Single market, competition & trade
Why the eurozone needs debt mutualisation
28 July 2011
The attempt to run a common monetary policy without a common treasury has failed. Debt mutualisation is necessary if the eurozone is to survive.
The new EU budget: A missed opportunity
11 July 2011
The Commission's proposals for the EU's 2014-2020 budgets are a missed opportunity, representing no substantial change. Spending on agriculture should be greatly reduced, that on cohesion re-focused and that on climate greatly increased.
Innovation: How Europe can take off
08 July 2011
Every EU government supports innovation, believing that it will help Europe to meet the numerous economic, social and environmental challenges that it faces.
Germany's brief moment in the sun
27 June 2011
Four years ago, Germany was widely seen as the sick man of Europe, beset by weak economic growth, a fast-ageing population and a pervasive sense of angst about the future.
Financial regulation: Britain the perennial outlier?
20 June 2011
Back in 2007, when the Labour government had abolished the business cycle and the City of London was booming, British policy-makers liked to vaunt the merits of ‘light touch’ regulation.
Eurozone debt crisis: To restructure or not?
01 June 2011
In March, European leaders agreed a 'grand bargain' that was designed to restore flagging confidence in the eurozone. The deal, they hoped, would return the most troubled countries – Greece, Ireland and Portugal – to debt sustainability and prevent catastrophic contagion to other, larger economies such as Italy and Spain.
Financial regulation: Will British euroscepticism collide with European populism?
21 May 2011
When EU finance ministers met in Brussels on 18 May, many observers expected sparks to fly. The reason? This was the first EU meeting that Britain’s newly-elected government would attend.
Debt restructuring will not end the euro crisis
09 May 2011
Even as the ink is still drying on Portugal’s EU/IMF ‘bail-out’ agreement, it is becoming clear that Greece’s 2010 bail-out has failed to improve the sustainability of its public finances.
The eurozone's grand bargain: Political pain without economic gain?
01 April 2011
Ever since the eurozone crisis broke out in late 2009, European leaders have sought to reconcile two mutually incompatible objectives: the need to restore market confidence in the zone's indebted periphery; and the unbending refusal of creditor countries in the core to turn the zone into a 'transfer union'.
The EU budget: The Union risks having the wrong debate
01 April 2011
In an age of fiscal austerity, the focus of the forthcoming EU budget talks will be even more strongly on net balances: how much a country pays in and how much it gets back.
Europe's damaging obsession with 'competitiveness'
31 March 2011
Many European policy-makers and business leaders believe that a country's economic growth prospects depend on its ability to capture a growing share of global markets.
Issue 77 - 2011
25 March 2011
- Europe needs a military avant-garde, Charles Grant
- The eurozone's grand bargain: Political pain without economic gain? , Philip Whyte
- The EU budget: The Union risks having the wrong debate, Stephen Tindale
A chance for further CAP reform
28 February 2011
This policy brief argues that the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy which Commissioner Fischler began over a decade ago must now be completed.
Is Germany really rebalancing?
01 February 2011
Germany has rightly been criticised for its dependence on exports and its huge trade surpluses. In normal times, when economies are growing healthily, trade imbalances pose less of a problem.
Issue 76 - 2011
28 January 2011
- European political parties are the key to EU legitimacy, Sir Julian Priestley
- A new opportunity for EU foreign policy, Charles Grant, Katinka Barysch, Tomas Valasek
- Is Germany really rebalancing?, Simon Tilford
Can Greece be saved?
20 January 2011
Will Greece have to restructure its debt? Among most West European economists and investors, this now seems to be a foregone conclusion.
Reflections on Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa and the euro
13 January 2011
At the end of last year, Europe lost Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, an eminent central banker and economist, and one of the founding fathers of the euro.
Eurozone: Time for damage limitation
09 December 2010
Time is running out to prevent the eurozone crisis from imperilling Europe's banking system and with it the integrity of the currency union. It is beholden on policy-makers to minimise the economic (and hence political costs) to the EU.
The eurozone enters a critical phase
01 December 2010
On November 21st Ireland accepted financial support totalling around €90 billion from the EU and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). There was an awful inevitability about this outcome.
The next five years of the euro crisis: Five key questions
01 December 2010
Will the euro break up?
The euro crisis is rooted in structural imbalances that even on an optimistic scenario will endure for years. Germany has a current account surplus and weak domestic demand, while Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain - after years of profligacy - suffer from current account deficits...
The euro crisis is rooted in structural imbalances that even on an optimistic scenario will endure for years. Germany has a current account surplus and weak domestic demand, while Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain - after years of profligacy - suffer from current account deficits...