In The News

Brexit and “Rip the Band-Aid Off”: Asian Age

Latika Bourke May 18, 2020
The clock is ticking on the Brexit transition. Negotiations continue even as public attention distracted by the Covid-19 pandemic. With a wide gap in expectations from the EU and the UK, negotiations have made little progress on contentious issues including EU access to UK fishing grounds, UK adherence to EU regulations, and agreements on becoming carbon neutral by 2050. “The UK now wants what it...

German Court Ruling on ECB Asset Purchases: FT

Martin Wolf May 13, 2020
The German constitutional court ruled against the European Central Bank’s public sector purchase program, launched in 2015. Martin Wolf argues for the Financial Times that the move contributes to EU disintegration: “It is an attack on basic economics, the central bank’s integrity, its independence and the legal order of the EU…. The court “did not argue that the ECB had improperly engaged in...

EU and COVID-19 Economic Crisis: Financial Times

Ben Hall, Martin Arnold and Sam Fleming March 30, 2020
The European Central Bank plans to expand asset purchases by €750 billion over the next nine months, aimed at preventing a profound depression. Such a plan boosted the bond market in Europe, leading to decreased finance costs of EU member governments. Even though the ECB’s monetary interventions can partly alleviate the downward pressure on the economy, deeply divided national leaders focus on...

Brexit and EU Citizens’ Rights: Euronews

Alasdair Sandford January 21, 2020
The House of Commons approved the EU Withdrawal Bill without change, but the House of Lords approved three changes. The first would give EU citizens an automatic right to stay in the UK after Brexit rather than expecting them to apply. The upper chamber also approved issuing physical documents to EU citizens as proof of their right to stay post-Brexit. The government supports a digital system and...

UK to Leave EU Before Jan 31: MacMillan

David Cameron December 17, 2019
The Brexit ball is in the hands of conservatives after an overwhelming win in the UK parliamentary election. The new government plans to meet Brexit deadlines, rejecting further extensions, including for the transition period that ends with the year 2020. So the United Kingdom takes on the challenge of negotiating a complex relationship with its major trade partner in 11 months. A revised...

Boris Johnson and Conservatives Win in UK: BBC

Laura Kuenssberg December 13, 2019
Boris Johnson risked calling an election and won decisively with his call to get Brexit done. Solid results remove Brexit uncertainty as voters entrust the Conservative Party, which won 364 votes of the 650 required, to manage exit from the European Union. “The Conservative Party's Commons majority is its largest since Margaret Thatcher won a third term in 1987,” reports BBC News. Many...

Europe Divided Again: Wall Street Journal

Bojan Pancevski November 17, 2019
Three decades after the Berlin Wall fell, political divisions are again rising between East and West Europe, reports the Wall Street Journal. “Despite the economic success of German reunification and the triumph of democracy across Eastern Europe, the two regions are drifting apart again in a clash of values that is threatening the cohesion of the Western alliance and the European Union,” the...