Blog 3 Columns

  • The truth behind the BitCoin media hype

    The truth behind the BitCoin media hype2

    Imagine if every time you read about breast cancer in the newspaper there was an image of a crab holding onto a breast next to the article.

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  • Does faster legislation come at the cost of transparency?

    Does faster legislation come at the cost of transparency?0

    One of the main goals of the post-Lisbon Institutional reforms was to make EU decision-making more efficient. Following many claims that EU legislative processes are overly bureaucratized, the main goal of such efforts was to make the EU law-making more fit for the many ongoing challenges requiring great institutional re-activeness. The result of such fitness operation is quite striking.

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  • Japan-EU trade deal: an uneven road ahead for EU car manufacturers?

    Japan-EU trade deal: an uneven road ahead for EU car manufacturers?1

    The Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (JEEPA) is especially beneficial for the Japanese car industry as it reduces tariff barriers on car imports from Japan. This new deal reinforces Japan’s trade strength in the car industry and asserts their growing dominance in the sector. The flip side of the deal ‘coining’ reveals two interesting aspects. One, in exchange of tariff reduction for Japanese cars, the EU will obtain tariff reductions mainly on its agricultural exports to Japan; more significantly on cheese. Two, the EU automobile market is offering a larger latitude to a country which is already a daunting competitor in the sector. Is the deal sending the EU on an uneven road?

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  • Why the Commission President is wrong to go wide but not deep

    Why the Commission President is wrong to go wide but not deep0

    In his annual address to the European Parliament, European Commission’s President Jean-Claude Juncker set out a blueprint for his final two years in office, covering a wide range of policy areas. On his call for deeper and more inclusive integration for all Member States, I say we are rolling the ball back to the starting point: the avant-garde option remains the only plausible route to closer political unity in the continent.

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  • Carbon Capture and Storage – another British blunder?

    Carbon Capture and Storage – another British blunder?0

    In 2012, the British Government opened Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Commercialisation competition with a budget of £1billion to support the UK’s first commercial scale CCS projects. However, with the unexpected withdrawal of the funding in 2015, Norway has since developed a strategy aimed at realising a full-scale CCS chain by 2022. Is this yet another British blunder? 

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  • Brexit and the single market: Norway or No way

    Brexit and the single market: Norway or No way0

    After recent declarations by Theresa May and David Davis, the UK’s conservative government seems to be convinced that a “hard” Brexit is the best option for the country. Discussions with the EU over the UK’s participation in the single market seem to have been halted and the Norwegian European model rejected. This is terrible news for UK trade and especially for the services sector which is the UK’s most important trading sector, with a trade surplus equating to 5% of the national income (about $138 billion).

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The School of Public Policy at CEU