Despite Brexit, we are trying to move forward and keep working on other initiatives that would help European companies to expand their businesses. In June, I organised a breakfast debate with the European Internet Forum to discuss taxation in the digital economy.
Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom proudly presents its latest publication: The European Union – Catalyst for Economic Freedom? As the name itself suggests, the collection of papers, including contributions by by Steffen Hentrich, Emmanuel Martin, Danko Tarabar and Andrew Young, is devoted to the issue of economic freedom within the EU.
European politicians try to sell their ambitious climate goals and the proposed regulations to their citizens as a nice fairy tale: Policy driven investments in green technologies that cut emissions will not only save the world but also boost the economy, create jobs and strengthen Europe’s competitiveness.
At the beginning the TTIP was received positively almost everywhere, but now many issues have stirred up the negative attitudes that result in attempts to make the TTIP seem unaccountable and undemocratic. Recently, the question “Is the European Commission doing its best to keep the greatest possible transparency?” has been gaining ground.
Brussels occasionally gets sober from the intoxication of spectacular goals and strategies, paid by citizens. But sobering means that the goal is slightly less grandiose but in the end, likely purposeless and economically harmless.
The EU is no longer the abstraction it was in the beginning of the crisis. For many Europeans the crisis turned the Euro from a convenience into an issue, the Greek – from exotic and hospitable people into lazy parasites, and the English – from key allies into awkward partners.
Continual restriction of economic and civil liberties may have fatal consequences. Even though we can freely choose to live in an unfree society, we have to be aware of the price we will eventually pay for it.
In March, Russia annexed Crimea, a peninsula with population of 2.4 m in the south of Ukraine, after it failed to divert Ukraine from the course for European integration. The escalation in Donbas could have been a first step of a large scale Russian intervention into the mainland Ukraine.
Despite the doubling of the e-votes compared to the EP elections in 2009 the overall turnout decreased more than seven percentage points to 36.5 per cent, therefore falling far lower than was the EU-wide turnout.
The strengthening of extremism is an important signal, but the EU-committed “mainstream” remains strong. If the notion of the crisis becomes stronger within the EU, the prediction of “Europe will fall” can fulfill itself.
