European Commissioner Algirdas Šemeta, responsible for Taxation and Customs Union, while speaking yesterday at the plenary of the European Parliament, accused openly some of the 11 member states which have initially agreed to introduce the Financial Transaction Tax, that they are dragging their feet, letting those lobbies which oppose the tax to actually block any […]Commission criticised member states on blocking financial transaction tax
February 5, 2014 by 1 Comment
European Commissioner Algirdas Šemeta, responsible for Taxation and Customs Union, while speaking yesterday at the plenary of the European Parliament, accused openly some of the 11 member states which have initially agreed to introduce the Financial Transaction Tax, that they are dragging their feet, letting those lobbies which oppose the tax to actually block any […]Economic sentiment and business climate stagnate in miserable euro area
January 31, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Tantalizingly slow proves the tempo of Eurozone’s economic resumption, if such a thing exists at all. According to the European Commission Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs (ECFIN), “in January the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) increased by 0.5 points in the euro area (to 100.91) and by 0.9 points in the EU (to 104.7)”. […]The European giant tourism sector in constant growth
January 30, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The tourism industry is undoubtedly a flourishing sector of the EU economy. However it suffers of an increased sensitivity to events like the 11 September 2001 catastrophe, which can harm its potential on a global scale. Even an airplane accident can undermine its activities for a long time. That’s why it is considered as a […]A new proposal breaks the stalemate over the Banking Union
January 29, 2014 by Leave a Comment
According to the European Commissioner Michel Barnier, the Eurozone member states, who participate in the Eurogoup and the ECOFIN councils are ready to soften their position in the negotiations with the European Parliament, to lift the deadlock over the creation of the Banking Union. This is a step forward in resolving the stalemate around the […]High level political talks didn’t break the stalemate in Ukraine
January 24, 2014 by 1 Comment
Yesterday Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych held talks with the leaders of the opposition as he promised to EU President Manuel Barroso during their telephone conversation earlier on the day. But this was all Yanukovych did to fulfil his promise to the EU leader. After many hours of talks, the leaders of the Ukrainian opposition coming […]Commission sets moderate greenhouse gas reduction targets for 2030
January 23, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday, the European Commission took the middle, not ambitious path, on the burning issue of climate protection. It chose to propose rather conservative targets for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and energy production from renewable resources, easy to achieve and not demanding extra efforts in the investments front. To this effect, early yesterday, José Manuel […]Iceland won’t talk with Brussels about EU accession
January 20, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Iceland has two very good reasons to freeze its EU accession talks until the tiny country holds a referendum on it. Icelanders think twice when it comes to money and fish. On money their views differ widely from what the EU thinks about it and when it comes to fish, Iceland also has quite diverging […]Is it impossible to place the banks under control?
January 18, 2014 by 1 Comment
Within the next few weeks the European Commission is expected to announce a proposal for a structural reform in the banking sector. The declared target is to make sure “that banks do not remain or become too-big, too-complex or too-interconnected to fail”. In announcing its intentions on this grandiose plan, the EU’s executive arm states […]EFSF/ESM boss tells half truths about Troika’s doings
January 16, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday, Klaus Regling, the Chief Executive Officer of the European Financial Stability Facility and Managing Director of the European Stability Mechanism, went to the European Parliament and was questioned by MEPs, about the anti-crisis role and operations of the ‘Troika’, a construction made up by the EU Commission, the European Central Bank and the International […]Facilitating the access to finance and risk capital for SMEs and midcaps
January 13, 2014 by Leave a Comment
As they say better late than never. The EU Commission decided to relax the rules regulating the granting of state aid to SMEs and midcaps. This initiative relates to easing the terms of high risk equity financing of companies with perceived high-growth potential during their early growth stages. In normal financial circumstances high risk capital […]The Parliament defies a politically biased Banking Union
January 11, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The European Parliament prepares for the fight which is about to begin with the Council, over the negotiations on the creation of the Single Resolution Mechanism and Fund to deal with failing banks. This will be the last step towards the completion of the European Banking Union, the major EU project after the introduction of […]Eurozone: A Sluggish economy offers no extra jobs
January 9, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Eurostat, the EU statistical service, released yesterday some mixed data on Eurozone economic prospects. For one thing, euro area (EA17) unemployment rate was reported at 12.1% in November 2013, stubbornly stable at this high level since last April. The EU28 unemployment rate was 10.9%, stable since last May. However, retail sales marked a good upturn […]The financial sector cripples Eurozone growth prospects
January 6, 2014 by Leave a Comment
According to a European Central Bank Press release published on 3 January 2014, Eurozone banks further reduced their overall outstanding balance of loans to the private sector during November 2013. Given that industrial multinationals and big services firms do not rely on bank loans for their financing, it’s mainly the SMEs that have been deprived […]EU security and defence industry prepares positions for ‘producers’ and ‘customers’
December 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The fast track sovereignty concession in the sphere of the economy, that the European Union and more so the Eurozone has recently scheduled for the coming years, with the accomplishment of the European Banking Union, was yesterday mirrored in the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy. The EU leaders who met in Brussels yesterday for […]Eurozone close to agreeing on a Banking Union
December 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment
In the small hours of yesterday night, the ECOFIN Council agreed on a general approach over the single resolution board (SRB) and a single fund for the resolution of banks in Eurozone. These are the main tools of the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM), which constitutes the second pillar of the grandiose European Banking Union project. […]The Parliament sets the way for the European Banking Union
December 18, 2013 by 1 Comment
The final shape of the European Banking Union will be served as dessert on the dinner table of the 28 EU leaders on Thursday night. According to the invitation letter that Herman Van Rompuy addressed to the heads of states and governments on the European Union “Over dinner, the focus will be on economic and […]EU: The Member States to pay for national banking problems
December 16, 2013 by 1 Comment
According to information released by global media, this week the European Union is about to conclude the discussions on its major new project, the Banking Union, with an arrangement providing that the cost of eventual bank resolutions and recoveries is to burden the country or countries where the bank in question is conducting its business. […]The financial crisis always prefers the south of Eurozone
December 12, 2013 by 1 Comment
It’s very interesting to study how incomes and consumption in the worst hit countries coped with the financial crisis and the concomitant severe austerity measures imposed by the ‘troika’ of auditors/lenders. The European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund formed this ‘troika’ in 2010, to deal with the risk of insolvency […]ECOFIN: Protecting bankers and tax-evaders
December 11, 2013 by 2 Comments
It is customary for the European Union, when the club cannot arrive at a decision acceptable by everybody, the outcome is a distorted compromise. Of course, the burning issue of the resolution of failing banks could not depart from this rule yesterday at the ECOFIN Council, with the 28 ministers of Finance discussing this issue […]Who cares about the unity of Ukraine?
