EU

What’s going on in the European arena? Regulators, trading venues, market participants, financial and commodity analysts and data reporting agencies are all debating on the legal and operational implications of the various recent financial and energy regulations in the EU, whose implementations are already in effect either fully or partly. The three burdensome regulations flapping commodity firms are REMIT (Regulation on Energy Market Integrity and Transparency), EMIR (European Market Infrastructure Regulation), and MiFID II (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive ).

Managing the power system is a complex task. Supply and demand, as well as increases or decreases of the energy flows, have always to be perfectly balanced in every moment due to the characteristics of electric networks and to the costs and difficulties to efficiently stock electricity. For market participants this means continuous forecasting, recalculating and balancing their market positions, until real time.

Sluggish economic growth, elections in key countries and Brexit negotiations are set to make 2017 a crucial year for Europe. The international conference "Europe 2017: Make It or Break It?" (Rome, 24 January) tackled the main issues that might hinder the future of the European integration process and advanced proposals to overcome today’s stalemate.

This brief text addresses the question of how Russia’s recent actions in Ukraine – and elsewhere – have influenced debates and policies in the Nordic countries. The ambition here is to shed light on how these questions are addressed in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, the countries that for various reasons have had to redefine their policies towards Russia in the aftermath of the Ukraine crisis in 2014.

The EU and Japan have big plans to intensify and institutionalize cooperation in international politics and security. A bilateral agreement, through which such increased and institutionalized cooperation is envisioned to take place is the EU-Japan Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA). The SPA will cover cooperation in regional and global politics and security and is envisioned to give the e.g. current EU-Japan ad-hoc on the ground non-military security cooperation an institutional framework. 

The multiple crises that have hit the European Union (EU) have damaged political cohesion within and between member states. Notably after the Brexit vote, there is growing awareness in many capitals that without a renewed investment in the European project, the latter may unravel. With key countries such as France and Germany facing elections in 2017, the prospects for injecting new momentum into European integration are sobering.

Noteworthy developments have recently materialised in the languishing process of European defence cooperation, catalysing high-level politics in Brussels and national capitals, mobilising the expert community, and providing a potential lease of life to the struggling Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP).

Abstract

The G20 – comprising 19 countries and the EU, with representatives from the Bretton Woods institutions and established just at the turn of the century - provides a new way forward for transnational governance that works for not only China, but also for 19 other major economies.

Wang Wen,  Executive Dean, Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China (RDCY). 

Attempts by Washington and Brussels to push Russia to the fringes of global politics because of the Ukrainian crisis seem to have failed. Thanks to its important role in mediating the Iranian nuclear agreement, and to its unexpected military intervention in Syria, Moscow proved once again to be a key player in international politics.

However, Russia’s recovered assertiveness may represents a challenge to the uncertain leadership of the West. This report aims to gauging Russia’s current role in the light of recent developments on the international stage. The overall Russian foreign policy strategy is examined by taking into account its most important issues: Ukraine and the relationship with the West; the Middle East (intervention in Syria, and ongoing relations with Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia); the development of the Eurasian Economic Union; the Russian pivot towards Asia, and China in particular. The volume also analyzes if and to what extent Moscow can fulfill its ambitions in a context of falling oil prices and international sanctions.

An overdue ‘return’ to European strategic thinking

On 28 June 2016, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission, Federica Mogherini, officially presented the text of the “EU Global Strategy for Foreign and Security Policy” to the Heads of State or Government in an (urgent) European Council meeting largely devoted to the outcome of the British referendum.

The arrival in Sicily on May 13 of 898 migrants, mainly from Egypt, Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia, marked an important new development in migration routes from North Africa to Italy. Instead of taking the sea from Libya, as is usually the case, the two fishing vessels rescued by the Italian navy in international waters started the crossing from Egypt. After few minor cases in the last two months, this massive arrival is clear evidence that the Egyptian route has officially reopened.