The Stability and Growth Pact was designed to ensure sound budgetary balances and low public debts in the European Union, ultimately achieving fiscal policy coordination. 18 years after its inception, overburdened by an opaque and intricate web of flexibility clauses, the Pact is de facto dead. Could this be the opportunity to rethink European fiscal governance?
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As pro-Brexit voters push for Britain to leave the EU, their arguments fail to take into consideration the paradox that their leaving might cause: the UK’s move from prominent policy maker within Brussels, to being at the whim of decisions made in the EU without their input. The UK march for autonomy would in fact be undermined by the geography and trade links that would likely ensure a sustained close relationship between the UK and the EU, governed by the very EU energy policy that the ‘out’ campaign are trying to escape.
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Leave or stay? The history of the Eurosceptic movement in Britain is easily exploitable for the Leave campaign. In contrast, the Prime Minister who struggles to assuage fears of an “Ever Closer Union” suffers from his past strategy aimed at an appeasement of the Eurosceptics within his own party.
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Recently, the satirical French weekly paper Charlie Hebdo, a publication which became well-known internationally due to the horrific event of the mass shooting of its staff by two French gunmen of Algerian descent in January 2015, has once again hit the headlines around the world, this time not as a victim, but as the perpetrator of a different crime: intolerance towards the Muslim community in France.
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Although in a small number of cases DNA-based evidence may be the single source on which a judge or jury reaches a verdict, it is commonly used to support evidence that is leading towards a particular conclusion, rather than as decisive evidence in its own right. Yet DNA-based evidence is invaluable, and arrangements should be made for it to be used in court, in light of and in line with the international initiatives to establish a global framework for forensic protocols.
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There is evidence that organic food is not necessarily as environmentally friendly and sustainable as is commonly believed to be. Nor are genetically modified organisms (GMOs) by default a threat to the environment. In fact, GM technology can help organic farming become truly sustainable.
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