The power of data: how Helsinki is improving citizens’ lives

This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. By securely taking advantage of the power of data, authorities are helping residents in Finland’s capital city access the services they need. This new approach separates the storage, anonymization and processing of data from all the tasks performed by […]

Finland has giant supermarkets that only stock second-hand goods

This article is brought to you thanks to the strategic cooperation of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Pushpam Kumar, Chief, Ecosystem Services Economics Unit Would you shop in a second-hand supermarket? In Finland, seven non-profit “reuse centres” called Kierrätyskeskus have popped up around Helsinki, offering preloved furniture, clothes, toys, books, sports gear and cookware. Sounds […]

EU Commission challenges Berlin by proposing breakthrough legislation on banks

In an inspired speech last Friday, in Helsinki the European Commissioner Michel Barnier, speaking at the 4th Annual Economic Forum, made crystal clear that the Commission has not abandoned the target of a strong and effective European Banking Union. He stressed that “We cannot have a genuine Economic and Monetary Union without a Banking Union”. […]

The world to teach Germans to…un-German

Italians and Greeks are trained tax dodgers for millennia now, while Spanish banks lately discovered how to usurp their depositors’ money. No wonder then why the three Mediterranean nations found it difficult to endure the Teutonic straight euro money jacket. As for the Portuguese and the Irish they both followed those Med attitudes and the […]