The democracy of Macron vs. the democracy of Weber. Round II Last year, when he first appeared before MEPs in Strasbourg after his election as French President, Emmanuel Macron announced that his goal was Europe based on "true democracy." By "true" he meant a return to the roots of democracy, that is, with the participation of citizens. That is ...
From Deauville to Meseberg or How Euro Area Reform Is Evolving* On 15 September, it will be 10 years since the crash of Lehman Brothers which marked the beginning of the severest global financial crisis since the Great Depression, which had the potential to ruin the euro area and hence the EU. In the past decade the world has radically changed. The financial ...
Bulgaria Entered a Schengen Mode for the Eurozone Too The Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) of the European Commission proved an obstacle not only for Bulgaria's membership in Schengen but the euro area, too. The July Eurogroup discussed Bulgaria's application for membership in the common currency and changed for the first time its ...
Multilateralism Is Dead. Long Live Multilateralism! The decision of President Donald Trump to take the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, from the Pacific trade partnership, the re-negotiation of the North-American free trade agreement, then the introduction of tariffs on aluminium and steel, including against the until recently cl ...
In Sofia, EU Closed the Door to Enlargement but Left Money and Instructions Some say that the EU-Western Balkans summit was a historic one. Others say it was successful. Without necessarily both claims to be false, their validity is wrong. It is explained that the summit was historic because it was the first in 15 years. The last summit with the Western Balkans (in the ...
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 ...
EU Is Laying the Foundations of a European Defence Union When France and the UK decided to join efforts with the US to respond to the chemical attack in the Syrian town of Douma many in the EU, mostly in the European Parliament, criticised the two EU member states for not consulting at EU level on the upcoming strikes. Moreover, the leader of the Libe ...
Mogherini: Syria Is Farther than Ever from Finding a Solution to War The war in Syria is now entirely dominating the debates in the EU after the use of chemical weapons in Douma and the subsequent coordinated and targeted air operation of the US, UK and France against facilities that produce or process chemical weapons. The issue changed completely the agenda of ...
The EU-Turkey Summit in Varna Showed Dialogue with Erdogan Is Impossible If 2017 was the year of common European defence, 2018 emerges as the year of common foreign policy. The worsening conflict in the Middle East, trade shoot-outs, tightening of the illiberal belt around the EU, as well as the transformation of key western allies into adversaries are factors that a ...
Cold War, Colder, Salisbury The attack on the UK has put Russia right after Brexit and Donald Trump as another strong driver of European unification. Britain's decision to leave the EU united the member states in an unprecedented manner. They confirmed their vows not only to continue with the project but also to deepen it. ...
The football World Cup in Russia started with the familiar ethno-nationalism in the region of former Yugoslavia. Then, it evolved into a very rare unity and brotherhood among the peoples in the ex-state to return, again, in the channel of nationalism, leaving bitterness and disappointment behind ...
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 ...
Ukraine in the Epicentre of European (Dis)Integration The 9th of July 2018 was a remarkable day. Several things happened in a single day that are significant for European integration (or rather disintegration). Right after re-organising Turkey into a presidential republic, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan closed down the ministry of European integrat ...
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 ...
Serbia between the Past and the Present in Its Draft National Security Strategy Against the backdrop of the incessant provocations of Serbia's Defence Minister Alexander Vulin to neighbouring countries, and especially Croatia, the draft [in Serbian language] of a new national security strategy, published for public discussion by his ministry, makes an unsuccessful ...
Normalisation of Growth in the Euro Area or Dark Clouds? It is growingly evident that by June, when the deadline of Donald Tusk's Leaders' Agenda expires, there will be not even an 'r' left of the euro area reforms. The question is, though, whether circumstances would push the member states, again, to be more active. And the circumstances are a weaken ...
Emmanuel Macron's Democracy vs. Manfred Weber's There were big expectations for French President Emmanuel Macron's address in the European Parliament that he would try to breathe new energy into his big plans for the future of the EU and, most of all, the deepening of the integration of the euro area because of the cool winds that came from B ...
Isn't It Time to Admit that the Window of Opportunity for a Eurozone Reform Is Closed? In less than a year, the plans for a reform of the euro area went through several physical conditions. After Emmanuel Macron's election as president of France in the end of last spring, preparations started bubbling up for an almost quantum leap in the deepening of euro area integration. Integra ...
EU Is Among the Few Voices of Reason in the World During the spring European Council in March, something very interesting happened, which passed somewhat unnoticed against the backdrop of the packed agenda of the two-day summit. Several participants in the summit mentioned Turkey, Russia and the US in one sentence in the context of threats the ...
Negotiations on Next EU Budget Start in a Race with Time Contrary to expectations, the first talks about the next multiannual budget of the EU (covering the period 2021-2027) passed surprisingly peaceful and in agreement. The EU summit on 23 February was the first opportunity the leaders of the 27 member states exchanged positions about the future for ...
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