The EU political priorities for 2023 – part I

Views: 16The Commission President’s annual State of the Union-22 (SOTEU) address has unveiled present main five-six political priorities for the next working year. Due to the SOTEU’s complexities, our Institute’s analysis is divided into two parts: one on the Commission attention to present multiply-dimensional crises, reforms in the states, global issues and that of democracy, […]

Modern EU’s energy strategy: discussions going on…

Views: 14Complicated and cross-sectoral energy issues in modern national political economy occupy presently a very important place. Being a shared competence, the EU institutions are making their share of the work. Five main issues were discussed at the informal Energy Ministers Council with the member states last week. It seems that it is not so […]

European Union in modern geopolitics

Views: 13Global geopolitics has undergone major changes and even fragmentation over a very short period of time in the beginning on the 21st century. These changes and present challenges affect fundamentally the European in general and the member states, in particular, political economy. In the latter, the aspects of sovereignty (e.g. in resources’ sufficiency and […]

Renewables in EU: off-shore wind farms in the Baltic Sea area

Views: 20Fossil fuel component occupies one of the central roles in present energy crisis: hence, the states need an efficient use of existing sources of energy, coped with “green transition” in circular economy and active use of renewables, e.g. hydrogen and wind power. The EU recent REPowerEU plan is an integral part of a general […]

Financing European “re-powering”: recent actions

Views: 19New geopolitical and energy market realities require the EU institutions and the member states’ governance to drastically accelerate the clean energy transition and increase energy independence from unreliable suppliers and volatile fossil fuels. Quick switch to renewables and hydrogen, combined with more energy efficiency, fast moves towards independent energy system, price regulation, state aid […]

Sustainability as a new facet in European integration

Views: 30Seven years in the EU’s sustainability efforts, which is about half the way to a final goal, have been marked by extensive actions towards reaching sustainable development goals (SDGs) in the member states. The whole picture seems quite optimistic: out of 17 SDGs, significant progress has been noticed in 5 and moderate progress in […]

Energy-intensive companies in EU are having compensations

Views: 21Compensating national expenses for energy-intensive companies (within the state-aid rules) for higher electricity prices resulting from indirect emission costs is allowed under the EU Emission Trading System. The rules also prevent these companies from relocating their production to countries outside the EU with less ambitious climate policies. The EU measures will facilitate a cost-effective […]

European recovery and resilience: new levels of managing socio-economic integration

Views: 24European integration is not only most important aspect of the Union’s development: it is also a very difficult and complicated process. The EU institutions have at stake legal, managerial and organizational means to “govern integration”; suffice it to say that there are already over 40 thousand various types of laws adopted during last seventy […]

Fintech and blockchain: new directions in European integration

Views: 22During last decade, the blockchain industry (as well as that of crypto) has experiences a rapid growth; the speed of development has increased notably over the past few years. The industry and its growth are often analysed through market capitalization, trading volume and other financial metrics (there are already over a hundred different crypto-currencies); […]