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EU Commission Allows Gas Payments in Rubles to Russia

On Thursday, May 19th, the EU Commission decided to allow gas importers to open ruble accounts for gas payments to Gazprombank. For a long time, the EU Commission had rejected the Russian demand for payment in rubles, as it was considered to violate EU sanctions against Russia. The condition for this turnaround is that European […]

David Boos —

News

Hungary: The Foil to EU-Wide Oil Embargo

Fresh sanctions targeting Russian oil have been a source of worry for landlocked EU member states, such as Hungary. Ironing out a deal has therefore been fraught with hurdles.

Tristan Vanheuckelom —

Commentary

Protecting Forests from Top-Down EU Policy Planning

A better strategy for the EU could be to clean up its own house first. The enormous amounts the EU spends on agriculture, a few hundred billion over seven years, heavily subsidize intensive agriculture, with 80% of EU cash going to 20% of the recipients.

Pieter Cleppe —

Commentary

Useful Crisis: European Union Looking at New Emergency Powers

One of the fundamental laws of government powers is that they always invite mission-creep expansion. Laws that begin their lives as benevolent instruments for the common good can easily morph into tools of power for the sake of power itself. As the EU Commission finalizes its proposal for a Single Market Emergency Instrument, the citizens of the EU are well advised to keep themselves informed of that proposal.

Sven R. Larson —

Commentary

The EU Participates in Harmful Tax Collusion

Once countries with costly governments have created a Berlin Wall around their high-tax jurisdictions, they will be free to collude on other taxes beyond the corporate income tax. Personal income taxes, wealth taxes, death taxes… there is no end to the imagination of a government that does not have to worry about tax competition.

Sven R. Larson —

Commentary

‘Make it Matter’: Funds and Folly in the European Recovery

The European Commission’s promotional material makes ‘Next Generation EU’ comes across as oddly remote from the task of actually facilitating Europe’s next generation. Nor is it meant for a specialized audience, as it lacks any reference to how one might actually procure the product being advertised—namely, funding.

Carlos Perona Calvete —

News

Pope: “The EU document on Christmas is anachronistic”

When asked about the EU’s intention to excise the word ‘Christmas’ from all official documentation, the 84-year-old head of the Catholic Church denounced the idea, borne of a “watered-down secularism,” saying that “in history many, many dictatorships have tried to do this kind of thing. Think of Napoleon … think of the Nazi dictatorship, the communist one,” reminding them that “it is something that throughout history hasn’t worked.” 

Tristan Vanheuckelom —

News

Recovery, Resilience and Resistance

The closer one gets to the source of policy, the less explicitly things are expressed, so I did not expect to find so direct a formulation in print. All the same, it is now worth digging into what is really intended by this conceptual guiding light of ‘resilience.’

Carlos Perona Calvete —