State aid: Commission approves €500 million Greek aid scheme to support uncovered fixed costs of companies affected by coronavirus outbreak

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The European Commission has approved a Greek scheme to support the uncovered fixed costs of companies affected by the coronavirus outbreak. The scheme was approved under the State aid Temporary Framework and has an estimated budget of up to €500 million. Executive Vice-President Margrethe […]

NextGenerationEU: European Commission disburses €4 billion in pre-financing to Greece

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The European Commission has today disbursed €4 billion to Greece in pre-financing, equivalent to 13% of the country’s grant and loan allocation under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). Greece is one of the first countries receiving a pre-financing payment under the RRF. The […]

Forest fires: EU continues to mobilise assistance for Greece and other countries in region

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The EU Civil Protection Mechanism continues to channel support to help combat unprecedented forest fires in Greece and the rest of the Mediterranean. Following requests from Greece, North Macedonia, Albania, Italy and Turkey, the European Union has now helped mobilise 14 firefighting planes, 3 […]

EU Cohesion policy: Commission adopts €21 billion Greek Partnership Agreement for 2021-2027

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The Commission has adopted the first Partnership Agreement for the 2021-2027 programming period for Greece, the first EU country to submit its strategic reference document for deploying more than €21 billion of investments for its economic, social and territorial cohesion. The Partnership Agreement lays […]

NextGenerationEU: European Commission endorses Greece’s €30.5 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 Greece’s recovery and resilience plan. This is an important step towards disbursing €17.8 billion in grants and €12.7 billion in loans under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) over the period 2021-2026. This financing […]

EU solidarity in action: Commission proposes €86.7 million for the recent natural disasters in France and Greece

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. Today, the European Commission is proposing a financial support of €86.7 million from the European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF) to provide relief to the population of several regions in France and Greece hit by natural disasters in 2020. Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa […]

Antitrust: Commission opens investigation into PPC’s behaviour in the Greek wholesale electricity market

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The European Commission has opened a formal antitrust investigation to assess possible abusive behaviour by Public Power Corporation (‘PPC’) in the wholesale Greek electricity sector. Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy said: “We all rely on well-functioning electricity markets. Today we […]

State aid: Commission approves market conform asset protection scheme for banks in Greece

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The European Commission has found Greek plans aimed at supporting the reduction of non-performing loans of Greek banks to be free of any State aid. The Commission found that, under the asset protection scheme (known by the name of “Hercules”), the Greek State will […]

UN Climate Action Summit concludes with insufficient EU and global pledges

The UN Climate Action Summit took place last Monday in New York but the commitments announced were not enough to counterbalance the devastating effects of climate change which is damaging our planet with high temperatures and tremendous natural phenomena. Although the EU is an ambitious contributor to the global efforts to fight climate change and […]

Will the EU reconsider Frontex’s role in light of accusations about violations of migrants’ human rights?

The European border agency Frontex has been found to violate human rights and abuse its power to make excessive use of force and mistreat migrants according to latest research conducted by the ARD political magazine report München, the British Guardian and the search center CORRECTIV. However, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency has been denying […]

Data protection: Commission decides to refer Greece and Spain to the Court for not transposing EU law

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The European Commission decided today to refer Greece and Spain to the Court of Justice of the EU for failing to transpose the EU rules on personal data protection (the Data Protection Law Enforcement Directive, Directive (EU) 2016/680). In April 2016, the Council and the European Parliament agreed the Directive had to […]

Draghi’s negative interest rates help Eurozone’s cohesion

Super Mario did it again. Only months before leaving the helm of the European Central Bank he made sure his accommodative monetary policy will hold well, even after he leaves Frankfurt am Main. Last Thursday, he pushed interest rates below the zero level for at least another year. Even if his successor will be a […]

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 […]

Populist Eurosceptics helped by Trumpists seriously threaten the EU edifice

The confrontation between the populist Italian government and the European Union’s leadership has already left a clear trail on the European ground that permits us to project the itinerary of this conflict in the future. The Italian government is an unorthodox coalition of the extreme right wing party Lega, under its rebellious leader Matteo Salvini […]

Why are the Balkans’ political leaders meeting in Geneva this week?

