Internal market and competition

French carmaker Renault announced this week that they would move production from Slovenia back to France, in an effort to create more jobs for French workers. The move has been sharply criticized as protectionist in nature, and is considered a huge blow to European solidarity. The Commission has already pledged to investigate the legality of such a move.

Image:www.flickr.com/ superciliousness

Who knows, maybe 2008 will be marked in History as a repetition of 1929. While at the outset, some expected the financial crisis to be a strictly American phenomenon, very rapidly it spread to Europe. Notorious banks such as Fortis, Dexia or the WestLB, to name just a few, had to be rescued by the state. During the European crisis summit in early October the heads of state of the Eurozone agreed to act together to resolve the crisis, and to help out the banking system with millions of euros. However, the resistance of the German government especially prevented the creation of a European safety fund. The European commission nevertheless promised an investment package of over 200 billion euros. The European Central Bank (ECB) that has so far proved very reluctant to take big steps, started became increasingly nervous. In early December it lowered the key interest rate in a historic step of 75 points to the level of 2,5 percent. The reason for this surprising action lies in the negative growth forecasts for the Eurozone. Instead of 0,6 to 0,8 percent growth, most of the member states are facing a recession. The year 2009 is going to be a tough economic year.

Photo: www.flickr.com; pnoid00