It was not by accident that the President of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi chose the right time to ring the danger bell against a “bad Banking Union”, while speaking yesterday in the Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Parliament. Obviously, he wanted to be heard by the new German government which is expected […]A day that Berlin and Brussels would remember for a long time
December 17, 2013 by 1 Comment
It was not by accident that the President of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi chose the right time to ring the danger bell against a “bad Banking Union”, while speaking yesterday in the Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Parliament. Obviously, he wanted to be heard by the new German government which is expected […]Ukraine turns again to the EU for more money
December 13, 2013 by 2 Comments
Yesterday’s development, with half the Ukrainian government under deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Arbuzovin in Brussels to discuss and possibly sign the Association Agreement with the EU, in exchange of more financial aid of the order of at least €18 billion, is a clear sign that the country is really in dire straits. Last week President […]Resolving banks with depositors’ money?
December 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Tomorrow’s Ecofin council, marking the last 2013 meeting of the 28 EU ministers of Finance, constitutes the final opportunity of the member states to strike an agreement in order to finalise the construction of the European Banking Union. What is still missing for the establishment of the EBU is of course the full Single Resolution […]Only a few months away from the single European patent space
December 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment
In a major breakthrough development for EU’s internal market, the EU Justice Ministers agreed yesterday on a Commission proposal, to complete the legal framework of one pan-European patent universe. The key point in this draft regulation is that the rulings of the Unified Patent Court will be recognised in the legal systems of all signatory […]Commission: Gifts of €6 billion and free trainees to ‘help’ poor employers
December 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment
This newspaper feels fully vindicated after yesterday’s announcement issued by the European Commission, stating that the EU’s executive arm is proposing a Council recommendation which will institutionalise a Quality Framework for Traineeships. This was a badly needed decision in view of the upcoming application of the widely advertised €6 billion Youth Guarantee scheme, which promises […]Commission offers discount on fines to banks for competition infringements
December 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Today, the European Commission fined 8 major banks a total of € 1.7 billion for participating in cartels rigging interest rate benchmarks in markets for financial derivatives covering the European Economic Area (EEA). According to the Commission, four of these firms participated in a cartel relating to interest rate derivatives denominated in euro, and six […]Ukraine pays the price for lying between Russia and the EU
December 3, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday, it was a difficult day in Brussels with the EU’s Eastern Partnership under stress, because of the violent suppression of the pro-western street protests in Kiev. This same day the Russian President Vladimir Putin – the architect of Ukraine’s changing sides and joining Moscow’s Eurasian Union – chose to go to Yerevan to meet […]Is Eurozone heading towards a long stagnation?
November 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment
“The euro area seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 12.1% in October 2013, down from 12.2% in September”. These are the first two lines of a brief announcement issued yesterday by Eurostat, the EU statistical service. One decimal of a percentage unit in a statistical survey conducted by a sample of thousands to draw conclusions for a […]Not much of a help the new EU Directive on pensions
November 27, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Labour mobility within the European Union is considered as the main decompression mechanism of social and economic pressures, created by differences in growth rates between member states. Looking for a job or working in another EU country has been praised by politicians and Brussels bureaucrats as the best way to increase the overall competitiveness of […]Eurozone banks to separate risky activities: Can they stay afloat?
