politics

Unlike in the EU, where SMEs are among Horizon 2020 priorities, in Ukraine the role of SMEs in innovation and S&T development is underestimated on the policy making level.

For an average observer, the past month in the United States has been characterized by a frenzy of oppressive government legislation designed to infringe upon personal liberty. While this has been true for most of the Obama administration, the maelstrom, whipped up by the media, on this specific issue regards a minor law passed by the state of Indiana and not the federal government.

We have the pleasure the present you the second of the series of our policy papers that we will be publishing in the near future. The publication discusses the issue of Gold-plating - the process where an EU directive is given additional powers when being transposed into the national laws of member states. Enjoy your reading!

Is there a difference between a starting entrepreneur and a disabled person? Yes, there is, and it\'s a big one. A disabled person has much fewer options if he or she wants to get a government aid compared to a starting entrepreneur. I remembered this joke when I was reading one of the government strategies. But the joke may soon become a reality if the government decides to implement it. And that\'s not funny at all.

European politics will surely highlight one of the days in their calendar the next week, to check the results of the elections and eventually relax again. Up to this, the EU has to, as every five years, await the sleeping volcano, which in event of its explosion, may cover the EU with darkness.

In March, Ukraine’s government adopted the Action plan for reforms in 2015 and 2016 while the IMF board approved four-year USD 17.5 bn extended arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF). The EFF supports ambitious program of Ukrainian authorities, which would in IMF words ‘put the economy on the path to recovery, restore external sustainability, strengthen public finances, and support economic growth by advancing structural and governance reforms, while protecting the most vulnerable’.

Low demand and unfavorable political situation are the major obstacles for the development of industrial enterprises in Ukraine as of early 2015. Such were the results of the quarterly business survey in which Ukrainian businesses assessed the 4th quarter of 2014 conducted by the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting.

On Monday, April 13, 2015, Vit Jedlička, a Czech politician and a liberal economist, put up the flag and established a new sovereign state called Liberland on the territory of former Yugoslavia. On the 7 square kilometers of Terra Nullius claimed by none of its neighbouring countries (Serbia, Croatia) the liberal values shall take reign.

The Greeks do not understand the imperative need for the reforms. Nor are they ready to reform. With the external pressure of the EU and other international institutions being the only reason to institute reforms, it is hard to expect any breakthrough. And this is the key problem.

“Nations, just like women, experience brief moments of intoxication. But those moments pass soon enough.”. Adam Michnik talks to Leszek Jażdżewski, editor-in-chief of Polish liberal quarterly magazine Liberté!, about how a brief moment of European weakness will affect Russia in the end and what can go wrong in the meantime.