http://eupi.osi.bg http://eupi.osi.bg/cgi-bin/e-cms/vis/vis.pl?fc=s1p70n25 20.07.2010The economic crisis in the EU and the threat of domino effect causes by Greece’s problems brought to the fore the critical debate about national public debts, deficits and fiscal policies in general in the context of existing and emerging understanding of their economic impact in the Eurozone and the EU as a whole. In a new EuPI policy brief , Georgi Angelov analyses the fiscal policies of the new member states and their implications for the Eurozone enlargement, looks at their deficit level and public debts. He refers to centrality of the thinking, political will and strategies in the different member states in making public policies and how this impacts their fortunes in dealing with the crisis and the post-crisis development. Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:22:19 +0300 http://eupi.osi.bg/cgi-bin/e-cms/vis/vis.pl?fc=s1p70n24 15.07.2010 The tragic death of Polish President Lech Kaczyński rescheduled the elections to the summer of 2010. Bronisław Komorowski of the Civic Platorm of PM Donald Tusk won after the second leg of elections with 6 points ahead of Jarosław Kaczyński of the Law and Justice party, despite the sympathy vote for Kaczynski after the tragic death of his brother late President Lech Kaczyński. Piotr Maciej Kaczyński analyses in a new EuPI policy brief the extraordinary elections, looks into the context, main factors and issues of the campaigns and their change between the two rounds. He also elaborates on the changes as in Polish society as well as political scene that emerged in the course of the elections and their likely impact on the upcoming 2011 parliamentary elections. Piotr Maciej Kaczyński looks also at the policy implications – both in domestic politics and policies and external policies – prompted by outcome of the elections. Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:24:20 +0300 http://eupi.osi.bg/cgi-bin/e-cms/vis/vis.pl?fc=s1p70n23 16.06.2010The general elections in Slovakia did not have a clear cut outcome and despite that the incumbent SMER-SD of Robert Fico won most of the votes with 34,78%, it is likely to stay out of the executive as it managed to lose and antagonize coalition partners. In a new EuPI policy brief, the author Ivo Samson thinks that the leftist-nationalist coalition is a thing of the past and the next government of Slovakia will most likely be composed of two Christian Democrat parties, liberals and an ethnically-mixed, Slovak-Hungarian party. But there may be pitfalls as even the two Christian Democrat parties already have disagreements. Wed, 16 Jun 2010 19:03:44 +0300 http://eupi.osi.bg/cgi-bin/e-cms/vis/vis.pl?fc=s1p70n22 10.06.2010 “At their last meeting on the June 8, the EU finance ministers (the so-called ECOFIN Council) decided to strengthen the budgetary rules and the provisions for statistical reporting on the state budgets and the budget deficits. On the same day, the Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn announced that “the Commission was worried about the statistical performance of Bulgaria and was going to send a mission”. The two events are interlinked”, writes Georgi Angelov in a new EuPI policy brief. Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:14:49 +0300 http://eupi.osi.bg/cgi-bin/e-cms/vis/vis.pl?fc=s1p70n21 01.06.2010 The May 2010 elections in the Czech Republic had the impact of an earthquake on the political scene in the country, in the words of David Kral of EUROPEUM. Just after the end of the elections EuPI is releasing a new policy brief that looks that the elections, their results and the likely outcomes in both coalition-building and policy positions of a future cabinet. The two big parties – the Social Democrats and the center-right ODS – lost big time. Two smaller parties, made their way somewhat unexpectedly – the right-wing TOP09 and the centrist Public Affairs (Věci veřejné, VV). Both parties follow the footsteps of other CEE political phenomena as they are centered and operate almost exclusively around well-known personalities - Prince Schwarzenberg in the case of TOP9 (quite prominent internationally too) and the journalist Radek John of VV. Tue, 01 Jun 2010 16:21:44 +0300 http://eupi.osi.bg/cgi-bin/e-cms/vis/vis.pl?fc=s1p70n20 13.05.2010Europe’s economic problems brought about the unprecedented 1 trillion dollar “bail-out” package (750 billion euro). But besides the short-term trouble shooting, the EU set on building up its economic governance for the longer-term, which may revise the very bases of the Eurozone’s principles, rules and mechanisms of operation– as for the current members as well as for aspiring candidates. Yesterday, 12 May 2010, the European Commission stated its support for the entry of Estonia into the Eurozone, which means a green light for the Baltic country as the ECB and the Eurogroup will likely to back it too without objections. In this context, EuPI is releasing an extended policy brief on the lessons learnt from the last CEE country to the Eurozone – Slovakia. As this happened in the beginning of 2009 - at the height of the global economic crisis – the brief is also shedding a light on the implications of the Euro adoption on Slovakia’s economy and financial situation. Thu, 13 May 2010 14:11:55 +0300 http://eupi.osi.bg/cgi-bin/e-cms/vis/vis.pl?fc=s1p70n19 10.03.2010 Membership in the Eurozone has been a major political and economic goal of the new EU member of the EU, enshrined in their EU accession treaties. The global economic crisis injected a new sense of urgency as Eurozone membership has been elevated as a major component of the anti-crisis packages of many CEE states (and aspiring EU candidate of Island). The grave economic and financial crisis of Greece was believed to seriously jeopardize these aspirations and undermine the efforts of the Eurozone candidates to join as planned. EuPI has asked two leading experts from Bulgaria and Estonia to reflect on the implications of the Greek crisis on the chances of their countries for joining soon the Eurozone as Estonia is aiming at full membership in 2011 and Bulgaria expects a membership in the ERM II. Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:12:56 +0300 http://eupi.osi.bg/cgi-bin/e-cms/vis/vis.pl?fc=s1p70n18 22.01.2010 ERM II and Schengen singled out as top priorities in Bulgaria's European policy Entering the ERM II is priority number one for the Bulgarian government in the next six months stated Vice Premier and Minister of Finance Simeon Djankov at a conference organized by the Open Society Institute. Minister Djankov added that Bulgaria will be the only EU country to cover the Maastricht criteria. The ERM II is the doorstep to entering the Eurozone.Spanish Ambassador HE Jorge Fuentes, whose country is chairing the EU presidency now, said that Spain will back Bulgaria’s candidacy for ERM II and the Schengen zone. Assya Kavrakova, Director of the European Policies Program of OSI-Sofia and EuPI (the European Policies Initiative) who opened the conference, defined the goal of the event as identifying Bulgaria’s goals and benchmarking progress in country’s European policies at the backdrop of EU’s presidency’s goals. Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:57:36 +0300 http://eupi.osi.bg/cgi-bin/e-cms/vis/vis.pl?fc=s1p70n17 22.12.2009 The findings of EuPI’s project “The ten new EU member states as agenda setters in the enlarged European Union” were presented on December 17, 2009 at an event in Prague. The event took place at the Representation of the European Commission in the Czech Republic and was organized by EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy. The project “The ten new EU member states as agenda setters in the enlarged European Union” was implemented by EuPI in cooperation with EUROPEUM. Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:32:21 +0300 http://eupi.osi.bg/cgi-bin/e-cms/vis/vis.pl?fc=s1p70n16 09.12.2009 Mr. Basescu unexpectedly came up as a winner against the odds in after the second round of the presidential elections in Romania in December 2009. Romanian expert Cristian Ghinea says in a new EuPI policy brief entitled "Here we go again! Romania after the presidential elections" that: "Many things depend on Basescu`s willing to change its abrasive way to make politics. Now that he is the first Romanian president to win a second consecutive term in office, he has little to prove in the face the other politicians, but rather a statue to build for himself in the face of history." Wed, 09 Dec 2009 12:02:11 +0300