International Business and Technology Blog

In 07.2014 we saw the 6th round of TTIP negotiations completed in Brussels. The EU's Chief TTIP Negotiator, Ignacio Garcia Bercero, highlighted in his closing statement the achievements as well as the work to be done before the 7th round convenes. He flagged up i) classic market access issues ii) the ongoing regulatory agenda iii) other negotiation areas and iv) importantly the stakeholders.

Italy has been on my watch list for many, many years. I never: i) lose a chance to go there for both business (and leisure) and ii) did not understand (nor do most of my Italian friends) how someone like Berlusconi (apart from the fact that his fortune estimated at >$9Bn, owns much of it in Italy’s media and communication assets) became their Prime Minister (3 times since 1994) for >9 years.

European economic ills are back in the financial headlines, as GDP numbers disappoint. I was enjoying not being gloomy, a little bit upbeat, reporting on steady economic upticks. This was supposed to be the turnaround year. How quickly that can change. We now know that the Eurozone economies (18 of them) collectively failed to grow in Q2.2014. You might like to know who and why.

Bad timing. Last year the revelations of US National Security Agency surveillance in Germany and of Germans (including Merkel, various ministers and on down) recalibrated German-US relations. For Germans this was a blast from the East German/Soviet past, which the USA did not understand. This month the head of the US intelligence services in Germany has been asked to leave after yet more revelations, payments for information. German leadership is now reacting and TTIP is in the –ve wash over.

In May 2004, Poland joined the EU along with 9 other eastern European countries. It was the single largest EU enlargement in terms of people and countries. The EU then had 25 members (now 28). Poland now has a GDP of $516 Bn (>20% than in 2008), and income levels have doubled for the 38 million citizens who have enjoyed average annual GDP growth >4%, since 2004. It has been a good recession. All this has ensured that Poland is now firmly one of the “Big EU 6”, in with Germany, UK, France, Italy and Spain.

The aim of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry is to promote (smart, sustainable and inclusive) growth-friendly framework for European enterprises, the Europe 2020 agenda. Of particular interest to us is the platform to: “encourage the growth of SMEs”. The EU SME dedicated portal notes that: 99% of all European businesses are, in fact, SMEs (<250 employees, €50M sales and <€43M balance sheet).

Overall an interestingly +ve picture of the EU economic growth. But as they say the devil is in the detail, so we are here to help you know your EU markets and sectors. The story remains coherent with eastern and northern European economic growth well established and continuing, but the southern countries such as Greece, Italy, France and Spain (to be watched as the next turn-around case study) remain stubbornly at zero or worse.

News review 06.2014: The Junes of 1914 and 2014 saw very differing concerns in Europe. I look at what was about to unfold 100 years ago and compare to the three accession agreements reached with Ukraine, Georgia and Moldavia - grateful that we have moved on. Then I focus on benchmark numbers demonstrating that Europe, the world’s #1 economic union, is back! Albeit with draggy patches, notably France, which is my country of focus this month.

December 2013: Hankering to be European? Just pay up! Banking union; difficult to believe it but we are almost there! Lucky Latvia joins the € zone. TTIP negotiations and now preparations. Scroll down, grab your essential EU Insider news…

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