At least one out of every four EU citizens is at risk of poverty or social exclusion. The relevant percentage was 24.8% in 2012. However, given that this variable has been increasing steadily since 2008 by some decimal points every year, the measurement must have exceeded the 25% benchmark in 2013. These figures were published […]Is poverty and exclusion the necessary price for EU’s recovery?
December 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment
At least one out of every four EU citizens is at risk of poverty or social exclusion. The relevant percentage was 24.8% in 2012. However, given that this variable has been increasing steadily since 2008 by some decimal points every year, the measurement must have exceeded the 25% benchmark in 2013. These figures were published […]Rehn very reserved about growth in Eurozone
December 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday, Olli Rehn, the Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Euro delivered a speech in the European Parliament, entitled “The recovery of the European economy”. In doing that, he couldn’t resist the temptation to reveal the truth that the recovery of the European economy which timidly appeared […]Commission: Gifts of €6 billion and free trainees to ‘help’ poor employers
December 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment
This newspaper feels fully vindicated after yesterday’s announcement issued by the European Commission, stating that the EU’s executive arm is proposing a Council recommendation which will institutionalise a Quality Framework for Traineeships. This was a badly needed decision in view of the upcoming application of the widely advertised €6 billion Youth Guarantee scheme, which promises […]Commission offers discount on fines to banks for competition infringements
December 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Today, the European Commission fined 8 major banks a total of € 1.7 billion for participating in cartels rigging interest rate benchmarks in markets for financial derivatives covering the European Economic Area (EEA). According to the Commission, four of these firms participated in a cartel relating to interest rate derivatives denominated in euro, and six […]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 […]Statistics show the ugly face of youth training schemes
November 28, 2013 by 2 Comments
Thank God Eurostat, the EU statistical service and the Eurobarometer surveys, are still there and can produce reports refuting some commonly accepted pseudo-truths. Of course statisticians can also lie but it’s easy to expose them, while it’s much more difficult to expose the lies commonly used by politicians. A characteristic example is traineeships. This is […]Not much of a help the new EU Directive on pensions
November 27, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Labour mobility within the European Union is considered as the main decompression mechanism of social and economic pressures, created by differences in growth rates between member states. Looking for a job or working in another EU country has been praised by politicians and Brussels bureaucrats as the best way to increase the overall competitiveness of […]The Commission unsuccessfully pretends to want curbing of tax evasion
November 26, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Commission, after having facilitated for decades the tax avoidance and evasion practices of multinationals with the ‘Parent-Subsidiary Directive’, yesterday decided to just reduce the size of the extra-large loop holes the big multinationals use for years to avoid and evade taxation. With a Press release issued yesterday, the Commission almost recognised that it […]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 […]The Eurogroup protects Germany and blames others
November 23, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Last week in Brussels, an unseen before procedure took place, during last Friday’s Eurogroup of the 17 euro area member states council of Finance ministers. The 17 politicians assessed the Commission‘s opinions on member states’ draft budgets, ahead of those draft budgetary exercises been discussed in national Parliaments. This is the EU’s ‘brave’ new economic […]Galileo funding: A ‘small’ difference of €700 million
November 22, 2013 by Leave a Comment
A ‘small’ difference of €700 million appears in the funding of the European GPS Galileo-EGNOS programme for the 2014-2020 period. After the funding of the project got the green light in the plenary of the European Parliament, the legislators issued a Press release with a reference to its cost saying, “the programme’s €6.3 billion budget […]Eurozone banks to separate risky activities: Can they stay afloat?
