Op-ed - Page 10 of 14

European Citizens’ Initiative: the deflating of direct democracy

Dialogue , Op-ed
25 May, 2015

By Manuel Ruiz Rico

In 2012, the European Union adopted a mechanism for citizens to exercise direct democracy and promote EU directives: the European Citizens’ Initiative. However, three years after its entry into force, the high expectations it created among ordinary citizens have not been met. Just three of the 31 initiatives have come to fruition and, of these, so far only one – on public water management – has succeeded in getting the European Commission to start moving its bureaucratic legal machinery so that its content can materialize into some form of European standard in the future.

EU funding in Romania – puzzling ground

Romania is notorious for being the country with the lowest EU funds absorption rate despite its economy’s dire need for money. Romania’s public and private sector absorbed only €10.33 billion in available EU funds from 2007 until 2013, with €8.7 billion remaining in stand-by until the end of 2015, when the offer will be permanently withdrawn. However, according to the World Bank, the country still has the highest poverty rate in the EU. There are two main reasons that help explain this apparent paradox.

Change of Paradigm? or what is at stake in Spain´s local elections

This Sunday Spain goes to the polls. Municipal councils and the governments of most of Spain´s autonomous regions (not Catalonia and the Basque Country, though, which hold their regional elections on different dates) are up for grabs. Beyond the local impact, what everybody is watching for in these elections is the likely redistribution of Spain´s nationwide political preferences, in anticipation of the general election due before the end of 2015. A political earthquake may be in the making with long-lasting consequences for Spain, and for Spain´s input into the European integration process.

If only the EU could learn from its mistakes like the IMF…

Dialogue , Op-ed
21 May, 2015

By Clément Fontan

One month ago, the Bruegel institute, a respected and influential EU think-thank, published an opinion piece by former IMF staff member Ashoka Mody. In his excellent analysis, Mody relies on leaked insider information and IMF self-criticism to condemn the Fund’s role in the Greek bailout process from 2010 to the present. In short, he reminds us that the lack of debt restructuring during the 2010 bailout was primarily aimed at protecting the holders of Greek bonds, e.g. the major French and German banks, despite its unsustainability. Then, he underlines that the structural reforms and the budget cuts worsened the economic and social conditions in Greece to such an extent that a second bailout was needed in 2012.

The Role of the European Parliament in Managing Europe’s Economic Crisis

Dialogue , Op-ed
19 May, 2015

By Panagiota Manoli and Georgios Maris

Until recently, especially in financial governance issues, studies had paid little attention to the role of the European Parliament (EP), rather focusing on other institutions such as the European Council, the Commission and the European Central Bank. In a chapter that we contributed to a recently published book,* we discuss the role of the EP in the management of the global financial crisis that erupted in 2008 and soon spread into the Eurozone economies.

Dodging Politics, Ditching Democracy

The Brits and the Poles have voted last week in parliamentary and presidential elections, respectively. But if anything unites these two European elections, it is the way they illustrate the hollowing of the democratic process. While conservatives tout more of the same, the Left… Well, what Left?

Three-Speed Europe

Spain is accelerating, Germany is slowing down, and Greece is in reverse. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the entire euro area grew by 0.4% in the first quarter, one tenth more than in the last quarter of 2014, according to Eurostat’s first estimate. However, this figure from the EU’s statistics office conceals a disparity in the performance of the different economies in the region. Low oil prices, the depreciation of the euro against the dollar, and the debt purchase programme, coupled with the low interest rates spurred by the European Central Bank’s (ECB) monetary policy have been the main factor which has benefitted the Eurozone’s economy. But the ECB has warned that the recovery will not be sustainable unless governments work harder with reforms.

A less united and less European UK: ¿Brexit and break it?

By Andrés Ortega

Despite the official congratulations, Europe’s conservative-dominated collective leadership would have rather seen Labour’s Ed Miliband entering 10 Downing Street. This might seem a paradox, but it is not. There is little confidence in David Cameron. First he got Scotland into an independence referendum that made much of Europe very jittery. Europe’s leaders will again feel a shudder down their spines once the British referendum (Brexit) on leaving the EU comes up. Although Scottish nationalists only just lost their referendum, thanks to devolution promises Cameron now has to honour, the effect has been a totally SNP-dominated political landscape in Scotland. In last Thursday’s general election the party swept the board, taking 56 of a total of 59 seats, compared with only six in 2010.

POLAND: Duda wins the first round, but Komorowski is aiming for re-election

Pending , Op-ed , Dialogue
12 May, 2015

Analysing what happened last Sunday in the Polish presidential elections and trying to anticipate what might happen in two weeks’ time, there are clearly two different interpretations. On the one hand, the partial victory of Andrzej Duda reveals significant wear and tear in the Civic Platform (PO) currently in power – and of Komorowski as President. Furthermore, the rise of Pawel Kukiz, a musician and non-party independent, as the third most voted option (20%) appear to place Poland fairly and squarely in the European mainstream of new politicians, new discourse, and the desire for change – which is what’s happening in Greece and Spain.

Digital Single Market Strategy: Implications for European audiovisual content

Dialogue , Op-ed
10 May, 2015

By Sally Broughton Micova

There were no real surprises when European Commission Vice-President Andrus Ansip and Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Günther H.Oettinger stood on the podium together yesterday [6 May] to launch the EC’s Digital Single Market (DSM) strategy. Draft versions and the evidence file had been leaked and commentators have remarked on a radical overhaul of copyright in the EU, but there seems to have been a slight retreat on the issue of territoriality and geo-blocking for content between the leaked and final versions of the document. A bit more caution is wise because there remain significant deficiencies in the evidence base on the incentives for European content production, and particularly the potential implications for the EU’s many smaller linguistic markets.