
The debt crisis in the euro area
First it was the global financial crisis. Then came the debt crisis in the euro area, unleashed by Greece. A series of strong explosions followed in the eurozone - first Ireland, then Portugal and now the attention is focused on Spain and Italy. All measures, applied so far, failed to solve the problem in its roots and markets' lack of confidence that the EU would control the crisis still exercises strong pressure on the debt stricken economies.

Greece Is Exiting the Bailout Programme but Not Quite
Somewhat unnoticed and without much fireworks on August 20th the euro area will finally close the crisis that started in 2009 and threatened the EU's most successful project with a breakup. On that date, Greece will exit its third rescue programme and, according to the European Commission, will ...
An Italian Remake of the Series "The Economy or Democracy, Voter"
Do you remember the beginning of 2015, when Greece was just about to exit the recession after painful and tormentous reforms? At the time, the anti-establishment party SYRIZA won the elections on a promise to re-negotiate the Greek bailout programme and to deliver debt write-off. That year ...
A Lukewarm Welcome for Greece's Growth Strategy
By June 21st, the euro area must be ready with a plan for Greece's exit from the third and last bailout programme, which will officially happen in August. However, the most important elements of this plan are still missing. Those are the Greek government's growth strategy for the post-programme ...
Draghi Fears a Repetition of the Same Mistake that Led to the 2008 Crisis
The European Central Bank has made a new, though much smaller, step toward tightening of its monetary policy. The Governing Council decided unanimously on March 8th to remove its easing bias regarding the size and/or length of the net assets purchases programme (APP) - one of the non-standa ...
Greece Is on Its Way to Reconcile Eurogroup and IMF
2018 marks a new beginning for the Eurogroup, Greece and relations with the International Monetary Fund. The first meeting of the euro area finance ministers started with a new chairman - Portugal's Finance Minister Mario Centeno. There are great expectations for a change of course under his lea ...
Has Greece Grown Up?
The year-end is usually time for taking stock, and the change of guard in a key euro area institution is a reason for even deeper analyses and even for a book. Not to mention the deepest euro area crisis since the introduction of the single currency. During the farewell with Eurogroup chief Jero ...
Mario Draghi Plans and Labour Market Laughs
The highest economic growth in a decade exceeding all expectations, as described by European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis (Latvia, EPP), responsible for the euro, during the presentation of the autumn package of the European Semester on 22 November. Unemployment has dropped down ...
Eurozone and Greece Are Preparing for Bailout Exit
A very important piece of news has passed almost unnoticed last week among crucial for the EU issues, like the situation with the rule of law in Poland, the election in Germany and what ruling coalition will be formed at a time when the eurozone is ready to make a giant leap forward in its integ ...
Commission Puts on Rose Coloured Glasses to the European Semester
The European Semester for 2017 ended officially at the end of June, when the leaders of member states adopted the Commission's country-specific recommendations. What are the lessons of this year's exercise? The semester was created at the peak of the financial and economic crisis to tr ...
EU Matures to the Need to Deal with Non-Performing Loans at the European Level
The European economy is recovering at a rapid pace, but its prospects still bear the legacy of the worst economic and financial crisis since the creation of the single European currency. One of the problems that the head of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi has consistently pointe ...
From Sintra to September - ECB Prepares for a Possible Change in Monetary Policy
Over two-thirds of the questions at the press conference following the July meeting of the European Central Bank Governing Council last Thursday revolved around Governor Mario Draghi's speech in the Portuguese city of Sintra on June 27, when he once again hinted at the possib ...
Greece between IMF, German Elections, and the Future of the Euro Area
Disappointment flowed from the Eurogroup meeting on Monday of last week (May 22nd), when there was high expectation that an agreement with the International Monetary Fund would finally be reached on the issue of the Greek debt relief. After lengthy and painful negotiations, the meeting ended a ...
EU Spring Economic Forecast - Optimism in Times of Uncertainty
"Uncertainty" is the focus of the European Commission's spring economic forecast presented last week. The topic is presented entirely in scientific terms, apparently aiming to give a meaningful explanation as to why economic forecasts are increasingly diverging from reality. This ...
Could Greece Really Turn the Page?
Will Greece manage to complete its bailout programme this time? This is the question that is hovering in the air after on April 7 the Eurogroup agreed in principle on the fiscal and reformist path of Greece after the programme expires next year. Since February, the Greek news from the meetings o ...
