Single market, competition & trade
Europe’s new division of labour
01 June 2006
Two years after the accession of ten new members, the EU is showing clear signs of enlargement fatigue. While most politicians and economists insist that eastward enlargement has been good for the EU, voters are increasingly sceptical.
The future of European universities: Renaissance or decay?
01 June 2006
Knowledge is an increasingly critical factor in shaping economic life. But in Europe, the institutions that should be the main sources of knowledge are failing to meet the challenge.
Issue 48 - 2006
26 May 2006
- Europe’s new division of labour, Katinka Barysch
- Unblocking EU-NATO co-operation, Daniel Keohane
- Can we live with a nuclear Iran?, Mark Leonard
What future for free trade in services?
03 April 2006
The controversy that has engulfed the Commission’s draft services directive is hardly surprising: the establishment of a single EU market in services was always going to generate more opposition than the liberalisation of trade in goods.
Issue 47 - 2006
24 March 2006
- A new European approach to China, Mark Leonard
- What future for free trade in services?, Simon Tilford
- How to build a better EU foreign policy, Charles Grant, Mark Leonard
Ditchley conference note - The future of the European economy
21 March 2006
In November 2005, the CER took more than 40 of Europe's top economists, policy-makers and commentators to the Ditchley Park in Oxfordshire to discuss 'The future of the European economy'. Participants included Graham Bishop, Jean-Philippe Cotis, Daniel Gros, Will Hutton, DeAnne Julius, Anatole Kaletsky, John Kay, Mart Laar, Richard Layard,...
The Lisbon scorecard VI: Will Europe's economy rise again?
01 March 2006
The European Union and its 'Lisbon agenda' of economic reform, have received a battering over the past year. The pace of reform has remained slow in the big eurozone countries.
New budget, old dilemmas
22 February 2006
After months of fierce haggling, the UK government managed to broker a deal on the EU's new budget at the Union's summit in December 2005.
The EU's new financial services agenda
03 February 2006
After five years of intense law-making, the European Commission promises fewer financial services laws for the remainder of the decade. But there is still no fully integrated single European market in financial services.
EU 2010: A programme for reform
03 February 2006
The European Union is suffering from a profound malaise. There have been difficult times in the past – such as the 'empty chair' left by General de Gaulle in the mid-1960s, the rows over the British budget contribution in the early 1980s, and the struggles to ratify the Maastricht treaty...
East versus West? The European economic and social model after enlargement
06 January 2006
The EU's enlargement to the East has been an economic success. Trade between the old and the new members is thriving. Foreign investment by West European companies has helped to create hundreds of thousands of jobs in Central and Eastern Europe, and it has generated multi-billion euro profits for the investing companies.
Easing the pain of trade liberalisation
01 December 2005
This year’s textiles crisis shows what can happen if the EU and the US are ill-prepared for competition from emerging Asia. The integration of China and India into the world economy means that manufacturing and low-cost services in the West will have to adapt rapidly.
The Doha trade round: What hope for Hong Kong?
01 December 2005
The Doha round of trade talks, launched in the Qatar capital in 2001, is in trouble. The members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have little time left to meet their ambition of helping developing countries trade their way out of poverty.
Why Europe deserves a better farm policy
01 December 2005
The prospects for radical CAP reform look bleak. At the time of writing (December 2005) neither the arguments over the EU budget nor pressure from major farm exporters at the world trade negotiations look likely to force the EU to reform.
Issue 45 - 2006
25 November 2005
- The EU needs a policy on Belarus, Urban Ahlin
- Some advice for Turkey, Katinka Barysch
- Easing the pain of trade liberalisation , Richard Cunningham
A 'smart growth' strategy for sustainable development
01 November 2005
Amid the insults and recriminations which followed the collapse of the EU budget negotiations last June, few people noticed that EU leaders succeeded in reaching agreement on a new sustainable development strategy.
CAP reform can reshape the EU budget
03 October 2005
France and Britain appear irreconcilably divided over the future of the EU budget. But the arguments posed by both countries in support of their contrasting positions are flawed.
Issue 44 - 2005
30 September 2005
- Can variable geometry save EU enlargement?, Charles Grant
- CAP reform can reshape the EU budget, Lord Haskins
- An avant-garde for internal security, Hugo Brady
Consumers and EU competition policy
01 September 2005
An effective competition policy is vital to the long-term health of the European economy. Competition increases the incentives for firms to reduce costs, cut prices and improve the quality of their products.
The EU budget: A way forward
01 September 2005
Many of the bitterest arguments in the European Union have been about money. That is partly because the budget is inherently a zero-sum game: more for one country means less for others.