EU: Turkey to shelter Syrian refugees and turn other immigrants back in return of €3 billion

A genuine Turkish bazaar took place last Sunday in Brussels during the meeting of the EU heads of state or government with the Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. The horse-trading was about what it will cost the EU to stem of the flow of immigrants who pass through Turkey on their way to Europe. Finally […]

G20 LIVE: “This was not an attack against France, this was an attack against the universal human values!”, EU President Juncker cries out from G20 in Antalya Turkey

G20 has just kicked off a few minutes ago with the joint press conference of President Juncker of the European Commission and President Tusk of the European Council. As expected, the very first words of the leaders were about the new horrible Paris attack of last Friday. Juncker’s Statement President Juncker firmly declared: “This was not […]

G20 LIVE: The European Sting covers online world news and the latest developments at G20 from Antalya Turkey

Just a few hours now separate us from the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Antalya, Turkey. The Sting’s extensive editorial team is being installed now at the beautiful summer resort of Antalya in the Mediterranean sea. Populous delegations of the 20 most powerful nations and economies of this world are effectively on their way to Antalya to […]

EU takes again positive action on migration crisis while Turkey asks for dear favors in exchange for cooperation

A mini-summit took place in Brussels last weekend involving the Western Balkan countries and aiming at tackling the escalating migration crisis in the EU. The outcome was the promotion of a 17-point plan which aspires to tackle the issue. The problem that keeps on lingering though is whether the EU countries will look at the greater good of […]

The EU Parliament blasts the Council about the tax dealings of the wealthy

The European Parliament once more honored its role as the authentic exponent of the will of the European citizens. Last Tuesday it dismissed as a “missed opportunity” the EU Council’s decision to water down the mandatory exchange of the ‘tax rulings’ between member states. A ‘tax ruling’ is a special taxation arrangement accorded to a […]

“We are in Europe, but not of it”, from Churchill to Cameron: British Exceptionalism now threatens the entire EU Edifice

It all began back in January 2013 when one ambitious politician promised the world in order to get elected. Once elected, chaos reigned when he realised that his promise is hard to accomplish. While this is the life’s story of most career politicians in this world, for David Cameron things just seem to have turned too complicated recently. […]

Refugee crisis update: Commission still in panic while Turkey is to be added in the equation

It was only last Wednesday that Russia officially launched airstrikes in Syria which are supposed to target terrorist groups such as Islamic State (IS). The attacks however aim at western Syria where “strangely” IS has no activity. Consequently, while Russia is mitigating the war in Syria backing-up Assad and his government, refugees continue leaving massively the […]

The refugee crisis brings to light EU’s most horrible flaws and nightmares

Last Monday, the EU Interior Ministers convened in Brussels in order to discuss about the quotas of the 120.000 refugees proposed by the European Commission (EC) but didn’t manage again to come to a common decision. Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary belong to the group of countries that are against the latter proposal which […]

EU migrant crisis: Germany, France and UK to show the way. Will the rest of the EU follow?

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 […]

Juncker and Tusk killed Greece on 07 July 2015 to meet the Commission’s summer vacation plan? #Grexit #Greferendum #Graccident

The worst moment in the history of Eurozone took place on 07 July 2015 in Brussels. The common currency union leaders decided that the moment has come to kick Greece out. Although nobody had the guts to officially announce it yesterday the leaders of the 18 Eurozone countries together with Juncker’s Commission made just yesterday […]

The time is up but the game is still not over for Greece: negotiations continue in anticipation of a new deal

The deadline of the 4-month extension that the Greek government had received on February 20 just expired today. However, the Greek government and particularly the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on a last moment decision to return to the negotiating table sent a letter to the institutions only hours before the expiration of the bailout programme. […]

China-EU Special Report: Chinese Premier Li Keqiang endorses China’s big investment on Juncker’s plan at 10th China-EU Business Summit

This week amidst the turbulent environment of the EU/Greek crisis, Brussels offered sufficient clues showing that the EU will face the Greek issue rapidly and will go on. China-EU investment relations are increasingly on the spotlight lately and this week culminated with the development of the 17th China-EU Summit and the 10th EU-China Business Summit and on side-events […]

Greece’s Tsipras: Risking country and Eurozone or securing an extra argument for creditors?

The Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his governing left wing SYRIZA party, cornered between its populist rhetoric for greener grass and the realities of the dragging on negotiations with the country’s creditors, called for a referendum next Sunday 5 July without a clearly defined question, denying to exactly clarify where the ‘yes’ or the […]

Can the world take the risk of a new financial armageddon so that IMF doesn’t lose face towards Tsipras?

