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The GEAR tool gathers the good practices of universities and research organisations and bases itself on the findings of EU funded projects in the field of Gender Equality Plans and institutional change.

European research needs both women and men

By: EBR | Friday, October 21, 2016

The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) and the European Commission today addressed the challenge of making research organisations and the higher education sector equal for both women and men by launching a new tool to support the research community

More than ever, Europe is a vibrant mix of people, cultures and religions. The EU is an important part of peoples’ lives, often taken for granted, often criticised and much too often under-estimated and under-sold by self-seeking politicians.

The curious contours of a new European conversation

By: EBR | Wednesday, October 19, 2016

As the European Union gears up for its 60th anniversary next March, there’s good news and bad news.

The days are long gone when Europeans’ national cultures were part of their colonialist armoury. Today the flow is if anything reversed, with Europe absorbing strong cultural influences from Asia, Africa and the Arab world. But the EU’s growing focus on the cultural affinities of its member countries is becoming vitally important.

Making the most of Europe’s ”saving graces”

By: EBR | Wednesday, October 12, 2016

No one would deny that these are difficult times for the European Union

Reinforced integration among a smaller group of member states may indeed make sense; it has worked it in the past. It can be a reasonable means of accommodating different interests and appetites for integration. The EU treaties allow for “Enhanced Cooperation” among groups of member states. Many aspects of the EU either began this way, or to this day are still limited to subsets of member states: Schengen, the euro or the Fiscal Compact. At the same time, proposals for ‘Core Europe’ seem to imply something qualitatively different – perhaps a more tiered model for the Union, with inner and outer layers of participation.

Europe’s reboot: from Bismarck to ‘Core Europe’?

By: EBR | Friday, September 30, 2016

Political integration projects have often been shaped by debates about their ultimate territorial limits, as these imply different visions of the values behind the project. For more than 40 years, Europe – and Britain – have debated whether and how the European project should include the UK

The EU’s current crisis is more menacing than any previous impasse because these factors no longer apply to the same degree as in the past. The ‘established’ parties of the centre and the moderate left and right are losing support to anti-European parties of the radical left or, more so, especially in northern European countries, of the radical right. Their growth increasingly limits the ‘old’ parties from making the necessary compromises to solve the EU’s critical issues.

EU faces another year of living dangerously

By: EBR | Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Beware - the European Union is not set in stone. It can disintegrate. The U.K.’s vote to leave the EU is the biggest blow in the union’s history. However, the withdrawal of the U.K. or any member is by no means its only existential threat

The European Union would be a better global power, and Turkey would be a stronger European democracy showing greater convergence with European values and interests. The results of the EU’s failed Turkey policy are clear.

EU and Turkey: Time to act

By: EBR | Monday, September 19, 2016

The failure of the coup attempt in Turkey is celebrated as a victory for democracy by Turks. However, after rapidly condemning the coup, the EU’s weak solidarity has become a source of resentment for Ankara

More than 10.000 online shops are already certified by Ecommerce Europe and the National Associations, and carry the Ecommerce Europe Trustmark. These shops received the Trustmark for free via one of the National Associations that has joined Ecommerce Europe. Shops that carry the Ecommerce Europe Trustmark link directly to the Ecommerce Europe Trustmark Certificate.

Ecommerce Europe Trustmark

By: EBR | Friday, September 16, 2016

Cross-border E-commerce protection for consumers

Ecommerce Europe is pleased that the Commission further clarified this point in the text, even though it might need further fine tuning. Only in this way, online merchants can be sure that they are allowed to apply their national laws, without being forced to deal with laws of countries that they are not actively targeting. Besides that, EU policy makers should be aware that one of the consequences of this proposal might be that consumers end up disappointed with a product that they could buy from a website not directing its sales activities to the country of the consumer and which thus might not have been fit for this market.

Upcoming priorities and challenges for the e-commerce sector in Europe Brexit and the Slovak Presidency

By: EBR | Friday, September 16, 2016

The EU is facing crucial challenges that will impact its policies at all levels but also its nature itself. In this context, a wide range of dossiers linked to the European Commission’s Digital Single Market (DSM) Strategy will be affected

The EU’s general nondiscrimination policy allows for members to compete for new business by offering an attractive tax environment. Indeed, the EC only demanded that Ireland impose its generally low 12.5 percent corporate tax rate on the revenues that escaped taxation elsewhere in the EU or, indeed, even in the United States. There was no effort to require Ireland to raise its overall tax rates so as to reduce its competitive advantage.

Europe Gets Apple Right

By: EBR | Thursday, September 15, 2016

On August 30, the European Commission issued a blockbuster ruling that required Ireland to recoup, with interest, the €13 billion in tax benefits that it has granted Apple since 1991

It is clear that the acceleration / deepening are the most coherent and complete rapprochement. However, the implementation of that rapprochement demands wider consent which is not easy to happen. But this does not mean that the Union should be let muddling through. A strategy with two stages could be able to overcome the obstacles.

