Europe

Support for the authoritarianism among both political elites and the public across Europe is spreading and growing. The next issue of The Visio Journal shall explore the question of whether liberalism is able to stand its ground against the backdrop of increasingly present authoritarianism in Europe.

INESS created a brand new index called Health for Money, which rates healthcare in 26 countries, having also money in focus. The index touches also academia, measuring number of quotable medical papers from the country, or international rankings of faculties of medicine.

Czechs are often labelled as the biggest Eurosceptics in the whole Europe. However, the new research suggests otherwise. Almost two thirds of the nation are proud to be part of Europe and more than half of the the people are happy with the EU membership. So what is the problem?

Out of thirty European countries, sixteen allow retail trade on Sundays, whereas fourteen do not limit retail opening hours on public holidays. The countries which regulate retail trade on Sundays and/or public holidays apply a range of exemptions.

Countries and organizations have often suggested ideas and changes based on the US economic/healthcare or educational system. Even though there are elements which we can learn from and desire to implement, some other parts of that system might seem much less attractive and desirable.

There is no need for Europe to be great again. As a community it is currently the greatest economic power, which to a large extent already dictates the rules of the game on global markets. The only viable response to the ongoing challenges is a closer integration of the EU – to maintain the status of a global leader.

Our progress is already big – for example, you can work almost anywhere in Europe. But we have reached the wall – because we don\'t know what foundation, what system we should have. When we do not have solutions, demons wake up.

Estonia, Finland, and the Tallinn-Helsinki tunnel together with Rail Baltic have a potentially important role in the new global connection between Europe and Asia. The Norwegian experts have calculated that the distance between Shanghai and Hamburg is 12 277 nautical miles, a voyage time of 39 days.

Regulation of retail opening hours is applicable in 14 out of 30 European countries. The range of the regulation varies widely across the countries, as evidenced by a variety of exemptions. Yet, the bans fail to achieve their objectives: a number of European countries have gone through deregulation.

On April 19, 2018, the Free Market Road Show visited Warsaw. This year the event took place at SWPS University. The conference began with introductory remarks by Piotr Voelkel (SWPS University), Agata Stremecka (FOR), and Barbara Kolm (Austrian Economics Center).