From 2010 Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion to 2014 Year of European elections
giovedì, March 31st, 2011The full text of the E.M.E.R.G.E. publication can be read here:
European Union between defense of the Treaties and electoral consensus
has the Sarajevo conference pushed forward a “new deal” between EU and Balkans?
lunedì, September 20th, 2010
The international conference held in Sarajevo on 2 June was organized by the rotating presidency of the EU, currently held by Spain, in order to solemnly reaffirm the European prospects of the Balkan countries and to present the economic and political advances they have made with a view to their future integration. The main purpose of this conference from the EU side was to reaffirm the desire to integrate the Western Balkans into the EU and will reassert the place of the region in Europe. In this region the EU has spent many efforts to achieve stabilization and modernization, both economic and political and has invested different resources, including military units, police and judges to help build security structures based on the European standards. A vast bulk of steps and passages are included in a decade-old process to bring the former Yugoslav republics closer to the EU. The conference of Sarajevo was organized ten years after the Zagreb meeting and seven years after the Thessaloniki summit.
A debate on the consequences of Greece crisis between Bulgarian researcher Nikolay Anachkov and Italian research coordinator Pietro Celotti
venerdì, July 2nd, 2010
Eurozone represents the second largest economy in the world. On the first decade of existence Euro became the second largest reserve currency after the U.S. dollar and surpassed the U.S. dollar’s circulation. The Euro appeared to be very strong, so it is understandable that when the debt crisis started to affect the Eurozone, Member States' citizens reacted differently. If some of them truly believe that European Union is a powerful organisation and the crisis will pass, others can already see the end of the Union.
Nikolay Anachkov: In 2009 it became clear that something in the Greek financial system is not so all right. Actually, Greece’s economy has not been in balance for years, but everyone in the European Union preferred not to raise this question, maybe hoping that it should solve all by itself. It would be very nice if that happened, but as we know, in real life things like this never happen. If you want to cope with some problem you should try hard to solve them. But what European Union did was just the opposite.
Pietro Celotti: I catch your personal disappointment but it seems necessary to focus on the actual institutional responsibilities. It is right that Eurozone was seriously affected, but Greece’s debt crisis was produced mainly because for some years they have covered up their bad economic performances by officially presenting better economic figures than it was the case. Although the Commission has the responsibility for monitoring statistical data, they do not directly compile statistics or control their production, but it depends largely on the data compiled and reported by the member states, as well as the administrative ability, good will and loyal co-operation of the respective national authorities. In this sense, European Union could not intervene with objective measures, even if the reliability of Greek government deficit and debt statistics has been the subject of continuous and unique attention for several years.