Rising to the financial challenge

By Jean-Pierre Casey - 16.06.2005 / 00:00 CET

The practice of national politicians blaming Brussels for whatever political or economic ills beset their countries appears to revive whenever the only viable alternative is domestic reform. This was evident in the French debate over the EU constitutional treaty: the notion of liberalising trade in services within the EU was anathema to the French voter. And yet, as a pillar of the 1957 Rome Treaty, the principle of free trade in goods and services represented a cornerstone of the drive for deeper integration in the past fifty years.

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Transatlantic Economic Council faces uncertain future

ALLOWING the US to export 30,000 tonnes of poultry meat to the EU, 0.3% of its total consumption, may not seem much of a breakthrough in a transatlantic trade relationship worth €1.6 trillion. But if, as expected, in June the EU ends the ban it has maintained for 11 years because the US uses antimicrobial agents to eliminate salmonella, it will mark the first positive result of the Transatlantic Economic Council.

EPAs pose threat to ACP regional integration

Negotiations over Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) with the European Commission have divided the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries that are the ostensible beneficiaries. The Commission has managed to secure the initialling of some agreements, but the majority of ACP states have refused to take such a step.