President Macron wants the EU to reform budget rules to increase public-sector investments, which, he hopes, would lead to stronger economic growth and higher levels of employment. Macron’s vision is understandable, but his reforms are likely to defeat their own purpose.

As a sovereign country, Ukraine is in its full right to make whatever constitutional reforms it sees fit. Their right to independence is as strong as is Russia’s right to national security. If one is weighed against the other, national sovereignty always wins.

At the heart of Portugal’s budget deadlock are three policy goals: economic growth, a balanced budget, and more funding for the welfare state. The conflict between these three goals is not unique to the Costa budget, nor is it unique to Portugal. This is a Europe-wide volcano that happened to erupt in Portugal, and has led to an attention-grabbing political crisis. 

Angela Merkel did put in place a mechanism to strengthen German government finances. However, there was a price to be paid for this achievement, namely a slowly but steadily rising burden on German taxpayers.

Caught between Scylla and Charybdis, the choice for our central bankers is hard but simple: which short-term pain comes with the best prospects for prosperity in the future?

While the ideological divisions between Swedish political parties are centered around immigration, they reflect a deeper, more principled disagreement between the political mainstream and a resurgent conservative movement.