Following up their article on the Greek crisis, covered in our recent post Evidence of Fragility (Part 4), The Economist (TE) has a related article with the subtitle, “Why European institutions cannot handle the Greek crisis”. As the TE is firmly pro-EU we can bring some more balance to our blog by citing it, while also … More Evidence of Fragility (Part 5)
Headline: This ‘will of the people’ talk must stop – we need a better democracy than that We know that most academics voted Remain in the referendum. Not, of course, because universities have access to considerable EU funds, but because membership of the EU is best for the UK, in their opinion. We read many … More Pontificating Professors
Martin Schulz is moving on from the Presidency of the European Parliament to campaign for a senior post in the German government in their election later this year. The full speech Schulz gave to the European Council on 15 December 2016, from which we offer some highlights, is transcribed here. He is, as usual, strong … More Insider Out
The Adam Smith Institute has a detailed review of the EU, and the case for leaving, here. The author, Roland Smith (no relation?), dislikes the cases made by both the Leave and the Remain campaigns. He offers “a liberal case for Leave”, which is sufficiently general to be applied to any member state. “In mapping … More What might Adam Smith think?
The document we are commenting on here is nearly three years old but doesn’t appear to have been superseded, so we can take it as an up-to-date view from the European Commission. COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS Taking … More 2020 Vision?
Reporting for the BBC, Kamal Ahmed says that Lord King, the former governor of the Bank of England, believes that the UK should be “self-confident” about leaving the European Union. He argues that there are real opportunities for economic reform and new trade deals, which means that Brexit could be successful. “I think the challenges … More King Dismisses Euro
Representatives on behalf of the London School of Economics recently interviewed Joseph Stiglitz, formerly Chief Economist at the World Bank, about his book, The Euro: And its Threat to Europe. The interview is published here: His conclusion is that “The cost of keeping the Eurozone together probably exceeds the cost of breaking it up”. Here … More Euro: zone in or zone out?
Today it is exactly six months since the UK Referendum, in which a majority of those who voted chose that Britain should leave the EU. We celebrate this half-anniversary with a long post on an issue – democracy – that goes to the heart of what’s wrong with the EU today. The Electoral Reform Society … More Discontented Democrats
A review, with quotations, of an analysis of the EU’s pet fundamental, by a legal expert. This blog: http://eulawanalysis.blogspot.my/2016/11/eu-free-movement-law-in-10-questions.html offers useful clarification on the contentious issue of freedom of movement of persons/labour (the two words are widely used indiscriminately but are obviously different. Treaties refer to ‘persons’ but in practice freedom is restricted mostly to workers … More Freedom of Movement (1)
The distribution of the benefits of globalisation is uneven, distorted. Those who favour globalisation are among the beneficiaries; they have paid too little attention to all those who have not benefited, and not just the losers. Finding ways to offset the damage to those who lose their jobs is important. Finding ways to spread the … More Globalisation: Ins and Outs
This EU Won't Work 