iain begg

EU Budget: When all else fails; try some fudge. By Professor Iain Begg Belgium is, rightly, renowned for its delicious chocolates, but if you prefer fudge, nowhere beats Brussels. The quality of the fudge-making was demonstrated by the European Council at its meeting on 10 December 2020, with the much-delayed approval of the future EU[...]

A historic EU budget and recovery package deal? EU recovery By Professor Iain Begg In the end they did it. After a marathon meeting, stretching from Friday 17 July until the wee small hours of Tuesday 21 July, the European Council at last reached agreement on the next multi-annual financial framework (MFF) for the EU[...]

EU recovery package: ‘we all know what needs to be done, so get on and do it’ Iain Begg 23 June 2020 It cannot be easy being President of the European Council. Charles Michel, the second former Belgian Prime Minister to hold the office since it became a permanent post barely a decade ago, has[...]

SANTA URSULA President of the European Union By Professor Iain Begg Next Generation EU (NGE): the Commission’s Covid-19 recovery package ‘Solidarity is back’, according to Manfred Weber (leader of the centre-right European People’s Party in the European Parliament) in his immediate response to the proposals announced on 27 May by Ursula von der Leyen for[...]

How different will this time be? Assessing the prospects for economic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis by Iain Begg & Jun Qian —22 April 2020 What shape will the world’s recovery from the economic fallout of Covid-19 take? The choice is in politicians’ hands, and with the critical European Council meeting on April 23rd, they[...]