The call by the Federation of European Trade-Unions to demonstrate on November 14th against austerity carries within it a message, the significance of which has been largely lost due to the pacific character of most of the protests. One should nevertheless not lose sight of the fact that growing social unrest will constrain even further governments’ capacity to undertake the necessary structural reforms and integrate them within the framework of a cohesive European Union | By Paul GOLDSCHMIDT, member of the Advisory Board of the Thomas More Institute, former Director at the European Commission 

To demonstrate “at European level” against austerity is making the EU a convenient scapegoat despite trade unions being fully (...)

Press Release | Thomas More Institute, November 15th, 2012 | Available in French

Avant son arrivée ce jeudi à Berlin, Jean-Marc Ayrault l’a confié à la presse allemande : « la compréhension n'est peut-être pas suffisante en ce moment » entre les deux pays (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 15 novembre)… De fait, ce déplacement paraît tout entier destiné à rassurer la Chancelière Angela Merkel sur le sérieux de la politique budgétaire française et les ambitions du Pacte national pour la croissance, la compétitivité et l’emploi…

L’Allemagne s’inquiète… Si le ministre des Finances Schäuble a démenti avoir commandé un rapport sur les réformes nécessaires en France au Comité des 5 sages (...)

At the very same time as President van Rompuy has presented his excellent and balanced interim report “Towards a genuine EMU”, the contradictions expressed by European national politicians have never appeared more irreconcilable, both between EU member States or within each of them | By Paul GOLDSCHMIDT, member of the Advisory Board of the Thomas More Institute, former Director at the European Commission 

While within EMU, a consensus seems at last to be surfacing concerning the urgency of implementing concrete measures, such as the “Banking Union” whose high level of financial and legal complexity renders it opaque to the majority of citizens, progress risks to be impaired by the fallout of the forthcoming EU budgetary (...)

The European Summit opened yesterday evening in Brussels amid disagreements, particularly between Paris, which aims to accelerate the banking union, and Berlin, which wants to strengthen budgetary control of EU governments | By Paul GOLDSCHMIDT, member of the Advisory Board of the Thomas More Institute, former Director at the European Commission | Published on Atlantico.fr, October 19th, 2012 | Available in French

Si les marchés semblent relativement sereins à la veille du Sommet européen, il faut espérer que les Chefs d'État se montreront à la hauteur des attentes et parviennent à faire avancer de manière significative les dossiers sur lesquels il y avait eu un accord de principe à la fin du mois de juin dernier.

Il (...)

How the european Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance (TSCG) recalls in several aspects the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act of 1985 which mandated a balanced U.S. federal budget | By Paul GOLDSCHMIDT, member of the Advisory Board of the Thomas More Institute, former Director at the European Commission

In the recent book Volcker. The triumph of perseverance, by William L. Silber (Bloomsbury Press), one can read how, during the confrontation that pitted the Federal Reserve Bank against the Reagan administration, the refusal of the Central Bank to monetise the federal debt forced the hand of Congress to adopt legislation imposing a return to a balanced budget by no later than 1991. This situation is reminiscent of conditions (...)