Single market, competition & trade
Commissioning reform
01 October 1999
For most ordinary members of the public the European Commission is the European Union. The fall of the Santer Commission amidst allegations of corruption and mismanagement plunged the EU into crisis.
Don't forget the shopkeepers
01 October 1999
Commission President Romano Prodi has promised a fundamental review of the EU's priorities. He should encourage the Commission to think more about service industries.
The case for "Mr Euroland"
01 October 1999
Most discussions about the euro focus on what it means for the politics and the economy of the EU. The actual and potential external impact of EMU is often ignored.
A golden opportunity for reform
02 August 1999
It is easy to forget that the Eurosceptical mood of many EU countries is a recent phenomenon. In the late 1980s, when the EU's prime task was the creation of a single market, its popularity grew in every member-state.
Entrepreneurial Europe
02 August 1999
Europe's biggest economic problem is that it lacks the kind of entrepreneurial culture that powers America's economy. There are not enough start-up companies or large companies that are capable of innovation.
A single market in crime
02 August 1999
Crime is becoming increasingly international, and it is a big business. A recent United Nations report estimates that the global turnover of criminal organisations amounts to some £1,000 billion a year, considerably larger than the gross domestic product of Britain.
Issue 7 - 1999
30 July 1999
- A golden opportunity for reform, Charles Grant
- Entrepreneurial Europe, Kitty Ussher
- Needed: An EU energy tax, Nina Marenzi
- A single market in crime, Ben Hall
A mandate for convergence
01 June 1999
The government is missing a trick by failing to encourage the Bank of England to play an active part in ensuring Britain's economic convergence with the euro-zone.
The prime minister has repeatedly said joining EMU requires the UK's "sustainable convergence with the economies of the single currency". This doesn't mean exchange-rate...
The prime minister has repeatedly said joining EMU requires the UK's "sustainable convergence with the economies of the single currency". This doesn't mean exchange-rate...
Will EMU lead to a European economic government?
07 May 1999
Both proponents and opponents of economic and monetary union (EMU) have always viewed it as an engine of further European integration and as another milestone on the road to an ill-defined 'political union'.
Name the day: The business case for joining the euro
02 April 1999
Tony Blair's presentation to the House of Commons of a national changeover plan for the adoption of the euro, last February, will come to be seen as a defining moment in Britain's path towards economic and monetary union (EMU).
The danger of centralisation
01 April 1999
During Oskar Lafontaine's brief reign as German finance minister, Europe seemed to veer towards much greater centralisation of economic policy-making. He argued that governments needed to forge a more centralised system of economic policy-making.
Europe's wake up call
01 April 1999
"We've made it!" That was the predominant feeling among leading continental politicians and officials in the weeks after January 1st. The many merchants of doom had been proven wrong.
Issue 5 - 1999
26 March 1999
- Europe's emerging political union, Charles Grant
- The danger of centralisation, Ben Hall
- Europe's wake up call, Steven Everts
Europe's uncertain identity
05 February 1999
The launch of the euro is a success of historic proportions. It is also the ultimate vindication of the method first sketched out nearly fifty years ago in the Schuman memorandum.
The EU budget: An agenda for reform
05 February 1999
The nastiest arguments in the European Union, as in any family, are the ones about money. Communautaire sentiment soon evaporates when prime ministers start to haggle over the budget.
Give on the rebate to gain elsewhere
01 February 1999
At their special summit in March, EU leaders are due to settle the Union's finances for the next seven years. The British government is adamant: the budget rebate won by Mrs Thatcher in 1984 is not up for negotiation.
Vision please
01 February 1999
This year will be crucial both for the development of the European Union and for Britain's position within it. Outside EMU, Britain cannot be one of the leading players. It will have to run to keep up. That means that the government must actively engage in a public debate about Europe's future.
Issue 4 - 1999
29 January 1999
- Give on the rebate to gain elsewhere, Kitty Ussher
- Vision please, Ben Hall
- The end of EADC, Charles Grant, Alexandra Ashbourne
- The myth of tax harmonisation, Kitty Ussher
EMU must go further
01 December 1998
The EMU project is set for success in the short term, despite the financial crisis, but in the long run its prosperity depends on greater co-ordination between member states to undertake essential structural reform.
Issue 3 - 1998
27 November 1998
- What next for Russia?, Rodric Braithwaite
- A new model of European integration, Ben Hall
- EMU must go further, Kitty Ussher
- Reshaping Europe's defence, Charles Grant