Selection of Mario Draghi as the next president of the European Central Bank became closer, if not assured, with the signal this week that French President Nicolas Sarkozy supported the Italian for the key post. Frenchman Jean-Claude Trichet, who has held the ECB job for eight years, steps down in October. European Affairs tipped Draghi for the job back in February after Germany’s front-runner Axel Weber withdrew from consideration. Now the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Draghi has emerged as the “consensus” candidate for the job.
EU Austerity: Country-by-Country -- UPDATED -- (4/26)
Greater budget discipline is a goal that most EU countries are pursuing, with tax increases (including VAT rates) and often-drastic cuts in government spending. A country-by-country table of these measures has been compiled by the European Institute (as an update to a previous table) and is current as of May 1.
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Greek Debt Crisis — A Dilemma that Does Not Diminish (4/19)
There is a new twist in the disconnect between, on one hand, official denials on all sides that Greece will ever default on its sovereign debt and, on the other hand, the near-unanimity from economists and analysts that some form of restructuring is inevitable.
Better Coffin For Chernobyl In Wake Of Japanese Accident (4/21)
Amid fresh global worries about radiation after the nuclear meltdown in Japan, the U.S. and leading EU countries have decided to move ahead with a “New Safe Confinement” for the damaged reactors at Chernobyl in Ukraine involved in the deadly 1986 accident there that leaked radiation across Europe.
Finnish Parliament's Lurch to Right Could Complicate EU Financial Bail-outs (4/18)
Finland has sustained a political tsunami in a parliamentary election that brought a spectacular breakthrough for a eurosceptic and potentially isolationist party, the True Finns. It rocketed to near-equality with the county’s two leading parties, quadrupling its votes during the past election.
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