European Semester Shows EU in the Eye of the Storm
The state of European economics today resembles a nice, thick, white snow cover – gross domestic product growth is good, unemployment is dropping, investments are beginning to grow. EU economy has grown by 1.9% in 2016 and that of the euro area – by 1.7%, shows the Eurostat data ...
Margarida Marques: Respecting the Rules Will Save the EU
The EU faces many challenges, but is capable of dealing with them if it follows the rules. Just like member states in the euro area need to adhere to budget criteria, the same approach needs to be used towards social issues and the rule of law. Only then will EU citizens see that the EU brings r ...
The Crisis Is Over. Prepare the Ground for the Next One
Do you remember what the first thing was that European leaders did following the outbreak of the financial crisis in the euro area in 2009? A discussion was started on new rules for tightening of the fiscal discipline, for not long after the start of the crisis an agreement was reached ...
Long Greek Crisis Is Causing Severe Jet-lag to the Eurogroup
In just a single month a great change happened in the assessment of European institutions of the implementation of the Greek programme. This change does have a price and it is a mismatch in perceptions. Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem (The Netherlands, Socialists an Democrats) admitted Monda ...
Populists vs. Lawmakers in the Debate on Spain and Portugal
Instead of a debate on the implementation of the law, the discussion on the temporary suspension of European funds for Spain and Portugal over systemic violations of EU fiscal rules turned into a rebellion against the law. The two and a half hour dialogue between European Commissi ...
Is ECB Getting Political Too?
The boss of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi gave life to several pieces of news after the end of the summer vacation. Following the regular meeting of the Governing Council of the ECB on September 8th Mr Draghi announced the end of financial fragmentation, repelled the attacks against t ...
Commission's Politicalness Is Already Causing Anxiety in the ECB
Something unusual happened on Friday noon, heralding a very tough discussion on the future of Europe, which is already difficult. This happened following the informal meeting of the Eurogroup in Bratislava, which was supposed to send out the usual messages towards Greece on the implementation of ...
Brexit Awoke an Echo of the Euro Area Crisis
In the first days following the June 23 referendum in Great Britain, in which voters decided that their country should leave the European Union, economic data showed the presence of a far stronger economic shock for the United Kingdom, than for the EU. A month after the publishing of t ...
EC Needs To Understand All Members Are Equal to the Pacts
The hearing of Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem in the EP’s economic committee on Tuesday was planned to be smooth and boring. The purpose of the hearing was for the minister to give an account about what has been accomplished by the Dutch rotating presidency during the six- ...
Is the End of the Greek Saga Near?
Have we committed to history the emergency meetings of the Eurogroup, or even the European Council, dedicated to solving the next Greek case – will it have enough money to pay wages and pensions, will it remain in the euro area, will it draw another loan, will it pay back the previous ones ...
EC: Now Is Not the Time To Follow Rules
The crisis is officially over, budget policy no longer matters, rules do not matter during election time. Those are the messages from this year’s European semester, the culmination of which was the presentation of the country-specific recommendations on May 18th. At that time, th ...
Spring Economic Forecast: Going out of Austerity Back To Keynesianism
This week, the European Commission revised down its forecast for the EU’s economic growth because of the continuing global instability, but also because of the internal European instability. The EC expects the effect on growth of the low oil prices and the devaluation of the euro to wane, ...
Eurogroup and IMF Have Come Closer to Agreement on Greek Debt
The end of the dispute between the International Monetary Fund and the EU on the third Greek bailout programme is now near. This became evident during the informal meeting of the Eurogroup in Amsterdam last Friday. A compromise solution was reached then, which allows for the IMF to receive guara ...
Eurogroup Gave In to the IMF on Greek Debt Relief
It is not easy being Greece these days. On one side, Athens is pressed by the thousands of refugees overflowing from Turkey and its Schengen partners, and on the other it is pressured by disagreement between the Eurogroup and the International Monetary Fund on the implementation of the third bai ...
Juncker: The Euro Area Crisis Is not Over Yet
The subject of the euro area's future is back on the agenda of the leaders of the 28 EU member states. This time, however, more specific decisions are expected. The five presidents’ report will be thoroughly discussed on the second day of the December European Council &ndash ...
The Missing Numbers in the Autumn Economic Forecast
The demographic component of growth is not the only novelty in this year’s economic forecast. There was one more quite important element in it, which however, due to lack of figures, remains almost invisible. It is the effect of structural reforms. This tiresome phrase, ...
