Economy

As usual, the wording of this political declaration is vague and the purpose is unclear. Will it bring more flexibility to the EU economy and labor markets or will it make them more rigid? The whole text is permeated with the spirit of having your cake and eating it at the same time.

Argentina reports that one of its start-ups has been testing an app called Signatura. It is used as a tool verifying official or administrative documents, without the need for third party confidentiality agreements. Potential areas of application include both the public and the private sector.

Unified tax rules can hardly contribute to trade liberalisation. A diversity of tax systems is not a roadblock for free trade. Quite the opposite, differences in tax systems might serve as a stimulus to trade. Taxes constitute a significant share of costs and a large share of the price of factors of production, labour in particular.

It is estimated that even though the sharing-economy now contributes only EUR 28 billion to the EU economy per year it can grow to up to EUR 572 billion per year. In order to use as much potential as possible, both the EU and its Member States have to implement a regulatory model that is flexible and applicable to different business models.

International trade has always been a contentious issue. Even those who agree that it is beneficial for all countries involved sometimes succumb to the fallacy that trade is a good thing only if it occurs between countries that have a similar level of economic development.

Competition creates pressure to decrease profits in every part of production. Therefore, if someone would like to “help” developing countries by restrictions and price regulations, there should not expect that all costs will be absorbed by the corporations.

Treaties about free trade are not about free trade, but about managed trade. They are the result of thinking in the frames of the 300-years old mercantilist philosophy, which considers export to be the source of wealth and import to be the price paid for that wealth.

Posting of workers plays an essential role in the internal market of the European Union. Drawing on the fundamental values of the free movement of persons and the free movement of services, it allows workers from one EU member state to work and carry out services in another member state on a temporary basis.

A lot people look to the United States as a role model. But I think it\'s important to try to seperate out what\'s good about the U.S. that you want to copy and what\'s bad about the United States that you do not want to copy. And that can be challenging.

The companies are fighting for survival in everyday competition against other companies. Up until that, everything is fine. It stops being fine when authorities interrupt this process. Their decisions and insensitive approach – made without consideration for economic consequences – can be fatal for companies.