The Council of the European Union and more precisely the Permanent Representatives Committee, echoing directly the dictums of the 28 EU governments – without having consulted with the European Parliament – reached between them an agreement on the 2014 European Union budget. Needless to say that the resources the Council offers to the Union for […]New round of bargaining for the 2014 EU budget late in autumn
July 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The Council of the European Union and more precisely the Permanent Representatives Committee, echoing directly the dictums of the 28 EU governments – without having consulted with the European Parliament – reached between them an agreement on the 2014 European Union budget. Needless to say that the resources the Council offers to the Union for […]Two EU Commissioners fire at will against the US
July 18, 2013 by Leave a Comment
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 […]The US repelled EU proposals on common rules for banks
July 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment
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 […]Berlin to pay at the end for Eurozone banks’ consolidation
July 12, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The most valuable asset of Eurozone households, their homes, continue losing large parts of their value in this unending economic crisis, which has brought to knees more than half of euro area countries. It’s a tragic combination. People after losing their jobs watch their homes to lose value every day, and if they have a […]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 […]EU-US trade talks go ahead despite Prism and civil rights breach
July 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Apart from the largely hypocritical cries by European politicians mainly in Brussels about civil rights breaches, the only concrete and immediate implications that the American PRISM scandal could have had on EU-US relations refers to the Free Trade and Investments Agreement that the two sides are about to negotiate. For one thing European citizens are […]Parliament: No consent to EU budget until €11.2 billion unpaid bills are settled
July 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The Plenary of the European Parliament in a non-legislative resolution accepted the political agreement on the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2014-2020 that is the EU proper budgets for the next seven years. Negotiations over the next MFF commenced last February after the summit of the 27 leaders set the limit for the seven-year EU total […]EU-US trade agreement talks to be affected by American bugs
July 3, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Bugging EU institutions’ premises and members states’ offices in the US by American secret agencies may seriously affect the progress of negotiations for the conclusion of a Free Trade and Investments Agreement between the two largest trading partners of the world. While the first reactions by EU dignitaries, after the revealing publications by Der Spiegel […]EU: 13 major banks may pay fines 10% of worldwide turnover
July 3, 2013 by 2 Comments
In a long-awaited decision, Joaquín Almunia, Vice President of the European Commission responsible for Competition Policy, accused thirteen western giant investment banking groups and two support bodies that those banks created a trust, setting prices in the over the counter trade of Credit Default Swaps and Derivatives, a multi trillion business. The Commission’s investigation covers […]Civil society organisations disenchanted with “Youth Guarantee”
July 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Since 2008, when the EU financial crisis first broke out, 1000 young people join every day the ranks of the unemployed, according to the European Economic and Social Committee. The EESC issued recently a note strongly criticising the Commission’s proposal entitled “Youth Guarantee project”. This proposal was adopted by the European Council of the 27+1 […]EU to spend €6 billion on youth employment and training futile schemes
June 29, 2013 by 6 Comments
Yesterday the European Sting observed that the European Council of 27-28 June had no purpose. The truth is that the two crucial issues which haunted all the EU institutions for months were solved elsewhere. Firstly, the agreement on the draft directive for bank resolution and recovery was struck at the Ecofin council during the first […]An EU Summit without purpose
June 28, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The most important news from the first day of the 27+1 EU leaders’ gathering (European Council) yesterday was that the Ecofin council of the 27 ministers of Finance managed to come up with an agreement over the bank resolution and recovery, and also that the EU Parliament agreed with the Commission on the Union budgets […]The European Parliament rewrites the EU budget in a bright day for the Union
June 28, 2013 by 3 Comments
With major breakthroughs in two key policy areas, the European Banking Union and the EU budgets for the period 2014-2020 materialising in the early hours of Thursday 27 June, the 27-28 June Summit of the 27+1 EU leaders couldn’t offer anything more. It degraded into a procedural affair. In relation with those breakthroughs the European […]EU Commission: Banking and energy conglomerates don’t threaten competition!
June 25, 2013 by Leave a Comment
At a time when the financial sector in the eyes of the wider public all over the world, and more so in Europe and the US, is to be held responsible for the real economy crisis and the unemployment burst, the European Commission dares to approve the acquisition of NYSE-Euronext (NYX) by the InterContinental Exchange. […]Is the European Banking Union an impossible task?
