European Heads of Government meeting in Brussels (25-26.3.10) have approved a stand-by formula to support efforts by Greece to handle its debt crisis, involving both the IMF and EU member states. … Read More »
President Nicolas Sarkozy in France has doggedly negotiated a bitter political Winter, seeing his party take heavy losses in local elections, and facing down opposition to his belt-tightening budgets policy. … Read More »
Back to the flavour of the 1970s in England with strike action in a major industry, at British Airways, as the country heads into a national elections season. … Read More »
COMMENTARY: That bugbear of Australian – EU relations over decades, the Common Agricultural Policy, won’t go down – Europeans’ devotion to protected agriculture making itself felt in two recent developments.
The European Commission is chasing up certain national governments for defying new laws against excessive feather-bedding on the farm; and at the same time the EU’s often-named fourth institution, the European Economic and Social Committee, has made a nostalgic attack on the evils of the “market†in agriculture. … Read More »
OPINION: With friendly exchange rates, in strictly street-level, retail terms, private travellers from Australia might hope for very pleasant Summer days in 2010. … Read More »
COMMENTARY: European financial markets moved tentatively upward early in the week after EU Finance Ministers agreed on making money available to Greece on friendlier terms, subject to it following agreed policy settings.
German authorities continued to insist there’d be no money for nothing; others began to suggest though the problem might be something to do with large scale exporters, (like guess-where), continuing to sell to customers with little money; while the European Commission declared several more governments needed to trim their deficits severely. … Read More »