It yet remains to be seen if the vaccine will deliver the promise of a return to normal life, with no new waves of infections. European policymakers should consider adapting a zero Covid strategy to help their economies and enable more social freedoms. IEM’s Director, Cecile Philippe, writes for Mace Magazine.

Overall, the best way of maximising freedom and helping to restart international travel in a way that does not damage public health is through a vaccine passport. Although the passports should be abandoned when the threat of COVID-19 is mitigated, in the short-run this presents an effective mechanism for allowing freedom of movement to return – and supporting industries reliant on tourism.

There is scepticism towards the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement’s effective capacity to truly level the playing field diplomatically. Critics have pointed out that while the deal includes measures for state-to-state dispute settlement, it fails to specify investor protection mechanisms in the face of litigation disputes which could leave EU investors in precarious situations.

Milano Post presents the main points of the new Index of Liberalisation, with the UK holding the first position and Italy the sixth position. Carlo Stagnaro also provides some comments, notably on the pandemic’s impacts on the future of liberalisation.

La Repubblica shows that Italy is among the most liberalised countries of Europe by referring to the Index of Liberalisation 2020. The article also presents the main points of the report by IBL and Epicenter.

The article summarises the main points of EPICENTER’s and Civismo’s analysis on the economic costs of a hypothetical independence of Catalonia.

The article summarises the main points of EPICENTER’s analysis on the economic costs of a hypothetical independence of Catalonia.

Public debt could soar to as much as 126% of GDP should Catalonia leave the EU and Spain. Research conducted by Civismo & EPICENTER revealing the costs of independence is featured in El Mundo.

The new IBL report shows that existing international comparisons measuring obesity are flawed as a result of inaccurate data being compiled on a national level. Such distortion of statistics leads to significant problems in policy making.