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.