December 16, 2014
The EU and its 28 member states maintain the most extensive network of diplomatic representations on earth. This situation will become financially unsustainable and no longer necessary after the creation of the European External Action Service which is running 140 missions today. Diplomatic representations have become very expensive; their cost has kept rising through increased… » read more
Posted by Eberhard Rhein
December 10, 2014
COP 20, the 20th annual climate conference, has started in Lima in a mood of increasing realism. Those who still believe in containing global warming within two degrees Celsius target are becoming rarer. The issue becomes more and more if Humanity will get away with acceptable conditions of survival or succumb to famine, non-ending natural… » read more
Posted by Eberhard Rhein
December 5, 2014
The recent revelations about complex financial transactions of some 300 major companies profiting from differentials between corporate income tax bases and rates among member states and specific tax deals reducing their tax bill raise questions about the compatibility of national company taxation regimes with an economic and monetary union. After several fruitless efforts during the… » read more
Posted by Eberhard Rhein
December 2, 2014
Within a few months oil prices have seen a precipitous decline from $ 100/barrel to $ 70/barrel. While consumers across the globe may rejoice, this development is bound to be judged with serious misgivings by the 2000 diplomats meeting as of today in Lima/Peru for another conference with the objective of containing the emission of… » read more
Posted by Eberhard Rhein
Thoughts on energy and climate, the Mediterranean and whatever comes to mind.