Pierre Moscovici Went Too Far with EC's Politicising
Jean-Claude Juncker came to power with the promise to remake the purely technocratic, bureaucratic, and clerical body into a slightly more-political European Commission. A year later, the Commission is becoming too political. This is most obvious in the European semester and espec ...
Economic Uncertainty Weighs over the Eurozone
Economic recovery of the Eurozone has slowed down due to new risks emerging in the last few months, reported European Central Bank boss Mario Draghi last Thursday after the first meeting of the bank’s Governing Council after the summer holidays. The Real Gross Domestic Product of ...
Greece's Third Bailout Programme Is a House of Cards
On Friday night the ministers of finance of the Eurozone approved the third bailout programme for Greece, amounting to almost 86 billion Euros. Nothing in this programme is for certain, though – not the involvement in it of the International Monetary Fund; some fundamental issues, connecte ...
Greece's Third Bailout Deal Fell in the Eye of the Currency Storm
Can you imagine that the main topic of the emergency meeting of the Eurogroup on Greece is not Greece itself? Difficult to do, but fact. The third bailout package of loans-against-reforms, which has already been agreed on and is about to be approved by the finance ministers of member-countries o ...
Eurozone Goes into a “What To Do with Myself?” Mode
While at a global level the giants USA and China have entered a new level of currency wars, the EU is looking at a second fall into self-reflection mode on what to do with itself in the setting of the second Greek crisis and the unsatisfactory outcome of the shared debt crisis in ...
EU Brings Out the Bag of Carrots for Greece
The change of tone of EU towards Greece over the last week is significant. The GRexit came out of the agenda, the Eurozone is back in work mode and started to prepare the next programme with Greece and even the flow of cash towards Athens is back on line. It is surely difficult to tell if t ...
Eurozone Is More United than Ever
Criticism like a summer storm has been pouring down from everywhere over the last few days aimed at the Monday morning deal between the Eurozone and Greece. The main arguments are that this is a brutal diplomatic blow at Greece, the currency club has never stood more divided, and this is one ver ...
Greece Got a Promise for a Deal
Hundreds of hours of negotiations, multiple meetings over the last six months, many punches below the belt exchanged, insults, playing around with history, mocking democracy, and a huge waste of paper and energy were invested in Greece staying in the Eurozone, practically in a pre-accession regi ...
No Alternative for Greece but Austerity
Leaders of Eurozone countries are convening again to decide what to do with Greece after the controversial referendum held last Sunday which resulted in rejection of the already obsolete bailout program. While everyone claims they want Greece to stay in the Eurozone, the currency club is practic ...
It's the Democracy, Stupid!
The referendum in Greece ended with an expected result – NO. Although it is yet to be seen what the implications of this vote will be to Greece itself and to the future of the Eurozone, it is important not to miss a very important effect of the “GReferendum” as it became popula ...
Greece in Quick Sands: Germany's Crusade against Populism in Europe
In the analysis of the current Greek row with the country’s creditors, and of its inimical relationship with the EU as a whole, one must differentiate between the process and the action, if it were not to “throw the baby out with the bathwater”. The negotiations with the govern ...
Brussels, We've Got a Problem!
For the first time since the start of the Greek crisis six years ago, or come to think of it in the entire EU history, the Union faces the exit of a member country. And totally unprecedented (if long overdue) the EU directly addresses member country voters. All of this is the direct result ...
Greece – a Never Ending Story
The biggest piece of news that came from the emergency summit of the Eurozone countries is that Greece has finally managed to submit something like a proposal, something that was expected of them for four months, ever since the decision to extend the current bailout program by four months &ndash ...
How Long to the Grexit?
The tired faces of the ministers representing the institutions before the Eurogroup meeting on Thursday turned into grim expressions after the session, which was longer than anticipated, considering the outcome. And if their faces, after uttering several worrisome lines, were not enough, the fac ...
Greece’s Final Countdown Has Started
Everybody has their eyes on the clock that dispassionately ticks away the time left for Greece to make a decision whether to stay in the EU or not. This is the prevailing attitude before the start of a fateful meeting of the Eurogroup (Finance ministers of the Eurozone) in Luxembourg today, who ...
The Game of Greek Roulette Spins to an End
At first glance this game looked a lot like Russian roulette, but it turned out a bit different. At its core the game is trying to fool the adversary whether the shot is real or has it reached its target. Over the last few weeks the game got rough with both sides – Greece and its creditors ...
