Brussels blog round up 31 August – 6 September: G20 summit, Norway heads to the polls, and can the German elections still spring a surprise?

EUROPP 2013-09-06

The EUROPP team take a look at the week in Brussels blogging

The EU centre and the crisis

Nada es Gratis write on the recent IMF proposal to help bring the economic crisis in Spain to an end through a 10 per cent cut in Spanish wages. They argue that while the proposal may do more harm than good, it should be rejected on the basis of solid economic evidence, rather than knee-jerk ideological responses.

Erna Solberg, Credit: Christian Fredrik Wesenberg (CC-BY-SA-3.0)

Meanwhile, Peter Spiegel at the FT’s Brussels Blog asks whether the Bank of Cyprus is becoming a ‘bailout hostage’. He writes that Cyprus will have to implement bank restructuring plans before the country’s next bailout payment will be paid.

On the never-ending UK-EU membership debate, Richard Rose, writing at Policy Network, asks what the opposition Labour Party’s policy should be on an EU referendum.

Across Europe

The build-up to Germany’s elections on the 22^nd of September continues to gather pace. Open Europe write that while most polls are predicting a comfortable lead for Angela Merkel and the CDU/CSU, German election surveys are ‘notoriously unreliable’. They argue in particular that the country’s anti-euro party, Alternative für Deutschland, could still surprise by making it into the Bundestag.

Elsewhere, the Centre for European Reform takes a look at the impact of the elections on Germany’s EU policy, noting that there is unlikely to be any major change. Charlemagne’s Notebook also has a ‘build your own Bundestag’ feature for those who can’t wait the two weeks until the election.

Before Germans go to the polls, however, Norway will hold parliamentary elections on the 9^th of September. With the Norwegian Conservative party leading the polls, Richard Milne draws a parallel between the party’s leader, Erna Solberg, and Angela Merkel.

Last, Chris Dillow at Stumbling and Mumbling uses the sale of footballer Gareth Bale to discuss the theory of value in a free market.

The European neighbourhood

On Thursday, the G20 began its latest summit in Saint Petersburg. Adam Quinn writes at the Conversation that the summit takes place in ‘the shadow of Syria’ with Russia and the United States engaged in a bitter dispute over military intervention in the country. Continuing this theme, the Strategic Europe blog has responses from nine separate foreign policy experts to the question ‘why bomb Syria?’ James Rogers at European Geostrategy also discusses the continuing fallout from the parliamentary vote which ruled out UK involvement in any military intervention.

Away from Syria, the FRIDE blog has an interview with Tika Tsertsvadze on the political situation in Georgia.

And finally…

The Guardian features a campaign video by the German metalworkers’ union IG Metall which uses Youtube clips for comic effect. Who said German elections had to be boring?

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