US poverty is much higher than poverty in Europe when a relative poverty measure is used. Using an absolute poverty measurement method, the picture looks different: poverty in some European countries is higher. This paper estimates poverty rates for all the countries of the (old) EU and the USA...

Official poverty methodologies differ from other poverty measurement methods in the sense that the official ones are more often used as a benchmark to develop new policies as well as to evaluate the performance of existing programs. Europe has the tradition and the practice to use relative...

The aim of this paper is to analyse cross-country differences in the degree of inter-regional redistribution achieved by means of taxes and expenditures in 21 European countries over the period 1995-2009. We rely on a standard approach based on the observation and comparison of both primary and...

The aim of this short paper is to discuss the future of the European Monetary Union (EMU) departing from the current financial crisis. In particular, we focus on its effects on the prospects for the EMU integration or disintegration.

In 2004, Frits Bolkenstein, former European Commissioner for the Internal Market, brought in the attention of the European Commission “The Services Directive in the Internal Market”. The purpose of this directive was to liberalize the services’ market in the EU, a major regulated field,...

The energy security is a growing concern both of the EU governments, and of Brussels. The European officials have been working on a strategy that should ensure the energy security of the Union. Some of the main courses of action are as follows: increasing the energy output from regenerative...