Fateful Day for Europe
The 4th of March is going to be an important day for Europe. For one thing, Italians will be voting for a new Parliament; and in Berlin, the SPD will be counting the votes of its members on whether to approve the grand coalition. There is some doubt in Brussels – and not without a little justification – as to whether the Italians will manage to get any sort of reasonably stable government off the ground. Though, in view of the economic malaise in this major eurozone country, it is important that they do. By contrast, the European partners are confident and hopeful that Germany will soon have a grand coalition and this despite the fact that the coalition deal between the CDU, CSU and SPD has left open a whole range of questions on crucial areas of European policy. This has obviously not gone unnoticed by the current Federal Chancellor, Angela Merkel, who last week, in the Bundestag, modified the promise to increase Germany’s contribution to the EU budget under the coalition agreement and called for “EU finances to be put under scrutiny”. The debate about the future of the EU budget, and thus also the future role of the EU in general, is not usually this exciting! |
|
| Guarantee Law for Sales of Goods |
|
Due to reasons of cost, traders refrain from offering their goods across borders and consumers shy away from purchasing in other countries due to legal uncertainty. The Commission wants to change this by way of a Directive. It wants to remove barriers in cross-border trade with extensive full-harmonisation of guarantee law for sales of goods.
...read more |
|
|
| CO2 Limits on Cars and Light Commercial Vehicles |
|
| In order to reduce CO2 emissions in road transport, CO2 limits on cars and light duty vehicles will be further tightened. The EU Commission has made a proposal for a Regulation in this regard of which cep takes a primarily critical view because stricter CO2 limits give rise to high CO2 avoidance costs.
...read more |
|
|
“The currency union will only be made crisis-proof if the balance between action and liability is restored.”
Jens Weidmann, President Deutsche Bundesbank |
|
|
“Established law does not count for all that much in the EU; it gets broken as and when required.”
Prof. Lüder Gerken, President of cep |
|
|
“The grand coalition deal is more Juncker than Macron.”
Dr. Matthias Kullas, cep Division Head, on the grand coalition agreement |
|
|
Facts
To allow blanket coverage in the supply of electricity for electric cars in the EU, at least 680 000 electric recharging points and about 10 000 hydrogen filling stations are needed. Transport experts put the overall cost of rolling out this infrastructure at € 24 billion. |
|
|
|