Europe’s future under high uncertainty

By: EBR | Thursday, September 15, 2016

This very week, might be proved crucial for European Union’s future

A solution for Strasbourg could be to establish an undergraduate European University there, modelled on the EUI. It would fill the Parliament premises with students, professors and researchers from all over Europe and would be financed by the EU budget. The money saved by the centralisation of the European Parliament operations in Brussels would be, for instance, sufficient to cover almost entirely the annual budget of a university such as Paris Sorbonne, which has more than 20,000 students and 1300 professors and researchers.

Now is the time to open Strasbourg’s ‘Bronislaw Geremek’ European University

By: EBR | Friday, September 9, 2016

It is the right time to revive the proposal made 10 years ago by Bronislaw Geremek and Jean-Didier Vincent to create a truly European University in the European Parliament buildings in Strasbourg

The great political parties which built a state of prosperity, peace and law the last 70 years, never showed the willingness to emphasize the universality and the great background of their effort. And the question is, why did they neglect this dimension of the European mainstream, during its most important period? The answer is simple though: for political reasons.

The enemies of Europe

By: Athanase Papandropoulos | Friday, September 9, 2016

The political powers which set up the most impressive prosperity system of the last 70 years, are now paying their huge communication incapability and their political mediocrity

European funds play a big role in the investments Romania needs in agriculture, health, infrastructure and education. However, the Ciolos Government – the first entirely technocrat administration in Romanian history - admitted in a controversial memorandum in July that it will be able to attract close to 0% in European funds in 2016, for the 2014-2020 spending period.

Governing a dysfunctional state: Romania

By: EBR | Thursday, September 8, 2016

Amid growing disenchantment in Romania about the nation’s year-old non-partisan government of “technocrats”, questions are being raised in Brussels about the regime’s ability to meet EU standards. The country’s troubles are highlighted by what is seen as a crisis in Romania’s justice system

While political leaders and decision-makers can inspire through principled discourse and actions, ignoring the active and positive role citizens can play in correcting the situation is plainly wrong. Instead of treating the voters of anti-immigration parties like their leaders, their concerns have to be openly debated in society-wide conversations, not ignored. Indeed outward-looking citizens have to be offered the opportunity to reshape the national narrative.

One key thing the EU can learn from the Canadian refugee policy

By: EBR | Monday, August 22, 2016

At a time of sorrow and despair for the EU, and with the refugee issue a core fault line in the Old Continent's politics, the Canadian policy of privately sponsored refugees could offer a solution to building bridges of understanding among diverse communities

The philosophy behind the scheme is to boost the agri-food sector’s competitiveness within the EU and support the growth of European quality foods worldwide, as approximately 70% of the budget is earmarked for third countries.

New CAP is still struggling to find new export markets

By: EBR | Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan has launched a “diplomatic campaign” to find new markets for EU products. But external trade complexity and an unbalanced internal market pose serious challenges for the executive

At a structural level, the Economic Council of the Prime Minister promotes substantial dialogue with the business environment, being a key mechanism meant to increase consultation with stakeholders.

Moldova on its IMF and reform track after six months of responsive government

By: EBR | Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Today's Moldova bears no resemblance to the one six months ago

It is through this prism that our friends and allies around the world need to see this decision. This is not a march away from free trade (though it is worth to saying that Britain has a massive trade deficit with the EU of about 80 billion a year). It is taking back a degree of control over our country that allies like the US would never have countenanced giving up themselves.

Leaving the EU gives Britain the freedom to thrive

By: EBR | Friday, July 15, 2016

Britain’s decision to leave the EU was received with surprise around the world. It shouldn’t have been. We have the fifth largest economy in the world

Are there any opportunities that come with Brexit? Not really, except for the illusory joy of being able to perhaps host some additional EU agencies or jump a seat in terms of influence in Brussels: + 1 in a EU of 27, instead of 28 States.

Brexit and Eastern Europe: Politics and consequences

By: EBR | Monday, July 11, 2016

Brexit has consequences on Eastern European countries, and the truth is there is more peril than opportunity in this crisis

Plahotnuic is not called a shadow ruler of Moldova for nothing and many people claim that he, not Filat, was the main beneficiary behind the crime.

Moldovan crisis threatens its European Union credentials

By: EBR | Thursday, July 7, 2016

It is Europe’s poorest country and possibly its most corrupt

In any case, the EU is the dominant political, economic, and regulatory power in Europe today, whether you like it or not.

The fundamental flaws of Brexit backers

By: EBR | Monday, June 27, 2016

By now, it has become clear that the heated confrontation in Britain over the issue of Brexit has very little to do with the actual arguments, especially among those who want the UK to leave the European Union when the country votes on the question in a referendum in June.

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EU Actually

The climate hysteria is officially over

By: N. Peter Kramer

In his weekly column, N. Peter Kramer writes that the climate hysteria is officially over, a turn that doesn’t come as a surprise to insiders.

Europe

To ignore ageing’s threats to the young is to imperil Europe

Giles Merritt reports on the vivid warnings of Debating Europe’s “Voice for Choices” report on ageing’s impact

Business

Hotpot, bubble tea and sportswear: China’s new exports take on the world

Step into pretty much any shopping mall in Singapore and you’re likely to find queues snaking outside shops with catchy names and bright-coloured branding.