Crisis with Greece Is Political
Every year I drive thousands of miles across Europe and clash with various driving cultures and organisation of traffic. I dare say that, so far, the best system of traffic is in Germany where the combination of behaviour, rules and infrastructure makes driving predictable, fast and, ultima ...
Dariusz Rosati: EU Has To Change Its Social Model
EU share in global population is 7%. The Union produces 20% of the global gross domestic product but spends 50% of global social spending. 10-50 or even 20 years ago Europe was not threatened by competition from the outside world but now the European social model needs to be rebuilt, said i ...
Commission Treads Thin Ice with the European Semester
The big news from the presentation of one of the most important stages of the European semester - the country-specific recommendations (CSR) - is that France, Croatia, Finland and Britain will not be punished. Moreover, Poland exits the excessive deficit procedure earlier than planned. Another b ...
No, No and No. There Is No Deal with Greece
Another Eurogroup meeting, another article by Varoufakis in an influential international edition, again the same result - no agreement with Greece. This week, however, for the first time in months a shadow of optimism has appeared that by the end of June when the expansion of the current bailout ...
A Threat of Sanctions Hangs over France and Croatia
The European Commission will decide in May whether to punish France and Croatia. The decision will depend on whether the national reforms programmes the two countries will present will be sufficient to overcome their excessive imbalances. This will happen after the presentation of the spring eco ...
The Structural Reforms Bark but the Deficit Moves On
There is no doubt that the eurozone crisis is now in the past since the Commission and the Council have approved, without objections, the violations of fiscal rules to begin again. This happened in the end of February when the European Commission confirmed what we expected in the autumn, which i ...
Eurogroup: Greece Is Wasting Time
When the Eurogroup chief and minister of finance of the Netherlands, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said last month that the implementation of the 20 February agreement with Greece would not be easy he was extremely right. Difficult because Greece focuses mainly on the packing (for its electorate), wherea ...
Winners and Losers in the Greek Crisis
There is something wrong in the way problems are discussed in EU, especially such as the Greek crisis 2.0. The antagonising of winners and losers or of my democracy against yours is a brilliant illustration of one of the biggest problems EU is facing - the sustainability of the Union. It is true ...
Reforms and the Single Market Are the Future of the Euro Area
The issue because of which the informal European Council on 12 February was convened was left with no attention at all at the summit, the agenda of which was completely overtaken by the situation in Ukraine and the renewed conflict with Greece. The journalists did not pay attention to the third ...
Greece and Eurogroup - a Clash of Democracies
The patience of the Eurogroup is over and the ministers have put an ultimatum to Greece - an extension of the current programme or you are on your own. This has become clear from the unprecedentedly short meeting of the eurozone finance ministers on 16 February in Brussels. A meeting that was co ...
EU Is Back in the Greece Mode
There is no doubt that the EU is again in a Greek mode. The issue of the future of Greece has again overtaken the agenda of the EU summits and of the Eurogroup meetings and has returned the feeling of frustration that was forgotten for a while. The big difference from the last time, however, is ...
The EU Economic Governance - a Game for Grown-ups
In December, when the new European Council President Donald Tusk decided to call an informal summit in February to discuss the future of the euro area, the elections in Greece were not on the horizon, the attack on Charlie Hebdo had not happened yet and the situation in Ukraine had not dete ...
Don't Panic! It's Just Democracy! Sobering Is Next
Is the end of the Greek pains near? Can the new Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras fulfil his promises to put an end to the austerity and write off part of the debt? Will the EU fall apart? Is it so scary that a populist extreme left party like Syriza has won an election with almost full majori ...
No More Austerity. It's Time for Investments
Does the EU need changes and what should they be? New legislation or a change of the behaviour when applying the already agreed? Those are questions that have again been raised in the Union because of the uneven economic recovery and the not good economic perspectives the EU is facing both ...
Eurosceptics Threaten the Survival of the Stability and Growth Pact
Even before the criteria for application of the much awaited in the EU flexibility of the fiscal rules are published, it is clear that one of them will be the political environment. Hardly this criterion will be articulated officially, but it is being discussed openly in the EU. The issue took m ...
Juncker Threw the Gauntlet to the Member States with the Investment Plan
The new president of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker has pulled the bull's horns by challenging the European Parliament, the member states and the business. On 26 November he presented the long-awaited investment plan which has turned into a central topic for the new Commission. And ...
