Demography, fewer and fewer children being born, population decline, aging society, migration, crisis; when we talk about demography in the European Union today, these are the primary factors we think about. We hear it a lot, but how big is the real “crisis”?
In August 2023, an article exposing financial support from public funds for the animal farming sector was published in The Guardian. These entities receive over a thousand times more funding from the government fund than plant farmers, thereby blocking alternative access to funds from the European Union. Similar situations occur in the United States, where farms receive eight hundred times more funding from the state than those cultivating only plants.
Children’s rights are a matter of the utmost importance for politics and the future of the democratic system. Unfortunately, this statement still remains merely aspirational in Poland. The discourse and practices in the political sphere do not indicate that the decision-making circles (esp. the legislative and executive branches) are aware of the connection between children’s rights and the quality of political life.
In this episode, we talk about the Russian economy and society, the structure of power in Putin’s Russia, dictatorship and Putinism, the Russian war in Ukraine, and the future of Russia.
The November issue of the 4liberty.eu Newsletter provides an overview of the articles published on the 4liberty.eu website, serving as a starting point for further exploration.
I present a brief analysis of the key factors that influenced the opposition’s victory in the parliamentary elections in October. The order of the points does not imply a hierarchy of importance. In these elections, there were no radical party like Razem, which would claim that it would not cooperate with other parties and would take votes from the main parties, while not entering the Parliament due to not crossing the 5 or 8 percent threshold.
Medium-sized private enterprises play an important role in the economy and social development. Medium-sized enterprises operating in domestic and foreign markets are a kind of “backbone” of the economy. Compared to small and large enterprises, medium-sized businesses have higher viability, better access to external financing, and “economies of scale” benefits.
The complexity of the advance payment of corporate income tax (CIT) creates administrative burdens for businesses and hinders the path to greater competitiveness. To ensure the stability of the state budget and higher tax revenue collection, the CIT regime was complemented by an advance CIT in the early years of the restoration of Lithuania’s independence. Companies pay it before profits are earned, thus crediting the State.
Even before the war, crossing Ukraine’s border with the EU was not a pleasant experience for tourists and businesses. The war has intensified the problems, as the western land border has become a bottleneck for passengers and cargo. As a result, queues at the border and related infrastructure problems remain a challenge for Ukraine and its western neighbors.
The Lithuanian Parliament rejected the president’s proposal to allow people to withdraw a quarter of their pension savings. However, a similar proposal will be considered in return. Politicians are, of course, inspired only by good motives – the desire for freedom and goodness. But freedom goes hand in hand with responsibility, which is valid every day and even more so in the long run.
