The euro crisis has revolutionised politics across Europe. Established political parties are fighting for their lives; countries that thought of themselves as part of the European core are finding themselves on the periphery; and a huge gulf has emerged in the core of Europe. What we are witnessing, as the euro crisis enters its third […]
The European Central Bank has managed to calm the markets with its promise of unlimited purchases of eurozone government bonds, because it effectively assured bondholders that the taxpayers and pensioners of the eurozone’s still-sound economies would, if necessary, shoulder the repayment burden. Although the ECB left open how this would be carried out, its commitment […]
Has the eurozone crisis ended? Many politicians in Europe, including France’s president François Hollande, seem to think so. Well, not so fast. Far from ending, the crisis is yet to reach its most difficult phase. It is easy to see why politicians claim the crisis is over. Greece has just been promised another €50bn, provided it accepts […]
Greek opinions about Germans are changing. When “austerity measures” were first imposed, Greek newspapers and posters infamously depicted Chancellor Merkel as a Nazi leader. But the reaction has lately become more sophisticated: now we hear that Germans want to pursue a strict interpretation of Protestant ethics (which knows no redemption on earth) and punish the […]
In the otherwise ugly EU quarter in Brussels, something of a building boom is going on. There’s the €300m (£241m)-plus being spent to convert an art deco pile into a palace fit for a European president. In a nearby park another €100m makeover is creating the European parliament‘s version of the continent’s postwar history. That’s […]
Workers protesting austerity on the streets of southern Europe weren’t to know it, but earlier this month there was also a strike at the heart of the European Union – by bureaucrats fighting possible cuts. For an increasing number of Europeans, cuts in Brussels are what is needed. The European capital has told member states […]
THE port of Barcelona, Spain’s third-busiest, used to handle more imports than exports. This has now turned around, says Santiago Garcia-Milà, the port’s deputy general manager; among many other things, ships are now for the first time taking cars off to China. The European Commission believes that this year exports of goods and services from […]
Police and protesters clashed in Spain as millions of workers went on strike across Europe to protest spending cuts they say have made the economic crisis worse. Hundreds of flights were cancelled, car factories and ports were at a standstill and trains barely ran in Spain and Portugal where unions held their first ever coordinated general strike. Riot police arrested […]
The European Central Bank wields more power now than at any point in its 14-year history. If it wants to use that power responsibly, it needs to be a lot more open with the people whose well-being it aims to ensure. Thanks in large part to its lead role in fighting the euro area’s festering debt crisis, the […]
Europe’s politicians nowadays are desperately looking for someone to blame for the euro crisis. Germany blames France, and vice versa. Even lawyers are getting into the act, trying to identify legal responsibility for the monetary union’s design flaws. Meanwhile, as the crisis has deepened, a new consensus about Europe’s monetary union has emerged. The euro, according […]
looking beyond borders 