EPP Takes Revenge for Moscovici's Appointment
The new/old flexibility of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) of the EU is already a fact. It was applied by the new European Commission when it presented its opinions on the budgetary plans of the euro area member states. According to the analysis of the draft budgets of 16 countries (without ...
Wolfgang Schäuble: Not Adopting the FTT Endangers the European Democracy
The Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) ensures that we have learnt the lessons from the banking crisis. Unless we accelerate the work on improving the rules so that they are adequate to an environment of globalisation, we will destroy the support for the European integration and that will be the en ...
Rough Waters in EU
Two years have passed since the leaders of the member states tasked the four presidents (of the Commission, the Eurogroup, ECB and the European Council) to present a vision about the deepening of the integration in the euro area and since their product was approved by the heads of state or gover ...
It's the Reforms, Stupid!
The euro area crisis is getting back judging by the tangible increase of the prices of new debt for the peripheral countries on the financial markets last week. The yields of Italian, Portuguese and Spanish debt have risen by around 30 basic points, but then subsided back to normal. The price of ...
The Eurozone Will Study from Valdis Dombrovskis's Baltic Textbook
Is there a clearer message about the new European Commission's economic policy in the next five years than the appointment of a Latvian former prime minister on the key position Vice President responsible for the Euro and the Social dialogue? Valdis Dombrovskis's CV is flawless as is his ca ...
Cameron vs EU - 3:1
David Cameron's relations with the EU have always been based on victory or loss. In this regard, the score in the match between Great Britain and EU (the euro area in particular) is 3 to 1 for London. The British prime minister has scored three wins over his should-have-been-partners opponents. ...
Euro Area, Good and Bad Recession
In the second quarter of 2014, the euro area's economic growth froze (at 0.0%). In the EU at large, the economy grew by 0.2%. The latest Eurostat data not only underscored the uneven distribution of economic recovery but also the next division in the eurozone - of a good and bad recession. This ...
Italy Is Opening the New Season of the Euro Area Crisis
A really hard beginning is awaiting the new European Commission. Not only that it will have to work in an environment of growing tensions along the external borders, especially to the east, but it will have to tackle a possible return of the eurozone crisis with all the consequences that stem fr ...
Hard Landing of Hopes for Less Austerity
Matteo Renzi and his Social Democrats have won the most convincing victory in the entire EU at the European elections in May with a promise for structural reforms and soothing the pains from austerity. The latter has created excessive expectations which the Italian prime minister fuelled with po ...
Crisis in EU a Crisis of Excessive Expectations?
The EU is again on the drawing board. This spring and the advancing summer mark the beginning of a new season of designing the Community's future. In order for the project to be good and sustainable, however, it is first necessary to make an accurate diagnose of what has happened. And this ...
EU Is Recovering but the Commission Has Doubts There Is Political Will
So far the crisis has been the main driver of reforms in the EU at large and in the member states separately, but from now on there is a serious risk that there will not be political will to continue with them. This is one of the main messages in this year's country-specific recommendations (CSR ...
Is There No Longer a Need of Eurobonds?
Do you remember the hysteria of the financial markets in the beginning of the crisis when Greece defaulted and that unleashed a series of problems in the euro area with the semi-defaults of Ireland, Portugal, then the banking troubles of Spain. There were problems in Italy, too. Then, the financ ...
Indebtedness Is the Biggest Hurdle to Growth
The European economy is facing a not very inspiring growth, according to the European Commission's winter forecast. And although the situation is not as cloudy as it was in the autumn or the winter of 2013, the perspectives continue to be uncertain. A week after the publishing of the winter fore ...
Mario Draghi, Abenomics and Ireland Were the Stars of Davos 2014
The European economic recovery is a fact, however it is fragile because there is a danger of losing momentum on reforms. Structural reforms are the key and were the two most frequently used words in the context of Europe's exit from the crisis during this year's World Economic Forum in Davos. Ge ...
When Politics Meets Expertise or Is the Troika a Bad Thing?
Who is responsible for the crisis? Has the Troika contributed or relieved the crisis? Could it and even should it have been more democratic? Those are key questions that sounded last week in Strasbourg during the inquiry of the economic committee of the European Parliament of the work of the tri ...
Ireland Got Its Sovereignty Back, but How Independent It Actually Is?
