The British Supreme Court in London upheld yesterday a Court of Appeal decision that the government’s heavily advertised ‘model’ programme, “back to work”, designed to ‘help’ the unemployed to find a job, or training or apprenticeship, is illegal and therefore has to be stopped or substantially changed. The scheme requires that the young unemployed should […]Does the Commission subsidise a forced labour scheme in Britain?
October 31, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The British Supreme Court in London upheld yesterday a Court of Appeal decision that the government’s heavily advertised ‘model’ programme, “back to work”, designed to ‘help’ the unemployed to find a job, or training or apprenticeship, is illegal and therefore has to be stopped or substantially changed. The scheme requires that the young unemployed should […]Warmongers ready to chew what is left of social protection spending
October 25, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Before the EU having even started a serious discussion about the historical issue of political unification or having decided to enact a European Banking Union containing some traces of risk sharing between the haves and have-nots, the forthcoming, “December EU summit must make clear that the European dimension is more relevant in defence and security […]Parliament asks for the termination of EU-US bank data deal
October 24, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Parliament finally voted in favour of the suspension of EU-US bank data deal, in response to NSA snooping. “The EU should suspend its Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP) agreement with the US in response to the US National Security Agency‘s alleged tapping of EU citizens’ bank data held by the Belgian company SWIFT”, […]What do Europeans believe about the crisis and the possible way out?
October 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Despite the falling level of citizens’ confidence in EU institutions during the past few years from 55% in 2007 to 44% in 2012, a recent Eurobarometer survey found that respondents insist that the EU is best placed to regulate banks, with 54% of the respondents supporting this view. This is a direct proof that Europeans […]EU signs with Canada historic trade agreement, others to follow
October 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The announcement of the conclusion of the EU-Canada free trade agreement yesterday not only opens a new chapter in the history of EU-Canada relations, but the solutions agreed in sensitive chapters, like agriculture and animal products and public procurement will serve as a base for the under negotiation similar pact with the US. The Prime […]The Ecofin deceives the SMEs with the EIB €10bn capital increase
October 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Shakespeare’s comedy play title “Much Ado About Nothing” best describes the 28 Ecofin ministers for Finance discussion on the EU Commission and European Investment Bank initiative, wishfully aimed at facilitating the access to finance for SMEs. The programme extends over the next few years and foresees an increase of EIB’s capital by €10 billion. This […]The Council unblocks all EU budgets
October 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The Permanent Representatives Committee of the European Union (COREPER) approved yesterday an increase of the 2013 EU budget by €3.9 billion in order to cover outstanding payment needs. This amount complements the €7.3bn of the draft amending budget no. 2 approved by the Council on 9 July. The Council’s position on this draft amending budget […]IMF asks Europe to decide on bank resolutions and the Greek Gordian knot
October 12, 2013 by Leave a Comment
In view of the fast deteriorating relations between the European Union and the International Monetary Fund over the needed measures to confront the Greek Gordian knot and Eurozone’s banking sector problems, a culmination is expected in a few days. The exchanges between the two sides, recorded this week are indicative of the worsening climate over […]IMF to teach Germany a Greek lesson
October 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment
International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde, in a Press conference held yesterday in Washington, ahead of the 2013 annual meetings of the World Bank and IMF set to take place this weekend, chose to directly confront Germany over the Greek Gordian knot. She repeated three times that the Greece’s Eurozone partners have reiterated on […]Lagarde: Keep feeding the banks cut down wages and food subsidies
October 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Lagarde to the world: Keep feeding the banks with zero interest rate cost money, further trim down workers’ rights in the developed world and reduce subsidies on foodstuffs and utilities in developing countries. This was in short what the managing director of IMF had to say, ahead of the 2013 World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings, when […]Parliament cuts own spending to facilitate agreement on EU budget
October 3, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The Budgets Committee of the European Parliament made yesterday a new proposal on the 2014 EU Budget, that the European Council cannot deny. Law makers cut down the legislative’s own expenses, but reversed the Council’s proposed cuts in investments to stimulate growth and jobs. In detail Budgets Committee MEPs voted yesterday in favour of cutting […]The banks want now free capital from taxpayers
September 30, 2013 by 1 Comment
Benoît Cœuré, a Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, delivered a speech today on “The implications of bail-in rules for bank activity and stability”. This was the opening speech at conference on “Financing the recovery after the crisis – the roles of bank profitability, stability and regulation”, staged by Milan’s Bocconi […]Eurozone: Economic Sentiment Indicator recovering losses
September 28, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI), despite a mild rise in September by 1.6 points in the euro area is still below its long-term average (100), and oscillates around the levels of the third quarter of 2010. However if it continuous on its present upwards course, it may soon recover losses of three years. In […]Water supply a human right but Greeks to lose their functioning utilities
September 24, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Since April 2012, when the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon was actually launched, one of the more successful such efforts was the ECI “on water and sanitation as a human right”. A citizens’ initiative is an invitation for the EU to legislate in areas within its mandate. It has to […]Merkel’s triumph will make Berlin more unbending
September 23, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Angela Merkel’s personal triumph in the German elections yesterday will not change the European political scenery much but it will certainly affect the way some things are done in Brussels and probably in Berlin, if the socialists of the SPD finally join the winning Christian democrats of CDU-CSU in a grand coalition government. In any […]The Commission accused of tolerating corruption and fraud in taxation
September 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Commission published yesterday a study on Value Added Tax (VAT) evasion and fraud in the 27 EU member states, estimating the lost state incomes from this source at €193 billion only in one year, 2011. This is the difference between the actuall and the potential receipts from VAT, that is the VAT GAP. […]Is Eurozone heading for disinflation?
