The future of the Eurozone - a non-issue for the business world?

Written by Daniela Schwarzer

We know that European corporates and banks intensively lobbied for the European Monetary Union. We can see from recent studies that the private sector (including small and medium-sized companies) in the EU largely profits from the fact that the euro is there. However, when we look at the debate on economic governance of the eurozone, it seems that this is a non-issue for companies and those who claim respresenting their interests in most EU countries.
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First Annual Statement on the Euro Area: Right track, wrong players

Written by Daniela Schwarzer

Unnoticed by the public, the European Commission issued its first “Annual Statement on the Euro Area” and its companion piece, the first “Annual Report on the Euro Area” on Tuesday, July 12. Both are supposed to “raise awareness and stimulate a broad debate on euro-area economic policies and developments”. That both went down unnoticed by the public is ironic given this objective. But not surprising: under the current set-up of the eurozone, a broad political debate will not emerge.
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"Lebanon" by Jan Darasz

Lebanon-Palestine: Israel will have to refund all destroyed infrastructures

Written by Franck Biancheri

My paper on the Middle-East "The EU must take risks in the Middle-East" was written and published in French (L'UE doit prendre des risques au Proche-Orient - 14/07) three days before Israel launched their attack on Lebanon; it therefore mainly focused on defining a future pro-active European policy regarding the Israelo-Palestinian conflict. In this paper I underlined the necessity for the EU to set up rules designed to « civilise » confrontations between the two parties, in particular during those crises that regularly affect the region.
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