November 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment
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 […]The European Parliament double-checks the EU 2014-2020 budget
November 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Parliament approved yesterday the EU proper budget for the next seven years, set at €960 billion in commitments and €908bn in payments (at 2011 prices). This is the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020 providing the financial resources and setting the expenditure limits for all EU institutions and policies. As a general rule the Multiannual […]EU sets ambitious targets for the Warsaw climate conference
November 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The UN climate conferences are the kind on international tribunes, where the European Union can present its opinions with pride. It’s not only that the EU has unilaterally set a target to cut down green-house emissions by 20% below 1990 levels by 2020, but also because this programme is on track to achieve targets. On […]Eurozone guarantees all banks with…taxpayers’ money
November 18, 2013 by 1 Comment
Last Friday the ECOFIN council made up by the 28 EU ministers of finance, confirmed that a permanent arrangement for the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) and the single resolution fund (SRF) meant to deal with failing banks, will be agreed on before the end of the year covering the period after 1 January 2015. In […]The Commission tells Berlin it is legally obliged to help Eurozone out of stagnation
November 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The time has come and the European Commission gave to Germany in writing, what has been so far aired orally. In this respect, Brussels tells Berlin that it is legally obliged to abandon its egotistic austere and protective policies and help itself and the entire Eurozone enter again in a sustainable growth path. Let’s take […]Parliament seals 2014 EU budget and the spending ceiling until 2020
November 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Finally, the European Parliament, after obtaining from the Council (that is the member state governments) what was possible to squeeze out in these times of widespread austerity, yesterday approved both the 2014 budget and the 2014-2020 financial framework, which sets limits on EU’s spending for the next seven years. Yesterday, the Budgets Parliamentary Committee voted […]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 […]Commission deepens criticism on German economic policies
November 14, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday, the European Commission, on the occasion of the presentation of its reports on the ‘European Semester 2014’, the “Annual Growth Survey’ and the ‘Third Alert Mechanism Report’ on macroeconomic imbalances in EU member states, seized the opportunity to deepen and elaborate on its criticism, directed against the economic policies applied by Germany. Also yesterday, […]The financial future of Eurozone on the agenda of Friday’s ECOFIN council
November 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The agenda of the Economic and Finance Ministers’ Council (ECOFIN) of 15 November in Brussels is very heavily loaded. The ‘Taxation of savings incomes’ and the ‘Revision of the Anti-Money Laundering Directive’ may be major issues, but the first reading of Commission’s proposal for the creation of the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) will haunt […]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 […]A sterilised EMU may lead to a break up of Eurozone
November 12, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Ahead of the ‘The European Employment Forum’ which takes place in Brussels today and tomorrow and according to its organisers is ‘the annual networking forum for everyone involved in employment and enterprise within the EU and beyond’, there was an increased activity over the burning issue of jobs and unemployment in Europe. To this effect, […]Berlin cannot dictate anymore the terms for the enactment of the European Banking Union
November 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Last Friday 8 November, the European Central Bank (ECB) published its opinion on the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) and Fund, fully supporting the European Commission’s position on their enactment, needed to accomplish the European Banking Union. The opinion is in direct contrast with the positions held by Germany, because it contains the following three essential […]It’s a week dedicated to all EU budgets; seven days that can make or break the Union
November 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment
All EU member states budgets including the EU’s proper one will be under scrutiny this week in Brussels. Let’s start from the Union’s own budget for 2014. Today Monday, a Conciliation Committee, made up by the 28 representatives of the member states and 28 European legislators, has to agree on EU’s budget for 2014. Earlier […]EU-US resume trade negotiations under the spell of NSA surveillance
November 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Finally the second round of the EU-US trade negotiations is to be held this week from Monday to Friday 11 to 15 November in Brussels. The round was originally set for 7th-11th October but it was postponed because the Americans couldn’t travel to Europe due to the partial shutdown of the US administration. Of course […]2014 budget: The EU may prove unable to agree on own resources
November 8, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The last fight in the ‘war’ over EU’s proper budget for 2014 is bound to take place this Monday 11 November, after the European Parliament got what it wanted for the 2013 budgetary exercise. For this year’s budget the unpaid bills of 2012 and 2013 totalling at €11.2 billion were at stake, having been now […]Renewed pressures on Berlin to adopt growth policies
November 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday, the European Commission in Brussels announced that euro area growth prospects are sluggish, and downgraded the projected rate of GDP increase for 2014, from 1.2% to 1%. Also yesterday President Manuel Barroso, while speaking in Saint Paul’s Church in Frankfurt, where the first democratically elected Parliament of Germany was convened, called on this country […]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 […]Court of Auditors: EU budget money is there to be spent not to create value
November 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Court of Auditors, the independent audit institution of the EU, today signed off the 2012 EU Budget, but it added a lot of asterisks and remarks over the Union’s payments for last year, singling out inappropriate, ineligible and illegal spending. A first and general comment by the ECA is that “Looking at the […]CDU-SPD agree the terms for EU’s Banking Union
November 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment
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. […]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 […]This crisis cannot be confronted with statistics
October 30, 2013 by 1 Comment
Eurostat, the statistical service of the European Union, announced yesterday the launch of a new series of annual publications, entitled “Smarter, greener, more inclusive? – Indicators to support the Europe 2020 strategy”. According to the relevant Press release, “The purpose of this publication is to provide statistics to support the Europe 2020 strategy and to […]The Social Committee may accept the new ‘contractual’ Eurozone
October 29, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), representing employers, workers and other interest groups, issued yesterday a Press release urging for the creation of the Banking Union and the establishment of a uniform bank resolution procedure. Obviously the leadership of the EESC, after reading the conclusions of the last EU summit of 24-25 October and […]
