…. what you can usefully put-off till tomorrow. There is still a lot of confusion surrounding what has, and what hasn’t been decided in Brussels. On the Constitution Treaty it seems there will now be an open-ended ratification period. What this will mean in practice is hard to see. The answer you give to this [...]

I have been trying to write something informative on the current budgetary crisis in the EU. After reading countless articles I have come to the conclusion that there is nothing worthwhile I could add to the discussion. Confusion reigns supreme in this little European?s head and economics have never been my forte - certainly not [...]

It’s a bit too early to draw any hard and fast conclusions about this weeks summit, but this early snippet of news doesn’t look too promising:
“European leaders plunged into a full-blown crisis at a summit, with a battle raging over long-term EU financing and their lofty plans for an EU constitution nearly in tatters………..French President [...]

Italy posted a trade deficit with the rest of the world of 1.354 billion euros in April, widening sharply from a deficit of 155 million euros in the same month of 2004, national statistics office ISTAT said on Thursday. The deficit also increased from March, when it stood at 845 million euros.
Trade with European Union [...]

Well I’ve been reading about the Germans, the Italians, now apparently it is the turn of the French to feel naustalgic:
“Three out of five French people miss their old currency, replaced by the euro in 2002, a survey for Valeurs Actuelles magazine showed on Wednesday. In February 2002 that figure was just 39 percent.
While the [...]

Far away from the hassle and turbulence of Turkey’s EU membership application is that other Turkey, the one that is growing and expanding, the economic Turkey. This time it’s cars:

“With a cluster of carmakers and part suppliers, the Turkish automotive sector has reached a critical mass and become an integral part of the global network [...]

This news needs careful watching:
Spanish police arrested 16 suspected Islamist militants on Wednesday, including followers of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and men preparing to become suicide bombers in Iraq, the Interior Ministry said. t was the second European swoop in two days against suspected backers of the Iraqi insurgency, following Germany’s arrest of three Iraqis on [...]

“People are concerned. They would rather it was happening on an aircraft carrier stuck in the middle of the Atlantic than in Auchterarder”
Peter Everett, Chairman of the Community Council, Auchterarder, Scotland on the up-coming G8 meet.
“The rapid rise of China as a trading economy is unprecedented, but inevitable due to its size.”
Morgan Stanley Economist Andy [...]

I don’t have time to go into this much further right now, but Spain’s Current Account Deficit is ballooning enormously. According to figures realesed by the Bank of Spain today, Spain?s trade deficit increased to 6.56 billion euros in March. The deficit was up from 4.0 billion euros in the same month a year earlier. [...]

This decision is long overdue. That doesn’t make it any less welcome.
Argentina’s Supreme Court overturned two amnesty laws Tuesday that had prevented the prosecution of hundreds of military officers, soldiers and police linked to this country’s “dirty war,” in which tens of thousands of people may have been slain.
The ruling allows the reinstatement of hundreds [...]