Tag: Monti

This week's EU summit (14-15 March) will see four new faces, even though just five weeks have elapsed since the 7-8 February summit. Resignations and elections have brought Slovenia and Malta new prime ministers and Cyprus a new president, while Bulgaria will be represented by the president ahead of an imminent poll.

Italians finish voting today (25 February) in one of the most closely watched and unpredictable elections in years - and one with high stakes for the eurozone.

Pier Luigi Bersani, the determinedly prosaic leader of Italy's Democratic Party, promised supporters he would not tell them "fairy tales", after his overwhelming victory yesterday (2 December) at a primary to pick the centre-left candidate in next year's election.

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy interrupted his holiday in Seville yesterday (28 August) to visit Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in Madrid, while Commission President José Manuel Barroso received Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti. A flurry of other upcoming meetings marks the beginning of a heated season.

Prime Minister Mario Monti made a dramatic appeal to Italy's politicians yesterday (13 June) to back his tough economic medicine to avoid the country becoming the next victim of the euro debt crisis. Moody’s downgraded Spain and Cyprus, and panic mounted in Greece ahead of a Sunday vote that could see the country leave the eurozone.

British Prime Minister David Cameron and leaders of 11 other EU countries have called on the Union's institutions to stick to a liberal agenda for growth, bolder economic integration with the USA and deepening trade and investment relations with Russia, China and other strategic partners.

Amid growing unemployment and increasing inequality in Europe, the new social provisions in the Lisbon Treaty will not immediately correct social imbalances, according to experts. But the crisis might trigger the right kind of social innovation and reform the market economy, they say.

The European Environmental Bureau (EEB) launched an 18-month campaign on environmental fiscal reform (EFR) on Tuesday 27 November. The campaign was presented in Brussels by former Greek finance minister and former EU Environment Commissioner Yannis Paleocrassas. It will run for one and a half year in the Member States and accession countries.