| |
| |
Shadow boxing in Karlsruhe
The USA is leading the way: To combat the economic consequences of the Corona pandemic, the Biden administration is preparing an economic rescue package of 1.9 trillion dollars. The European Union did not remain idle either. It already decided last July on a 750 billion euro reconstruction fund. The EU member states will receive part of it as loans and part as grants.
The summit decision thus marks a turning point. For the first time, the EU wants to take on debt and distribute the money to its member states as non-repayable grants. At least that was the plan. For by the end of June 2021, all 27 EU member states must have agreed to the reconstruction fund so that the package can start as planned. So, time is pressing. Now, however, Germany is threatening to be the spoilsport. A group around AfD founder Bernd Lucke has filed a constitutional complaint. Immediately before the final signature of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the Federal Constitutional Court stopped the ratification of the aid package.
Karlsruhe takes a critical view of the EU's borrowing. Similarly, the constitutional judges had already stopped the ESM bailout in 2012 - and then approved it after all. They have very good reasons for rejecting this EU borrowing. But this time, too, Karlsruhe will buckle in the end. The constitutional judges will express concerns and formulate guard rails, but in the end, they will give up their shadow boxing. For they know only too well: anything else will plunge the EU into hopeless chaos.
Dr. Jörg Köpke
Head of Communication |
|
|
|---|
|
|
| |
| Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe |
|
|
|---|
|
|
| | Worldwide, more than 700,000 people die every year from infections with resistant bacteria. According to the UN, there could be up to ten million by 2050. In a study, the Centrum für Europäische Politik (cep) calls for measures against an impending shortage of antibiotics.
more |
|
|
|---|
|
|
| |
| |
| | The EU Commission wants to promote the sharing of valuable data held by public authorities, companies and private individuals. This includes data donations, such as the voluntary sharing of health data for research into the Corona pandemic.
more |
|
|
|---|
|
|
| |
| Non-Performing Loans and Corona |
|
|
|---|
|
|
| | The ratio of Non-Performing Loans (NPL) is increasing again in the member states of the European Union for the first time in five years. The Centre for European Policy (cep) has examined the problem of so-called bad loans in detail in a cepPolicyBrief with a view to proposals by the EU Commission.
more |
|
|
|---|
|
|
| |
| |
| | The EU wants to reduce emissions of greenhouse gas to net zero by 2050, and by 2030 get them down by 55% compared to 1990 levels. To achieve this ambitious goal, the number of energy-efficient building renovations is to at least double by 2030.
more |
|
|
|---|
|
|
| |
| Regulating Crypto-Assets: MiCA-Regulation |
|
|
|---|
|
|
| | Bitcoin is on the rise. The European Commission has therefore presented a proposal for a Regulation to regulate cryptocurrencies. Before the Commission's proposal is finally approved by the European Council and the European Parliament, the Centrum für Europäische Politik (cep) reports a need for change.
more |
|
|
|---|
|
|
| |
| |
| | Bitcoin is on the rise. The European Commission has therefore presented a proposal for a Regulation to regulate cryptocurrencies. Before the Commission's proposal is finally approved by the European Council and the European Parliament, the Centrum für Europäische Politik (cep) reports a need for change.
more |
|
|
|---|
|
|
| |
| |
| | “We need a wise framework, where our digital resources will be used for innovation and economic development. And we must also protect the “environment” of our democracies and our individual freedoms.”
Charles Michel, President of the European Council |
|
|
|---|
|
|
| | "It is clear that the financing regulated in the Own Resources Decision has a stable foundation in constitutional and European law."
Olaf Scholz, Federal Minister of Finance, on the federal constitutional court ruling on the ratification law on the EU Reconstruction Fund |
|
|
|---|
|
|
| | "Not the citizens have to justify themselves if they demand their constitutional rights of freedom back, but the government if it wants to continue to deprive them of them. Restrictions on freedom may only ever be the exception to the rule. They must be very well justified and proportionate."
cep Chairman Prof. Dr. Lüder Gerken |
|
|
|---|
|
|
| |
| |
| | EU foreign trade suffers noticeably from Corona effects After years of growth over the past decade, EU foreign trade has suffered significant losses of about ten percent in both exports (-9.4%) and imports (-11.6%) in the Corona year 2020.
This results in a trade surplus of 217 billion euros for the community of states. The highest value in this respect was achieved by the EU states in 2016 with a plus of 264 billion euros.
Germany is one of the countries with the relatively smallest share of exports within the EU in relation to total exports.
Source: Eurostat |
|
|
|---|
|
|
| |
| |
| | "Respect for your apology, Angela. But couldn't you have also apologised for our problems with the vaccine order?"
Source: Heiko Sakurai Badische Zeitung |
|
|
|---|
|
|
