Economy

Bureaucracy Index is a simple and transparent way to quantify the proverbial \"red tape\" — discussed daily in the media, yet rarely measured in concrete terms. It was introduced in 2016 in Slovakia by the Institute of Economic and Social Studies (INESS), with the goal of comprehensively mapping the bureaucratic burden facing SMEs and its real cost in time and money.

The catastrophe cannot be explained by the embargo alone; Cuba’s deeper tragedy is the system itself — one that promises dignity to the worker while making ordinary work meaningless, underpaid and morally absurd. That is why today, according to media reports, Cubans lack even the most basic foods: rice, chicken and other everyday products, available only through ration cards after long hours in queues.

The Lithuanian Free Market Institute (LFMI) warns that, after the recent tax reform, Lithuanian businesses are facing another major regulatory challenge — the implementation of the EU Pay Transparency Directive.

Taxpayer’s Respect Day is marked in Lithuania on May 11. Since 2018, at LFMI’s initiative, it has been included in Lithuania’s official list of commemorative days — a reminder that the state is built by those who work, invest, create jobs, take risks, and generate the resources on which public life depends.

Anthropologist Clifford Geertz famously described culture as a web of narratives. The way societies understand the labor market is one such narrative — and it matters, because the story we choose shapes how we regulate and manage economic life.

According to the explanatory note of the draft law, strike activity in Lithuania remains consistently low, while in countries such as France, Italy, and Belgium, strikes are a common and effective tool for defending workers’ interests. But do collective labor conflicts actually improve workers’ well-being in the long run?

On April 22, 2026, INESS organized an international conference “The 2026 Free Market Road Show” at the Pálffy Palace in Bratislava in cooperaction with the Austrian Economics Center. The title of the conference was “Regulatory Detox – Awakening Dormant Growth.”

Can Europe attain digital sovereignty? What are the limits of the EU\'s regulatory power? Is the dichotomy between sovereignty and a colony unavoidable? And what is Europe\'s digital grand strategy? Leszek Jazdzewski (Fundacja Liberte!) talks with Dr José Ignacio Torreblanca, a Senior Adviser and Distinguished Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

The study commissioned by the Civil Development Forum (FOR) was conducted by Opinia24 between 17 and 21 March 2025 on a sample of 1,000 respondents. The sample was representative of the adult population of Poland in terms of gender, age, education and place of residence (rural areas and cities of different sizes), as well as voting preferences expressed in the 15 October 2023 election. 

After 16 years, illiberalism fell in Hungary. The markets predicted it while Fidesz pollsters and politicians were blindsided, proving yet again that free markets are better than government control.