Events

One year after its WTO accession, Russia is becoming increasingly integrated in the world economy. Although Russia’s economy, and especially its export, is still dependent on natural resources, WTO accession has helped Russia to diversify its production and trade profile. Yet the quality of Russia’s institutions for governance is still weak and slows down the reform of the economy. Moreover, weak institutional quality hinders Russia from moving into sectors where it has comparative advantage – and it generally promotes a foreign economic policy that sometimes conflicts with rules and norms of international cooperation.

Migration is now at the centre of the European debate. But why, exactly, has migration – within the EU or to the EU – become so contested? While some argue that migrants “steal jobs” others complain that they live off the welfare state and is a fiscal burden – damned if you do, damned if you don’t”. But what is true – and what is not – about migration and its economic consequences?

The financial and Eurozone crises revealed institutional problems in the European Monetary Union and the design of financial regulations. And there has been considerable activity in the past years – in Europe and globally – to “fix” regulatory problems and create new structures to make the EMU safer. What are the consequences of these changes – have they made the EU better equipped to prevent new crises, and to address them more forcefully when they occur? Or are some of the regulatory and institutional reforms likely to create new rather than alleviate problems?

China’s leaders have acknowledged the need to move away from an investment-led model of economic growth that looks increasingly exhausted. But to get China’s economy to grow by greater contributions from innovation and domestic consumption will not happen without significant economic reforms. What is the state of the reform agenda – and have leaders of the party, currently meeting in Beijing for the Third Plenum, now raised expectations for economic reforms? And as China’s strategy to build a high-technology and innovation-based economy continues to be a source of awe in many parts of the world, is not the real story that the strong role of state-owned enterprises and industrial policy in the Chinese economy are making it difficult for China to climb the value-added chain?

The European Union is in the process of revising its trade defence policy. A proposal from the European Commission is now working its way through the European Parliament while several Member States have expressed dissatisfaction with the proposal. The package of reforms suggest a couple of discreet reforms in technical aspects of trade defence policy, but they may have a strong impact on policy and business that are – in one way or the other – affected by trade defence actions. Will these reforms improve Europe’s trade defence policy?

The European Union is about to reform its biofuels policy. A proposal from the Commission is now addressed in the European Parliament, which will have its first plenary vote in September. What direction should the EU take when it is reforming its biofuels policy: should conventional biofuels be encouraged or discouraged? Could a concept like ILUC be established without creating perpetual problems of accuracy and fairness in the way ILUC emissions are estimated and used? And will the new proposals make EU policy more consistent with rules of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) – or will policy have to be changed after dispute(s) in the WTO?

A little more than a year ago, the Argentinean government introduced the bill to expropriate the controlling stake in energy firm YPF, which was owned by European firm Repsol. This expropriation is now subject to an investment-dispute settlement – plus a dispute with a U.S. company that has acquired parts of the expropriated assets – and it raises some general concerns about the political development of Argentina as well as EU’s trade and investment relations with Argentina. The legal structure for addressing investor-state dispute settlements leaves much to be desired. While the EU is about to establish a new policy for Bilateral Investment Treaties – and effectively negotiate such treaties in some current trade negotiations – the institutional arrangements for legal procedures and for collecting rewards are weak, especially if the loosing defendant is a government with little interest in complying with rulings against it.

The Centre and ECIPE, Europe's leading think-tank on international economy, are organising a roundtable entitled “Promoting broadband investment and sustaining competition – can both go hand in hand?” on forthcoming 5 June.

Will China, as some observers claim, rule the world in the 21st century? Is it inevitable that China will become a global economic leader? And will China carve out a corresponding role in security and military policy – even be on par with the United States?

Few companies have been able to exercise such an influence in foreign countries like Gazprom’s, Russia’s state-owned energy firm. But Gazprom’s standing in the European energy market is about to change profoundly. It can no longer control prices as it did in the past. The shale gas revolution and antitrust cases against Gazprom will force it to not only to reduce its prices but also change its coveted structure of long-term contracts. Gazprom has recently abandoned some its larger projects and new energy market competition will continue to erode its revenues.