According to a Eurostat analysis of EU27’s household final consumption expenditure, the Baltic countries and Greece are still suffering most from the economic and financial crisis. The two authors of the report, Christine Gerstberger and Daniela Yaneva, stress that consumption is a key indicator of citizens’ well-being, with housing, energy, transport and food accounting for […]EU crisis aggravates structural differences, threatens cohesion
February 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment
According to a Eurostat analysis of EU27’s household final consumption expenditure, the Baltic countries and Greece are still suffering most from the economic and financial crisis. The two authors of the report, Christine Gerstberger and Daniela Yaneva, stress that consumption is a key indicator of citizens’ well-being, with housing, energy, transport and food accounting for […]More bank bailouts at taxpayers’ expenses
February 2, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday the European Sting wrote that the Vítor Constâncio, Vice-President of the European Central Bank was asking for more taxpayers’ money to support careless “systemic” banks in case they fail. Possibly he could have longed to deny this “accusation”. To this effect he will get the floor here below to defend himself. In a speech […]EU Commission spends billions without achieving targets
February 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment
One after the other all the major EU Commission programmes widely advertised for their efficiency are being judged by the Court of Auditors as ill implemented and falling short of targets. Today it’s the municipal waste management, yesterday was the humanitarian aid to Africa and tomorrow God knows what. Mind you that the kind of […]EU Parliament semi worried over democratic deficit
January 31, 2013 by 1 Comment
Yesterday at the European Parliament in Brussels, during the closing session of the Parliamentary week devoted to the European Semester (EU economic governance – fiscal treaty), a joint group of EU parliamentarians and members of national parliaments concluded, that the under construction closer economic and monetary union calls for more democratic control. The MEPs and […]Can elections in Italy and Germany derail Eurozone?
January 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment
With Eurozone’s fiscal consolidation and financial supervision having being concretely scheduled for accomplishment within this year, investors and financial markets relaxed their fears over a possible disintegration of the single money zone and returned even to the Greek bond market. On the political front however still remain some dark spots over two anchor countries Italy […]The EU Commission to fight unemployment tsunami with a…scoreboard
January 29, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday László Andor, European Commissioner responsible for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion delivered a speech to an ETUC (European Trade Union Confederation) conference on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the organisation. The speech was entitled, “Europeans want and deserve a monetary union with a human face”. This is a decent description of […]The developing countries keep the world going
January 28, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The developing countries, led by the industrialised nations of Asia, are playing a fast growing role in the world economy and may soon overshadow the developed triangle of US-EU-Japan. Actually they have already overtaken them in key sectors. According to the UNCTAD’s Handbook of Statistics 2012 the share of emerging countries in “the most heavily […]EU out to conquer African Union summit
January 26, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Commission will be represented in force at the African Union (AU) summit of African heads of state and government to be held on 27–28 January. Among other dignitaries from Brussels and other EU capitals, EU Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs will be also present in this African summit. But what will he be carrying […]It’s a lie Eurozone isn’t competitive
January 25, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday a press release of Eurostat, the statistical service of the European Union, revealed that during the third quarter of 2012 Eurozone recorded a positive foreign trade balance in goods of the order of €30.5 billion. It’s even more interesting however that during the same period the balance of trade in services left an impressive […]Social Committee teaches Van Rompuy a lesson
January 24, 2013 by Leave a Comment
During this months’ European Economic and Social Committee’s plenary session, EU Council president Herman Van Rompuy and EESC members held a very important debate on the current guidelines of the European Council and future efforts to reinforce the social dimension of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Obviously the EESC members wanted to cover the […]German opposition win in Lower Saxony felt all over Europe
January 23, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The defeat in the Lower Saxony election of the German governing coalition led by Angela Merkel’s CDU and comprising as a junior partner the pro-business party of Free Democrats (FDP), may change the political landscape in the entire European Union. It has already prompted Philipp Rösler to offer his resignation from the leadership of FDP, […]ILO: Unemployment to increase by 8.1 million in 2013-2014
January 22, 2013 by 2 Comments
An International Labour Office (ILO) report published today entitled “Global Employment Trends 2013: Recovering from a second jobs dip”, estimates that unemployment in all 185 member states of the organisation, will rise again this year by 5.1 million and by another 3 million in 2014. The ILO is the international organization responsible for drawing up […]Banks get new capital for free and citizens pay the bill
January 22, 2013 by 3 Comments
Yesterday the European Commission approved “temporarily” the recapitalisation of a Portuguese bank Banif with €1.1 billion. The Commission will take a final decision on the compatibility of the capital injection with EU state aid rules after the assessment of the restructuring measures will be proposed by Portugal. Presumably those restructuring measures will be layoffs […]Britain in and out of the EU
January 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment
On the agenda of the Economic and Finance Ministers Council, the Ecofin, which is to take place in Brussels tomorrow there are two ground-breaking items. First on it is the Single Supervision Mechanism (SSM) for the EU banking industry, meant to audit and supervise over the 200 “systemic” banks of the Eurozone, under the guidance […]Capital transaction tax on Ecofin table
January 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Next Tuesday 22 January, the Economic and Finance Ministers Council (ECOFIN) is expected to meet in Brussels. As a main item in its agenda has being tabled the Financial Transactions Tax (FTT). So far only 11 EU member states out of the 27 have agreed to go through with it. The 11 participating EU countries are […]Cameron postpones speech in Holland
January 18, 2013 by 1 Comment
The European Sting is monitoring very closely what is happening in Britain over the burning issue of the country’s relations with the European Union. The possibility of holding a referendum about a possible exit is developing into a deeply splitting issue. Prime Minister David Cameron seems cornered in his own party by the group of […]The European Parliament fails to really restrict the rating agencies
