Single market, competition & trade
Growing old gracefully: How to ease population ageing in Europe
17 January 2008
Europe stands on the cusp of a demographic revolution. Rising life expectancy and low fertility are radically transforming Europe’s demographic profile. Ageing populations pose profound political, economic and social challenges for Europe.
Politics, Sarkozy and the euro
03 December 2007
Not long after its launch, the euro was famously dismissed by a disgruntled currency trader as a “toilet currency”. How things have changed. Since 2003, the euro’s external value has soared, particularly against the US dollar.
European retail banking: Will there ever be a single market?
03 December 2007
Integrated markets for entertainment and communications, as well as nearly all goods, stretch from the Arctic to Cyprus. By contrast, Europe’s retail banking industry remains largely segmented along national lines.
China is losing its EU friends
29 November 2007
The EU is getting tough on China. That, at least, is the impression one gets from high-ranking EU officials that arrived for the annual EU-China summit in Beijing this week. Economics is the main reason for Europe’s changing mood.
Can the EU learn to live with Chinese mercantilism?
29 October 2007
Not long after its launch, the euro was famously dismissed by a disgruntled currency trader as a “toilet currency”. How things have changed.
What should Europe do about sovereign wealth funds?
01 October 2007
Several EU governments have become alarmed about sovereign wealth funds (SWFs). Germany, for example, is thinking of preventing such funds from buying local companies in sensitive sectors.
Issue 56 - 2007
28 September 2007
- What should Europe do about sovereign wealth funds?, Katinka Barysch, Philip Whyte
- Yes to a referendum, but not on this treaty, Hugo Brady
- Transatlantic relations after Bush, Kori Schake
The Microsoft appeal: The Commission was right
13 September 2007
On September 17th the European Union’s Court of First Appeal will rule on Microsoft’s long-awaited appeal against the record fine imposed on the company by the Commission in 2004 for abusing its dominant position in computer operating systems.
Issue 55 - 2007
27 July 2007
- The EU should talk to Hamas, Charles Grant, Clara Marina O'Donnell
- Re-imagining EU development aid, Simon Maxwell
- Reciprocity will not secure Europe’s energy , Katinka Barysch
Why Europeans don’t have babies
29 June 2007
Europeans live longer, work less and have fewer babies. On current trends, the EU will not have enough workers to pay for its growing number of pensioners.
EU business and Turkish accession
22 June 2007
Many EU politicians and their voters are unsure about the merits of Turkish accession. Europe’s entrepreneurs are not. They are showing confidence by investing billions into the fast-growing Turkish economy, partly because they expect that EU accession will continue to change the country for the better.
Industrial policy – back to the future?
01 June 2007
In his book ‘Testimony’, Nicolas Sarkozy, the newly elected French president, wrote that his finest hour as finance minister of France was the government’s rescue of Alstom, a French maker of high-speed trains and telecoms equipment. The company’s banks had refused to extend further credit, and with Siemens – a...
Issue 54 - 2007
25 May 2007
- Sarkozy, secularism and Turkey’s European future, Katinka Barysch
- Europe and America’s debate about foreign policy , Tomas Valasek
- Industrial policy – back to the future?, Simon Tilford
Britain and Europe: A City minister's perspective
18 May 2007
Britain's membership of the EU strengthens London as a global financial centre, argues City Minister, Ed Balls. The UK should engage actively with the EU, to ensure that its financial regulation is proportionate, flexible, and implemented effectively.
Globalisation: Business versus politics?
20 April 2007
The CER and Accenture brought together a group of business people, journalists and policy analysts today, to discuss what the world may look like in 2020. What struck me is that there is not one debate about globalisation but several. And they hardly touch.
We are all Nordic now, or are we?
02 April 2007
The EU drew up its Lisbon reform agenda in 2000 with the thinly disguised goal of catching up with the US. But the idea that Europe should strive to adopt ‘Anglo-Saxon’ capitalism is abhorrent to those who cherish Europe’s more extensive welfare states.
Issue 53 - 2007
30 March 2007
- Britain and the EU: a crisis looms, Charles Grant
- We are all Nordic now, or are we?, Katinka Barysch
- Ukraine’s real problem, Tomas Valasek
The future of the single market
02 March 2007
The EU puts out a lot of reports, studies, evaluations and announcements. So far this month, the Commission has released around 80 major documents. Many of them are too specialised, too long or simply too dull to attract wider interest.
The Lisbon scorecard VII: Will globalistion leave Europe stranded?
01 February 2007
Globalisation and the rapid integration of China and India into the international economy present huge opportunities for the European Union.
The wrong benchmark for Eastern Europe
25 January 2007
In November last year, Anders Aslund, a long-time observer of transition economies, rang the alarm bells over Eastern Europe. In an FT article he talked about “Central Europe’s political malaise” and warned that budget profligacy and reform fatigue would keep the new members from catching up with the West.