Photo by Bruno Aguirre on Unsplash The impact of Europe’s rapidly ageing population is coming under increasing scrutiny, including by British peers. The UK House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee has just concluded an inquiry into Preparing for Ageing. Britain is an ageing society, the birth rate is declining and life expectancy increasing. It can…
Photo by 1Click on Unsplash Most people familiar with EU affairs know the single market is a myth. Hailed as the bedrock of the European Union, it was never completed and is now crumbling, writes Giles Merritt Saving it is vital but difficult. The Commission has just announced a new single market strategy, although it…
Photo by Alex Radelich on Unsplash Africa’s needs are bottomless, but they should also be seen as lungs that could breathe new life into flagging European economies. Sadly, this far from original proposition has yet to reverse Europe’s retreat from Africa, writes Giles Merritt. EU policymakers would probably deny this and point to their new strategy for strengthening…
Photo by Thomas Bennie on Unsplash Europe is retreating from Africa in what seems likely to be the greatest shift of all in the 21st century’s new era of tectonic geo-political change, writes Giles Merritt. It is five hundred years since Henry the Navigator’s explorers set up Portuguese trading posts that eventually led to European colonialism. Africa was…
Photo by Craig Whitehead on Unsplash Unless the opinion polls have got it very wrong, next month’s European elections will trigger a massively disruptive ‘Blame Game’ within the EU. Hurried realignments of longstanding political alliances and frantic searches for scapegoats threaten to change the face of the European Union in the eyes of the world as well as…
Photo by UX Gun on Unsplash Giles Merritt, founder of Friends of Europe, warns that increased defence spending on ‘white elephant’ projects risks starving more innovative ones that could revolutionise military thinking. Ukraine’s David may not have felled the Russian Goliath, but so far he’s stopped him in his tracks. The significance of how Ukraine unexpectedly stalemated Russia’s…