2013 did not begin very well for the Troika - that scary Troika which The Irish Independent described as Men in Black and which is hated in Athens, Lisbon but also in Strasbourg. The troika representatives of the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund, ...
Germany, Excuse Us, but We Have To
The fourth European Semester will remain in history as the first in which the European Commission dared to treat all member states equally, including the motor of the EU. And if France already is a subject of an in-depth review of its economy for potential problems, which unleashed a war of word ...
Which Is The 3rd Largest Euro Area Economy? Berlusconia
In the United States the Tea Party holds the government hostage, while in Italy until last week Enrico Letta's cabinet was (is?) held hostage by Silvio Berlusconi - probably the biggest political ego in Europe since the end of World War II. And if the US's political and financial instabilit ...
EU's Social Pillar - the Last of the Mohicans of National Sovereignty
In February 2012, the governor of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, pronounced the famous European social model dead because of the huge youth unemployment which spread throughout EU. Later, in a separate article, Mr Draghi pointed out that the deepening of the European integration will n ...
The Beginning of Season: with Very Green Economic Growth and a Lot of Work To Do
The autumn has begun in the EU with two key messages. We are already moving away from the crisis talking and are moving toward discussing structural issues is the first, conveyed by Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem during his hearing in the economic committee of the European Parliament on Sep ...
Slovenia's Problem
Did you know that the Republic of Slovenia owns directly or indirectly shares in at least 80 companies the book value of which, according to 2011 data, is 8.8 billion euros or a little over 24% of the country's gross domestic product? Injecting public money for direct recapitalisation or payment ...
IMF Again Turns toward Eastern Europe
Against the backdrop of the debate about crises, defaults, for or against austerity measures, about the good and bad examples, the International Monetary Fund again thought about Central and Southeastern Europe and the experience the countries from that region have from the beginning of the 1990 ...
Another Brick in the Banking Union's Wall
Yet in December it was clear that the member states, and most of all Germany, are not dying to deepen the European integration mainly due to the lack of a clearly expressed consensus on how should the painful measures be applied. The constantly rolling story of Greece which, as it seems, will be ...
IMF Has Betrayed Its European Allies in the Austerity War
The IMF has begun admitting mistake after mistake, thus not leaving the European Commission any options to come out dry of the ever more expanding storm around its economic policies. Until recently an ally of the EU in its fight with the debt crisis and the domino of defaults of member states, t ...
The Virus of Euroscepticism
No matter that it is organised matter, politics has some permanent objective laws. One is, that when years are tough populist parties flourish. They usually promise easily and more for the national interest, therefore for the ordinary citizen, his household, his pension, business, children, ...
Commission and ECB against Eurogroup: There Is a Problem with Decision-Making!
"We have to recognise the structural problems of our decision-making in the area of economic and financial affairs. This calls for the completion of the Economic and Monetary Union, which should bring the current inter-governmental arrangements into the Community framework and strengthen the ext ...
It's Not the Austerity, Stupid, It's the Structural Reforms!
It is very difficult in an environment of rapidly gaining popularity populists to conduct policy of correcting past mistakes, which usually leads to social discontent and every now and then to early elections as well. Even harder that is in the framework of a very complex organism such as the Eu ...
Spain and France Get an Extension for the Budget Deficit, but the need of Structural Reforms Remains
The European Institutions started to retreat under pressure from the anti-austeritists, but in the same time their voices have become stronger in calling that undertaking structural reforms and reducing budget deficits and public debts are not one and the same thing. And if for some Friday was C ...
Populists - What Are They, Who Are They, Where Are They, Why Are They*
Populists and extremists are on the rise across Europe. Even Germany is now seeing the rise of a eurosceptic party. The euro crisis is the reason for growing political risk in the eurozone. Or is it? True, populist parties are more important in several euro countries. But the reasons for this ar ...
It's Time for a Fair Integration in EU, Believes PM Jyrki Katainen
He is young - 41 years old. Married to a football player and in 2008 The Financial Times pronounced him the best minister of finance in Europe. This is the prime minister of Finland, Jyrki Katainen, who was another head of state to appear in Strasbourg to debate with MEPs his visions about the f ...
Ireland Is Preparing To Exit Bailout Yet This Year, Portugal Conceals Problems
Until the crisis in Cyprus, the situation in the euro area seemed under control and although everyone are aware that a long and difficult path lies ahead, after all the sun is shining and the end of the continuous debt winter is on the horizon. The situation with the Cypriot bailout, expected fo ...