June 25, 2013 by Leave a Comment
As the European Sting informed its readers last Saturday, the Banking Union divided deeply the entire European Union. For the first time the Ecofin Council, in a Press release issued after its meeting, made no reference at all to the most vehemently discussed item in its agenda that is the “Rules for Bank Recovery and […]The Banking Union divides deeply the European Union
June 22, 2013 by Leave a Comment
As the European Sting predicted the ‘Friday battle at Ecofin’ Council was not about the specific country recommendations of the Commission, or about the seven-year extension of the loans to Portugal and Ireland, nor on the direct bank recapitalisation instrument. It was the very issue of the creation of the Banking Union and its core […]IMF v Germany: Eurogroup keeps the fight under control
June 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment
As it usually happens in the European Union, a much debated and infested with conflicting interests major issue, like the bank recapitalisation, will not be decided upon in one go but it will remain open for as much time as needed to mitigate differences. Yesterday evening the Eurogroup meeting, which usually precedes the Ecofin Council […]Eurozone: Avoiding a new Greek accident
June 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The withdrawal yesterday night of the junior partner, the DHMAR (Democratic Left) political party from the Greek tripartite government coalition poses again the effectiveness problem of the overall economic strategy Eurozone applies to counter its sovereign debt sustainability problem and exit a two years old recession. The obstacles are political, social and also of economic […]EU budget deal struck with Parliament negotiators
June 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Negotiations for the European Union proper budgets for the 2014-2020 period between European parliament representatives, the Irish Presidency and the European Commission have been concluded. This is the so-called Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020, setting the ceiling for EU spending. The agreement will now be submitted to both the Council and the European Parliament for final […]Ecofin: ‘The Friday battle’ for the banking union
June 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The crucial character of this Friday’s Ecofin Council can be seen in the size of the Commission’s preparative memo. More than 3,000 words were needed for it. The text of yesterday’s Press release contains everything, from the specific economic policy recommendations to countries with excessive deficits, the entry of Croatia, the €10 billion capital increase […]Europe rethinking its severe austerity policies
June 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment
During the past few weeks there is a noticeable change of climate in Brussels towards a more relaxed attitude over economic policies. On Monday the President of Eurogroup and minister for Finance of Holland, Jeroen Dijsselbloem asked in a letter his 16 colleagues in view of their Luxembourg meeting, to reduce the sovereign debt […]The Europeans with a job diminish dangerously
June 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Last Saturday 15 June the President of the European Commission Manuel Barroso was in Rome and met with the Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta. In a Press conference after the meeting the EU dignitary, probably for the 100th time, spoke about “the drama of the high level of youth unemployment in many parts of Europe”. […]No agreement in sight on EU budget
June 14, 2013 by Leave a Comment
In less than 24 hours the European Parliament answered in force a self-congratulating Press release issued by the Irish Presidency, falsely announcing a major breakthrough in the negotiations over the EU budgets for the next seven years. It’s about the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020 that provides for the ceiling of the overall EU spending during […]The Parliament accuses core EU countries of exploiting their dominant political position
June 14, 2013 by 1 Comment
As promised, the plenary of European Parliament overwhelmingly approved yesterday a resolution by 483 votes to 27, and 65 abstentions, accusing with it some core EU countries and “to some extend the Commission” for holding back crucial legislation to promote the financial sector’s reform. The European legislators want the financial sector to serve the real […]Resisting EU budget cuts
June 12, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The Irish Presidency, with its self-congratulating and artificially sweetened style, announced once more ‘a major breakthrough’ in the EU budget negotiations with the European Parliament, without the slightest reference to the other side’s position. This obvious neglect of basic reporting rules which goes as far as sidestepping of democratic principles, has become standard in Irish […]China confirms anti-state-subsidy investigation on EU wine imports
June 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday, only a few days after the European Commission decided to impose provisional anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese solar panels imported in the EU, the Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the European Union issued a Press release where the spokesperson of the Mission confirmed that the Ministry of Commerce of China, in response […]Commission: New proposal for centrally managed bank resolution
June 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment
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 […]The Irish Presidency bullies the Parliament over EU budget
June 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment
It is unbelievable how strongly and some-times unduly the Irish Presidency of the EU Council presses the European Parliament in the negotiations over the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020, which sets the limits for the EU budget spending for the next seven years. The Irish government ministers who are conducting those negations act as if Ireland […]Commission’s action against imports from China questioned
June 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment
According to European Commission’s procedures, the legal dead line for a decision to be taken on the imposition or not of provisional tariffs on European imports of Chinese solar panels, expires tomorrow 5 June. It must be noted however that the EU Trade Spokesman John Clancy, when issuing a Press release on 27 May noted […]EU Commission accuses Germany of obstructing growth and the banking union
May 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Commission at the Semester Press Conference in Brussels yesterday confirmed in the most official way, what was already known. Belgium, the Netherlands and Portugal, are getting an extension of the deadline to correct their fiscal deficits by one year and France, Poland, Slovenia and Spain by two years. This Semester conference comes in […]EU leaders slammed on anti-tax evasion inaction and expensive energy
May 29, 2013 by 1 Comment
Only days after the 27 EU leaders gathered in Brussels on 22 May and decided that, “The supply of affordable and sustainable energy to our economies is crucial”, Eurostat, the EU’s statistical service, announced that, “in the second half of 2012 household electricity prices in the EU27 rose by 6.6% and gas prices by 10.3%”. […]Germany to help China in trade disputes with Brussels
May 27, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The visit of the new Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of China and party secretary of the State Council, Li Keqiang to Germany paid tangible dividends. After meeting with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel he got an official and public promise from her that Berlin will intervene in the Brussels procedures, to cool down […]The EU Parliament slams Commission on economic governance
May 24, 2013 by Leave a Comment
European Commission vice President, Ollie Rehn, responsible for Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Euro, delivered a speech in the European Parliament on the “Social pillar of the European Monetary Union-EMU”, which was very ill-received by the legislators. The Parliamentarians yesterday went as far as to comment bitterly in a resolution they issued afterwards, saying […]
