Because they exert cross-border spillover effects, fiscal policies of individual EU member states are a common concern for the entire EU.

Faced with the impossibility of reaching a political agreement to review the fiscal treaties, the Commission could limit itself to applying the current rules with flexibility, which would maintain an ambiguous situation: much ado about nothing.

The fiscal framework needs in practice to achieve a balance between, on the one hand, effective budgetary rules that allow governments to commit to sound policies and, on the other, judgements and discretion in how these are applied so that the framework adequately reflects the complexity of the...

Die Europäische Union (EU) sieht sich innerhalb kürzester Zeit mit zwei großen und historisch einmaligen Krisen konfrontiert. Die Corona-Krise führte zu asymmetrischen wirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen in der EU. Maßgeblich für die konjunkturelle Entwicklung zwischen dem vierten Quartal 2019...

[Background and aims of this position paper] Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, it has become ever clearer that it poses an enormous challenge for society. The lockdown imposed on large parts of public life, which hit all social groups and institutions relatively abruptly with a wide range of...

Durch den russischen Angriff auf die Ukraine ist die Frage der Einsatzfähigkeit der Bundeswehr erneut in den Fokus gerückt. Die Landesverteidigung, die mit dem Ende des Kalten Krieges und der Auflösung von Warschauer Pakt und Sowjetunion 1991 nur noch eine geringe Rolle zu spielen schien,...

The EIF Business Angels Survey, together with the EIF VC Survey and the EIF Private Equity Mid-Market Survey (the largest combined regular survey exercises among GPs and Business Angels on a pan-European level) provide an opportunity to retrieve unique market insights. This publication is based...

European Union (EU) funding for United Nations (UN) organisations has expanded significantly over the last two decades. The EU's partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is an important example of EU-UN cooperation, and UNDP was the fourth-largest UN recipient of European...

Nicht zuletzt infolge merklich gestiegener Einkommen, veränderter Verbraucherwünsche und beachtlicher technologischer Fortschritte verzeichnet der weltweite Agrarhandel in den vergangenen drei Jahrzehnten historische Entwicklungen. Diese betreffen (insbesondere) auch die internationalen...

Income growth, changing consumer preferences and technological progress are having a transformative effect on global food trade and, in particular, wheat markets. This is evidenced by two main developments: First, the growing demand for wheat in Asia and Africa is increasingly being met by the...