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 […]

“If they think they can slave an entire nation, then they will just have the opposite results!”, Alexis Tsipras cries out from the Greek parliament

The world is moving forward full speed ahead and the Greeks seem to be the heavy anchor that has not been effectively lifted. This time though it is nothing about the glass of the negotiations being half empty or half full, as the eurosceptics or the pro-Europeans would normally say. The glass broke last Wednesday […]

A few, or rather two, trade and economic alliances may rule our brave new world

Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU Commission President together with the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gave a Press conference following the 23rd EU-Japan Summit which took place in Tokyo on 29 May. The focal point of the meeting was supposed to be the free trade agreement (FTA) between the two sides. However the EU dignitary spoke […]

Spanish vote – bad luck for Greece: Does Iphigenia need to be sacrificed for favourable winds to blow in Eurozone?

Greece is running out not only of time but also luck. The country’s economy has been pending in limbo for the past four months, exhausting all its resources to survive the financial suffocation that the European Central Bank has imposed following the political orders by Berlin, Paris and Brussels, violating the bank’s “independent” role in the European […]

Greece lost a month that cannot be found neither in “mini Summits” nor in Berlin

It has been one long month since the Greek deal on the Eurogroup of 20 February where Greece and the rest of the Eurozone agreed to give to the former a four-month extension of the loan agreement. However, the Greek government does not seem to cooperate with the three institutions (ECB, IMF, EU) to actively and urgently […]

Juncker’s Investment Plan in desperate need for trust and funds from public and private investors

Last Tuesday the EU Finance ministers gathered in Brussels to decide for the fate of Juncker’s Investments Plan. The news is quite promising for EU Investments since all ministers agreed to support this Plan by setting up the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI). Italy also announced its contribution by pledging to invest 8 billion […]

European Energy Union: Integration of markets and need for in-house energy production

The European Commission (EC) official convened in Brussels two days ago to discuss and decide about the crucial matter of the European Energy Union. The strategy of the implementation of this Union was presented and according to Maros Šefčovič, vice-president of the EC, would be “the biggest energy project since the Coal and Steel Community”. However, […]

Greece’s last Eurogroup or the beginning of a new solid European Union?

Today everyone’s eyes are fixed on the extraordinary Eurogroup meeting which is taking place in Brussels. This is simply put one of the most important gatherings in the Union’s history because one of its member states is under the “dilemma” of staying within the Eurozone by signing an extension agreement or exit and face imminent bankruptcy. […]

Digital business is Europe’s best hope to get back to growth

Digital market has received a lot of interest lately in Europe. Not only by the market players that have always lobbied more favourable or less regulation in general, but most importantly by the EU leadership. New Commissioner, new priorities Jean Claude Juncker, new President of the European Commission, seems to have ‘bet all his money’ […]

The EU can afford to invest trillions in support of employment

Eurostat, the EU statistical service, has recently released data showing that, while the government indebtedness increases, the industrial production retreats. Of course Eurozone doesn’t run any danger of losing its competitive edge in world markets. European goods and services exports usually leave a solid positive result, so the Union and more so the Eurozone don’t […]

Junker for Commission President: What were the stakes in this affair

Jean-Claude Juncker’s was confirmed last Tuesday as President of the European Commission for the next five years. In a secret ballot 422 MEPs who voted for him and 250 against. This goes beyond what David Cameron had imagined, when he decided to fervently oppose this appointment for the top EU job. To be reminded, that […]

How Cameron unwillingly helped Eurozone reunite; the long-term repercussions of two European Council decisions

Last week’s European Council, bringing together the 28 EU leaders, adopted two groundbreaking decisions. The first one, to propose Jean-Claude Juncker as next Commission President with a 26 to 2 vote was largely expected, and the European Parliament will predictably endorse him. The other Council verdict, to relax the strict application of the Stability and […]

This afternoon Britain will be once more isolated from mainland Europe

This morning the European Council will carry out an unprecedented procedure. The 28 EU leaders are supposed to nominate Jean-Claude Juncker as candidate for European Commission President by qualified majority, in a vote that has never taken place before. Then, Juncker, or an unlikely other candidate has to be also approved by the MEPs. Up to […]

Can Europe and the US reverse their nationalist and xenophobic drift? Is the West becoming belligerent?

The appointment of the next European Commission President now clearly threatens the very unity of the EU. The two opposing camps have been well shaped around those longing for less or more Union. The first cluster is formed around the British Prime Minister David Cameron, who utterly opposes the candidacy of Jean-Claude Juncker, finding the […]

The 28 EU leaders show contempt for the European Elections results

  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. […]

Pro-EU forces won a 70% triumph in the European elections

Today, Monday 26 May, the morrow of the EU elections, Eurosceptic and extremist newcomers in the European Parliament finally won’t be able to turn the European Union into a different and worse place. At the time when those lines were being typed, reliable result albeit partial, had already confirmed that Eurosceptic and extreme right parties […]

The next EU President will first have to drink his tea at Downing Street

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 […]

Jeroen Dijsselbloem new Eurogroup president

According to an official announcement of the Council of the European Union, on 21 January, the Eurogroup, the council of the 17 Eurozone ministers of Finance appointed its new president, the Dutch Minister of Finance Jeroen Dijsselbloem.  Dijsselbloem takes over from Jean-Claude Juncker,  minister of Finance and Prime Minister of Luxembourg, and will hold the […]
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