Politics

We cannot agree to a situation when in the 21st century an autocrat - possessed by the nostalgia for the Soviet empire - leads the EU by the nose and deprives Ukrainian people of the longed for perspective of living in freedom and democracy.

In September of this year, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk announced his intention to undo pension system reforms and seize parts of the mandatory private pension funds.

Certainly, there is no need to agree with everything Connolly says. However, when thinking about what awaits us in the Euro area in the coming months and years, I listen to his opinion with much more respect than to the opinions of the prophets of unfounded optimism.

The first one is about setting minimum wage not on the national, but regional level. In this way, the standards for poorer regions (with lower minimum standards of living) would be different than those for the better-developed ones.

Sometimes, we see Croatia only as a big beach resort. But the newest EU member is concerned about non-vacation topics like the economic crisis as well. The country’s economy hasn’t grown since 2008, the unemployment rate is approaching 20% and the debt is rising sharply.

And still, at the same time, and in addition to these statements, the same government, and its majority in parliament, is approving measures, which are likely to increase unemployment and destroy the process of creating new jobs.

Germany is thus in a strange position: it is putting pressure on other countries to cut their budgets and take actions to implement necessary reforms, but itself will do the opposite.

Dumitru Zamfirescu is a Romanian independent deputy (with ultranationalist background) of the European Parliament. But you can call him the Yes Man. He has voted “yes“ in the last 541 votes he attended. Even in cases of contradictory propositions.

We are used to the fact that our parliament is not an autonomous source of legislative power, but merely a puppet in the hands of the government.

I hope that efforts toward equality will never stop. I suggest an introduction of race, age, religion, education and music preference quotas. At least one metalhead on each board!