Reports

Any sensible person can see that status quo in Crimea is unacceptable, while restoration of the status quo ante is impossible. That means the scope of possibilities is very narrow. When looking for the least bad solution for the conflict between Russia, Ukraine and the West, perhaps two wrongs can ...

EU leaders heaved a sigh of relief after May’s European Parliament elections when the much-feared populist wave failed to rock the boat. Yet at most, they have gained a little time. Judging by the tone of the informal summit held in Sibiu, Romania, the EU’s new leadership will favor old ...

History contains many examples of what happens when politicians gain control over the currency. Few of them end well.

Corruption can be a catalyst for political change, as in Latin America, or the basis of a rent-seeking regime, as in Russia. But in rare instances, it can also affect the ebb and flow of global geopolitics. This is clearly evident on the rim of the former Soviet Union, where ...

Though most parties in Germany’s parliament support the Nord Stream 2 project, there is far from a consensus within the country: even the government doesn’t have a consistent policy. Still, Berlin sees benefits in having access to more gas supply than it needs, and the project wins votes in regions ...

British Conservatives must pick a new prime minister from two candidates: Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt. With the United Kingdom’s political leadership paralyzed and relations with the EU at an impasse, an enfant terrible might be the better choice.

The European Union’s ambiguity-ridden system is increasingly hard to sell to populations. Stranded in a no-man’s-land between a federal state and a confederation, today’s EU features neither sound democracy, nor prudent governance, nor a vibrant economy. A true federalist system could go a long way toward addressing these weaknesses, but it ...

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa has helped keep populism in check by “taming” radical leftist parties and including them in his governing “contraption” coalition. He has avoided austerity, making him popular and likely to win October’s elections. After that, he will need to solidify Portugal’s recovery with deeper economic reforms. ...

The European Union has decided to prolong its ineffective sanctions on Russia. That’s hardly surprising, since no one has come up with any new solutions. Moreover, some countries, like Germany, make a strong stand for sanctions while at the same time supporting other initiatives – like Nord Stream 2 – ...

Under current rules, eurozone countries’ bonds are classified as “zero-risk,” meaning banks are not required to hold any capital against such assets. The system creates a perverse incentive for banks to stock up on sovereign debt, creating a toxic mix – but what can be done? Putting risk assessments on ...

For decades, relations between the EU and China have been based on growing economic cooperation and trade. But this interdependence has become asymmetric, which China exploits to maximize its own benefits and weaken European unity. While Beijing moves toward a knowledge-based economy, it also sees the future in nationalist, “back-to-the-future” ...

France used to be one of the European Union’s “twin engines” along with Germany. These days, this once-proud civilization is considered more of a problem than a solution for the European project. Its economy is ailing under excessive government spending and overregulation, its enterprises are stifled by a rigid system ...

Normalizing relations between Serbia and Kosovo has proved surprisingly difficult. After the European Union’s protracted Brussels Dialogue (2012-2019) stalled last year, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron have stepped in with a new effort at mediation. If it fails, the Western Balkans could end up waiting another ...

The world has grown addicted to ceaseless injections of new money, which can only be generated by incurring debt. As relentless fiscal expansion continues on both sides of the Atlantic, politicians have no long-term plan for dealing with the crushing liabilities it generates. A financial meltdown can be delayed for ...

Since its creation in 1998, the European Central Bank has earned a reputation as one of the world’s most independent monetary policy authorities. Unlike its peers, the ECB has no fiscal counterpart pressuring it to manipulate interest rates. Yet as the scope of its activities and global influence have expanded, ...

The absorption of social democratic ideas into Europe’s mainstream has made its continued existence as an organized movement superfluous. As recent elections have shown, the unmet demand for political ideas and representation is appearing on the center-right of the political spectrum, among Christians, conservatives and supporters of free markets.

During Chinese President Xi Jinping’s March visit to Rome, Italy and China signed a set of agreements that brings the former very close to Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative community. France, Germany and the United States expressed dismay, and their reaction will probably further marginalize Italy’s role within the Western ...

The evident stalemate in Ukraine is as much in Western policymakers’ heads as on the Donbas battlefront. Since the European Union has framed the conflict in moral terms that do not allow it to admit failure, it must maintain the pretense of success – giving Russia and Ukraine ample leeway ...

Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s defeat of Petro Poroshenko in Ukraine’s presidential election had more to do with the economics than relations with Russia. While resolving the conflicts in Crimea and the Donbas region will help boost economic growth, streamlining and cleaning up Ukraine’s bloated and partially corrupt bureaucracy will be the president-elect’s ...

After dropping interest rates close to zero and pumping 2.6 trillion euros into Europe’s economy through debt purchases, is the European Central Bank out of ammunition? Not necessarily. Through its “targeted longer-term refinancing operations” (TILTROs), the ECB is planning to use negative interest rates to pay commercial banks to make ...

British Prime Minister Theresa May is taking the blame for a debacle that is not of her making. But even now, in the shadow of a hard Brexit, the damage can be contained if cooler heads prevail on the other side of the Channel.

The European Union’s complex and lengthy set of rules for banks is putting a burden on small lenders, which often form the backbone of a country’s banking sector. The solution, some propose, is to have a two-tiered system in which the banks that are “too big to fail” must follow ...

Nothing seems to stop the prosperity of the Swiss economy. Its steady growth is seemingly impervious to the political turmoil in the EU, superpower tensions, the vagaries of world trade and even the overly muscular Swiss franc. Switzerland’s highly diverse economy and its unique political system together form an ecosystem ...

Apparently, the president of the United States is not going to be charged with cooperating with the Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. An in-depth investigation has found no proof that any collusion occured. The talk in Europe that the Kremlin is hell-bent on corrupting the electoral process here ...