European Union

On September 26th, the British pound lost nearly 5% of its value overnight, hitting a 37-year low. After months of continual devaluation, the pound is now worth 21% less than it was at the beginning of the year. The pound’s sharp decline has been blamed on the release of Britain’s new mini-budget, which included major tax cuts, energy price caps, and direct payments to citizens to help them cope with record levels of inflation.

“Understandably, there is a lot of anxiety regarding Meloni’s stance on Europe. She can either continue to align with Orban or take a more institutional path once in power,” said Arturo Varvelli of the European Council on Foreign Relations. “EU leaders view Meloni with great suspicion because her rhetorical insistence on Italy’s national interest is at odds with the notion of European integration,” he said.

The Democratic Unionist Party, the largest party representing the Unionist community, who want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom, is refusing to enter the assembly because of the standoff over the part of the Brexit Agreement known as the Northern Ireland protocol. This has left Northern Ireland subject to some European Union trade regulations, to avoid the reintroduction of a hard border between the North, which is part of the UK, and the Republic of Ireland, which is part of the EU.

But while the Labour Party tears itself apart, with a challenge to its far-left leader, Jeremy Corbyn, there are some real positives to take from what happened. There is still a chance that Britain might not leave the EU. Article 50 notification, the official start of the withdrawal process, has not happened, and will not happen until the autumn at the earliest. Once it does, Britain and our European neighbors then have to come to agreements on the status of Brits abroad and Europeans in the United Kingdom, about contributions to the EU budget, and so on. 

Two years ago, the German government enacted the “blue card” system for non-EU nationals who are willing to stay and live permanently in Germany to replenish its dwindling labor force. Similar to a green card in the United States, an immigrant is eligible to apply for a blue card if he or she has a confirmed job offer or a valid work contract with a sponsoring employer, holds a university degree, and earns an annual salary of at least 35,000 euros. 

Unfortunately, the Kyoto emission cuts didn’t go into force until 2008; Canada, one of the world’s biggest oil producers, wouldn’t sign it; the U.S. didn’t ratify it, nor did Australia, one of the world’s top coal producers; China, India and the rest of the developing world weren’t covered by it; and its limits lasted only until 2012.  The result of the treaty was that 20 percent of the growth of atmospheric carbon dioxide since people lived in caves occurred between 2000 and 2011.

The domestic employment outlook remains just as frustrating as close to six million Spaniards are unemployed, with a startling 56.1 percent youth unemployment rate. The youth unemployment rate in Spain is twice what it is in the rest of the Eurozone, and with such little prospects in their home country, most are choosing to leave. In the first few years of the Spanish crisis most of the unemployed had chosen to remain in Spain and relied on two-year redundancy packages to survive.