debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
“Our biggest problems over the next ten years are not deficits,” the President told House Republicans Wednesday, according to those who attended the meeting. The President needs to deliver the same message to the public, loudly and clearly. The biggest problems we face are unemployment, stagnant wages, slow growth, and widening inequality — not deficits. The major [...]
In February, after months of negotiations, the European Council agreed to a new multiannual budget for the EU for 2014 to 2020. Ahead of the European Parliament’s vote on the budget, Giacomo Benedetto takes an in-depth look at how spending has changed across policy areas, finding that the largest cuts have been made to policies aimed at [...]
It was Friday September 2nd, 2011 when the troika of Greece’s creditors left Athens after two weeks of negotiations that failed to bridge the gap between the Greek government and the representatives of the IMF, the European Central Bank and the European Commission. Their last unscheduled departure was in June 2011 when Papandreou’s government went [...]
The year we have just left behind has clearly demonstrated that the current European crisis politics is stretching national democratic orders to breaking point, especially in crisis countries. Unfortunately, this trend looks set to continue in 2013. Euractiv reports that the Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva (pictured) himself is sending the new Portuguese austerity budget [...]
A remarkable political consensus is emerging both within Britain and across much of the European Union that the UK is heading inexorably towards withdrawal from the EU. Opinions differ about the speed of a potential British exit and also about precisely what new relationship London expects to negotiate with the Union in the longer term. [...]
The present EU budget dispute between David Cameron and the other European leaders, which concluded in its expected impasse, is of course an expression of deeper conflicts and divisions in Europe. And if the UK/EU dispute can be taken as emblematic of these divisions – its resolution is of deeper importance than just a bilateral [...]
Since the euro sovereign debt crisis erupted, Europe’s leaders have been struggling to find enduring solutions. Paradoxically, they have also pushed through extensive governance reforms and more are on the agenda, including the possibility of a fiscal union, albeit with no real consensus about what such a union would imply. As the EU ponders its Multi-annual Financial [...]
The British call it taking French leave. The Germans call it a Polish exit. The Poles, tellingly, call it “wyj?? po angielsku” – quitting like an Englishman. It is the social sin of leaving the party without properly saying goodbye. Recently the Polish foreign minister, Radek Sikorski, came over to the UK in a bid [...]
On the 22nd and 23rd of November, the European Council will meet to discuss the next seven years (2014-2020) of the EU budget. While this process is typically prolonged and divisive, the upcoming negotiations are expected to be particularly problematic due to the commitment of the UK government to avoid a real-terms increase in the overall size [...]
However predictable the difficult negotiations that accompany European politics may seem to be, in the end they seldom fail to surprise. A crucial European Union summit aimed at securing a deal on the EU budget for 2014-2020, the so-called multi-annual financial framework (MFF), will take place later this week, and the mood music surrounding it has [...]
Today, Parliament is expected to approve the new budget by a comfortable majority, with even some of last week’s rebels coming back to support the Coalition. But this endorsement is at risk of being totally swamped by the vitriolic and demagogic attacks of the Opposition. Once again, the pro-European majority in Parliament has lost the [...]
The Labour Party was congratulating itself yesterday on having joined with Tory rebels to defeat the Tory-led government by voting to cut the EU budget. In truth, this was sheer opportunism. While the two Eds (Miliband and Balls) may believe that supporting belt-tightening in Europe is good populist politics, in truth, Labour has shot itself [...]
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