Europe - EBR

Edition: International | Greek

FOLLOW EBR MAGAZINE ON:

Home » Europe

Economical incentives on here and now became more important than long-term investments in youth and education. Young people are now just digits in statistics of how many of them travel abroad, how many get a scholarship, how many trainings, how many researches… Values and being an active member of the society stopped being important. We cannot measure it.

Short Story of Converting People into Digits

By: EBR | Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Many people complain about the lack of presence of the European Union in the life of ordinary citizens. Many complain that they are actually not aware of what this huge structure of supranational or intergovernmental organisations is doing...

Anna-Maria Darmanin is Vice-President of the European Economic and Social Committee

EU moving towards a European Energy Community

By: EBR | Friday, February 17, 2012

The European energy community is Jacques Delors’ visionary response to challenges that, if not addressed, have the potential of putting the European countries and the EU at risk. And so far, the main energy challenges have not been adequately addressed.

In short, the true beneficiary of a reversion to the drachma is the whole system of power cultivated by the political class since the fall of the dictatorship in 1974. It is this informal, implicit power setup, which until recently was often invisible to the general public, that is presently under threat. It would be given a fresh lease on life by a return to the drachma and the nearly certain devaluation-inflation spiral that will follow.

Greece: Why Not Go Back to the Drachma?

By: EBR | Monday, February 13, 2012

In the international debate about Greece's future options, it is often argued that the only way out for Greece is to abandon the euro and return to its national currency.

Indeed it is no news for attentive observers that most Southern European economies suffer from deep structural weaknesses that have been partly responsible for their weak growth rate in recent decades.

Europe′s salvation lies within itself

By: EBR | Thursday, January 5, 2012

Red alert, passengers. We are not joking anymore. We are not talking about the possible “restructuring” of the sovereign debt of a single peripheral country.

To its credit, the Papademos government mastered two important challenges early on: it secured the payout of the sixth international loan tranche of more than €8 billion ($10.45 billion) from the €110 billion European Union and International Monetary Fund bailout package agreed in May 2010. And the parliament has passed the state budget for 2012.

New Greek Government Runs Out of Steam

By: EBR | Friday, December 30, 2011

Six weeks after forming a transitional government to overcome its crisis, Greece is still failing to deliver its promised reforms. The cabinet of Prime Minister Lucas Papademos is deeply divided and has lost the public's confidence.

Havel’s death comes at a time of massive demonstrations in Russia to protest ballot fraud; violence in Egypt as democratic activists battle the deeply entrenched military; an uprising in rural China against corrupt local officials; and police in body armor violently dismantling the Occupy protest sites in American cities. Power and truth remain locked in combat around the world.

The power of living in truth

By: EBR | Thursday, December 22, 2011

The world’s greatest shortage is not of oil, clean water, or food, but of moral leadership. With a commitment to truth – scientific, ethical, and personal – a society can overcome the many crises of poverty, disease, hunger, and instability that confront us.

In Bucharest the AEJ conducted its own audit of the squeeze on press freedom in five other countries in the region, which exposed a pattern of the erosion of journalistic independence, and a corresponding decline in press standards, in Bulgaria, Turkey, Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus.

AEJ finds press freedom crumbling across eastern Europe

By: EBR | Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Romania’s foreign minister, Teodor Baconschi, told journalists who gathered in Bucharest from all over Europe last weekend at the annual Congress of the Association of European Journalists that “there is a lot of corruption in politics and the press” in Romania.

Indeed, it was from Europe that the idea went forth some 25 centuries ago to institute a social order in which citizens would be masters of their own decisions and which would depend on no authority other than their freely expressed common well. This was the greatest revolution in the history of mankind.

Why we need a Europe of Culture

By: Athanase Papandropoulos | Monday, October 31, 2011

Since the moment the European Union (EU) was sketched out, in 1957, people have contently stressed the economic and political need for it. Goes without saying that these needs are important and it is very easy to understand why efforts in those two difficult directions are strained.

True, progress toward the deepening and expansion of the EU was always slow and always gradual because it must be always consensual. That usually involves extremely complicated political and economic compromises. But the bottom line is that it worked. Ultimately, the Europeans do use crises well in that the continent arrives at the right outcomes (i.e., reforms).

The Strengths of Europe

By: The Globalist | Monday, October 3, 2011

In the midst of the current eurozone crisis, many economic commentators claim Europe’s internal divisions are too deep to mend. But alarmism aside, are Europe’s internal divides really any bigger — and therefore harder to overcome — than India’s or China’s or the United States'?

In this tough crisis time, youngsters are usually the first in line. There is no need to remind that on average 25% of them are jobless. Through the Indignados movement and other youth revolts, like the recent one in the United Kingdom, they want to express themselves and take their place in society.

Happy Birthday Italy, a multicultural youth event

By: EBR | Thursday, September 1, 2011

The Risorgimento (‘Resurgence’) showed the way to Italy’s unification with the proclamation of the Italian Kingdom on March 17, 1861. This movement has been led by young people, willing to create a strong and united country as the only condition to free the Italian people from the foreign invaders

The European financial crisis is now in its twentieth month. As recently as a few days ago, many observers were expecting bailouts for Spain, defaults in Italy and downgrades in France. Why would Europe′s top leaders choose to introduce measures that will require a new treaty, while the European project is already struggling so badly on its current terms?

EU leaders face crossroads in European integration

By: Stratfor - Strategic Forecasting | Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Why would Europe's top leaders choose to introduce measures that will require a new treaty, while the European project is already struggling so badly on its current terms?

