Last Tuesday afternoon the President of ‘America first’ Donald Trump withdrew the US from the Nuclear non-Proliferation Agreement with Iran. The deal is known as P5+1 and was co-signed by the US, France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China. There is no information regarding when the US is to re-introduce its economic sanctions against Iran, and […]France-Germany: Divided in Europe, USA united in…Iran
May 10, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Last Tuesday afternoon the President of ‘America first’ Donald Trump withdrew the US from the Nuclear non-Proliferation Agreement with Iran. The deal is known as P5+1 and was co-signed by the US, France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China. There is no information regarding when the US is to re-introduce its economic sanctions against Iran, and […]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 […]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 […]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 […]EU Summit: Why was Poland isolated in opposing Tusk and the ‘multi speed’ Europe
March 13, 2017 by 1 Comment
Until last week’s summit (Thursday and Friday) of the 27+1 European leaders in Brussels, the exit of Britain from the European club was the tougher test for the club’s unity, which everybody was more or less getting ready to face up to. However, the Polish Prime Minister, a stocky middle aged woman, reversed that and […]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 […]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 […]Trump questions US – Europe kinship, approaches Russia
November 21, 2016 by Leave a Comment
In a peculiar way, the five EU leaders who gathered last week in Berlin for a farewell meeting with Barack Obama, closely followed the outgoing American President in his hard line stance against Russia and Vladimir Putin. The Obama administration has been persistently pressing the Europeans to impose more sanctions on Russia on various reasons […]The COP22 is under full deployment while Donald Trump threatens openly to withdraw the US from the Paris agreement
November 16, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The 22nd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22) which is taking place at the Moroccan city of Marrakech is already at its second week with the final meetings to be held under the fear that the newly elected U.S. government will step back from the Paris Agreement. It is […]Who can compel Wallonia to unlock CETA, the EU-Canada free trade pack?
October 24, 2016 by 1 Comment
No, it wasn’t just the tiny Wallonia region of Belgium and its 3.6 million French speaking inhabitants who blocked CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement). This is an EU-Canada free trade and investment pact that took eight years to the Brussels Commission and the Canadian authorities to draft. It was also the Brexit and the […]What if Trump wins the November election and Renzi loses the December referendum?
September 29, 2016 by Leave a Comment
After the Brexit, it became apparent that a large or probably the largest part of citizens/voters in the western world are questioning, if not strongly protesting against globalization, having felt its onerous consequences. The free movement of people, goods and capital is not any more a perceptibly good thing for the average man in the […]The Franco-German axis considers that all EU needs now is more armaments
September 19, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Last Friday in Bratislava, the Slovak capital, the 27 EU leaders met for the first time without the British Prime Minister. Reportedly they diagnosed that the Union has a grave problem, distancing itself from the people. Of course, the frustration of voters with the EU has not manifested itself just in the Brexit. Brussels have […]Are the G20 leaders ready to curb corporate tax-avoidance?
September 8, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Last Monday, the G20 meeting in Hangzhou – the capital of China’s eastern Zhejiang province – the first gathering of the 20 world leaders to be held in the vast country, was not marked by the determination to face up to economic misery and the pitiless wars in Syria, Libya, South Soudan, Yemen, Mali and […]A hot autumn after a cool summer for Europe
September 5, 2016 by 2 Comments
This autumn Europe has everything it…didn’t need. A frozen Spain, a hot Britain who says will stay in EU’s Foreign and Security Policy, a self-centered Ireland and a revolutionary France. In the most interesting development the British Foreign Secretary, the infamous for his gaffes and lies Boris Johnson, said that despite the impending Brexit, his […]Merkel refuses to consider the North-South schism of Eurozone
August 29, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The European leaders who form the EU ‘directoire’ may get together as many times as they like, but still appear incapable of solving the club’s existential problems. Last Monday the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the French President Francois Hollande and the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi met in Naples to relaunch Europe, after the Brexit. […]Is there a de facto impossibility for the Brexit to kick-start?
June 30, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Quite understandably, the European Union leaders including of course the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the French President Francois Hollande and the EU Commission leader Jean-Claude Juncker, want a swift and stern Brexit. The reports about a Franco-German split, with a fictitious Berlin tolerance and the Paris harshness, do not hold water. The France-Germany axis must […]The Brits are not an exception and that’s why they voted to leave
June 27, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The choice made by a bit more than half of the adult Britons to exit the European Union has already triggered financial and political turmoil. In a short while the direct impact on people’s lives will start to materialize. Let’s count the most important adverse effects: the financial markets turmoil, the international trade fallout, the […]The UK referendum has already damaged Europe: even a ‘remain’ result is not without cost to Britain and the EU
June 23, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The adult Brits are deciding today about their country’s position in or out the European Union, in a referendum that Prime Minister David Cameron was forced by his party’s ultra-Eurosceptics in January 2013 to promise to conduct it, should the Conservative Party win a majority in the 2015 legislative election. This promise was then thought […]Has the treacherous theory about the ‘French patient’ finally prevailed?
