Editorial: The Trump Effect Is Forcing Europeans Out of Their Comfort Zone

European Parliament Elections 2024: What Is at Stake?

The Far Right and the 2024 European Elections

United in Diversity: The Economic Policy Platforms of the EU’s Far Right

Party Political Contestation over Macroeconomic Policy After NextGenerationEU: Throwing Away Their Shot?

Is the EU Fit for 55 and Beyond?

Farmer Protests and the 2024 European Parliament Elections

How Should Europe Think About Economic Security?

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This article examines the hydrogen partnerships between Germany, the EU and Egypt in the context of the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). Germany, the largest future hydrogen importer in the EU, and Egypt, a country with an ambitious hydrogen strategy, are developing a partnership to boost renewable hydrogen production in Egypt. However, high funding costs are a barrier to capital-intensive investments in hydrogen projects, in particular in emerging economies. CBAM provides an incentive to decarbonise but faces resistance in emerging economies as it may undermine the competitiveness of emission-intensive local production. Combining industrial development with hydrogen production could be a more promising partnership strategy than a narrow one focused only on producing hydrogen for export to the EU. By aligning hydrogen partnerships with local development goals, CBAM acceptance can be improved, as industrial development could be climate-friendly, making exports into the EU easier while creating new value chains to the benefit of EU producers.
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CBAM, Hydrogen Partnerships and Egypt’s Industry: Potential for Synergies

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Putting the high public debt ratios on a downward path after the surge during the pandemic and allocating sufficient resources to deliver on the green and digital transition will be among the priorities confronting the EU institutions emerging from the June 2024 European elections. After a long and painful debate, EU institutions have agreed upon a new fiscal rulebook that aims to incentivise the reallocation of national public spending to the green and digital transition. However, the additional public investment is unlikely to suffice to comply with the goals of net zero that the EU has set for itself. In particular, investments of a transnational nature will remain undersupplied. This article proposes setting up a successor to NextGenerationEU – a new EU fund until 2030 for financing European public goods (EPGs) to address the double transition. Access to the facility would be conditional on adherence to the EU fiscal rules. By tying up the implementation of the new fiscal framework, the debate on the future of NextGenerationEU and the next multiannual EU budget post-2027, the credibility and internal consistency of these various instruments will be greatly enhanced.
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Investing in European Public Goods While Maintaining Fiscal Discipline at Home

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China’s merchandise trade surplus has reached an all-time high and is likely to rise further. A key driver appears to be a policy push to further bolster Chinese domestic manufacturing production, implying the danger of significant overcapacities. China’s imbalance between domestic production and consumption implies that China draws on the domestic demand of other countries to sustain its economic growth. It does so at the potential expense of production and employment of those trading partners with high trade deficits with China. As this constellation could be the source of growing trade conflicts, this article analyses China’s growing trade surplus in several dimensions with a focus on Chinas trade relation to the EU.
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China’s Trade Surplus – Implications for the World and for Europe

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In April 2023, the European Commission issued a directive proposal on EU economic governance reform. The Council cut some tasks of Independent Fiscal Institutions (IFIs) that were in the Commission directive proposal; whether this cutting is justified is an open question. Early this year, the Council and the Parliament reached a provisional agreement on the proposed reform of the EU economic governance framework. The vision of the Commission that would involve IFIs in the assessment of fiscal-structural plans is not groundless. But structural reforms and investment analysis demand expertise that hardly exists in most national IFIs, and their involvement in policy design could be perceived as a technocratic inroad into democratic decision-making. In order to play a more significant and effective role, national IFIs need adequate resources and enhanced analytical capacity; their activity depends heavily on the policy design of the EU economic governance. National IFIs should view their role from a macroprudential perspective, too. The role of IFIs should not go beyond what most of them can deliver effectively, so that their status and reputation are not harmed.
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National Independent Fiscal Institutions Need to Be Stronger to Perform Effectively

The US Economy and the Election

AHEAD OF PRINT

Volume 59 (2024): Issue 3 (June 2024)

Volume 59 (2024): Issue 2 (March 2024)

Volume 59 (2024): Issue 1 (February 2024)

Volume 58 (2023): Issue 6 (December 2023)

Volume 58 (2023): Issue 5 (September 2023)

Volume 58 (2023): Issue 4 (July 2023)

Volume 58 (2023): Issue 3 (June 2023)

Volume 58 (2023): Issue 2 (March 2023)

Volume 58 (2023): Issue 1 (January 2023)

Intereconomics

Intereconomics publishes papers dealing with economic and social policy issues in Europe. The journal consists of the following sections: editorial, forum and articles. The editorial section contains brief comments on the latest questions of economic policy in Europe or effecting Europe. In the forum, different authors (researchers, politicians, representatives of trade unions and of employers’ associations etc.) voice their opinions on one particular current economic policy problem facing Europe. The articles, mostly written by economic researchers, address European economic policy issues and trends. The scope of Intereconomics covers the following:   investigates economic and social policy issues in Europe;  offers brief comments on current questions of economic policy in Europe; presents various opinions and perspectives on selected current economic policy problems;  All articles published are made available online; publication costs are covered by the Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (ZBW).  Archiving  Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.  Plagiarism Policy  The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process. 