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[Highlights] International financial institutions have promoted financial regulatory transparency, or the publication by supervisors of financial industry data. Financial regulatory transparency enhances market stability and increases democratic legitimacy. We introduce a new index of financial regulatory data transparency - the FRT Index. It measures how countries report to international financial institutions basic macro-prudential data about their financial systems. The Index covers 68 high-income and emerging-market economies over 22 years (1990-2011). We find a number of striking trends over this period. European Union members are generally more opaque than other high-income countries. This finding is especially relevant given efforts to create an EU capital markets union. Globally, financial regulatory data transparency has increased. However, there is considerable variation. Some countries have become significantly more transparent, while others have become much more opaque. Reporting tends to decline during financial crises. We propose that the EU institutions take on a greater role in coordinating and possibly enforcing reporting of bank and non-bank institution data. Similar to the United States, a reporting requirement should be part of any EU general deposit insurance scheme.

The evolution of American trade policy is best understood over the long run as a function of the international distribution of power and wealth, but in the short run policy it is dominated by the exigencies of domestic politics. The decline in that country's position has long raised doubts regarding its readiness to lead, and those doubts have been greatly amplified by the Trump administration. The arc of the administration's policy thus far appears as a series of year-long phases by which almost inchoate sentiments have been progressively transformed into ever more concrete policy, culminating in the resuscitation of trade laws that were nearly forgotten but not gone. Chief among them were a "reciprocity" statute that gives the president broad powers to define and enforce U.S. rights; a global safeguards law that had been quiescent since the Bush administration used it to protect steel in 2002; and especially a national security law that the president invoked to restrict steel and aluminum imports. In 2019 the Trump administration has supplemented its trade war with new negotiations, including talks with the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Japan. While these talks do not directly engage China, the U.S. strategy is driven largely by a desire to isolate that rival. The world may well be headed towards a system where most commercially significant countries are pressed to align with one or another of these giants. No matter who occupies the White House, trade policymaking will remain perennially challenging for a system of government that is always divided by branch and frequently by party. Donald Trump was able to act in 2017-2018 with little restraint from Congress, but some of the things he aims to do now will require the acquiescence of Congress. Securing that cooperation will be more challenging as a result of the 2018 elections, in which Democrats recaptured control of the House of Representatives. Over the long term, Trumpism may well survive Trump, unless pro-trade forces manage to retake control of one of the two major parties.

The agricultural policy of Western Balkan countries in the process of accession to the European Union market is characterized by high volatility, which is expressed in terms of the applied instruments and measures as well as the product concerned. In the first phase of liberalization of prices and trade, most countries abolished or significantly reduced the customs import and export barriers to a wide range of products and also reduced or eliminated production subsidies. Only import tariffs are the only basic protection instrument for producers. Input prices have increased considerably for producers, which has led to a decrease in income in agriculture. In reality, this meant that domestic agricultural production was left to the ruthless competition of EU countries that have far better developed agricultural and food production. In the past few years, the implementation of the new agrarian policy, in countries from the first round of accession candidates, the European Union has introduced budget support measures for producers, mainly in the form of payments per hectare or throat. These budget payments were made according to the model of the EU CAP.

Jannik Jansen, Policy Fellow at the Jacques Delors Centre in Berlin, shares insights with eu!radio from a recent survey, revealing that citizens across Germany, France, and Poland still strongly support ambitious climate action.
The post Is there an anti-green backlash? appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

This paper provides a positive analysis of the evolution of competence allocation within the EU Competition Policy System. In the EU, competition policy competences are ascribed both to the European level and to each Member State. In regard to securing a sound antitrust system, the allocation and delimitation of these competences plays a major role. Accordingly, competence allocation has been a major issue in the recent reforms of cartel policy enforcement and merger control. Instead of normatively analysing the characteristics of optimal competence allocation, we positively identify the self-interest of the interacting groups of agents – European Commission and Courts, national authorities, business associations –  as a major-driving force of the reform process. We show that, as a consequence, the interest-driven outcomes of this process are largely ineffective and deficient – even if evaluated against the background of the publicly announced reform goals. This stands in accordance with longer-term patterns in competence allocation evolution in the EU Competition Policy System.

The study considers how the European Union's Integrated Policy for the Arctic can productively interact with Nordic cooperation frameworks in order to support developments in Arctic Europe. Common themes of Nordic cooperation and the EU's Arctic policy include: Arctic bioeconomy, innovative cold climate technologies, digitization, and facilitating circular economy solutions suitable for sparsely populated areas. EU-Nordic cooperation as regards tackling border obstacles should continue, with special attention to enhancing trans-border activities of the Sámi. The EU-Arctic Stakeholder Forum process should be used as a catalyst in the formulation of common strategy for Arctic Europe, potentially based on the logic of smart specialization. In order to support drafting of project proposals that address common priorities, a special seed money facility could be established. Common EU-Nordic Arctic conferences could enhance long-term cooperation between various programmes. Arctic Europe is an integral and indispensable part of the socio-economic landscape of the EU. In-vestments in the region can benefit whole Europe. Region has potential to facilitate innovative solutions fueling European green growth. It can be the first stage for European companies' expansion to other parts of the circumpolar Arctic. Europe's northernmost regions can increasingly act as living labs for new technologies and new governance solutions. Arctic Europe remains an important part of Europe's cultural and natural landscape and a source of natural resources for the European economy. The success of Arctic Europe will enhance its role as the EU's gateway to Russia and the Arctic.

Lack of information is a severe barrier to effective participation by developing countries in the international trade regime. Information systems in international regimes are the sets of institutions, actors and procedures involved in collecting, analysing and disseminating information about members' actions and the regime's effectiveness. The multilateral trade regime's information system, including the Trade Policy Review Mechanism as its latest and most institutionalised form, has evolved over more than five decades. The TPRM in particular, in operation since 1989, shoulders a fundamental responsibility in making the trade regime more transparent. This paper asks: how has the TPRM responded to the demands for information and transparency in the trade regime, particularly from the perspective of developing countries? The paper builds a framework for the demand and supply of information in international regimes, using it to explain the evolution of information systems in the trade regime. It then conceptualises the functions of an ideal-type information system and inquires whether the TPRM was at all designed to perform as an effective information system. Finally, the paper investigates developing countries' participation in the mechanism to outline several challenges that prevent the TPRM from fulfilling its stated objectives and potential.