Comment

On 13 July this year, [Polish mining firm] KGHM received a fundamental decision from the Polish Ministry of Climate and Environment regarding the construction of a small modular nuclear power plant. This is the first of several decisions required to build nuclear power plants – a similar one was recently issued for a large-scale power plant being built by the company Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe. Orlen Synthos Green Energy is also awaiting the fundamental decision for six locations.

The West needs to start the reconstruction of Ukraine immediately, not wait for a peace settlement. The war in Ukraine will soon enter its ninth month, with no end in sight. Ukraine’s leaders have already begun presenting their vision for rebuilding the country at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Lugano, Switzerland in July. But many Western leaders and experts would prefer to wait for the war to end before providing Ukraine with development aid. This is the wrong way to rebuild the country.

Europe seems to be waking up from a strategic nap it has been having since 1989. The pandemic interrupted supply chains and made the continent more aware of its dependence on Asian manufacturing, and just-in-time logistics. Then the barbaric aggression against Ukraine exposed its addiction to Russian energy resources, previously brought up only by a handful of Central European countries.

"Brussels Times": We are living in an era of unprecedented challenges that must be faced simultaneously. The energy crisis caused by Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine cannot disrupt our efforts to combat climate change. Instead, it should mobilize us to take further action with greater determination.

When the state spends money on roads and railways, we call it ‘investment’. When the state spends on nurseries, school meals, or health care, we call it social, educational, and health expenditure.

“EURACTIV”: Plans to extend the EU’s carbon market to transport and heating fuels will have the greatest impact on the poorest households.

Piotr Arak, “Länder-Analysen”: Die Corona-Pandemie hat den globalen Digitalisierungsprozess beschleunigt. Ältere und Jüngere mussten lernen, sich wie in einem Science-Fiction-Film zu verhalten, in dem Videokonferenzen persönliche Treffen ersetzen.

Piotr Arak, “Financial Times”: Reforming the global tax system and stopping the race to the bottom that we’ve seen for many years is a great aim.

Piotr Arak, “The Brussels Times”: Societies and politicians in Western and Eastern countries have complained for years as multinational companies shifted profits from the grip of tax collectors to low-tax havens.

Piotr Arak, “Länder-Analysen”: Die Corona-Pandemie hat den globalen Digitalisierungsprozess beschleunigt. Ältere und Jüngere mussten lernen, sich wie in einem Science-Fiction-Film zu verhalten, in dem Videokonferenzen persönliche Treffen ersetzen.

Piotr Arak, Łukasz Czernicki, Jakub Sawulski “EUROPP”, London School of Economics: Two key principles have sat at the heart of the EU’s fiscal rules since the Maastricht Treaty: that governments should run budget deficits no higher than 3% of GDP and maintain a public debt no higher than 60% of GDP.

Piotr Arak, “Afrikan Heroes”: Crises define generations. It will be no different for the young people who are experiencing today’s pandemic – the cost of which for them, in mental, educational and labour terms, has reached $1.7 trillion globally.

Piotr Arak, “Summitto”: Poland is one of the most innovative countries in the EU when it comes to closing the VAT gap.

Krzysztof Marczewski, Jakub Rybacki, Jakub Sawulski, “EU Observer”: Ireland is the only EU member state which avoided recession in 2020. A miracle? No – Ireland is European Union’s tax haven.

Piotr Arak, “The Brussels Times”: Whereas COVID19 occupies our minds today, it does not make other national security threats less important in the long run. Besides climate change, a vital threat to the American way of life is the rising power of China.

Piotr Arak, “The Brussels Times”: A question I ask myself more and more is would I like to live in the future or the past? Typically as an economist I would like to see the future but more often I would choose the past which I know more of.

Piotr Arak, “Emerging Europe”: The coronavirus pandemic has brought a new era of assertive and expansive government. Countries have increased their deficit and debt levels, which pose threats to medium and long-term development.

Piotr Arak, “Visegrad Insight”: For the European Union to talk about twenty-first-century geopolitics is like for Yo-Yo Ma to perform Rammstein songs – it seems very strange. Like America we probably need to change our approach and play a different tune.

Paula Kukołowicz, “LSE Blogs”: Keeping people in work has been a policy priority since the COVID-19 pandemic began, because full economic recovery is not possible without consumer demand. Companies are adapting to the new circumstances, but job creation is lagging behind.

Piotr Arak, “The Brussels Times”: New Eurostat data for the second quarter of 2020 shows that Poland is among the top three countries in terms of the mildness of the recession. Polish GDP declined by 7.9%; only Lithuania and Finland (where GDP decreased by 3.7% and 5.2% respectively) performed better.

Piotr Arak, “EU Observer”: Many capitals, experts and politicians see Poland as the ‘enfant terrible’ of climate negotiations. The only EU capital that does not agree to the goal of going climate-neutral by 2050. Everybody asks why? But the answer is darn simple. Money and time.

Piotr Arak, “The Brussels Times”: The International Monetary Fund predicts that global public debt will reach its highest level in history with 101% of GDP in 2020. Economists expect it to be higher even than the debt mountain after WW2.

Aleksander Szpor, “CE Energy News”: Poland faces a serious challenge when it comes to climate neutrality by 2050, mainly due to its coal-based energy system and limited alternative options. The most coal-dependent country in CEE is struggling to transform in an economically and politically secure manner.

Piotr Arak, “Visegrad Insight”: Taxing may be the most important outcome of the COVID-19 crisis. More protectionism, new value chains, quantitative easing and new taxes through the EU could be the new normal of 2020.