In an unexpected turn of events, the Turkish general elections on 7 June did not end well for the conservative Islamists who have governed the country for the past thirteen years. The Justice and Development Party (AKP), which obtained 41% of the vote, has effectively—and unexpectedly—lost its majority in the Parliament and will now be forced to share power through a political coalition with other parties if it holds onto hope of governing the country.
By Deniz Torcu
On Sunday, 7 June, Turkey will go to the ballot box to elect 550 members of its Grand National Assembly. This will be the 24th general election in the Republic of Turkey and, surely, one of the most important in the country’s history. While it is likely that the current Islamist ruling party, the Justice and Development Party (AKP), will be the winner of the elections, the margin with which they win will be the big question.
By Mario Saavedra
At different times in history it has been Athens, Venice and Milan. Today it’s São Paulo, Shanghai, Istanbul and Barcelona: large cities that sign international diplomatic agreements directly with other governments, either local or national, without necessarily going through their capital city. Mayors or governors have thus become the new diplomats.
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.
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from 2007 until 2013, with €8.7 billion remaining in stand-by until the end of 2015, when the offer will be permanently withdrawn.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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
