Single market, competition & trade
The spectre of tax harmonisation
04 February 2000
Europe's citizens, generally speaking, do not want their taxes set by Brussels. Taxation and representation still go hand in hand. So it is safe to assume that so long as people continue to look to their national governments to represent their interests (and turn out to vote for their national politicians in greater numbers than for MEPs), they will reject the notion of taxation policies being decided at European Union level.
The impact of the euro on transatlantic relations
07 January 2000
European Union is, almost by definition, subject to strain and tension. During the Cold War some stability was maintained by the common external threat that bound the NATO allies together under US leadership.
Europe's new economy
01 December 1999
Europe needs a new economic story. Its ability to compete in the knowledge-driven economy depends on how well it can translate science, technology and know-how into jobs, growth and economic success.
Issue 15 - 2000
26 November 1999
- Set a date for enlargement now, Heather Grabbe
- The unholiest of alliances, Charles Grant
- The "open method of co-ordination": Innovation or talking shop?, Kirsty Hughes
Europe's new economy
05 November 1999
Europe needs a new economic story because it faces a new economic challenge. The challenge is to transform European science and technology, knowledge and creativity, into jobs, growth and economic success.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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
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.
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.