Economy

Structural and cohesion funds represent more than a third of the EU’s budget. We will only be able to assess their importance if we are aware of the economic situation of member states.

The core stones of the EU have always been 4 freedoms which made the Union desirable and promising. However, the EU enlargement is not only physical – with new members joining, - but it is also increasing in powers and regulatory fields.

At the end of the year, we ratified the fiscal compact. Spain bids farewell to the year of bad news. Berlusconi is alive and well. The Great Greek Wall. EFSF had a successful year.

Truly, the European Three Kings, or rather presidents, already took over our Nobel Peace Prize. While it does not look very peaceful in the Spanish and Greek squares, peace prevails at least at some of the union political fronts.

The effectiveness of European structural and cohesion funds (SCF) has long been a contradictory topic, both for European institutions and researchers. This matter is particularly interesting for in-depth exploration, because of the lack of unambiguous evidence regarding the effect of these funds on beneficiary regions and countries. Four countries (Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece) have […]

From the point of view of European liberals, there was no perfect candidate in this year\'s U.S. presidential election.

Regional Profiles provides a snapshot of the socio-economic conditions of Bulgarian districts as of mid-2012, as well as their development since the year 2000.

The conclusion is that if we stopped providing the benefits for the richer part of the society and only the poorer families were entitled to them, public expenditures could decrease by EUR 270 million a year.

A major pension reform was approved in a fast track procedure. The expense of this fast track procedure was not only the violation of legislative rules by the new parliament and government, but also lack of understanding of the long-term impact of this reform.

Gold and silver are still in the correction phase. Switzerland is going to introduce a gold coin as official currency. Swiss army is prepared. Mario Draghi will kiss with everybody. Gold and silver were traded around $1737 and $32.7 per ounce at the beginning of the week. The story for this week is very similar […]