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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.
He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.
In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.
Global Real Estate Project
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EU needs German leadershipGermany celebrated its farewell with economic slump that lasted five years, from 2001 to 2005. It's now official, 2006 was the best economic year since the beginning of millennium. Budget deficit accordingly fell below 3% of GDP, thus allowing the biggest economy in EU to fulfill its own commitment regarding main financial criteria as member of Euro-zone. Good economic performance is reason for celebration, but major tasks still need to be accomplished. German government, after pretending to have solved its main economic problems at home, must now turns eyes to matters requiring its immediate attention beyond its national borders. EU desperately needs German leadership, another key EU member France being temporarily politically paralyzed. Among policies that need immediate attention are political constitution, energy, and enlargement/cohesion. Germany is a strong supporter for EU constitution. New constitution will redistribute powers among member-states, and, hopefully, will allow for smaller but more efficient executive bodies. With EU now being a club of 27 countries, and hoping to include at least half a dozen more, think about most of former Yugoslavia and Turkey and Albania, just to mention the most obvious candidates. The need for simplification of decision-making is evident. With 6 or 9 or 12 members, EU allowed all countries to have their representatives in the Commission, and larger countries had more than one commissioner. Now the larger countries are denied any special treatment. More than that, some new and small countries have portfolios created ad hoc, i.e. just to have a member in the Commission. In addition to this obvious lack of efficiency, large groups of more than 20 members usually are unmanageable. They always produce soon internal circles of 'more equal', thus creating new hierarchical body. Therefore the need of reforms is urgent, and with France voting 'no', only Germany has moral authority to take leadership in resurrecting constitutional debate. Energy problems require no less attention. Recent Russian move, resulting in problems with oil supplies to some EU countries, is another sign that EU needs finding new energy sources. This task becomes even more difficult because Russia already has stakes in transit pipelines from some alternative oil and gas suppliers. Germany is a larger market for both imported oil and gas. Its economic stability depends on its strategy of diversification, but also on its ability to help its neighbors to diversify their own energy suppliers. Unless this is done, and done quickly, Germany will experience major economic difficulties; in addition, any economic difficulty in other EU countries resulting from problems with energy supplies will hurt German exports, basis for current economic revival. Another area where German leadership is desperately needed is enlargement/cohesion direction. Populist wave seems on the rise in most new EU members. Reason for this popular dissatisfaction is slow pace of economic catch up with more developed west. In recent years EU was particularly 'stingy' in providing necessary funding for regional development in ex-communist countries. Among main reasons Germany gave was higher than allowed budget deficit. Now when this problem is gone more 'generous' policy toward new EU members should replace 'stinginess'. This generosity shouldn't be understood as charity, money that go for a good cause but have no practical return. In fact, EU operates in such a way that improvements in economic conditions anywhere creates extra demand for goods and services mainly from other EU members. As a richest EU member in terms of total GDP Germany has special obligations; its industries on the other hand will benefit in long term from any extra demand coming from east.
Germany country profile --------------------
See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Germany.
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