The Imbalances Procedure Reveals a Lot of Divergencies, But What's Common Is the Need for Reform
By publishing this year's in-depth reviews of the countries under the macro economic imbalances procedure, the European Commission again clearly says that the austerity policy is necessary and does not hamper a policy in support of economic growth. But the combination of the two seemingly contra ...
Who Led and Who Slacked in EU Foreign Policy in 2012?
There will hardly be someone who could deny that the crisis has driven out to the sidelines the EU's common foreign policy and we got used to looking at it in that period as something that allegedly is there, but no one has ever seen to prove it exists. For a third year in a row, the European C ...
The Crisis Is Only Visibly Fading, the Underlying Problems Remain
The eurozone crisis seems a bit distant from Sofia, the capital of the considered poorest EU member state Bulgaria. Distant because people here say they have lived in a constant crisis ever since the beginning of democracy in 1989. And may be this is the reason why one of the very few Bulgarian ...
Cyprus Remains in EU's Orbit
When the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, said that Cyprus was not of systemic importance for the eurozone which was why there was no need to hurry bailing the Mediterranean island out, he probably had in mind only that if the country defaulted or left the eurozone that would have not ...
Today Is A Good Day for the Basel III Capital Requirements
The EU is on its way to fulfil its international commitments and to introduce the Basel III rules for capital requirements but the question is when. This emerged from today's (March 5th) discussion in the EU finance ministers council on the compromise reached between the Council and the Europea ...
Italian Affair for the Eurozone
Ever since the eurozone debt crisis has started and the reforms that in practise deepen the integration of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), more and more often comes up the question - what is missing? On the one hand, the member states are independent, but on the other they are pretty dep ...
Latvia Advises: Use Your Heads and Do Not Listen To Nobel Laureates
Next week Latvia will officially apply for membership in the eurozone. Like the lonely Croatian EU accession, Riga's decision will hardly be an occasion for the red carpet and many fanfares, but the difference between the two lonely long distance runners (Croatia toward the EU and Latvia toward ...
Commission Pushes Forward Its Blueprint for the EMU
A very important piece of news on February 20th was replaced by another, more important news: after the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission have finally reached an agreement on the two complementary proposals aimed at completing the reform of the economic governance (the two-pac ...
European Semester 3: There's no North-South Division
The European Semester is entering its third year after it was created with the aim to overcome the economic crisis in the EU, caused by the too national economic policies of the member states against the backdrop of the scale of economic interconnectedness. And if in the beginning (2011) the mem ...
Grilli: Austerity Measures Are not an End, but a Means for Growth
As of last year the tradition finance minsters of EU member states to appear in hearings in the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee in the European Parliament is strengthening. Although these events usually pass without much media attention, excluding the double hearing of France's and Germa ...
For and Against a Common Eurozone Budget
One of the reasons why many analysts, politicians and decision-makers consider the EU summit in December a disappointment is that it gave away ambition. One of the most ambitious proposals that could be found in the drafts for the future of the EU and the euro area in particular of the Four Pres ...
Casino "Europe"
The Europarliament, under the leadership of the German Socialist Martin Schulz, is trying to overjump itself creating a feeling of a genuine European parliament before which national leaders and leaders of EU institutions give an account of. The beginning was set in February last year when befor ...
The Visegrad Group Is on Its Way To Miss a Golden Opportunity*
When was the last time you heard an interesting Czech idea on how to revive European economies? Or a memorable Hungarian proposal on how to reform the EU? Of the Central European countries, only Poland has tried in earnest to initiate a debate on how to combat the economic crisis (by proposing, ...
Juncker: the Next Eurogroup Chief Should Treat Eurozone and Non-eurozone Members Equally
The next Eurogroup chief for sure will speak a Benelux language (French, Dutch or German), said the Prime Minister of Luxembourg and Eurogroup President for only a few days more Jean-Claude Juncker during a farewell hearing in the economic affairs committee of the European Parliament on January ...
2013 Will Be the Year of Geoeconomics
Geoeconomics now sits alongside geopolitics when it comes to war, peace and prosperity. Economic statescraft now is a key component of global foreign policy and state capitalism is the main challenge to the free market. This one of the remarkable analyses in the forecast for 2013 of the influent ...
Is the Celtic Tiger Coming Back?
