AMSTERDAM | By Geert Mak via Presseurop | The political and institutional crisis in Europe will trigger the emergence of a new balance in the relationships between European institutions themselves, and the EU and its citizens.
MADRID | By JP Marin Arrese | Angela Merkel is now more powerful as chancellor than before, and the Euro-sceptics have lost their influence over the future of Germany’s and Europe’s issues. However, despite all the good intentions, it is more than likely that Banking Union and the European integration will be relegated to a mere supervisory exercise.
MADRID/BRUSSELS | Most European users of Internet-connected mobile phones–81%–aren’t willing to pay higher bills even if this brought improvements in speed or download capacity
By Ignasi Meda, via One Europe | Rethinking the EU “democratic deficit”: Can we start now building a better and more credible Europe through the rapprochement between North and South?
LONDON | By Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform | For more than 60 years, the EU has been built and managed by technocrats, hidden from the public gaze – or so it has seemed. In fact national governments have taken most of the key decisions, but public scrutiny has been insufficient.
MADRID | By Luis Arroyo | It is a grave mistake to stubbornly defend the application of the same strict rules whether the economy is growing or in recession, and social unrest and missed fiscal targets are testament to how wrong the current European policies are.
The Fair Observer | It is easy to say that Europeans should have more sex. Demography is destiny, after all, or so it has seemed for millennia, and what could be better than sleeping your way to world power? Despite the financial crisis, a diminishing birth rates and seemingly unsustainable welfare states, Glenn Carle believes German leadership might offer a solution for structural reform in Europe.
MADRID | By David Fernández | Foreign investors are showing a sudden interest in assets made in Spain due to, among others, central bank’s last data, Europe’s decision to delay the deficit commitment by two years and international factors such as second-round monetary helicopter launched by the Bank of Japan. Will this trend vanish?
Project Syndicate | By Dominique Moisi| In the mirror of Germany, the French must ask themselves fundamental questions. Have they made the right choices in terms of leaders and policies in recent decades?
Economic weakness will remain in the second half of the year, CaixaBank analysts say. Consumer confidence fell again in the third quarter of the year. The IMF also lowered its growth forecasts.