The End of Berlin’s Leadership in Europe? The Fall-out from German Pension Reform

Germany’s coalition government is about the early retirement policy, in an expensive and highly controversial return to the past that may have a negative impact on public finances and the labour market at home, as well as weakening the reform drive in the Eurozone’s crisis-hit countries. This could spell the beginning of the end for German leadership of the EU’s reform policy. It could also mean bad news for Poland, which prefers a more liberal European economy.