Ireland's turn to head the Council of the EU (for a seventh time) as of the beginning of 2013 is quite a timely one. On the one hand, in 2013 Ireland marks 40 years of EU membership which can serve as a very good illustration to what the EU can do with countries that know precisely what they nee ...
Monti's Agenda - Can Italy Be Changed?
After a long, even too long hesitation, Mario Monti has finally decided to dive into Italian politics. His ambition is to change it by taking it out from the status quo of the 1990s to the realities of the 21st century. The Italian Prime Minister has been installed in the autumn of 2011 under pr ...
2012 - the Year of Europe's Sobering
In the beginning of the year I wrote that the time of Europe of unification has expired and the moment of a responsible Europe has come. "A Europe that is aware what and why it should do. It is aware of the implications, they are planned and expected. A Europe that is prepared to react in tough ...
IMF for the First Time Made an Overall Assessment of the EU
The eurozone rescue from the severest crisis since the creation of the single European currency more and more resembles a bitter medicine of "deeper integration" (an euphemism of federalisation) which the EU has to take in small sips regularly and which with the first symptoms of betterment is b ...
The Montiless Italy
A piece of news is on its way to shake Europe even more than the Greek crisis - Berlusconi's return. Last week Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti announced that he would resign after Silvio Berlusconi's party (People for Freedom, PdL) stated it was withdrawing its support for him. The 76-year-ol ...
Greece Received a Commitment for a Carrot
"ESTRAGON: I'm hungry. VLADIMIR: Do you want a carrot? ESTRAGON: Is that all there is? VLADIMIR: There are radishes and turnips. ESTRAGON: Give me a carrot. ((Vladimir fumbles in his pockets, finds nothing but turnips, finally brings out a radish and hands it to Estragon who examines it, sniffs ...
The Eurozone, Core of a Political Union
The multi-faceted crisis currently rocking the countries of Europe and the solutions devised by the European institutions has, ironically, given a fresh impulse to the debate on "political union": this phrase is absent from the conclusions of the European Council meeting held in June 2012 but it ...
France Will Reform at Its Own Pace
The Franco-German motor in the EU is not working in harmony and this is getting more and more obvious lately, as from the data for the French economy so from the relations between the two countries and the messages they convey to each other. The disharmony between France and Germany has culminat ...
Elections in Times of Recession
"Pahor has succeeded, but will he make it in the coming three weeks?" This headline in the Slovenian Finance newspaper sums up in just a sentence the outcome of the presidential elections that took place in the country on Sunday (November 11th). If we follow up the events chronologically, they l ...
Greece Supported Its Words with Deeds but Caused a Discord between EU and IMF
Greece is doing very well, but still a lot remains to be done, while the desire for compromises with the country seems depleted. This is one way to summarise the outcome of the very much expected meeting of the eurozone finance ministers (the Eurogroup) on November 12th. As usually happens in th ...
And Let the Upgrade of the Eurozone Begin Now!
By the last for this year EU summit in December the technical details on the establishment of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), considered the basis for the future banking union, have to be ready and the Eurogroup (the eurozone finance ministers) have to define the criteria for the direct ...
Nothing Good on the Social Front
Just a month ago, for the purpose of the conference "More Jobs for Europe", summarised data about the social situation and employment rates in the EU were issued. All notifications that a new metamorphosis is already a fact are at place. After dealing a severe damage on the financial sector and ...
After All the FTT Will Be Introduced, though not across the Entire EU
After long and tough negotiations, there is the news - the required number of countries willing to introduce a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) in the form of enhanced cooperation is in place. So far seven countries have expressed their desire in formal letters to the European Commission - German ...
More Clarity Than Desire for the Banking Union
Spain at the moment is in a Hamlet situation, asking itself the question "To ask for a bailout or not to ask?". The government in Madrid made on Thursday, September 27th, another attempt to avoid a humiliating for the country and devastating as a strong earthquake for the eurozone, rescue loan, ...
Portugal Is Given a Sip of Breath, Spain Is Under Pressure
The permanent bailout fund for the eurozone - the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) - will formally start working on October 8, when the first meeting of its Board of Governors will be held, the fund's head Klaus Regling said. By the end of the month the fund will be fully prepared to finance p ...
The Employment Crisis – a New Brussels' Priority
"The persistently worsening employment situation represents the biggest worry of European citizens and governments today, as well as a threat to Europe's medium-to-long term stability, competitiveness and prosperity. Between 2008 and mid-2012, the EU27 unemployment rate has climbed from around 7 ...