O envelhecimento demográfico, a migração, a pobreza no trabalho e a natureza mutável do Estado-providência aparecem como temas em destaque nos atuais debates sobre os desafios sociais da Europa. Podem estes desafios ameaçar uma União Europeia que sobreviveu tanto? Que papéis as ONGs e o sector social podem ter? O painel discute a atual temperatura política na...
The current energy crisis sweeping through the European Union will be no news to the reader. Over-reliance on Russian imports and a failure to switch to renewable sources of energy at a faster pace has left the EU in a challenging situation. The outbreak of the Ukraine war necessitated a wide-ranging response from the 27...
As popular protests spread across Kazakhstan at the beginning of January 2022, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev triggered the mutual defence agreement of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, which resulted in the dispatch of a 2,500 strong Russian led peacekeeping force to the Central Asian state. The current chair of the CSTO, and Prime Minister of Armenia,...
Earlier this year, Bloomberg Chief Economist - Thomas Orlik - released his laudable research into China’s debt-fuelled growth over the past two decades (China: The Bubble that Never Bursts). In the account he retraces the expansion of lending to private and public companies by China’s banks that has underwritten exponential development in key strategic areas...
In Europe, the German-French proposal of a 500bn fund issued by the Commission and distributed as grants, marks a U-turn for Germany, as its public opinion appears to be more favourable to supporting other EU countries. It also looks like a response to its Constitutional Court recent ruling, which was critical of the ECB asset...
The last of the largest EU countries to release its activity data, Germany'statistics showed the economy shrinked by 2,2%qoq in Q1. Though Germany is now offically in recession, after a downward revision in Q4 GDP, the decline in Q1 was less dramatic than in France (-5.8 %), Spain (-5.2%) and Italy (-4.7%). This may reflect...
In Europe, the German Constitutional Court ruled that the ECB will have to provide additional information on PSPP programme, which was launched during the previous debt crisis, to support Member States with large debts, otherwise it will force the Bundesbank to retreat from that programme. The Court ruled that the ECB programme did not amount...
GDP data showed the extent of the corona-virus led recession, whith sharp falls in Europe and in the US. In the Euro Area GDP was down 3.8% in Q1 relative to the previous quarter, while estimates for France, Italy and Spain, three of countries most deeply affected by this crisis, showed drops of 5.8%, 4.7%...
The EU Council met this week, with mixed results. While no exact details were agreed on, Germany helped move closer to a consensus on a EU Commission debt emmission to fund financial support due to the coronavírus. The question remains whether those funds will be distributed through loans (which require repayment) or loans (which result...