December 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment
During the weekend, the new wave of pro-EU protests in central Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, against the government’s last minute decision to drop out from an agreement with the European Union and instead sign one with Russia, shows the deep division between the pro-western and pro-Moscow parts of the population of this country. For one […]Draghi will not hesitate to zero ECB’s basic interest rate
December 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Combining what Mario Draghi, the President of the European Central Bank, said yesterday about low inflation projections and the Governing Council’s forward guidance of the economy, the conclusion one can draw is that, the ECB’s basic interest rate will remain at its present (0.25%) or lower levels for the next two years, at least well […]SMEs and micro firms sinking together with south Eurozone
December 3, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Only 0.2% of the non-financial companies are large (more than 249 employees), the rest are either micro firms (up to 10 employees, 92.5%) or small and medium enterprises (10 to 249 employees, 7.3%). Eurostat, the statistical service of the European Union, regularly publishes data on enterprises broken down by size classes, which provide information on […]EU Commission indifferent on Court of Auditors’ recommendations
November 28, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Only a few days after the European Court of Auditors, the independent audit institution of the Union, said that EU money is spent with “little interest in the results achieved”, the Commission published its own assessment on the effectiveness of EU spending, alleging that the “EU budget (is) increasingly an investment tool”. The ECA is […]EU to gain the most from the agreement with Iran
November 25, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The fall of oil prices right after the European Union negotiators, working on behalf of the E3+3 group, reached an agreement with Iran, was the first and infallible sign that this was a step towards the right direction, at least for the energy importing countries. In the Geneva negotiations, the West was represented by Catherine […]The EU spent €158 billion on vague, open-ended rural projects
November 25, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Union spent €100 billion on rural development projects (RDPs) during the seven year period 2007 – 2013 with “little interest in the results achieved”. This is the main conclusion of the European Court of Auditors (ECA) report, after its members examined a number of rural investment programmes receiving EU finance. The member states […]Ukraine takes EU money and runs to sign with Russia
November 22, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday, Ukraine threw away in the dustbin EU’s ultimatum issued last Monday by the Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevičius during the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels. Lithuania currently holds the EU Council Presidency, representing the entire Union. Linkevičius said that “Ten days remain for Ukraine and the European Union to take crucial […]Ukraine undecided over a strategic partnership with the EU
November 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The Eastern Partnership, EU’s major and expensive initiative to extend its influence up to the southern borders of Russia is faltering dangerously. Ukraine doesn’t seem ready to sign the Partnership, after Armenia recently rejected it. This is the second opening of the European Union to Eastern Europe, after the successful historic enlargement of the Union […]EU Commission – US hasten talks to avoid NGO reactions on free trade agreement
November 18, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Last Friday 15 November the European Union and the United States concluded the second round of Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations in Brussels. The TTIP is a kind of enlarged free trade agreement involving the two largest trading partners of the world. It covers mainly the impediments after the borders (regulations and technical barriers) […]Forget about growth without a level playing field for all SMEs
November 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Less than 24 hours after a widely advertised Press conference held by Barroso, Rehn and Andor, where all of them were talking about “strengthening the recovery”, recovery in Eurozone was reported as fading away, being one decimal point away from total freezing that is zero, or numerical death. It is as if reality wanted to […]EU to spend €135.5 billion in 2014 or 6.5% less than this year
November 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Parliament might not get it all from the Council but it managed to bring the 2014 EU budget payments limit at €135.5 billion or €500 million more than the initial Council’s position. Commitments were set at €142.6bn that is in line with the Commission’s budget proposal. The initial Council’s position was to restrict […]The Commission favours the cultivation of more GMOs in Europe
November 7, 2013 by 1 Comment
The delay in the process of negotiations for the conclusion of the EU-US trade agreement seems to have opened the opportunity to clarify some thorny matters between the two largest trading partners of the world. One of them is surely the cultivation on EU soil of Monsanto’s genetically modified ‘Pioneer 1507’ maize seed. Apart from […]Commission Vice-President Rehn exaggerates Eurozone’s growth prospects
November 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday the European Commission published its autumn 2013 economic forecast for the EU and the Eurozone. Apart from downgrading the growth prospects in relation to last spring projections, Ollie Rehn, Commission vice-President, while presenting the package, used slightly different estimates than the ones contained in the full report prepared by the Directorate-General for Economic and […]Eurobarometer: Not a single answer about what the Banking Union will cost to citizens
November 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment
At a critical time for the future of Eurozone, with the Banking Union still pending – the most important project since the euro – and the Eurobarometer survey failed to ask the citizens of the 18 euro area member states about that. Of course this is not a grave omission of the people who drafted […]