The “Greek tragedy” as it is now called is a perfect example of the shortcomings of economic and monetary union, as well as of the euro area’s ability to overcome unforeseeable events and use them to move towards closer integration.

The Eurozone enters adulthood

By: Europe′s World | Friday, June 17, 2011

The euro area's 13-year history is a success story, says Jean-Claude Juncker. It's a strong currency that is also more stable than any of the national ones it replaced. He sets out the advances in governance that are now needed.

Greece may not be able to devalue its euro currency to help exports. But it has cut imports. And it has already seen "internal devaluation" of between 20% and 40% in key costs such as wages and house rents

Can Greek tragedy be rewritten?

By: BBC News | Thursday, June 16, 2011

The indignant crowds occupying the Syntagma central square in Athens are not the only people desperate for a new solution to their very own Greek tragedy of looming insolvency.

But was Brussels ever meant to be the EU’s capital? The treaties or declarations of the EU have not declared any city as the "capital" of the EU. The Council of Europe was established in 1949 and chose Strasbourg as the symbolic meeting place. This post-war pan-European organisation was established to overcome rivalry and join forces for human rights, democracy and the rule of law on the whole European continent.

A Capital of Europe? Strasbourg versus Brussels

By: Niels Schreuder | Monday, April 18, 2011

“Capital of Europe: how the EU is shaping Brussels – and vice versa?” That was the question raised at a recent conference organized by weekly newspaper European Voice debating the place, infrastructure and architecture for the European scene in Brussels.

We must pool not only the benefits of a common currency, but also the risks. The creation of a European Stability Agency, which will be responsible for managing European debt, is a first step in the right direction. Eurobonds would have the benefit of protecting the Euro zone against financial market speculation and would cut the costs of financing debt for every member state.

What future for Europe and the Euro?

By: EBR | Tuesday, March 22, 2011

The Euro zone is facing its deepest crisis to date. The credit crunch and economic downturn have exacerbated unsustainable public debt, and brought about uncertain prospects of growth and a huge rise in unemployment to 23 million in Europe as a whole.

Despite painful austerity measures in many EU member states, often for their national civil service, all EU staff have been awarded a 3.7 % pay rise. Responding to criticism of this and the general pay and perks enjoyed by EU staff, Barroso said ‘the European civil service is often attacked for its apparent privileges when this is not the case and I am always defending this’.

From the Heart of Europe …

By: N. Peter Kramer | Tuesday, March 1, 2011

A recent survey conducted by multinational lobby firm Burson-Marsteller rated the European Commission’s overall performance as average or below! Individual commissioners were rated according to their ‘overall performance’ and ‘achievement of commitments’.

New financing instruments to boost innovation and entrepreneurship will be developed to enable business to play their role with the help of both the European Investment Bank and European Investment Fund.

′Europe 2020′ towards Energy Efficiency

By: Niels Schreuder | Thursday, February 24, 2011

You remember the Lisbon Agenda 2000? Well today we have the Europe 2020 Strategy. Focusing on five ambitious objectives; employment, innovation, education, social inclusion and climate/energy, the strategy will be addressing seven flagship initiatives.

(L-R) Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic, Hungarian President Pal Schmitt, Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski and Czech President Vaclav Klaus in November 2010

The Visegrad Group: Central Europe′s Bloc

By: Stratfor - Strategic Forecasting | Monday, February 7, 2011

The heads of government of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary will come together for the Visegrad Group summit Feb. 15. The German and Austrian chancellors and Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov will also attend.

DEPA is committed in fully developing the ITGI pipeline (Turkey-Greece-Italy Interconnection) and the IGB (Greece-Bulgaria) Interconnector. ITGI is sponsored by Italy’s Edison and Greece’s DEPA, while IGB is sponsored by Edison, DEPA and the Bulgaria’s BEH.

DEPA welcomes the signing of the Joint Declaration on Southern Corridor

By: EBR | Monday, January 24, 2011

DEPA welcomes the signing of the Joint Declaration on Southern Gas Corridor, between the European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso and the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev.

The existing bailout mechanism probably can handle the first four states (just barely, and assuming it works as advertised), but beyond that, the rest of the eurozone will have to come up with a multitrillion-euro fund in an environment in which private investors are likely to balk. Undoubtedly, the euro needs a new mechanism to survive.

Europe: The New Plan

By: Stratfor - Strategic Forecasting | Wednesday, December 22, 2010

An EU heads-of-state summit Dec. 16 launched a process aimed to save the common European currency. If successful, this process would be the most significant step toward creating a singular European power since the creation of the European Union — that is, if it doesn’t destroy the euro first.

Pages: Previous Next

EU Actually

Only President Antonio Costa believes in a deal in his EU Council before Christmas

By: N. Peter Kramer

In his weekly column N. Peter Kramer writes that EU member states are deeply divided over the EU’s next seven-year budget. Do we know more after the EU Council on Thursday?

Europe

The EU’s Middle-Power Puzzle

While the EU and European governments are embracing the much-lauded middle-power moment, this entails three difficult conundrums

Business

Businesscraft: Japan’s Quiet Discipline for a Fractured World

For almost thirty years after the end of the Cold War, geopolitics stayed away from the corporate boardroom. Geopolitical considerations belonged to the foreign ministry or to a dedicated risk committee back at headquarters, and rarely crossed a CEO’s desk.