Every year the World Economic Forum taps into the knowledge, observations and experiences of its Global Agenda Council Members, asking them to identify the issues that they believe will have the biggest impact on the world over the coming 12 to 18 months. The resulting insights, gathered with the help of the Survey on the Global Agenda, ultimately generate the Top 10 Trends - a forecast of the social, economic and political flash points that reside on our collective horizon.

According to Jacques Attali (Jacques Attali is a French economist, writer and senior civil servant. Former adviser to President François Mitterrand and first president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Bank), the coming year is shaping up to be a bad year. There is no evidence that the global economic slowdown will not continue under the blows of deflation, competition and innovations.

Therefore, Attali writes

I. FOSTERING INVESTMENT IN EUROPE

 1. Fostering investment and addressing market failure in Europe is a key policy challenge. The new focus on investment, coupled with Member States' commitment to intensifying structural reforms and to pursuing growth-friendly fiscal consolidation, will provide the foundation for growth and jobs in Europe. The European Council:

In 2015,  the Commission has selected the initiatives where there is the most pressing need for action.

The headline plans for 2015 include:   

Greece is on the eve of a critical fortnight, during which its parliament has to elect a President   If Parliament fails to elect a President between now and 29 December, there will be a general election called. With Syriza,( the Coalition of the Radical left) , ahead four per cent in the polls, it is likely that it will form the biggest party. Syriza will end austerity and will demand that the European central bank (ECB) cancels half of Greek debt and buys all future debt at zero interest for 60 years.

Plunging oil prices and economic sanctions have pushed Russia's economy to the brink of collapse. The Russian Central Bank has raised its key interest rate to 17 percent from 10.5 percent, the biggest hike since Russia's ruble crisis in 1998.

Executives can achieve self-understanding without drowning in unwieldy complexity by concentrating on the Big Four of their 'Inner Team'

1. Inspirational Dreamer (Chief Executive Officer: Power Source is Intuition

• What I want
• What I don't want

  Sweet Spot:

• Generate your vision
• Dare to pursue your dream
• Sense a path forward

2. Analytical Thinker (Chief Financial Officer): Power Source is Reason

• My opinion
• My ideas

Sweet Sport

China has surpassed the United States in terms of GDP based on purchasing power parity (PPP) becoming the largest in the world by this measure, International Monetary Fund estimates show.

Former German chancellor (1982-1998), Helmut Kohl, in his book Aus Sorge um Europa (Out of concern for Europe). Kohl puts the challenges posed by the euro crisis in a historical context and argues that only a unified Europe, not a loose association of states, can ensure peace and prosperity for the continent.

Confidence in the European Union and its institutions is at its lowest ebb and many Europeans criticise the way in which democracy works in the Union. For several years now, the distance between Community Institutions and European citizens would appear to have widened.