May 30, 2016 by 1 Comment
The overwhelming labor reforms that the French government is currently finding very difficult to introduce, are also posing a crucial dilemma for the entire Eurozone. The ‘liberalization’ of the labor market has already traumatized Italy and the rest of the south European countries like Greece, Spain and Portugal. The northerners have already ‘solved’ this problem, […]Is there a chance for the West to win the war on terror?
March 24, 2016 by Leave a Comment
On the night of 13 November 2015 in Paris, after the ISIS operatives had hit almost simultaneously a concert hall, a major football stadium and some restaurants and bars leaving 130 dead and hundreds injured, the French President Francois Hollande said “we are at war”. Last Tuesday morning the same kind of ‘armed forces’ and […]Brexit Update: EU endorses unprecedented compromise to help Cameron out of the referendum mess he got himself into
December 30, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Following the failure of the European Council’s summit on December 17-18 to answer positively to UK’s requests regarding EU migrant’s social benefits ban, it was time for the German Councellor and French President to take the lead and try to avoid a possible Brexit. Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande thus proposed to the British Prime Minister […]French elections: by the time the EU economy revives and the migration crisis is solved extremists could take over Europe
December 8, 2015 by 1 Comment
The National Front (FN) of Marine Le Pen won the first round of the regional elections in France while Nikolas Sarkozy’s party came second and the French President Francois Hollande was disappointingly at the third place. The entire Old Continent was shocked last Sunday when it was announced that the FN received 28% and won six out […]COP21 Breaking News: “There is an ecological debt that the world needs to pay back to Africa”, French President Francois Hollande promises 2 Billion euros by 2020 from Paris
December 2, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The President of the French Republic, François Hollande, organized a summit – “The Climate Challenge and African Solutions” on Tuesday, 1 December from 9:30 to 11:30 in the side-lines of COP21. This summit brought together twelve African Heads of State, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, and representatives of several governments and international institutions […]Greener economies and investment to reduce unemployment and increase global growth
November 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment
In less than a month now the UN Climate Conference will be taking place in Paris in order to implement measures that could reverse the downhill of the global climate. At the same time the Corporate Europe Observatory’s survey reveals that the European Commission (EC) is highly promoting the “dirty” energy companies more than the renewable […]Why the 33,000 staff European Commission did not have a real contingency plan for the refugee crisis?
September 25, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Last Wednesday the EU leaders convened in Brussels to discuss the migration crisis in view of the decision made by the Interior Ministers one day ago. The Heads of States finally decided to “work together in a spirit of solidarity and responsibility” supporting the positive vote taken by the majority of Ministers at the Extraordinary […]EU finally agrees on target for 40% greenhouse emission cuts ahead of Paris climate talks
September 22, 2015 by Leave a Comment
“Today’s extraordinary meeting of the Environment Council set out the EU’s position for the new global climate agreement”. Those are the words that European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Cañete chose at the end of the Environment Council, last Friday, where the EU officially set out its position for the Paris climate conference […]EU migrant crisis: Germany, France and UK to show the way. Will the rest of the EU follow?
September 9, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The recent migrant crisis keeps on plaguing Europe and our good EU leaders and officials strive to find solutions to tackle it. Jean Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission (EC), will present today his plans for sharing asylum seekers among the 28 EU countries. It will be a crucial day for Juncker’s Commission because […]Is the ECB enforcing the will of the big Eurozone member states on the small? Can the euro area live with that?
July 30, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Reviewing the political or economic events in retrospect always gives the observer a privileged position. This is the point where Benoît Cœuré – a Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank – found himself at an interview last Monday. At some point he was asked if the ECB had suffocated Greece’s commercial […]Tsipras bewildered with Berlin’s humiliating demands; ECB expects political sign to refinance the Greek banks
July 13, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The Greek indecisiveness and procrastination and the deep division of the euro area countries, with Germany upholding an intransigent position have led to the humiliation of Athens, during the Saturday and Sunday late night meetings of the Eurogroup (the council of the 19 ministers of Eurozone) and the Eurosummit (the 19 heads of Eurozone state […]Greece: Tsipras’ referendum victory does not solve the financial stalemate of the country and its banks
July 6, 2015 by 1 Comment
The imperative economic realities for the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will not be altered noticeably after his crushing win in yesterday’s referendum. His ‘no’ (OXI in Greek) option marked an overwhelming victory meaning that the Greeks rejected the latest offer from the country’s creditors. To be reminded, during the past five months the Greek […]Hardened creditors drive Greece to dire straits; Tsipras desperate for an agreement
July 2, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Alexis Tsipras, the Greek Prime Minister, his government and their depressed country are now in real dire straits. This is a much worse position than in any time during the last five years, a period in which Greece repeatedly faced total collapse and was rescued by a troika of creditors (the European Union, the European […]Can the world take the risk of a new financial armageddon so that IMF doesn’t lose face towards Tsipras?
June 17, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The next meeting of the Finance Ministers of the Eurozone (Eurogroup) is convening tomorrow and the main topic will be the Greek deal with the three institutions. However, the fact that the negotiations haven’t yet reached an accord from both sides makes the agreement very unlikely. That is the reason why the European leaders are preparing […]
