The European Sting is Your democratic, independent and top quality political newspaper specialized in European Union News. Unique Features: iSting & Harry Sting
This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. Members reaffirmed the EU’s commitment to protect peace, stability and the integrity of the internal market in Wednesday’s debate on Brexit. During the debate, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker reaffirmed that “the withdrawal agreement, approved by both parties, is the best and only possible […]
Although the “Structural reform of the EU banking sector”, as proposed yesterday by European Commission member Michel Barnier, undoubtedly goes halfway to fulfilling the suggestions of the Erkki Liikanen High Level Group Report, it agitated people on both sides of the spectrum. Those who protect the banks by profession said it is ‘irresponsible’, and those […]
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 […]
With the talks on the formation of a coalition government, involving Angela Merkel’s CDU and the German socialists of SPD having progressed as far as to cover the issue of Eurozone’s bank resolution mechanism, it seems that the main elements of an agreement over the completion of the European Banking Union are now in place. […]
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, […]
The European Commission adopted yesterday additional “measures to restore confidence in benchmarks following Libor and Euribor scandals”. The new draft legislation complements the political agreement on Market Abuse Regulation proposed by the Commission last July and endorsed by the Parliament and the Council. Benchmark setting is not confined only to interest rates like Libor and […]
Commissioner Michel Barnier, responsible for financial services, had a rough time yesterday at the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) of the European Parliament, when he told the legislators that the Commission will press ahead with its proposal about the creation under its own roof of the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) for Eurozone’s failing banks. […]
It is very interesting to note how the various sides reported on the workings of the first meetings of ECOFIN and Eurogroup councils after the summer break. Seemingly the 28 ministers of Finance and the 17 of them making up respectively the two bodies discussed all the burning economic and financial issues, from the disbursement […]
The European Commission adopted yesterday a proposal for measures on shadow banking introducing new but quite loose and thus ineffective rules and controls for money market funds (MMFs). This is a parallel financial system created by the major banks in order to avoid even the few controls and restrictions that the official banking system has […]
The European Commission plans to propose on Wednesday 18 September draft legislation against the fraudulent setting and use of financial benchmarks like Euribor, Libor and the Baltic Indices. This comes on top of investigations launched recently in London, New York even in Brussels, where bankers are being criminally prosecuted, and thirteen giant western investment banking […]
Slowly but steadily the European Commission works towards the creation of a seamless patent registration and protection legal environment in 25 member states (Italy and Spain are not participating). To this effect the EU’s executive arm is now proposing new legislation to fill the legal gaps for unitary patent protection. In detail the Commission on […]
It was high time that the European Commission tried to arrest the over-exploitation of European consumers by a handful of banks and credit card providers. This week Joaquín Almunia, Commission’s Vice President responsible for competition policy, and Michel Barnier, EU Commissioner in charge of internal market and services presented one draft regulation and one directive amendment, […]
From both sides of the Atlantic Ocean two European Commissioners, Michel Barnier from Washington and Vivian Reding from Heidelberg, while addressing yesterday quite different audiences, sent out converging messages criticising the US. They both expressed novel views vis-à-vis EU–US relations in general, which can be interpreted as hardening of Commission’s position in reference to on-going […]
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 […]
The European Commission and more precisely the European Commissioner Michel Barnier fights a battle in two fronts over the financial sector’s future. One internal with Germany on EU banking union and another one external with the US on common rules for banks. Understandably in both fronts he has the full backing of the Commission and […]
It will be increasingly difficult for Germany to repel the creation of a strong and centrally controlled Single Resolution Mechanism for failing banks, the other pillar of the European Banking Union. Yesterday Vítor Constâncio, Vice-President of the European Central Bank expressed his full and unconditional support for the relevant Commission’s proposal. Understandably the first pillar […]
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 […]
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 […]
In an inspired speech last Friday, in Helsinki the European Commissioner Michel Barnier, speaking at the 4th Annual Economic Forum, made crystal clear that the Commission has not abandoned the target of a strong and effective European Banking Union. He stressed that “We cannot have a genuine Economic and Monetary Union without a Banking Union”. […]
The European Commission is about to honour once more its title as ‘Guardian of the Treaties’. This fundamental Commission’s mandate obliges the EU’s executive to always promote more rather than less Union. In this respect after the French President Francois Hollande and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed in Paris last week, to support a […]
Michel Barnier the European Commissioner responsible for the Internal Market and Services in a clear-cut way broke yesterday Commission’s silence and joined the European Central Bank’s approach, over the creation of an effective European Banking Union, able to guarantee that failing or about to fail banks will be duly resolved or managed by one central […]
Michel Barnier, European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, speaking recently during the 11th Annual Conference of the European Financial Services, revealed his frustrating experience from this years’ Davos gathering. On that occasion Barnier had the opportunity to meet the leaders of the world financial industry. Talking with them, he said he understood they are […]
The European Sting - Critical News & Insights on European Politics, Economy, Foreign Affairs, Business & Technology - europeansting.com 