As tensions run high over Russia’s gas supplies to the Ukraine, and by extension parts of Europe, the reality for the EU is less than perfect: it will need Russian gas for the foreseeable future.
They didn’t call it ‘Euromaidan’ for nothing.
EPA/Sergey Dolzhenko
There have been calls for an early referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU. But they did not originate from Conservative eurosceptic backbenchers or from UKIP, as one would expect. Instead, it was…
Syriza have shaken up European solidarity, but it doesn’t have to be a bad thing.
EPA/Michael Kappeler
Marianna Fotaki, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick
The emphatic rejection of disastrous austerity policies by the newly elected Greek government has caused consternation in eurozone capitals. Germany has been particularly strong in dismissing Greek pleas…
Corporate infiltration of expert advice is a battleground on both sides of the Atlantic.
Igor Stevanovic
On both sides of the Atlantic it would appear that evidence-based policy is in jeopardy. The scientific advice that government and regulators rely upon to inform their decision-making is under attack…
Looming large: the ECB headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany.
Noppasin/Shutterstock
The European Central Bank (ECB) symbolises the strange mix of politics and technocracy that marks EU governance. The bank was pushed to centre stage by the eurozone debt crisis and the unwillingness or…
Reclining seats, free meal, and the latest in invasive data collection.
stevies_snaps
A European scheme to collect and retain information from all air passengers has resurfaced in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks, despite having been rejected by the European Parliament in 2013. The…
Newly appointed Finance Minister Yannis Varoufakis arrives at the Presidential Palace to be sworn-in under Greece’s new government.
Yannis Kolesidis/EPA/AAP
Since 2009, the economic situation of Greece has helped expose the architecture and policy regime problems of the European Union and the eurozone. On Sunday the Greek electorate rebelled against the self-defeating…
Churchill was anything but a eurosceptic.
John Stillwell/PA Archive/Press Association Images
Winston Churchill’s role in fostering European unity is beyond dispute in Brussels. The European Union’s website lists Churchill as one of 11 founding fathers of the organisation. In Strasbourg, the European…
This Greek election is the most important in recent memory. It appears Syriza has won by a large margin, ending four decades of two-party rule in Greece. Since 2010 – and as a result of austerity measures…
German concerns about the European Central Bank’s impending quantitative easing program might be misplaced.
AAP/EPA/Maurizio Gambarini
Harald Sander, Cologne University of Applied Sciences (CUAS)
The European Central Bank is due to decide whether and how to undertake quantitative easing (QE) via large-scale purchases of government debt on secondary markets. For Germany - as the Eurozone’s largest…
Will Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, continue with its disastrous policy history?
EPA/Boris Roessler
As investors anxiously await the announcement from the European Central Bank about whether the eurozone will implement quantitative easing (QE), we can tell from the ECB’s track record that it is very…
Food labelling is a contentious topic that has been going through the mincer for decades. Many of the issues have been designed to aid the consumer, such as the traffic light system, and clearer displays…
A harbinger of things to come? VP Joe BIden up close and personal with Brazil’s President Rousseff
Ricardo Moraes/Reuters
The New Year always provides an opportunity for both introspection and speculation. So it seems a good time to consider what the big stories are likely to be this year. Some of the five major stories I…