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"Switzerland, as a non-EU country, has concluded over the years more than 120 bilateral but loose treaties with ‘Brussels’."

Is Switzerland a ‘victim’ of EU’s Brexit frustration?

By: N. Peter Kramer | Wednesday, February 17, 2021

As soon as the agreement between the UK and the EU was concluded the end of December, the Swiss analysed the Brexit text for elements negotiated by the UK which Switzerland did not get from the EU

"The 750 billion recovery plan threatens not only to create a hole in finances, but also another hole in confidence in EU politics."

How reliable is the EU recovery plan?

By: N. Peter Kramer | Wednesday, February 10, 2021

In interviews in the Financial Times, two EU heavyweights, the German Wolfgang Schauble and the French Bruno Le Maire, were very critical of the rollout of the EU 750-billion-euro recovery plan

"The EU vaccine roll-out is in deep trouble. EU countries are openly desperate to get hold of the jabs they have been promised to put in voters’ arms."

Panicking Commission heaps pressure on failing vaccine strategy

By: N. Peter Kramer | Monday, February 1, 2021

‘Misjudgement’, mismanagement’ ‘blunder’ … and words that were far stronger you could hear from EU insiders about the European Commission’s initial decision on Friday to suspend part of the Brexit deal agreement on Northern Ireland

The EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, has sent a letter to Dominic Raab with ‘serious concerns’.

The rules are the rules, for English sandwiches and for EU diplomats

By: N. Peter Kramer | Monday, January 25, 2021

The EU border authorities confiscated English trucker’s homemade bacon sandwiches, completely in accordance with the post-Brexit rules

"PM Conte prefers to put himself and some appointed technocrats in charge of disbursing the funds. Renzi on the other hand demanded strong parliamentary oversight."

‘Brussels’ preference for technocrats instead of democracy

By: N. Peter Kramer | Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Matteo Renzi, once the favourite of Brussels eurocrats, withdrew his support from Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s coalition, leaving the Italian government several seats short of a majority in the Senate

A report by an American institute showed that the Green Deal will result in 12% less agricultural production in the EU in 2030.

Will the Green Deal cause food shortages?

By: N. Peter Kramer | Wednesday, January 13, 2021

The green sustainability plans of the European Commission are increasingly criticised in the European Parliament, who fear that the Green Deal will cause food shortages in the EU

"The faster rate at which the UK, Israel and the US are vaccinating is increasing pressure on EU governments and particularly the European Commission, which is coordinating the joint EU vaccine strategy."

European Commission vaccine competence?

By: N. Peter Kramer | Thursday, January 7, 2021

With vaccination campaigns in EU member states stalled because there is not enough of approved vaccines, vaccination in the United Kingdom is going fast, due to the urgence of the situation

Barbel Kofler, Commissioner of Human Rights in Angela Merkel’s government, stated recently: ‘ I am shocked by the large number of judgments against lawyers, journalists and opposition activists in China in recent days’.

Angela ‘schafft es’ again: business is business

By: N. Peter Kramer | Wednesday, December 30, 2020

No doubt, the German Presidency will end today (30 December) as Angela Merkel always wanted it to, with an investment treaty between the EU and China

In their search for ’an eminent European personality able to represent the common interest of the three EU institutions ’, Merkel and Macron came to Helle Thorning-Schmidt.

Not Verhofstadt but Thorning-Schmidt President of the EU Future Conference

By: N. Peter Kramer | Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron have put forward the former Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt as President of the Conference on the Future of the EU

"Chancellor Merkel’s days are numbered. Who will be her successor? And will she or he make the same kind of ‘dreamteam’ with President Macron to rule the waves in the EU?"

Angela’s powerplay, with the help of Emmanuel

By: N. Peter Kramer | Tuesday, December 15, 2020

An historical agreement! With a budget of 1.800 billion euros and by linking that amount to respect for the rule of law, the EU will have unprecedented resources

The Brexit-minded newspapers are steadily increasing the pressure on Boris Johnson not to give in to the EU demands.

