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In times of crisis - Poland's take on the Emperor's New Clothes

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Poland has made a worrying proposal on public private partnerships that could risk the future stability of European economies by turning a blind eye to future public debt. But the EU would do well to take the British example as an eye opener.


New states' love affair with roads must stop

Source: Daniel Popov, ENDS Europe

The bulk of European funds allocated to transport in central and eastern European countries is used to build roads, which reduces the attractiveness of rail and helps justify even more investment in roads. The EU must help break this pattern.

Mechanism for international cooperation: Necessary or unfeasible?

Source: Tamas Kugyela, Europolitics

The European Commission’s communication on security of energy supply and international cooperation (1)(see Europolitics4259), published on 7 September, was welcomed by the European People’s Party (EPP), but was labelled as one-sided, unfeasible and potentially problematic by British Conservatives, Greens and industry representatives.

Contemplating secure and insecure energy supply

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The EU external energy policy Communication published today by the European Commission continues the decade-long approach of the EU to ensure the unhindered flow of fossil fuel energy supplies to Europe without a real recognition of the problems this drive creates both inside and outside of the EU.


UNIFE presses for more support for rail

Source: Isabelle Smets, Europolitics

UNIFE, the European association that is the voice of manufacturers of rail material and equipment (Bombardier, Alstom, ArcelorMittal, etc), wishes to see investments under European Structural Funds geared more to rail transport.

EU funds for transport used overwhelmingly for polluting roads in central and eastern Europe

Brussels – CEE Bankwatch Network publishes today a study showing that central and eastern European governments have been using EU funds overwhelmingly for road over rail development, ignoring EU calls for decarbonisation of the transport sector. The Commission can make sure that this pattern is not replicated with the next EU Budget (2013-2020) by introducing strict conditionalities in the new Cohesion Policy regulation next month.

EU funds briefing: Transport cohesion on the right track?

This paper describes experiences with the EU funded Transport Operational Programmes (further referred to as OPTs) in four central and eastern European countries: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Poland. Individual country reports have been produced after 4 and a half years of the respective OPTs" implementation in the current EU budgetary period 2007-2013, and they identify the main facts, weak points and lessons learned in the process of preparation and implementation of the programmes.

Another rabbit in the hat from the EIB

A new EIB report claims help for hundreds of thousands of small and medium enterprises during the economic crisis. But the reality on the ground is different.

New EIB report on SMEs: another rabbit in the hat from our favorite bank

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The Bankwatch EIB team read the most recent report by the European Investment Bank on the bank's crisis lending to small and medium enterprises and they were surprised by its main claims: unlike what the EIB says, our own research shows that EIB crisis loans to SMEs were more helpful to commercial banks disbursing them than to the cash-strapped small and medium enterprises they were supposed to help.


No more (EU) sweeping under the rug!

The EU needs to assume responsibility for its waste. The Resource Efficiency Roadmap is an opportunity to do so

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