Economy

In nature, it is common for organisms to adapt to their environment through evolutionary processes. Giraffes in the savannah have long necks, and camels in the desert have humps with fat. However, humans are the only species that have gradually adapted their environment to their needs. We have built cities and developed sanitary and energy infrastructure. We have created our own niche.

The EU began negotiations with South America\'s Mercosur on a trade agreement in 1999. It is therefore easy to overlook how much progress has been made. In early January, the European Council authorized the signing of a partnership agreement with this South American trade bloc, whose members include Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay.

Leszek Jażdżewski talks to Wolfgang Münchau about his latest book, “Kaput: The End Of The German Miracle,” translated into Polish by the Prześwity publishing house.

Bulgaria has adopted the euro. After more than 28 years under a currency board arrangement, the country is entering a new stage of its development. The bank failures and hyperinflation of 1996–1997 wiped out people’s savings and pushed Bulgaria to the bottom of Europe, below 30% of the EU average in GDP per capita in purchasing power parity by the end of the 1990s.

By a narrow vote, the European Parliament has effectively blocked the entry into force of the partnership agreement with Mercosur. This is yet another failure by the EU to improve its prospects for prosperity and economic transformation. The agreement that was signed is a step in the right direction, but delaying it means accumulating lost benefits—at a time when growth in the core of the euro area is dangerously close to zero.

2025 became another year of war, resilience, and adaptation for Ukraine. Russia\'s full-scale war against Ukraine continued and resulted in territorial losses, destruction of energy facilities, and other critical infrastructure, including railways and seaports. Therefore, according to IER estimates, real GDP grew by approximately 2%.

Ukraine\'s European integration process is often discussed in terms of legislative directives and macroeconomic indicators. However, at the heart of this process lies the most vital and sensitive resource – people. For many years, labor migration from Ukraine to Poland was quite high, but often temporary in nature.

Next year, participants in Lithuania’s second-pillar funded pension system will face a personal financial referendum: to stay and save, to withdraw and leave, to transfer savings to the third pillar of the pension system, or to invest independently. Estonia tried the same approach in 2021, and economists at its central bank assessed the consequences. Estonia’s experience is highly relevant for Lithuania – similar outcomes are plausible here as well. 

In recent years, the President of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, has repeatedly claimed that money is a public good. This formulation has become one of the central rhetorical pillars of the digital euro project. When the ECB announced in October 2025 that it was moving into the next phase of this initiative, Lagarde once again emphasized: “Money is a public good. Full stop.”

The US and Canadian military are tracking Santa with private money, and you can bet on the results, all due to a typo. It is the season when people’s gaze is waylaid by the shiny, sparkling, colorful paraphernalia of Christmas attention-seeking, and so it is increasingly difficult to write about an important topic not sprinkled with holiday jollity. My feeble attempt to gain readers a couple of years ago depicted Santa as a Marxist monster.