the dreadful reality she and her Brexiteer colleagues have driven their country into, that they have now started acting as if in a collective delusion. Reportedly, they have officially informed the business leaders of the entire UK, that the government may abandon […]Europe to turn the Hamburg G20 Summit into a battlefield
July 3, 2017 by Leave a Comment
This week’s G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany is expected to become a battlefield from the very first gathering. Chancellor Angela Merkel is to attack the US President Donald Trump, about his rejection of the Paris Climate Agreement. The American will reply with a demand for ‘free and fair trade’ as he ventures it, especially for […]The EU slams Theresa May’s Brexit option; sets base for own European defense, security platform
June 26, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Last week’s EU Summit in Brussels set a solid base for the frictionless functioning of the European Union of 27, minus Britain. For one thing, the UK Prime Minister Theresa May fell on a solid wall of distrust. The mainland leaders ostentatiously repelled her vague offer, about the position after the Brexit of the around […]Macron has the deputies but not the people’s consent for his far reaching reforms
June 19, 2017 by Leave a Comment
The French electoral system of ‘two Sundays’ has permitted Emmanuel Macron to become President, despite being the first choice of only 24.015% of the voters on the first electoral round of Sunday 23 April. Then, exactly for the same reason, his newly born party “La République en marche” (REM or LREM) is now estimated to […]Macron’s Presidency: what the young generation’s expectations are
June 16, 2017 by Leave a Comment
This article was exclusively written for the Sting by Mr Adrien Lepic, the elected Secretary General of the European Confederation of Junior Enterprises (JADE) for the 2017/2018 term. The opinion expressed in this piece belongs to the writer and do not necessarily reflect The European Sting’s one. On the 7th of May 2017, the youngest President of […]Trump’s denial of Paris climate agreement; the US Republicans lash out against the world
June 5, 2017 by 1 Comment
Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the UN Paris Climate Agreement is a major foreign policy step, rather difficult to understand. For one thing, the American environmental industry technologically spearheads the world in this domain. The US is a global leader in electric vehicles production, where mainstream vehicles are one of the major contributors to air pollution. […]Trump enrages the Europeans and isolates the US in G7
May 29, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Last Thursday, Donald Trump, at a superb hall in the new glass and steel NATO building in Brussels, delivered an unruly speech, after having pushed aside Prime Minister Dusko Markovic of Montenegro (the related video has become viral) while walking towards the rostrum. He came out with a blatant and derogatory account aimed at 23 […]Will the French let Macron destroy their party political system?
May 18, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Emmanuel Macron is moving forward with his plan to destroy the French political scenery as we know it for centuries, from the times of the great Revolution of 1789. After having attracted a lot of deputies from the fading Socialist Party to his own, the one year old ‘Republic on the Move’ (REM) party, last […]Macron plans for Europe, Brexit and banks but vague on France
May 8, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Emmanuel Macron, after yesterday’s quasi formality of the second round of the election, is the new President of France, having defeated Marine Le Pen by 65% to 35%. He commands the military forces of his country, including the not at all small nuclear arsenal of France, he appoints and dismiss the prime minister and can […]The ECB again takes care of the bankers not the people
May 4, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Last week the European Central Bank surprised everybody by letting it be known that interest rates will “remain at present or lower levels for an extended period of time, and well past the horizon of our net asset purchases”. To be noted, presently, the main refinancing operations interest rate is zero. Of course, the markets […]French election: Will France vote for a reformed or no EU?
