BRUSSELS | By Jacobo de Regoyos | The euro zone’s GDP is to grow by 1.2% in 2014 and by 1.7% in 2015, the European Commission forecasts, while the whole of the EU will do by 1.6% and 2%, respectively. Even if Brussels rather thinks recovery is firmly rooted and it must protect it from gloomy predictions, the truth is that last data are showing an economy that is not really taking-off.
ATHENS | By Macropolis |The crisis appears to have led to a substantial reduction in petty corruption, with its overall cost halving over the last five years, a recent survey conducted by Public Issue for Transparency International has found.
BARCELONA | By Vinçent Navarro | Germany is not only about minijobs. Although Southern European economies are debating about this measure that Berlin took under Schröder’s government in order to tackle unemployment, much less is said about the German model or ‘Rhineland capitalism’, essentially based on works councils and co-management.
LONDON | By François Cabau at Barclays Capital| The ECB stayed on hold this month. Keeping its easing bias, the Governing Council had a “very rich” and “ample” discussion on possible further easing measures. In our view, if expectations of a rebound in April HICP are not met, affecting the medium-term price outlook, the ECB may need to ease further.
AMSTERDAM | By Paul Scheffer at NRC Handelsblad via Presseurop | If the EU is to continue to exist, then its representatives will have to be clear about their ultimate objective. This should not be a federation of states, but a Union which sets its sights on further horizons, defends its diversity, puts an end to its expansion and establishes a legal basis for further integration, says academic Paul Scheffer writes. Excerpts.
RIGA | By Virginia Dumitraş at Adevărul Moldova via Presseurop | On the eve of the Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius the European Commission has proposed to abolish visa requirements for Moldovan holders of biometric passports.
KIEV | By Jędrzej Bielecki at Rzeczpospolita via Presseurop | Some 100,000 demonstrators, who gathered in the centre of Kiev on Sunday November 24, called upon President Viktor Yanukovych to change his mind and sign an association agreement with the EU.
MADRID | By Fernando G. Urbaneja | The present crisis is punishing the Europeans more than anyone else, although Germany is quite well. However, the scarce economic growth, high unemployment rates, and questionable living conditions of the society lead to think that the EU has resigned to mediocrity.
MADRID | By Fernando G. Urbaneja | In a surprising move, the European Central Bank cut interest rates on Thursday. This is just a sign of the multiple fears shared by the institution and Mr Draghi: the ghost of deflation, the need for credit or the European prices and asset inflation. But both Mr Draghi and the ECB’s credibility have been boosted lately. What are they scared of then?
[Video by FT: “Is Europe getting deflated?”]
LONDON | By The Economist Staff via Presseurop | According to the British newspaper, Great Britain “faces a choice between comfortable isolation and bracing openness. Go for openness. Asked to name the European country with the most turbulent future, many would pick Greece or Italy, both struggling with economic collapse. A few might finger France, which has yet to come to terms with the failure of its statist model. Hardly anybody would plump for Britain, which has muddled through the crisis moderately well.”