EU agricultural subsidies are not just expensive and distort the internal market, they also have far-reaching effects on developing countries. How do African farmers feel about the fact that the EU subsidises its farmers and exports their products to Africa?…
Continue reading How Poor Countries Pay for the EU’s Agricultural Policy
Hungary has undergone a significant transformation in the last decade, one that is often described as a democratic, or rule of law, backsliding. The roots of this negative development can be traced back to the landslide victory of Viktor Orbán’s…
Continue reading The EU’s Response to Hungary’s Democratic Backsliding
On 31 January 2020, the UK left the EU – bringing the tumultuous three-and-a-half year process to an end. As the EU prepared to begin negotiating a new UK-EU trade deal, it was also hoping for a period of recalibration.…
Continue reading On Brussels: A Tricky Response to Another Crisis
Brexit has happened. Britain has left the European Union. The Brexit process, however, is still very much ongoing – with future trade arrangements, the UK-EU relationship going forward and some aspects of longer-term citizens’ rights still yet to be agreed…
When Donald Trump became president of the United States of America in 2016, many feared that his straightforward and harshly announced policies might have a perceptible impact on the new world order – politically and economically. With him being a…
Continue reading “Free Trade is Dead – Long Live Free Trade”
Today, January 31st, 2020, is Brexit Day. As I am sitting here, behind my desk (which doubles as the kitchen table) in my flat in Whitechapel, East London, I cannot help but feel a bit bewildered: history is taking place…
After years of debate, negotiations and impasse, Britain will leave the EU this Friday, the 31st January 2020. This will be the final Brupdate before Brexit Day. In Britain, a strange calm seems to have descended since December’s general election.…
Continue reading Brexit Update: Post-Brexit Realities Begin to Bite
As a Swiss Citizens, the European Union may look like a big intransparent political machine that decides from Brussel what European Citizens have to do and how strong a vacuum cleaner has to be. The different European institutions, such as…
Sound the Brexit klaxon! I’ve now come to the conclusion that I’ve been overly optimistic in these updates! Within the last fortnight, I’ve concluded that the UK is probably going to drop out of the EU without a deal. It’ll…
A Renewed Europe? Welcome to the European Union, where travel between countries is visa-free, trade is relatively unrestricted and capital can move freely from country to country. Even though it has been largely built by Christian Democrats and Social Democrats,…