November 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday EU Commissioner Michel Barnier, in an interview to the German financial newspaper ‘Handelsblatt’, said that the European Commission has decided to go ahead and propose legislation to safeguard Eurozone’s banking system, along the lines of the recommendations of the high-level expert group, chaired by Erkki Liikanen, governor of the Bank of Finland. The main […]The European Parliament double-checks the EU 2014-2020 budget
November 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Parliament approved yesterday the EU proper budget for the next seven years, set at €960 billion in commitments and €908bn in payments (at 2011 prices). This is the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020 providing the financial resources and setting the expenditure limits for all EU institutions and policies. As a general rule the Multiannual […]The financial future of Eurozone on the agenda of Friday’s ECOFIN council
November 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The agenda of the Economic and Finance Ministers’ Council (ECOFIN) of 15 November in Brussels is very heavily loaded. The ‘Taxation of savings incomes’ and the ‘Revision of the Anti-Money Laundering Directive’ may be major issues, but the first reading of Commission’s proposal for the creation of the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) will haunt […]Eurozone: Retail sales and inflation point to recession
November 12, 2013 by 2 Comments
Retail sales in Eurozone point to recession, having lost in September a part of their volume. According to Eurostat, “In September 2013 compared with August 2013, “Food, drinks and tobacco” fell by 0.6% in the euro area and by 0.5% in the EU28. The non-food sector decreased by 0.1% in the euro area, but rose […]EU-US resume trade negotiations under the spell of NSA surveillance
November 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Finally the second round of the EU-US trade negotiations is to be held this week from Monday to Friday 11 to 15 November in Brussels. The round was originally set for 7th-11th October but it was postponed because the Americans couldn’t travel to Europe due to the partial shutdown of the US administration. Of course […]The EU-US trade agreement, victim of right-wing extremists and security lunatics
November 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The 17 days, that the extreme right (Tea Party politicians) of the US Republican Party forced the American administration to partially shut down, have already cost the GOP the mayorship of New York and the governorship of Virginia, but have also endangered their country’s trade agreement with their closest economic partner, the European Union. The […]Renewed pressures on Berlin to adopt growth policies
November 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday, the European Commission in Brussels announced that euro area growth prospects are sluggish, and downgraded the projected rate of GDP increase for 2014, from 1.2% to 1%. Also yesterday President Manuel Barroso, while speaking in Saint Paul’s Church in Frankfurt, where the first democratically elected Parliament of Germany was convened, called on this country […]ECB doesn’t dare touch Eurozone’s big banks
November 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment
While the whole world knows that the Eurozone banks are very short on truly own capital and their overall leverage ratio is less than 3%, the European Central Bank avoids analysing in detail the exact magnitude of this crucial indicator. In its Banking Structure Report, which was published yesterday covering the period 2008-2012 and the […]Banks promise easing of credit conditions in support of the real economy
October 31, 2013 by Leave a Comment
According to European Central Bank’s quarterly bank lending survey, euro area lenders responded that during the fourth quarter of 2013 they plan a marked easing of credit standards on loans to enterprises (-5% after +5%), “which is the first such a positive expectation on record since the fourth quarter of 2009”. The ECB says that […]ECB’s first flight in Eurozone’s banking universe will be just a reconnaissance
October 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Central Bank, in view of its new role as single supervisory authority of Eurozone’s banking system, a task that will officially commence in November 2014, is now testing the grounds of this real banking constellation, which comprises a round number of 6000 banks. The ECB will undertake with its own proper mechanism the […]EU Parliament: The surplus countries must support growth
October 24, 2013 by Leave a Comment
During the last two days the European Parliament intervened very actively, not only in the economic and budgetary policies of EU proper, but also in the way the 28 member states are formulating their fundamental financial choices, while drafting the 2014 government budgets. For one thing, this morning the plenary House is debating and presumably […]EU Commission: Germany can make Eurozone grow again just by helping itself
October 23, 2013 by 1 Comment
On the political level, the European Commission and the IMF have been warning Germany for months now about its inextricable over stretched internal fiscal and incomes double consolidation. Now the Commission comes back with an excellent economic paper, which employs a structural multi-country model and assesses the negative impact of fiscal consolidation measures undertaken in […]Social Committee slams the 28 EU leaders for false promises
October 22, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The president of the European Economic and Social Committee, Henri Malosse, accompanied by the presidents of the Committee’s Employers’ group, Jacek Krawczyk, the Workers’ group, George Dassis and the vice-president of the Various Interests group, Ariane Rodert, met yesterday with the European Council president, Herman Van Rompuy, ahead of the European Summit of 24-25 October. […]Eurozone and Britain heading in different directions
October 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Eurostat, the EU statistical service, confirmed yesterday that its ‘flash estimate’ of September inflation at 1.1% is correct. In a brief Press release, the Service announced that, “Euro area annual inflation was 1.1% in September 2013, down from 1.3% in August. A year earlier the rate was 2.6%. Monthly inflation was 0.5% in September 2013”. […]Eurozone slowly but surely builds its Banking Union
October 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The Ecofin council, a regrouping of the 28 ministers of Finance of the European Union, yesterday confirmed the creation of the first pillar of the European Banking Union, by approving the regulation for the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) to be built under the roof of the European Central Bank. This was a rather typical procedure, […]Who may profit from the rise of the extreme right in the West?
