Year: 2012

The Greek Crisis and European Political Contagion

The third article in the FT series is here.

Aghion on Hollande

Philippe Aghion has had a very influential academic career at Harvard; recently, he has been advising Francois Hollande and he explains the new presidents’s supply-side economic strategy in this FT article.

By the way,  the article also explains in passing:

Mr Hollande’s third main idea is that what is true for each individual country within the European Union is also true for the EU as a whole. In other words, the EU must pursue both budgetary discipline and a complementary growth package.

This applies even more to the eurozone. Foreign observers have been worrying about Mr Hollande’s use of the word “renegotiating” in relation to the European fiscal pact. However, to a large extent, the issue is semantic. His use of the word “renegotiate” refers more to the notion of combining the existing budgetary agreements with a growth package than to truly renegotiating the budgetary part of the project.

Greek Euro Exit and Contagion

Part 2 of the FT series is here.

Pat Swords v The World

The UN-ECE Compliance Committee of the Aarhus Convention has now ruled in the case Pat Swords v European Union. The ruling has implications far beyond this case.

To recap, Pat is no friend of renewable energy. He complained about the government’s renewable energy policy to every authority in Ireland and was either ignored or told to go away. So he complained to every European authority with the same result. And so he complained to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe under the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision Making and Access of Justice in Environmental Matters.

In February 2011, the Committee admitted Pat’s complaint. This is significant. Ireland did not ratify the Aarhus Convention. The EU did, however. Because Brussels handed down its renewable energy policy, Dublin is bound by Aarhus.

This sets a precedent. Any Irish policy that is somehow proscribed, inspired, or constrained by EU policy, is now subject to Aarhus.

The Committee has now issued its draft ruling. It is long and complex. It is silent on the policy itself. On procedural issues, two points stand:

  • Ireland made a mess of its public consultation on the National Renewable Energy Action Plan.
  • The European Commission failed in its duty to supervise Ireland.

So

  • Anything in the NREAP can now be challenged.
  • Consultation on the NREAP was not pretty, but it was not particularly ugly by Irish standards either. Other government plans can now be challenged too.
  • And the EU has been told to intrude more.

Greek Euro Exit: A Primer

This FT article provides a useful summary.