The ongoing refugee crisis should not be understood as a specifically European problem. Rather, we should take care to separate the current crisis of mass displacement, from the ongoing internal crisis of the European project. The latter is linked to the refugee crisis, but does not originate from it. This distinction is important to make, […]
The arrival in Europe of more than 1 million asylum seekers in 2015 unsettled the EU like no crisis before it. The EU’s current institutional and legislative arrangements were clearly not up to dealing with the huge influx of migrants, and the crisis laid bare deep divisions among the member states. Depending on the extent […]
The macroeconomic effect from the refugee surge is likely to be a modest increase in GDP growth, reflecting the fiscal expansion associated with support to the asylum seekers, as well as the expansion in labor supply as the newcomers begin to enter the labor force. The effect is concentrated in the main destination countries (Austria, […]
The conflict and violence in Syria since 2011 have caused massive loss of life and human suffering, as well as a complex displacement crisis. Four of Syria’s neighbouring states are the most important hosting countries worldwide for refugees from the war-torn country. As of the end of September 2015, there are almost four million Syrian […]
Humanitarian assistance coupled with an unsustainable policy of regional containment have only created greater poverty and misery for Syrians fleeing civil war. How this has been allowed to happen on the southern shores of the Mediterranean – where extraordinary social linkages and networks have existed for centuries – lies mainly in the disparities between perceptions, […]
Turkey’s policy making towards Syrian refugees has been characterized by a mix of unplanned pragmatism on the local and regional level, and calibrated legal and political steering by national policy makers. Much innovation has happened spontaneously in those areas with a large Syrian population; this process was helped by a flexible application of the law, […]
Youth unemployment is an urgent issue in many countries across the Mediterranean region, where 25.4 million people are unemployed, of whom 7-8 million are aged 15-24. 490 million people live in the region, of which 192 million are part of the 8 EU member states. The proportion of young people not in education, employment or […]
It is by now well established that unemployment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is a phenomenon that is primarily associated with the labor market insertion of youth as they transition from school to work. Although the predominance of youth among the unemployed is well established in the literature, the dynamics driving youth […]
The relentless rise in unemployment, particularly youth unemployment in the majority of the eurozone member countries over the last three years is one of the most dramatic consequences of the protracted crisis in the euro area. At this stage, a quarter of young Europeans have no job and face daunting prospects, to say the least, […]
With an aging population and declining productivity growth, Europe faces serious challenges to raising its output growth. Adding to these challenges are the various gender gaps in the labor market. Despite significant progress in recent decades, there are still fewer women than men participating in Europe’s labor market, and women are more likely to work […]
With one in four young people unable to secure a job, youth unemployment is widely regarded as a defining challenge of the MENA region. Young women are particularly affected: in many countries in MENA female youth unemployment rates exceed 40%. Despite decades of regional advancements that have improved gender equality in education, less than one […]
Tackling unemployment worldwide, especially youth unemployment, represents one of the biggest challenges of our time. With a world population projected to reach 8.5 billion by 2030, it is estimated that over 600 million new jobs need to be created, the equivalent of 40 million per year, to keep pace with the growth of the working-age […]
The Energy Union strategy is the latest attempt to upgrade EU energy policy. The EU’s global energy and climate policies are going through a period of intense change, and this change has implications for the EU’s foreign and security policies. There is much fluid debate about how the EU should confront the emerging set of […]
Political instability in the southern Mediterranean countries has highlighted the unsustainability of their economic models. Widespread economic discontent, and in particular very high youth unemployment,underpinned the Arab Spring uprisings. As the refugee crisis shows, this is also Europe’s problem and Euro-Mediterranean economic cooperation needs to be reviewed. Energy is a key part of the cooperation […]
In February 2015 there was a significant development in plans for an EU-wide Energy Union, with the European Commission’s adoption of a ‘Framework Strategy for a Resilient Energy Union with a Forward-Looking Climate Change Policy’. The new strategy document outlines the Commission’s ambition to attain ‘secure, sustainable, competitive, affordable energy for every European’. The initiative […]
There are many reasons why major oil and gas producing economies of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) need to keep pace with the rest of the world and invest in renewable energy. Among these are rapidly growing domestic energy demand, growing uncertainty over long-term demand for hydrocarbon resources, the ensuing need for economic […]
The Eastern Mediterranean potentially holds substantial amounts of natural gas, some already discovered but with a lot more to come. Even though substantial quantities of this gas can be consumed within the region, mostly by Egypt, Israel, and Turkey, potential discoveries are such that eventually there will be exports to Europe and beyond. One question […]
Security of energy exports and energy transit from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, given its paramount importance to the global economy, has long been a concern. Even if worst-case scenarios have not materialized, the region has a long history of disruptions to oil and gas production and transport. Transit through the Gulf […]
