Tag archive for ‘European Commission’
Right cause, wrong ground
Nine EU countries – eight from central and eastern Europe plus Sweden – have formally called on the European Commission to change the budget accounting rules in a way that would allow them to run higher deficits in the coming years without running foul of the Stability and Growth Pact. As argued in the last [...]
What Can the European Union do for Development?
The European Commission’s Development Directorate has a fresh team in charge: a new Commissioner and a new Director General. What should be their priorities? The Commission writes big cheques: its aid budget makes it one of the largest donors. Yet aid is not the Commission’s comparative advantage. It accounts for only around a fifth of [...]
A European Economic Government Could Solve Europe’s Democracy Deficit
Europe has come to praise democracy and is about to bury it. The Greek crisis, caused by the uncooperative behaviour of different nation states, has been a wake-up call showing that monetary union without an economic government will not work in the long run. Reforms are needed. Yet, because they widen the democratic deficit, the [...]
Trade-offs in Climate Change Adaptation: The Issue of Flood Disaster Financing in Europe
The population in parts of southern and central Poland currently battles with the flood waters from the Vistula river. An early estimate of the economic damage from the flood amounts to about €2.5 billion. This tragedy is a timely reminder of the importance of adapting to climate change. Changing precipitation patterns as a result of [...]
The EU2020 Strategy and Europe’s Crisis – First Ensure the Survival of the EU!
Angela Merkel may have got just about everything else wrong, but she was right to tell the German parliament that urgent action is needed to save the euro area, otherwise the future of Europe is at stake. Europe’s reaction to the sovereign debt crisis has been an almost unmitigated disaster – denial, delay and dithering [...]
Hope in Haiti
The post-earthquake situation in Haiti has been recognised as being analogous to post-conflict, and donors have been appropriately generous. Between them, the European Union, the US, and other donors have pledged a sum approaching 7 billion euros to fund reconstruction, the single largest contribution coming from the EU. The international response is important, even beyond [...]
The EU 2020 Strategy puts the European Social Model at Risk
For social democrats, the principles guiding any crisis exit strategy must be the smooth transition to a model based on sustainability and solidarity. This requires to recognise the social origins of the crisis and to draw the correct policy implications from it. This is not only a political, but also an ideological battle, as recent [...]
Why Obama snubbed the EU/US Summit
My mother was fond of telling me that ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’. I was reminded of her words when I read about Obama’s ‘snub’ of the EU in declining to attend the EU/USA summit in May. It is alleged that Obama declined because he could not face having to go down the wedding [...]
The Greek Drama and the Social Justice of Responsible Fiscal Policies
I do not envy our Greek socialist friends. They got elected because the previous conservative government was catastrophically incompetent, but the mess they now have to sort out is worse than the wildest imaginations could have predicted. This is not just a local problem. The fate of the euro, and therefore of Europe, hangs in [...]
New Priorities for the EU Institutions
The priorities must be formulated, as always, in a manner that takes into account both form and content. I shall accordingly deal with both aspects, while placing greater emphasis on the latter. A first priority will be to ensure that the new institutional balance resulting from the Lisbon Treaty can be made to work. The [...]
2010 will be the Year of Parliaments
2010 will be the year when democratic accountability takes a front seat in the European Union. That is because the Lisbon Treaty gives bigger roles to the European Parliament, national parliaments and to civil society. The big winner from the Lisbon Treaty is undoubtedly the European Parliament. It has fully become an equal lawmaker with [...]
New Development Commissioner has his Work cut out
News of the appointments in the new European Commission has been dominated by the political struggles for the high-profile positions. The portfolio responsible for the Commission’s development program in poor countries is decidedly not one of them. The Financial Times, reporting on the appointment of Andris Piebalgs to the post, suggested that he deserved better. [...]
