March 31, 2011
With the eurozone destined for years of navel-gazing, as it struggles through the current sovereign debt and banking crisis, the UK is actually very well placed to push for EU reform. Its own economic challenges aside, Britain now has a chance to use t…
Posted by Open Europe blog team
March 30, 2011
In a speech in Oslo today, EU President Herman Van Rompuy talked about the sound fundamentals of eurozone economies. He references the average growth of 2%, the average deficit of 4.5% and the strength of the euro as evidence for his claim.To his mind …
Posted by Open Europe blog team
European Commission plans to ban petrol-fuelled cars from city centres by 2050 have led to general outrage all over Europe.UK Transport Minister Norman Baker said: “We will not be banning cars from city centres any more than we will be having rectang…
Posted by Open Europe blog team
The Sunday Times’ expose has certainly shaken the bees nest at the European Parliament. So far four MEPs have been caught out, on video, agreeing to table amendments to EU directives in return for the promise of cash. However, despite being caught we…
Posted by Open Europe blog team
Standard & Poor’s yesterday downgraded both Greek and Portuguese debt by one notch and kept them on negative outlooks. That hints at further downgrades in the near future, although given the extent of the problems in both countries that could be …
Posted by Open Europe blog team
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credit rating, euro, eurozone. bail-out, Greece, Portugal, sovereign debt |
March 28, 2011
Alistair Darling hit out at David Cameron and George Osborne today for trying to put all the blame for the UK’s participation in the €60bn European bailout fund (the EFSM) onto the previous Labour government.Darling said:”When you referred to the d…
Posted by Open Europe blog team
March 25, 2011
This week’s fun and games are over, with EU leaders concluding their Brussels summit earlier this afternoon.Once again, this summit is unlikely to be remembered for anything EU leaders could agree on but, rather, for what eurozone leaders, in particula…
Posted by Open Europe blog team
There have been lots of numbers floating around on what a bailout of Portugal would mean for the UK. The tabloids today reported a figure of €6.8 billion, while on the BBC Today programme, Robert Peston argued that Britain would only contribute throu…
Posted by Open Europe blog team
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eu, euro, eurozone. bail-out, Portugal, restructuring, sovereign debt |
March 24, 2011
The Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates resigned last night, after failing to get his new austerity measures through the Portuguese Parliament. This has pushed Portugal into a political crisis, and forced them to the brink of asking for a bailout.A…
Posted by Open Europe blog team
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eu, euro, eurozone. bail-out, Portugal, restructuring, sovereign debt |
March 23, 2011
The EU’s fledgling External Action Service has regularly been mocked for its naivety and ‘Kum-bay-ah’ approach; all too often it seems to base its polices on projecting a positive image of the EU, occasionally backed by some suitably bland statem…
Posted by Open Europe blog team
Open Europe is an independent think tank contributing bold new thinking to the debate about the direction of the EU.
