Reports

An ongoing international effort to rewrite the global tax rules for the digital economy would be a dramatic shift with potentially damaging consequences. Fear of countries unilaterally levying their own digital taxes has led to an alternative at the OECD, motivated by both fiscal and political factors. The new proposal would abandon the ...

Despite recent failures, the German government is more determined than ever to implement its renewable energy goals, which are much more stringent than those set by the EU. An increase in renewable energy sources will mitigate reliance on foreign energy imports, but Berlin will have to strike a difficult balance ...

Sweden may be nearing a political realignment of historic proportions. The mainstay, center-left Social Democrats can no longer deny that public safety problems stemming from mismanaged immigration are real or ignore the alarming erosion in the quality of education, healthcare and social security systems. The future of the party’s alliance ...

British politicians have been led astray by matters of identity and other fringe issues, alienating voters to the extent where many are abandoning lifelong party loyalties. Members of Parliament ought to address what matters to their constituents by reconnecting with fundamental British values.

A little over 30 years ago, the Berlin Wall came down. GIS expert Michael Wohlgemuth, who studied in both East and West Germany in the late 1980s and early 1990s, shares his impressions of how far the country has come economically, and the challenges it faces as a deepening political ...

French President Emmanuel Macron’s new approach for the Western Balkans has led the European Union to backtrack on integration, and a strategic partnership is now being considered as an alternative to full membership. Balkan countries, disappointed by this outcome, could turn to homegrown illiberalism.

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline was supposed to cement Russian dominance over Europe’s gas markets while bypassing Ukraine. But as it nears completion, Gazprom’s bargaining power versus the EU appears diminished. The Kremlin’s strong-arm tactics have simply proved no match for market forces.

Germany is struggling to achieve its current environmental goals. A new policy package under consideration now is unlikely to provide a clear path forward. The taxes and subsidies it foresees contradict each other and could ultimately impede technological advancement. The proposal has proven disappointing to climate activists and economic critics ...

Sweden’s defense budget is to grow by about one third in the next three years, as the country reverses its decades-long policies and aims to rebuild its once impressive territorial defense capabilities. The plan hardly surprises in today’s neo-Cold War context, but given the scope and nature of the challenges ...

German trade statistics are sagging. Most commentators attribute this phenomenon to the global business cycle. More likely, today’s figures are the outcome of earlier decisions made by German companies to move resources outside of Europe, and they are now developing their products elsewhere. If true, German foreign trade flows will ...

After the European elections this year, Matteo Salvini and his Lega party were riding high. Many expected he would capitalize on the wave of support and call for new elections. When he finally did, parties on the left moved against him. With a savvy political move from former Prime Minister ...

The United States appears to have adopted the strategy of the British Empire when dealing with the Middle East, creating dissent and lending assistance to whichever side opposes its enemies. However, history shows this approach is likely to backfire.

Despite the need for a united EU stance on Chinese competition and security issues, Germany remains focused on bilateral relations. By doing so, it gains a valuable trade partner, but it also incurs the risk of expanding China’s influence in the European sphere. The only way for Berlin to solve ...

Turkey’s political behavior poses problems for NATO, of which it is an important member. Until recently, the country was a formidable partner of the Western alliance in its confrontation with the Soviet Union and a buffer against threats from the Middle East. Turkey still fields the alliance’s second-largest army, after ...

Russian ambitions to bypass Ukraine’s gas infrastructure are obviously rooted in political motives, yet Germany insists on backing the project. By doing so, it could reap the economic benefits of becoming a European hub for Russian gas imports, but serious conflicts over the matter are likely to arise within the ...

The UK Parliament’s moves to block Brexit from occurring without a deal on October 31, 2019, has prompted some to say that Europe has reached “peak populism.” As the British case shows, though, societies remain polarized and democratic rules continue to be bent. What happens next in the UK may ...

Under the guise of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, which was implemented in 2018, EU governments are collecting and sharing citizens’ financial data in ways that violate democratic privacy rules and go well beyond the legitimate needs of combatting tax evasion and money laundering or terrorism. This overreach is part ...

An unexpected alliance between Russia, the United States and the European Union helped broker a political breakthrough in Moldova – sending corrupt local oligarchs packing. There is no reason to discount the latest developments in Chisinau, which could prove a new dawn for Europe’s poorest country. Yet the West has ...

Election results in Saxony and Brandenburg show the Christian Democrats and the Social Democratic Party are losing ground. Unless voter concerns like migration, safety and a credible approach against pollution are addressed, both parties will fare poorly in the federal elections.

Two legal challenges to the EU central bank’s most controversial policies have been working their way through Germany’s Federal Court of Justice, the country’s supreme court equivalent. In one of the cases, the justices in Karlsruhe already ruled that the authority of the EU Banking Union ought to be limited. ...

Six years after President Mikheil Saakashvili lost power to his archrival, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgia has kept its pro-Western course in foreign and economic policy. Yet Russia continues to block the South Caucasus nation’s EU and NATO aspirations, and Georgian voters are growing frustrated. Now, a millennials-based protest movement could ...

The opposition victory in Istanbul’s mayoral election was seen widely as a defeat for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose illiberal, centralized system is much criticized in the West. Yet Mr. Erdogan’s detractors underestimate the challenge of adapting to Turkey’s changing geopolitical circumstances, where the Kemalist principles of secularism and ...

The European Parliament elections in May upended the balance of support for the parties in Italy's coalition government, with Lega far outpacing the Five Star Movement. Moreover, the country's budget imbalances increasingly require solutions that will be politically unpopular. Rank-and-file members of both parties could benefit from new elections, but ...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s party took the largest share of votes in the country’s parliamentary elections, paving the way for him to initiate a new dialogue with Russia. For the West, it presents an opportunity to ratchet down tensions with Moscow and even normalize relations. The alternative – battered economies, ...