In her address to the European Parliament on the State of the European Union, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen talked about the need to “rediscover the spirit of Maastricht”. This is misguided, given that the old rules damaged both political integration and economic performance. New, bold proposals are needed to allow for genuine economic […]
SURE
Until a few months ago, the policy and academic debate in the EU revolved around the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), praised across the board as proof of European solidarity and a concrete manifestation of the EU commitment to address the pandemic crisis. The RRF indeed marked a leap forward towards a stronger redistributive role […]
Finally, the reflection process to rethink the rules governing the economic coordination in the EU has officially reopened. The Commission’s Public Debate launched on October 19 is the first step toward a new course of action for European economic integration; a difficult nut to crack that will give headaches to the upcoming EU presidencies, but […]
Some social federalists are disappointed: the Social Summit in Porto was downgraded to little more than a series of workshops, Angela Merkel only appeared online, the final declaration was tepid and the full endorsement of the European Commission’s Action Plan has been delayed to the June session of the European Council. However, there are reasons […]
The 2020 coronavirus crisis has pushed the European Union to a critical level of innovation regarding its fiscal capacity. The dogma of keeping the EU budget at around one per cent of the Gross National Income (GNI) and balancing it every year evaporated within a space of a few months. Notwithstanding some initial hesitation, the […]
As we learned from the great British historian Eric Hobsbawm, tradition is something that is invented. The tradition of State of the Union (SOTEU) speeches by the European Commission president was invented in 2010, in the wake of the great financial crisis. It has always provided a panorama of EU policies, sending out open or […]
Load more