High chance of a hard Brexit

By: N. Peter Kramer | Friday, December 11, 2020

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson sees a no-deal Brexit rapidly approaching

"The EU behaves as an old-fashioned colonial power: they want to keep free entrance to the British fishing waters, the UK has to stick to the EU competition rules and to the EU rules on workers’ rights, environmental regulations and state aid."

When Boris meets Ursula

By: N. Peter Kramer | Tuesday, December 8, 2020

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will travel to Brussels to meet European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in a last-ditch effort to salvage a post-Brexit trade deal

Greenpeace political campaigner Chetan-Welsh: ‘Governments need to do everything to reduce traffic on the road. That includes giving people the confidence to get back on public transport safely’.

Another Covid-19 effect: more old cars, less public transport

By: N. Peter Kramer | Wednesday, December 2, 2020

Internet searches for older cars has spiked since the summer. A for Reuters conducted analysis of car registration data in, among others, France, Germany, Italy and Spain shows a significant shift toward older, used cars

"Biden, originating from Irish immigrants, was always anti-Brexit, ignoring the fact that (three times) the Brits clearly chose independence from the EU’s often Kremlin-like rule over the incoherent Union."

Joe Biden and his catnip effect on the EU

By: N. Peter Kramer | Wednesday, November 25, 2020

‘It is a new beginning for the EU-US global partnership’, tweeted (yes, she does too) Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, after she had a phone call with US President-elect Joe Biden

"In an interview, Timmermans had hinted at the possibility of a withdrawal of the CAP, because he is not very happy with the final position of the European Parliament on the original Commissions proposal."

Blundering Commissioner Frans Timmermans called to order

By: N. Peter Kramer | Wednesday, November 18, 2020

Withdrawing the proposal for the reform of the massive EU’s farming subsidies programme (CAP) is off the table

"The EU’s open internal and external borders have proved to be a gift to drug traffickers, people smugglers and other criminals."

Macron doubts about a borderless EU

By: N. Peter Kramer | Wednesday, November 11, 2020

French President Macron wants to reintroduce border controls between EU countries and to guard the external border of the Union with an EU police force

‘We are witnessing increasing activity of the anti-5G movement across the European Union’, says the letter, signed by Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Sweden.

EU countries raise alarm on anti-5G movement

By: N. Peter Kramer | Wednesday, November 4, 2020

Fifteen EU member states call in a letter to the European Commission to launch a strategy to address a spate of conspiracy theories in the EU

"The European Trade Union Confederation is in favour of the proposal, although the Nordic countries are against legal interference in autonomous collective bargaining on wages amongst social partners."

Commission proposal on minimum wages is ‘a recipe for disaster’

By: N. Peter Kramer | Thursday, October 29, 2020

The European Commission has proposed an EU directive on minimum wages and collective bargaining

Over 60 years EU farm policy has been blind for farming’s impact on nature, rewarding farmers for producing more and expanding their farms.

Greenpeace rings emergency bell for nature, climate and small farms

By: N. Peter Kramer | Wednesday, October 21, 2020

While the Council of the EU heralds that its negotiating position on the post 2020 common agricultural policy (CAP) reform package puts forward strong commitments from member states for higher environmental ambition, Greenpeace let us know that the European Parliament has ‘signed a death sentence for nature, climate and small farms’

After last year’s European elections, there was an informal agreement between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron that Verhofstadt should be allowed to chair the conference on the Future of Europe.

EU Memberstates do not want Guy Verhofstadt

By: N. Peter Kramer | Wednesday, October 14, 2020

For Guy Verhofstadt to chair the conference on the Future of Europe is a red line for a group of member states

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EU Actually

Extreme weather or not, the climate summit in Belem is in danger

By: N. Peter Kramer

That the weather is becoming more and more extreme does not lead to more political urgency

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04/2021 2021

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Europe

The EU Needs Values-Based Engagement in the Southern Mediterranean

As the EU prepares a new pact for its Southern neighborhood, the union should balance economic and security interests with support for civil society, political reforms, and inclusive governance

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To save the Single Market, bring back Delors’ 1992 playbook

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