Transatlantico

Despite continuous requests across Europe for an economic policy focused less on monetary parameters and more on growth, in the EU institutions requests for “structural reforms” – a code word that generally means austerity and liberalization – continue to prevail. This is evident in the case of Greece, as well as in some of the […]

Italian voters sent a strong message to their own government and to all of Europe, declaring through their rejection of a constitutional reform referendum that democracy is more important than efficiency and that the population won’t be bullied by threats from the political and financial elite. This is the upshot of Sunday’s resounding defeat of […]

In the context of the post-industrial transformation of western economies over recent decades, Italy remains one of the countries that, at least relatively, still has an economy based on manufacturing. Despite a reduction of productive activities in recent years, and in particular during the period of austerity from 2011 to 2014, some indicators show the […]

This year’s presidential election has been surprising on many fronts, with the success of a number of outsider candidates and the fact that the most unorthodox of them all, Donald Trump, is within striking distance of victory in the last days of the campaign. As shocking as Trump’s candidacy has been to the national media […]

On both sides of the Atlantic, a battle is underway between largely discredited “elites” and sometimes disreputable “nationalists,” a conflict over un-kept promises about the future and unsettling memories of the past, writes Andrew Spannaus. – In recent years “nationalism” has become a bad word in Europe, a synonym of closure, racism and wars. Over […]

– by Paolo Balmas – The European Commission proposal for a new European Border and Coast Guard Agency was presented in December 2015, after a year of increased concerns about the migration crisis. Frontex, the existing agency that was assigned to tackle external border issues, proved to be too dependent on Member States and not […]

A key infrastructure project for Southern Europe, the bridge over the Messina Strait that would connect the Italian region of Calabria with Sicily, is being revived by the government of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. In an announcement on Sept. 27 during a ceremony for the 110th anniversary of Salini-Impregilo, Italy’s largest construction group, Renzi said […]

Last week the government of the United Kingdom approved the construction of two reactors at Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant, the World Nuclear News reported. Key to decision was the agreement reached by the British government with the French energy firm EDF. The future of Hinkley Point C was one of the major issues […]

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi presented the national Industry 4.0 plan in Milan today, with the goal of pushing the country’s manufacturing sector to fully embrace the digitization and application of information networks to production. The concept of “Industry 4.0” was conceived in Germany last year as a means of encouraging the use of the […]

(photo: the Trans-European Networks infrastructure corridors, as proposed in 2005) – by Andrew Spannaus – Europeans are waiting for Juncker: the Juncker Plan, that is. In November 2014, a few months after his election as President of the European Commission, former Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker announced what appeared to be an ambitious plan for […]