Media Interventions

All the European stock exchanges declined on Monday, as concerned investors looked with pessimism at China’s slowing growth. Paris lost 5.35 %. Claude Meyer discusses what consequences can be expected.

The video is available in French

Claude Meyer answers Jean-Baptiste Boursier’s questions in “le Grand Angle” on BFMTV.

The video is available in French

When the German Parliament set aside its objections and voted on Wednesday to approve a bailout for Greece, the chief proponent was both an architect of the deal and one of those raising fundamental questions about it: Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble.

Five days after Tianjin’s impressive explosions, Toyota announced a three-day stop in the production of its city’s sites. The Japanese company is far from being the only one concerned.

The region, also known as Beijing’s maritime gateway, is one of the most dynamic in the country. No less than 540 million tones of merchandise transit through its harbor every year, making it the fourth biggest in the world.

“Tianjin is one of the spearheads of the Chinese economy”, summarizes Claude Meyer. “This catastrophe concerns about 300 multinationals among the world’s most important ones”. What will be the impact of these explosions on the Chinese economy?

This article is available in French

China’s ambition is to become a great financial power. But the necessary reform of its financial system and its will to act progressively could mean that it will be a long time before its exchange rate system is liberalized. Can the Yuan realistically become an international currency?

The article is available in French

Is the sudden devaluation of the Yuan a sign of some form of panic from Beijing following the slowed growth of the Chinese economy?
Does this decision create deflationary risks for the global economy? 
What prospects for the Yuan’s international status?

The article is available in French

The distance between Dover, England, and Calais, France, is only 30 miles. For migrants and refugees trying to cross from France to Britain through a tunnel underneath the English Channel, however, that short distance represents a dangerous journey and a risk of deportation, grave injury and even death.

In this interview, Claude Meyer underlines the three major vulnerabilities of the Chinese economy, and describes the investments China has made since the early 2000’s to address them.

The interview is available in French

This first episode of the Building Bridges Conversation Series is part of the "Building Bridges" project, which aims to foster debate on the future of the European Union and offer top quality analyses on how each member state perceives the EU. In this video, Vivien Pertusot, coordinator of the project discusses with Ana Benje from Comenius University (Slovakia) and Nathan Dufour from PISM (Poland).

Apparue en même temps que le miracle économique, la population des couches moyennes incarne un pays en pleine mutation : confort matériel, meilleure éducation, ouverture sur le monde... mais aussi rupture avec les valeurs traditionnelles.

Without real and profound change in Greece's dysfunctional state, it is almost irrelevant whether the country reaches a short-term deal with its creditors or not, say analysts. "Greece cannot perform economically well in the long-term without major structural reforms. These need to address the size and quality of public administration and the fight against corruption," says Vivien Pertusot, of the French Institute of International Relations, a Brussels think tank.

Ideally, the impetus for reform needs to come from inside Greece, says Pertusot. "It's one thing to impose these reforms on yourself, quite another to have them imposed from outside, which makes it difficult for a government to own the reforms. It is possible to prioritise improving the quality of public administration, and decreasing its size, but it will take years to see concrete progress."

Long-entrenched vested interests will likely prove an obstacle to change, says Pertusot, and government will still need to function while reforms are enacted. "To revamp an entire system without smashing it is a complicated and delicate task. It requires the right leaders at the right time, willing and able to fight against an established system."

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