This article is brought to you thanks to the strategic cooperation of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Oliver Cann, Head of Media Content, World Economic Forum As October begins, the World Economic Forum welcomes five European heads of state or government at our headquarters in Geneva. The meeting is the latest instalment of a Strategic […]

Migration crisis update: mutual actions and solidarity needed as anti-migrant policies thrive

An EU summit is taking place today in Salzburg, Austria where the EU leaders will discuss about the immigration crisis in the region and Brexit deal negotiations. The Parliament’s request to the member states regarding Hungary’s breach of the EU founding values is creating turbulences to the unity and solidarity of the Old Continent. The […]

Draghi to lay his print on long term ECB policies prior to exiting next year

Mario Draghi, the President of the European Central Bank, was criticized by major global financial media for insisting to end the easy money policy this December. The argument is that, after ECB’s Governing Council decided at the end of the prosperous 2017 to end its extraordinary monetary policy, the world has become a riskier place. […]

Parliament approves €34m in EU aid to Greece, Poland, Lithuania and Bulgaria

This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. EUSF aid worth €34 million, to help reconstruction in Greece, Poland, Lithuania and Bulgaria after natural disasters in 2017, was approved by MEPs on Tuesday. The aid includes €16,918,941 for repairs and reconstruction in Lithuania after continuous rainfall throughout the summer and autumn of […]

Greece bailout ends but with no substantial effect on citizens’ life

It was yesterday when the Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras stated from the Greek island of Ithaca that the austerity measures are over cheering for the Greek bailout programme exit. Mario Centeno, the chairman of the ESM’s board of governors, had said last Monday that Greece is once more a nation which doesn’t need any additional […]

Can a Bavarian Oktoberfest beer indulger bring down the Berlin government?

In the late hours of last Monday, Horst Seehofer the Bavarian, a right wing politician and standard Oktoberfest beer indulger, who has lately discovered the attractions of anti-immigration rhetoric, finally backed off from his threats to bring down Angela Merkel’s Federal government. He is the President of the right wing Christian Social Union party present […]

EU migration crisis again accentuates lack of unity and solidarity among member states

Almost nothing was achieved between the EU member states at the mini migration summit which was convened in Brussels last Sunday. Despite the German efforts, there was no common ground among EU leaders. The latter was mainly due to the fact that Italy’s new anti-migrant government is against the “first country responsibility” rule which obliges […]

Greece leaves EU aid program, gets last 15 billion euro

This story is brought to you in association with the European Council – Eurogroup Completion of the fourth and final review and growth strategy The Eurogroup commends the Greek authorities for the completion of all the agreed prior actions of the final review of the ESM programme. We congratulate the Greek authorities and Greek people […]

The Bavarians threaten Berlin and Brussels with immigration crisis

In an unprecedented move, the German Interior Minister is betraying his boss – Chancellor Angela Merkel – and is forming an anti-refugee alliance with the extreme right-wing Austrian government and the precarious new Italian populist administration. The impossible German Interior Minister, Horst Seehofer, the leader of the Bavarian CSU party and junior partner in the […]

At last Germany to negotiate the costs for a really cohesive Eurozone

Finally, Germany blinked. Chancellor Angela Merkel at last decided  to clearly respond and, up to a certain degree, uphold French President Emmanuel Macron’s ideas, about reforming the Eurozone, in order not only to save it from unraveling, but, if  possibe, to make it more cohesive and stronger. In an interview to last Sunday’s issue of […]

Why Italy will not follow the Greek road; Eurozone to change or unravel

the next Italian election is, very probably, to take place within the next few months or even weeks. Then, Berlin, the rest of Eurozone capitals and probably the entire western financial world will learn, if it’s still politically possible to ask just one country’s taxpayers to save an obviously faltering global financial system. The test […]

Budget MEPs approve €104.2 m in EU aid to Greece, Spain, France and Portugal

This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament 16-05-18 Budget MEPs approved on Wednesday EUSF aid worth €104.2 million to support reconstruction in Greece, Spain, France and Portugal, hit by natural disasters in 2017. The aid from the EU Solidarity Fund (EUSF) includes €50.6 million for reconstruction in the Centro region in Portugal […]

Germany readies to pay for the Brexit gap in EU finance

As expected, last Friday’s informal European Council of the 27 EU leaders didn’t produce any tangible result regarding its main agenda item; the future of Europe. The EU leaders just quarreled on who is to cover the hole in the budget, after Britain’s contribution ends with Brexit. In relation to this perennial question of money […]

Germany may have a stable and more cooperative government

The center right and center left German mainstream political parties agreed yesterday evening to form a new grand coalition government. It will be the third time since 2005 the two Christian parties and the socialists jointly govern their country. The socialists will control the Finance, Foreign and Labor ministries, with Martin Schulz, the Social Democratic […]

‘Safe Eurobonds’: a new trick to betray the south euro area countries

All along the years after the 2008-2010 financial crisis, which in the European Union took the form banking/government debt breakdowns starting with Greece, there were cries for the creation of a solid Eurozone. In every respect, these calls amounted to demands that super prosperous Germany accepts some degree of risk-sharing with the rest of the […]

What will Germany look like after the next election?

Last Thursday this newspaper came out with a lead story about European countries having problems producing viable governments. The article was entitled “Minority governments ‘à la mode’ in Europe but can they last long?” It seems conformist Germany answers this question in the negative. According to an opinion poll published this week and reported by […]

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 […]