This report by the High Level Advisory Group of the Conference Observatory analyses the proceedings of the Conference on the Future of Europe in depth, offers recommendations on how to make the Conference a success, and sketches...

China is closely following Russia’s ongoing brutal war against Ukraine. The consequences it will draw from the war for its national policies will substantially impact the future of its already strained relationship with the...

Compared with other countries, and in particular other EU member states, Austria’s performance during the coronavirus crisis has not been unsuccessful. In terms of medical (e.g., infection and death rates) and economic indicators...

Belgium, even more than the rest of Europe, was hit very severely by the COVID-19 epidemic. The exact reasons for Europe’s poor performance will be debated for years to come, but available evidence already allows strong...

There is little question that the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in countries around the world, Canada included, operating in an environment of extreme uncertainty. In Canada, the pandemic not only unfolded heterogeneously across the...

Chile was going through a political and social crisis when the coronavirus pandemic hit the country. Since October 2019, massive peaceful demonstrations as well as acts of destruction targeting infrastructure had dominated the...

In Croatia, the COVID-19 pandemic ended a period of robust economic growth and declining macroeconomic imbalances. The twin deficits in the fiscal balance and the current account had become surpluses after 2015, and by the...

Faced with the first recorded case of COVID-19 on 1 March 2020, the Czech government implemented a state of emergency with quite stringent lockdown measures almost immediately and quite effectively. Fear was inspired by news...

The coronavirus crisis has been an unusual event, with no obvious blueprint for action in terms of health or economic policies. Information and knowledge regarding how the pandemic would unfold was and remains incomplete;...

A key feature of Estonia’s performance during the COVID-19 crisis has been sectoral unevenness. This has mainly been caused by two factors: the varying maturity of institutional structures and paradigmatic policy change.