September 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Under different circumstances a drop of inflation to 1.3% could have been a cause for celebration. It’s not like that now. The fall of the inflation rate to that level in August is a rather negative development. However averages on many instances hide the truth. Eurozone countries in deep recession like Greece and Cyprus or […]Can Eurozone’s uncertain growth answer the challenges that lie ahead?
September 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Bit by bit the much advertised resumption of economic activity in Eurozone fades away. The fall of unemployment rate by just one decimal point to 12.1% in June and the increase of GDP during the second quarter of this year by 0.3% fuelled overoptimistic estimates that Eurozone has definitively left behind the lowest part of […]Landmark EU Parliament – ECB agreement on bank supervision
September 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment
In a ground breaking development opening the way to the European Banking Union, the European Parliament and the European Central Bank undersigned the draft text of an Interinstitutional Agreement providing for the exact procedures related to the enactment of the Single Supervisory Mechanism. The legislative had reserves about the transparency and accountability of the SSM […]Women to save Europe’s own labour resources
September 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Labour market participation rates are socially sensitive variables and as such are slightly affected by short-term economic developments and modestly connected to cyclical changes. Because of that any attempt to follow the evolution of labour market participation percentages has to cover long periods incorporating more than one economic cycle. In view of that Eurostat, the […]Europe united in not supporting a US attack on Syria
September 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The Lithuanian Foreign Minister, Linas Linkevičius, whose country is currently holding the rotating president of the EU Council, during the workings of last Saturday’s informal meeting of the 28 Foreign Affairs ministers in Vilnius supported so openly and provocatively the US positions on Syria, to the point that only his tiny and deeply anti-Russian country […]Obama turns the G20 summit into warmongering platform
September 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment
In an unprecedented move the American President Barack Obama asked yesterday all and each one of the G20 leaders participating in the Saint Petersburg summit to back ‘his’ war against Syria by signing a paper (joint declaration) authorising the US to use military force. This is an attempt by the US to neutralise the United […]How Eurozone consumers spend their income when they have one…
September 2, 2013 by 2 Comments
Eurostat, the EU statistical service, presented on 30 August a statistical survey on the euro area headline inflation and its four main components. Together with it Eurostat published a valuable table showing the weight of each of the twelve items that compose the inflation index and its four main components. By the same token however […]The untold story of who caused and who pays for the economic crisis
August 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Olli Rehn, Vice-President of the EU Commission responsible for the economy and euro and Yves Mersch, member of the executive board of the European Central Bank both delivered speeches yesterday in the European Forum Alpbach 2013, set in the breathtaking Alpine landscape. A very convenient excuse for an escape to Tirol. The European Forum Alpbach […]Eurozone: Statistics don’t tell the whole story
August 27, 2013 by 1 Comment
Government sector deficits in Eurozone after having peaked in 2009-2010 are now not only levelling out but actually decreasing. According to Eurostat, the EU statistical service, in the first quarter of 2013 “ the seasonally adjusted general government deficit to GDP ratio was -3.5 % in the euro area (EA-17) and -3.8 % in […]EU Commission expects consumer spending to unlock growth
August 26, 2013 by 1 Comment
Last Friday 23 August the European Commission released its flash estimate for the consumer confidence index of this month, finding it markedly improved in relation to July. The full Business and Consumer Survey with final data on August developments is due to be published on 30 August 2013. In detail the Commission’s Directorate-General for Economic […]Summer pause gives time to rethink Eurozone’s problems
July 24, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The United States Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew on his way back to Washington from the G20 meeting in Moscow made a stop-over in Athens on Monday to meet the Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. Probably this is not major news. However, what Lew said under the Acropolis about his encounter with the German […]Who and why want the EU-US trade agreement here and now
July 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment
In the brief period of one week the European Union and the United States concluded last Friday in Washington the first round of talks for a major Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) that is their bilateral free trade agreement. The time schedule of this grandiose endeavour is unbelievably short, given the magnitude of the […]EU plans to exploit the Mediterranean Sea and the wealth beneath it
July 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment
At a time when the Mediterranean Sea is not at its most peaceful times the European Commission presented a study which finds that the “establishment of maritime zones, including Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs), in the Mediterranean would benefit the EU’s Blue Growth and wider sustainability agendas”. The study is entitled “Costs and benefits arising from […]Commission to decide on bank resolution issues
July 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund are planning to challenge once more the supremacy of Germany in the Ecofin Council and bring back the issue of the single bank resolution authority. The clash over the character of this cornerstone building-block of the European Banking Union is some weeks old […]European Banking Union: Like the issue of a Eurobond?
July 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment
If what the President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, said yesterday to EU’s legislators is read together with the inspired speech the European Commissioner Michel Barnier, delivered in Rome’s Palazzo Farnese (the French embassy in Italy), then the conclusion is that the European Union cannot be a source of problems as the extremists […]Bugged Europe accepts US demands and blocks Morales plane
July 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment
If the plane of a European Union head of state or government, while passing over a Latin American country, had been forced to land by the country’s military and civil authorities, and then searched for 15 hours, say by the Bolivian police and secret agencies, the entire EU political establishment would have climbed at the […]ECB offers plenty and cheap liquidity to support growth in all Eurozone countries
July 5, 2013 by 1 Comment
The rare and openly confirmed unanimity of European Central Bank’s Governing Council that interest rates should remain at their present or even lower levels for a long time, didn’t only gave a cause for celebrations in all European bourses, but it also induced some analysts to comment that Eurozone’s recession may be more persistent than […]