January 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Parliament adopted yesterday tougher rules for the issuance of creditworthiness ratings on governments and private businesses by the relevant agencies. Obviously the new legislation was voted in relation with and aims to set new restrictions on the activities of the three largest of them, namely Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch IBCA. But […]The new European Union of banks is ready
January 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday, José Manuel Durão Barroso, President of the European Commission, speaking in a farewell ceremony to honour the Cypriot Presidency of the European Union during the second half of 2012, made clear that the Commission has made the creation of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) for the EU banks as its utmost priority and will […]€5 billion of EU energy efficiency project money spent on “comfort”
January 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Commission does not spare big words and photographic opportunities for Commissioners, whenever launching a new initiative or securing political agreement for a regulation. And they are doing this all the time. It seems like they spent all their energy and resources in conceiving new rules on everything. And of course they always need […]Predatory labour taxation not an issue for the Commission
January 14, 2013 by Leave a Comment
It’s really unbelievable how easily some European Union Commissioners sidestep the hot issues and make speeches about trivial themes or focus on aspects of secondary interest. Take for example Algirdas Šemeta, the EU Commissioner responsible for Taxation and Customs Union, Audit and Anti-fraud. In a speech entitled, “Making progress on European Tax Policy: Towards more […]Britain heading to national schism on exit from EU
January 13, 2013 by 1 Comment
Either the British conservatives have lost any sense of reality or they think that reality has to accommodate their problems. This time it was George Osborn, the Chancellor of the Exchequer who said that the European Union has to change or Britain will leave the club. For one thing being a British he knows very […]France: New labour laws for more competitiveness
January 12, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Only hours had passed, after Olli Rehn, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for Economic and Monetary Affairs early in the morning of Friday 11 January in Brussels had accused France of doing little to regain its lost competitiveness, and in Paris during the same afternoon three labour unions agreed with employers on a package deal […]Dark spots on EU humanitarian aid spending
January 12, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Commission published an announcement on Thursday 10 January to inform us all, “Where the European Commission’s humanitarian aid will go in 2013”. A lot of people went through the text and what they got was just general information on how much money will go to a number of Sub Saharan African countries.Only one […]European financial values on the rise
January 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment
No doubt the screams, mainly coming from English language media, economists and commentators about the possible dissolution of Eurozone have now subsided and only some late comers in the league of those who have bet on Eurozone’s destruction still try to salvage their wrecks, by predicting catastrophe. On the other side of the fence those […]Draghi hands over to banks €77.7 billion more
January 10, 2013 by 1 Comment
The European Central Bank lent but in reality handed over yesterday 9 January a total amount of €77.7 billion to a number of Eurozone banks, under an arrangement called Main Refinancing Operation (MRO) at the negligible interest rate of 0.7% for a duration of 7 days. This is however the upper side of the iceberg. It’s […]Is the EU denying its social character favouring a banking conglomerate?
January 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment
It’s very annoying or probably preposterous to watch the European Commission playing with peoples’ misery. How else can one explain, that the executive arm of the EU after having observed in its yearly review on “Employment and Social Situation in 2012”, that living conditions in Europe have become unbearable for a fast increasing part of […]Basel III rules relaxed: Banks got it all but become more prone to crisis
January 8, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Commission through the most competent lips of its member, Michel Barnier, responsible for Internal Market and Services rushed to endorse the new unbelievably generous concession to banks all over the developed world. This time it was the Group of Governors and Heads of Supervision (GHOS), the oversight body of the Basel Committee on […]Eurozone business activity again on upwards path
January 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Business activity in Eurozone has being deteriorating for the past nine months. Last December however the PMI, index which measures this phenomenon, gave the first indications that the bottom of the dreadful U curve is now behind. In detail, the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the industrial sector, being drafted on data over the demand […]European Investment Bank to borrow €70 billion in 2013
January 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is one of the long-term lending institutions of the European Union and it is owned by its Member States. It makes long-term finance available for sound investments in the real economy, in order to contribute towards EU policy goals. Its creditworthiness measures almost exactly the degree of trust that financial […]Banks cannot die but can be fined
January 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The oldest Swiss bank was forced to temporarily shut down its US subsidiary yesterday, after its lawyers accepted that it has being helping at least 100 American citizens to avoid taxation. The bank Vegelin, of St Gallen, established in 1741 is accused by the US tax authority, the famous IRS, that it has directed those […]Eurozone: Austerity brings new political tremors
January 3, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The new political stalemate in Portugal – after the President of the country send the 2013 government budget to the high court questioning its constitutionality – casts again doubts over Eurozone’s ability to manage the austerity policies needed, to secure a viable politico-economic path. In more detail, yesterday Wednesday 2 January, the Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva, […]The new EU “fiscal compact” an intimidation for all people
January 2, 2013 by Leave a Comment
All the major media of the world announced that as from yesterday 1 January 2013 the European Union has a new Treaty on Stability Coordination and Governance, known as “the fiscal compact”, which aims at imposing fiscal discipline in the Eurozone area, plus any other EU country wishing to join.Theoretically, the ultimate goal of the […]Eurozone 2013: Where to?
December 31, 2012 by Leave a Comment
In 2012, Eurozone not only managed to effectively counter its double-faced, credit and sovereign debt crisis, but also convinced the global financial community, that the single European currency is probably the safest deposit of value. The world responded positively by voting the euro at the region of 132 American cents. A fair price, to keep […]
