Economy

The current legal system governing the interface between business and state administration is far too complicated, and interpretation of the law often depends on individual decisions of the tax authorities and courts. In order to function in this thicket of regulations, highly paid advisors are needed.

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.

Regional economic differences are not the exclusive preserve of Germany. They exist in almost all economies. However, the inequality between east and west Germany, can also be explained by means of a different divide: the economic gap between urban and rural areas.

The most important figure of the Slovak economy in the last 5 years has been the trend in unemployment. This rate had been decreasing since the first quarter of 2013 and had dropped to almost a half in the first quarter of 2018. The unemployment rate fell from more than 14% to nearly 7%.

With a sample of 4,000 Slovak students, the Economics Olympiad revealed the most serious weaknesses in economic education of young people. Memorizing is believed to be a long-term problem, but knowledge useful only as a part of quiz shows remains a crucial element of the Slovak education system.

The European Commission has presented a new proposal on the System of Own Resources of the European Union. If agreed on, the provisions of this proposal shall apply from January 1, 2021 - except the provisions regarding the CCCTB.

The definition of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is an important issue, regarding not only a number of European policies that have been set up to ensure these SMEs benefit from financial support, fee reduction, reduced administrative burden, etc.

Mankind has made unbelievable progress in the last one hundred years. From horse carriages to moon landings, from typhus epidemics to molecular genetics, from conservative patriarchate to gay marriages. One thing does not change though – the suspicion, or even hate towards merchants.

The presentation of the recently published ECB and EC reports was highly anticipated by Bulgarians, as the Bulgarian government\'s intention is to officially sign up for the eurozone waiting room by the end of June.

In late June the Lithuanian Parliament adopted a law that consolidated the employer and employee base for social security contributions and significantly cut the rate of contributions.