Periphery

It’s difficult to point to a time in recent years when European integration was not under pressure. Yet presently, the problem-solving capacity of the European Union definitely seems to be exhausted, for two crises simultaneously challenge it: the Euro crisis and the Schengen crisis. But the calculation that two crises cause double trouble might be […]

So, what are the implications for the EU of a new socialist-led, but communist-green and leftist-supported, and ostensibly anti-austerity government in Portugal? I keep hearing this question; less frequently, the interrogation is sometimes accompanied by ‘is Portugal a new Greece’? Will there be a new conflict within the European Council, a new battle with the ECB, a new Varoufakis, and renewed talk of a Eurozone exit?

In Portugal, emigration worsens the problems caused by austerity. A recent study documents its dramatic consequences on the demography of the country. As a result of the current trend, the Portuguese population, currently estimated at 10.4 million people, could decrease to 7 million by 2061.

The idea that the peripheral countries were the authors of their own destruction continues to exist at European level. However a closer examination of the facts shows this is not the case, and an urgent reprioritisation of EU policies is needed.