Euro

Category: Euro Crisis 2012

  • Two parallel realities

    By Nikos Chrysoloras* There is no better proof that my country is drifting away from the eurozone than the sharp difference between the prevalent mood in Brussels and Athens, in the aftermath of May 6th’s elections. While Europe was desperately trying to figure out how to react to the inconclusive result and the huge blow…

  • The Choice between a Hard Landing and a Crash

    by Nikos Chrysoloras* Many would argue that the phrase “they all got what they deserved” could serve as a stand-alone snap analysis, on the inconclusive result of May 6th’s elections in Greece. The centre-right Nea Democratia (ND) and the centre-left PASOK – the two parties which have dominated Greece’s political landscape since the restoration of…

  • Japanese Views on the Euro – or Whether the Plane will Eventually Fly

    by Daniela Schwarzer During a recent symposium on global governance held in Tokyo, a Japanese moderator said: “Flights and reforms have something in common, both in Japan and in Europe. First, a delay is announced, because no one dares to say the truth. Later, it turns out that the flight has been cancelled.” I found…

  • Greece: the Euro’s Democracy-Compatibility Test

    by Ferdi De Ville The election of Francois Hollande as the new French president did not come as a surprise to anyone. It had – as I argued in a previous blog – been anticipated in advance in EU circles. This led to a reorientation of the crisis discourse in the EU towards growth and…

  • Has an EU-turn set in?

    by Ferdi De Ville One of the surprising aspects of the financial crisis that started in 2008 is “the strange non-death of neoliberalism”, as Warwick professor Colin Crouch put it aptly. Indeed, especially after the Greek tragedy changed the beliefs about the origin of the crisis from ‘caused by untamed capitalism’ towards ‘provoked by profligate…

  • The First Round of the French Presidential Elections and Political Turmoil in the Netherlands Could Mark the Beginning of new Controversies on the Eurozone’s Crisis Management

    By Carsten Brzeski François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy are the two finalists of the French Presidential elections with 28.5% and 27.1%. Negotiations between the losing candidates and the finalists are likely to be tense. Both Hollande and Sarkozy will now try to get as much support as possible from the losing candidates to win the…

  • Presidential Campaigns in France – Missing the Point?

    By Daniela Schwarzer In April and May 2012, all eyes in the EU are on France. The presidential elections come at a key moment. The crisis in the euro area is re-gaining pace, with bond market pressure once again increasing on Spain – and serious questions asked about investors’ confidence in France.   The campaigns…

  • After the Plaster, the Plan?

    By Ferdi De Ville Even in these relatively calm days after the second bail-out of Greece has been approved and the European Central Bank avoided the collapse of the European banking system by its second Longer Term Refinancing Operation, it is hard to pick one out of the bran tub of interesting topics to blog…

  • What Draghi’s Talk on the End of the European Social Model Reveals

    By Ferdi De Ville On the Wall Street Journal on Friday February 24, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi made no secret about his ideas on the future of the European social model: finito! It is already dead, as it should be, according to the ECB boss. Thereby he admits what many for some time…

  • The French Presidential Elections as the Focal Point for Conflicting European Economic Governance Paradigms

    By Ferdi De Ville It has been much lamented that European Parliament elections are ‘second-order elections’. European elections attract a low and ever-declining turnout and the voters who do make the effort to go to the ballot box base their choice on national rather than European considerations. The ‘euro crisis’ may thoroughly change this picture.…