Lagarde’s bond purchases have worried the eurozone’s creditor countries [1]. The ECB’s action was to prevent the collapse of Italy’s sovereign debt, triggering a domino effect on Spain and other embattled states and so destroying monetary union. This flouts EU treaty law but Lagarde forced it through by majority vote. It may yet face a … More Money Makes The Euro Go Aground
Today we took our permitted exercise walk and saw many pictures of rainbows in windows and on gates, drawn by children to help us stay cheerful—actually there’s been almost constant sunshine and no rain since the UK’s lock-down began. The drawings reminded us of Judy Garland’s song but also that however fast we walked we … More Somewhere Over The Rainbow
Some find Boris Johnson’s ebullient manner grating while others find it uplifting. We have the right to feel as we do and maybe cannot help ourselves, it might be instinct rather than choice, based on personality preferences or political prejudice, but we should try our best to judge all leaders by their actions since those … More The Unimportance Of Being Earnest
The Covid-19 pandemic posed a dilemma for the EU: should it step up to the challenge and assume more powers or back off to let the member nations deal with it according to their own judgements and circumstances? “Solidarity is the glue that keeps our Union together”, claimed Jean-Claude Juncker and … More Stuck in the Middle
Robert Frost makes our point pithily: In our previous post [1], to which this is a follow-up, Guy Verhofstadt confirms that he is at the sharp end of those who are in favour of completing the project plan to achieve a federal government for at least part of Europe. Our commentary did little more than … More And Those Against
Some see the covid-19 pandemic as an opportunity and a requirement to hasten and tighten the programme of unification; others see it as the likely end of a failed experiment. What follows is the recipe of arch-federalist Guy Verhoftadt, the EP’s chief Brexit representative. In EUObserver [1] he makes his case forcefully, if without evidence … More Those in Favour…
Are the rules and links binding EU countries weakening in the face of the latest crisis? Daniel Craig, aka James Bond, claims his latest movie, ‘No Time To Die’, tries not to be political but is inevitably tainted by Trump and by the nihilism of Brexit. We can’t see what he means because the release … More The EU’s Bonds
Lobbying Peter Teffer, who used to be an investigative journalist for EUObserver, has spent many hours looking into how the EU makes its decisions and the influence that corporate lobbyists have on those decision. He summarises his conclusions in a recent article for the online journal [1] and will publish details in his book, which … More Lobbying, Corruption and EU Decision-Making
It’s like trench warfare. Just as disputing the lands of France and Belgium was not the prime cause of the First World War (WW1), negotiators from the EU, UK and US go into battle over ground that is not the main concern. For the EU the battle is about preserving an idea of uniting the … More Negotiating Mandates
The world is experiencing historically low interest rates but the problems of the eurozone (EZ) are particularly acute, so having run out of most financial firepower the ECB has resorted to negative interest rates. You now have to pay to lend your money to a bank. The idea is to encourage lending to firms that … More The Jewel in Whose Crown?