May 3, 2017 by Leave a Comment
The run-off presidential election approaches and the leader of “En Marche!” movement leads the race over his political opponent Marine Le Pen. Both attempt to influence the remaining undecided French people who are going to vote on Sunday. On the one hand, Emmanuelle Macron supports an EU reform in order for France to remain within […]If Macron defies Britain about the banks, Paris and London to clash over ‘La Manche’
April 24, 2017 by Leave a Comment
None of the two winners of yesterday’s first round in the French Presidential election, the pro EU banker Emmanuel Macron (23.9%) and the anti-EU and xenophobic Marine Le Pen (21.4%) is to make things easier for their country. However, the same is true for the British PM Theresa May. The latter’s decision to call an […]ECB steadily continues monetary easing policy as EU economy gains momentum
April 12, 2017 by Leave a Comment
European Central Bank – Press Conference Vítor Constâncio, Vice-President of the ECB, Mario Draghi President of ECB and Christine Graeff, Director General Communications (from left to right). Location: Frankfurt . Date: 09/03/2017 © ECB, 2017 / Source: ECB – Audiovisual Service It was last Thursday when the president of the European Central Bank gave a […]Twenty days that may remold the future of Europe
April 6, 2017 by 1 Comment
The next few weeks may indelibly stain the future of Europe. There are three issues which can irreparably hurt the Old Continent. Starting from Britain in the extreme northwest, this week the country showed that she risks plummeting into a jingoistic abyss. A confrontation with Spain about the Gibraltar Rock has provoked a wave of […]The London City-EU connection holds despite of Brexit and the ban of LSE-Deutsche Börse merger
April 3, 2017 by Leave a Comment
European Commission’s decision to ban the Deutsche Börse – London Stock Exchange merger, on the one hand solved a long list of problems it could have triggered, in view of and after the Brexit. On the other hand though, this decision has created probably as many issues, because London is the long established low cost […]The widely advertised hazards of the EU not that ominous; the sting is financial woes
March 9, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Last Monday, Deutsche Bank’s management surprised everybody quite negatively by asking its shareholders for an €8 billion capital injection. Only hours before that, the London Stock Exchange had almost terminated the long negotiated merger procedure with the Deutsche Börse, the German bourse in Frankfurt. The LSE directors rejected the terms set by the European Commission […]Trump’s Russophiles under investigation, Europe remains ‘en garde’
March 6, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Last Friday U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the ongoing FBI probe of the case of the Russian interference in the US Presidential elections favoring Donald Trump. He said “I have recused myself in the matters that deal with the Trump campaign.” Last September, the US intelligence agencies collective, in a joint paper, […]Elections in Europe: No risks for the EU, leaders readying to face Trump-Brexit
February 23, 2017 by 1 Comment
Some political analysts in mainland Europe but many more in Britain and on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean in the US, have rushed to call 2017 the year that can make or break the European Union. They basically argue that the three crucial legislative elections due in Holland next month, in France in […]The four top Americans who flew to Europe perplexed things about Trump’s intentions
February 20, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Four top ranking Washington bigwigs – who flew to Munich, Brussels and Bonn to mend fences with Europe, after Donald Trump termed NATO ‘obsolete’ and rejoiced the unraveling of the EU, left the Europeans bewildered with the dangerously diverging stories they had to narrate. Only the extreme right wing, Polish Defense Minister Anton Macierewicz seemed […]Will Brexit shatter the EU or is it still too early to predict?
February 15, 2017 by Leave a Comment
The president of the European Commission together with EU and German officials fear that Brexit will divide the EU after the negotiations have been concluded. Theresa May is about to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and begin the talks for UK’s exit once the House of Lords grants permission. In addition to the Brexit procedure, […]EU: Divided they stand on immigration and Trump hurricanes
February 6, 2017 by Leave a Comment
The last Friday’s Malta Summit of the 28 minus 1 EU leaders, on emigration and the future of Europe, was convened amidst a steaming wider political environment within and without Europe. The Council could only agree upon on transferring another €200 million to the one of the at least two Libyan governments, that a small […]Europe led by Germany seems vulnerable to Trump’s threats
February 2, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Trump’s America and Europe are obviously at odds. The question is how far this division will go? Unquestionably, it’s the new tenant of the White House who fuels this unseen before confrontation between the Atlantic allies, attached by a time cherished bonding that has politically and economically shaped the world as we know it so […]Will France vote for more or less Europe in the next presidential elections?
January 13, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Meeting on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty – From humiliation and exclusion to participation : eradicate all forms of poverty Copyright: © European Union 2016 Source : EP. Location: Brussels, Belgium. Date: 19/10/2016. Photo: Alexis Haulot. The citizens of three of the strongest European countries, having in their minds the recent terrorist […]Fear casts again a cold, ugly shadow over Europe; Turkey sides with Russia
December 22, 2016 by 1 Comment
The deadly attack in a Berlin Christmas market and the assassination of the Russian ambassador in Ankara, may not be closely connected or plotted by related terrorist circles, but they aim at the same target; to terrify entire populations and block what could lead to a solution in the Syrian mess. Add to that the […]After the Italian ‘no’ and the Brexit, Germans must decide which Europe they want
December 8, 2016 by Leave a Comment
There is no doubt that Europe is in disarray. The long standing malaise of high unemployment and economic stagnation has already mutated into critical political problems. The mutations of the European political ecosystem take various, unseen before forms. In the northern EU countries they invariably appear as extreme right or even semi-fascist political parties, inflated […]The Italian ‘no’ and France’s Fillon to reshape Europe; Paris moves closer to Berlin
December 5, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday, the Italians chose to rebuff Prime Minister Matteo Renzi by voting ‘no’ in the referendum he proclaimed, supposed to introduce certain amendments to the country’s constitution. Officially, the question is whether to institute a more responsive and effective legislative system in the customarily politically unstable Italy. The three opposition parties strongly supported the ‘no’ […]
