Some time ago, the Lithuanian Ministry of Energy issued recommendations for the public sector, households, and businesses on how to save energy. The recommendation was to disconnect hot water in administrative premises and reduce heating to 19 degrees and cooling to 27 degrees. They also advised public officials to work from home.
Along with the increase of inflation in Poland and in the whole world, the discussion about its causes intensifies. There are many voices that the main reason is an external supply shock – the prices of energy and food. It is useful, in the analysis, to distinguish within CPI inflation, a core inflation and the rest of it. Core inflation is an inflation rate that is devoid of the most unstable components such as food and energy prices.
In this episode of the Liberal Europe Podcast, Leszek Jażdżewski (Fundacja Liberté!) welcomes Dr. Thomas Bagger, Germany’s Ambassador to the Republic of Poland. They talk about the EU Energy crisis, German eastern policy, EU response to the war in Ukraine, and Polish-German relations.
The current energy crisis is a huge lesson for the Green Deal. Ambitious goals, boldly planned in a period of cheap and available energy, are much more difficult and expensive to achieve in a period of scarcity and uncertainty.
There are a number of ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We will use the example of photovoltaic subsidies in Slovakia to show how not to do it.
In times of galloping inflation, the Polish government creates another inflation impulse – the “Coal allowance”, the payment of which is expected to cost as much as PLN 11.5 billion.
Today, we hear everywhere about the importance of the SDGs. Multinational companies, NGOs and politicians are talking about how they would implement the UN’s goals. But what is the European Parliament doing about it?
The war in Ukraine put many Eastern European countries, among them Hungary, in the hot seat. With the Western world providing strong financial and military support for Ukraine and emphasizing the unlawfulness of the invasion, the allies of Russia must reassess their relationship with Moscow.
The growing energy costs play an important role for the increase of the overall consumer price indices during the last couple months and threatens a maintenance of high inflation rates during the entire 2022.
The war in Ukraine disrupted the illusory peace in Europe. Illusory, because Russia has always been a looming threat to the integrity of the continent, albeit in a less tangible way than a full-on war.