October 10, 2013 by 1 Comment
The European Parliament seemed abruptly awoken yesterday to an ugly reality, by recognising the rise of right-wing extremism in Europe, while discussing the murder of Pavlos Fissas, the Greek social activist slaughtered by the gangs of Golden Dawn. Of course the EU Parliament is not the only western top decision making body to suddenly discover, […]More capital and liquidity for the banks
October 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Benoît Cœuré, a Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, after taking care of banks’ recapitalisation needs last week using taxpayers money, embarked yesterday in a new adventure to convince us all, that central banks with their unlimited liquidity supply to banks, do not help them exploit hard-working labourers and small and […]Eurozone: Disinflation engulfs the industrial goods sector
October 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment
In three months, from July to September this year, inflation in Eurozone fell from 1.6% to 1.1%, with a brief stopover of 1.3% in August. The European Sting has been sounding the alarm for months now, over this fast deceleration of consumer goods prices. This trend is present all along this year, starting from […]What is the IMF telling Eurozone about fiscal and banking unification?
September 26, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The International Monetary Fund questions the efforts of the European Union to establish effective fiscal discipline policy instruments and a smoothly functioning banking union in the euro area. In a survey entitled “More Fiscal Integration to Boost Euro Area Resilience”, the Fund analysts observe that “Crisis exposed important gaps in architecture of the euro area”. […]Brussels waits for the Germans to arrive
September 23, 2013 by Leave a Comment
European Council president Herman Van Rompuy in a four short lines announcement congratulating Angela Merkel on her victory in yesterday’s elections repeats her name twice, plus once in the title. This is rather too much in a fifty words official statement. The announcement written in the usual official language avoids celebrating the CDU-CSU victory but […]Parliament sets up plan to fight the 3,600 criminal rings of EU
September 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment
A special purpose Committee of the European Parliament adopted this week a package of measures to fight organised crime, corruption and money laundering, setting out an EU action plan for 2014-2019. Blocking organised crime’s financial assets and incomes are on top of the list. This special Committee on Organised Crime, Corruption and Money Laundering of […]Job vacancy data reveal better prospects for Britain, stagnation in Eurozone
September 18, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Job vacancy statistics is not a widely used analytical tool despite the fact that is follows more accurately a number of vital social and economic variables, like the robustness of growth or the steepness of fall of economic activity. They are also indicative of the structural effectiveness of labour market workings, of the efficacy of […]Why capital markets have no more reservetions about Eurozone
September 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Borrowing on international markets is not at all a straightforward activity. Things are even more complicated when it comes to long-term debt paper with maturities spanning to decades. This little theory tells a lot about Eurozone’s creditworthiness. As a matter of fact, during the last few weeks the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) borrowed from […]The cuts on 2014 Budget will divide deeply the EU
September 12, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Janusz Lewandowki, the EU Commissioner for Budget joined yesterday the European Parliament in repelling the severe cuts on EU funding for 2014 proposed by the Council. The usually low tone Polish Commissioner appeared rather shocked when he understood that the Council proposal was infested with deep reductions in crucial items of the 2014 budget. For […]
