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This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. In his speech to MEPs, Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa identified the post-war recovery, enlargement, migration and energy as the main challenges for the EU. Addressing MEPs during a formal sitting, President Rebelo de Sousa said he considers the Russian war of aggression […]
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. Forest fires: EU mobilises its firefighting fleet to help Portugal Portugal has activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism to request emergency assistance for the current wildfires in the central part of the country. In an immediate response, the European Commission has mobilised this morning […]
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The European Commission has approved a €160 million Portuguese scheme to support gas intensive companies in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The scheme was approved under the State aid Temporary Crisis Framework, adopted by the Commission on 23 March 2022, based on […]
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. How did the Commission assess Portugal’s recovery and resilience plan? The Regulation ensures a transparent assessment on the basis of 11 criteria against the back of the six pillars of the Regulation. The 11 criteria require an assessment of whether: the measures have a […]
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The European Commission has found a €462 million Portuguese support measure in favour of Transportes Aéreos Portugueses, S.A. (“TAP”) to be in line with EU State aid rules. The measure aims at compensating the airline for the damage suffered due to the coronavirus outbreak […]
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. President Ursula von der Leyen said: “Across Europe, we can see vaccination campaigns accelerating. In parallel, it is now all the more important to launch NextGenerationEU. Economic recovery must go hand in hand with an improved health situation on the ground. I welcome Portugal‘s […]
This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. Ministers outlined the priorities of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU to parliamentary committees, in a series of meetings. Portugal holds the Presidency of the Council until the end of June 2021. The hearings took place between 25 January and 4 […]
This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. Ministers are outlining the priorities of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU to parliamentary committees, in a series of meetings. Portugal holds the Presidency of the Council until the end of June 2021. The first set of hearings takes place between […]
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The European Commission has approved, under EU State aid rules, €133 million in liquidity support to SATA Air Açores (SATA). The aid will allow the company to fulfil its public service obligations, provide essential services and ensure the connectivity of the Azores outermost region. […]
This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. Parliament on Wednesday approved €279 million in EU aid following extreme weather events in Austria, Italy, Portugal and Spain in 2019. The report by José Manuel Fernandes, (EPP, PT) was adopted by 680 votes in favour, 7 against and 1 abstention, to allocate €279 […]
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. Today the Commission decided to refer Portugal to the Court of Justice of the European Union for taxing used cars that are imported from other Member States more heavily than used cars purchased on the Portuguese market. Under EU rules, no Member State can […]
This article is brought to you in association with OECD. Portugal’s economic recovery is now well established, with GDP back to pre-crisis levels, a substantially lower unemployment rate and renewed investment and domestic consumption now joining a robust export sector to drive the economy. Efforts should now focus on reducing vulnerabilities to build resilience to future […]
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 […]
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 […]
This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. Following the dismissal of 1,161 textile workers in three regions, the most disadvantaged among them should receive EU aid worth €4,655,883 to help find new jobs. The measures, co-financed by the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF), would provide the 730 workers facing the greatest […]
This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. Following the dismissal of 1,161 textile workers in three regions, the most disadvantaged among them should receive EU aid worth €4,655,883 to help find new jobs. The measures, co-financed by the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF), would provide the 730 workers facing the greatest […]
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 […]
The divisive effect on Europe that Donald Trump’s trade war has generated, takes on new dimensions now. Only the European Sting highlighted this aspect, when the President of ‘America first’ fired the first shots, igniting the trade skirmishes. The differences, about how to respond to the US trade aggression, between the French President Emmanuel […]
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 […]
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 […]
Last Thursday, the European Central Bank decided to keep flooding the Eurozone with hundreds of billions, despite strong objections coming from the frugal German-Dutch duo. Mario Draghi was adamant about that. It’s interesting to follow his response to a journalist’s remark, who reminded him that the “Dutch Central Bank President Klaas Knot said in a […]
Last week, Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the powerful European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, announced a plan to screen foreign investments. The idea is to hold back or even effectively block business acquisitions or other investment plans financed by third country companies, in key sectors allegedly considered to be sensitive from […]
Over the past three years the European Central Bank, guided by its President Mario Draghi, has been folowing a super relaxed monetary policy. It has been aiming at reviving uncertain economic growth and dying inflation, by handing out to banks, and through them to the economy, hundreds of billions of euro and at the same […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
Last Monday David Folkerts-Landau, the chief economist of Deutsche Bank, the ailing largest lender of Germany, in an interview with the prestigious newspaper ‘Die Welt’ stated that European banks must be subsidized with €150 billion in rescue money to recapitalize. Obviously, it will be the taxpayers to once more provide the capital the euro area […]
Poland, with a population of 40 million or 8% of the EU is not the land locked and Russia loving Hungary that Brussels may easily pretend doesn’t exist. The October electoral triumph of the Eurosceptic, if not anti-EU, Law and Justice party (PiS) under the extreme right wing politician Jaroslaw Kaczynski, a rampant populist, decisively […]
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 […]
The European Union which mobilizes its warships to keep the flows of poor and destitute refugees and immigrants out of its supposedly prosperous interior, at the same is impotent to offer to its own citizens not a prosperous life but not even a secure economic and social environment. According to Eurostat, the EU’s statistical service, […]
Last Wednesday 16 September the European Economic and Social Committee, an authentic representative of the European organized civil society, adopted an opinion aimed at improving the democratic function and the accountability of the EU decision-making bodies. The EESC acted at the request of the European Parliament. Actually, the Lisbon Treaty contains untapped potential to bring […]
Last Tuesday Brussels celebrated the return of the Eurozone inflation to positive grounds after five straight months of deflation (negative inflation). Some EU Commission economists, among others, assume that three positive decimal points of change of the level of consumer prices in May (0.3%), can signal the return of the economy to growth. Under an […]
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