ECRI releases latest data on consumer credit

The 2010 ECRI Statistical Package, covering all European countries as well as key global economies for the period 1995-2009, is now available for purchase in an Excel file. This year’s package is available in two versions, one offering data on Lending to Households, including consumer credit, housing and other loans, and the other providing a more narrow scope, focusing exclusively on Consumer Credit in Europe.

Modernisation and a new political game in Russia?

If President Medvedev manages to push forward the ambitious modernisation agenda, and if Russian citizens perceive the benefits of change in their country, popular opinion could lead to a political constellation that was unexpected only a few months ago in Russia. In this new Commentary, Félix Krawatzek, visiting Researcher to CEPS, explains why 2012 will be a decisive year for Russia and an interesting one for the rest of the world.

The financial crisis and citizen trust in the European Central Bank

Trust in the European Central Bank used to be little affected by business cycle variables such as growth and inflation. But that all changed with the financial crisis of 2008. The standard Eurobarometer survey shows that citizen trust in the ECB has fallen to an all-time low, especially in the larger euro countries, suggesting that European citizens have placed a heavy share of the blame on the ECB for the real economic downturn caused by the financial crisis.

The bank stress tests: a work in progress

In his latest commentary, CEPS CEO Karel Lannoo argues that the stress test recently conducted on 91 European banks had shortcomings with regard to its scope, indicators, and methodology. However, he salutes it as the setting of a precedent which will encourage further integration of the European system of financial supervision.

Looking afresh at the external representation of the EU

A new CEPS Policy Brief by Michael Emerson and Piotr Kaczyński takes a first look at what the EU would need to do to its external representation to be effectively equipped as a global international actor in the emerging multi-polar world. Acknowledging that this is highly complex field – politically, legally and institutionally, the authors note that any attempt to formulate operational recommendations will have to be finely tuned to many different specific situations if the EU is to advance its declared foreign policy priority objective of ‘effective multilateralism.’

Do the European Union’s bilateral investment treaties matter?

Since the Lisbon Treaty, the right to negotiate investment treaties has been transferred to the Commission from the member states. This working paper by Selen Sarisoy Guerin of the VUB, Belgium addresses a number of policy-relevant issues regarding the EU’s bilateral investment treaties (BITS), namely, whether the EU’s BITs have a significantly positive impact on outflows; and which member states and which BIT partners have had a significant experience after the implementation of the BIT.

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