Viktor Orbán has been a darling of Western conservatives, particularly the American Right, for years. Budapest has become a peculiar pilgrimage site for rightwingers keen to learn the secret sauce of Orban’s electoral and cultural success. Among his fans is Rod Dreher, a usually enlightening journalist at The American Conservative, who has been beating the […]
For Eurosceptics who have long warned that the EU is hell-bent on sidelining national democracies, the latest moves from Ursula von der Leyen have not come as a great surprise. In a recent speech at the Conference on the Future of Europe, von der Leyen took the opportunity to advocate for ‘more Europe’, which always […]
According to Rishi Sunak, this weekend saw a “seismic tax reform”. His German counterpart, Olaf Schulz, agreed that this was a “historic” moment. After years of negotiations, the G7 has finally agreed to push for a worldwide minimum corporate tax of 15% – and to tax companies in the countries where they make a profit. […]
Could Germany soon have a Green Chancellor? That’s what the country has been wondering ever since the Green Party picked Annalena Baerbock as its candidate for the autumn election on Monday, while the ruling Christian Democrats plumped for the not especially popular Armin Laschet. The snap polls spoke volumes, with the Greens out in front […]
Vaccine nationalism, where every country or region of the world selfishly fighting for itself to roll out Covid vaccines and battling with others, “can only slow down the global fight against the virus”. Instead, what we need is “teamwork solving global problems” through worldwide cooperation and open markets. These were the words of European Commission […]
“The best advertisement for Brexit,” the major German newspaper Die Zeit proclaimed on Wednesday. In the increasingly bitter vaccine battle between AstraZeneca and the EU – which some are already describing as outright war, the European Commission has “acted slow, bureaucratic, and protectionist. And when something goes wrong, it’s always someone else’s fault”. In this […]
We have heard it often enough: Christmas will be quite different this year, in the same way that this year has been quite different. Europe is now almost entirely locked down. Restaurants and pubs, recreational places, and retail stores are closed. Gatherings have been drastically capped to a handful of people. This is well known, […]
Crisis averted! This seemed to have been the general mood in Brussels last week when an agreement on the EU’s economic response to Covid-19 was finally reached. But as deep divisions remain, not just on funding but over the very principles on which the EU was founded, that joy may be premature. The saga of […]
The EU has never been quite sure how to balance being an economic partnership with promoting freedom, security and democracy. Now a brewing row over Covid recovery payments to authoritarian regimes in Hungary and Poland is threatening to undo the uneasy compromise. It started when European leaders concluded a ‘historic’ meeting in July and agreed […]
It took four days of almost constant and uninterrupted negotiations, but in the end, a deal was made: EU leaders agreed on a roadmap out of the coronavirus economic crisis in the early hours of this morning, with the package predictably hailed as “historic” by almost all involved. Historic it might be, but that is […]
When Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron presented their roadmap for Europe’s post-Covid economic recovery last week, many were caught off guard. The German government, usually so sceptical of grand economic schemes – particularly if they don’t involve some promise of fiscal responsibility – suddenly agreed that a €500 billion Recovery Fund, including indirect debt collectivisation, […]
At first, the European Union’s response to the Covid-19 crisis was worryingly slow and incoherent, as Brussels saw the entire continent close down, one member state after another and, thus, temporarily abandoning the EU freedoms. Since then though, ‘never let a good crisis go to waste’ seems to have become the mantra of both the […]
Despite the near universal shock and concern over the virus, the responses of national governments to the crisis have been starkly different. Countries like Sweden and South Korea have largely left society intact in a more laissez-faire approach. Others, such as Italy, France, and Austria, have locked down their countries to a point where public […]
The Coronavirus crisis has relegated all other issues to the fringes, becoming a truly universal crisis for us all. Despite this, politics never stops. Even in the Virus Times, there are politicians happy to use newly-acquired powers, both for personal gain and to reshape their alliances, which could look starkly different in the post-virus world. […]
Monday was Ursula von der Leyen’s 100-day-anniversary as President of the European Commission. The new Commission started with ambitious plans, promising much that would need to be done right at the start of its five-year tenure. So far, it’s been a case of all mouth and no trousers. The European Green Deal was presented by […]
As a European who likes free markets and is wary of Brussels’ mission of an “ever closer union” I was disappointed when Britain voted to leave the EU. I understood why the majority of Brits wanted to leave, but also lamented that the most realistic country in the union would now be departing. Without the naysayers […]
“Finally!” That’s probably what Ursula von der Leyen was thinking on Wednesday when she and her team of 27 Commissioners were confirmed by the European Parliament. The transition phase from the Juncker Commission to one led by von der Leyen has taken months. The elections took place way back in May and the EU’s head […]
With the support of the Atlas Network, CapX is publishing a new series of essays on the theme of Illiberalism in Europe, looking at the different threats to liberal economies and societies across the continent, from populism to protectionism and corruption. Thirty years ago, on November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell. The Soviet Empire had […]
As Ursula von der Leyen, President elect of the European Commission, unveiled her new team of 27 Commissioner’s for the next five years, balance was the central mantra: balance in gender – 13 of the 27 Commissioners will be female – balance in political families, and balance geographically between East and West. The latter two accommodations are […]
While the UK has been engaged in a full-throttle political struggle over Brexit, the EU has had to face up to the fact that one of its biggest member states had decided to leave the bloc. Would the EU realise that endless integration is not the future and revert back to a smaller EU of […]
