Yesterday Mario Draghi, the President of European Central Bank, proposed that the time horizon for the full mutualisation of all bank resolution costs among the EU Banking Union member states, should be cut by half from ten to five years. Also yesterday, in a different occasion, Benoît Cœuré, Member of the Executive Board of the […]Draghi proposes timeframe for full Banking Union in five years
February 13, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday Mario Draghi, the President of European Central Bank, proposed that the time horizon for the full mutualisation of all bank resolution costs among the EU Banking Union member states, should be cut by half from ten to five years. Also yesterday, in a different occasion, Benoît Cœuré, Member of the Executive Board of the […]Commission to decide definitely on genetically modified Maize 1507 seed
February 12, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The Commission is now expected to definitely authorize or deny the cultivation on EU soil, of the genetically modified seed of maize 1507 developed by the American company Monsanto, an affiliate of US giant DuPont. This decision will allow EU member states to exercise their freedom to choose, whether or not to allow the cultivation […]Parliament compromises on Banking Union but sends market abusers to jail
February 6, 2014 by 2 Comments
Yesterday the European Parliament confirmed its willingness to regulate the EU’s financial sector with determination and the obvious intention of convincing the 500 million European citizens that ordinary people matter more than bankers and derivative dealers. Of course all that is happening ahead of the May European elections. To this effect, the plenary of the […]The mother of all fights about inflation, growth and banks
January 28, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Reading two accounts by two different people, about what happened in the Eurogroup meeting yesterday in Brussels, gives a clear indication of what will be decided in the ECOFIN Council today. Ollie Rehn, Vice-President of the European Commission and member of the Commission responsible for Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Euro, and Jeroen Dijsselbloem, […]Is it impossible to place the banks under control?
January 18, 2014 by 1 Comment
Within the next few weeks the European Commission is expected to announce a proposal for a structural reform in the banking sector. The declared target is to make sure “that banks do not remain or become too-big, too-complex or too-interconnected to fail”. In announcing its intentions on this grandiose plan, the EU’s executive arm states […]Parliament toughens its position on banking union
January 17, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament reiterated the tough position of the legislative in relation to the Single Resolution Mechanism for failing banks. The SRM is meant to complete within the next four months the enactment of a real European Banking Union, according to the MEPs vision. In order to emphasise the decisiveness […]No better year for the EU’s weak chain links
January 9, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The European Parliament issued a Press release this week with the ambitious target to inform us all about what is bound to change in our lives this year, resulting from the application of EU laws. It mentions the mercury ban in thermometers and some new rules in recycling of electrical and electronic equipment, the legislation […]Berlin ‘orders’ the EU Parliament to compromise
December 23, 2013 by Leave a Comment
As expected the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz strongly criticised the agreement reached in the European Council by the 28 EU leaders, on the plan for the enactment of the Banking Union. He said, “The slower and inefficient a system is, the more expensive it will be”. However the Federal Minister for Finance […]Eurozone close to agreeing on a Banking Union
December 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment
In the small hours of yesterday night, the ECOFIN Council agreed on a general approach over the single resolution board (SRB) and a single fund for the resolution of banks in Eurozone. These are the main tools of the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM), which constitutes the second pillar of the grandiose European Banking Union project. […]How the Irish people were robbed by banks, the Commission and their own government
December 18, 2013 by Leave a Comment
In 2007 Ireland’s sovereign debt was 25% of the country’s GDP. After the financial crisis – and €140 billion later – in 2012 it reached 120% of the GDP at €190bn. Yet the Dublin government this week celebrated the Irish ‘exit’ from the EU-ECB-IMF troika’s surveillance programme, that brought the 4.5 million people nation to […]The Parliament sets the way for the European Banking Union
December 18, 2013 by 1 Comment
The final shape of the European Banking Union will be served as dessert on the dinner table of the 28 EU leaders on Thursday night. According to the invitation letter that Herman Van Rompuy addressed to the heads of states and governments on the European Union “Over dinner, the focus will be on economic and […]Commission facilitates the activities of ‘merchants of labour’
December 14, 2013 by Leave a Comment
With unemployment skyrocketing in all but few countries of the European Union, the Commission found that the timing is right to facilitate the internal mobility of labour in the Union, in a clear cut attempt to exploit the EU’s unemployed of the south and the east and squeeze the wage levels in the north and […]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 […]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 […]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 […]The 28 EU leaders don’t touch the thorny issues
October 25, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The 28 EU leaders presently meeting in Brussels, seem to have chosen the ‘illegal migration’ and the ‘European pride’ issues as the main items on their agenda. This is the best way to avoid the burning social and economic issues, which torment “the richest continent” of the world, as the President of the European Parliament […]EU Parliament: The surplus countries must support growth
October 24, 2013 by Leave a Comment
During the last two days the European Parliament intervened very actively, not only in the economic and budgetary policies of EU proper, but also in the way the 28 member states are formulating their fundamental financial choices, while drafting the 2014 government budgets. For one thing, this morning the plenary House is debating and presumably […]Who may profit from the rise of the extreme right in the West?
October 10, 2013 by 1 Comment
The European Parliament seemed abruptly awoken yesterday to an ugly reality, by recognising the rise of right-wing extremism in Europe, while discussing the murder of Pavlos Fissas, the Greek social activist slaughtered by the gangs of Golden Dawn. Of course the EU Parliament is not the only western top decision making body to suddenly discover, […]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 Commission offers exit from the EU budget stalemate
September 26, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Commission took action yesterday to unlock the double stalemate over the approval of both, the 2014 EU budget and the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020. The MFF sets the spending ceiling of all EU bodies at €960 billion for the next seven years. To overcome the dead-end Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski responsible for budgets, proposed […]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 […]EU Budgets: Europe hoping for Xmas gifts
September 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The Lithuanian Presidency of the European Union’s Council is now under pressure over the approval of EU’s 2014-2020 budget regulation, referred to as the EU’s Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF), planned to support EU’s expenses for the next seven years amounting to €1 trillion. The problem is however that the approval of the first EU budget […]Commission challenges Council over EU 2014 budget
September 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Another €460 million should be added to the 2014 EU budget spending said yesterday the European Commission. This is a direct challenge to the Council’s position presented last week in the European Parliament shaping a severely cut down 2014 EU budget. The Commission asks additional funding exactly for those programmes that the Council wants to […]Council Presidency: Floundering with the EU 2014 budget
September 11, 2013 by 4 Comments
Yesterday the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council made another blunder and a very bad start in its relation with the European Parliament. After the Lithuanian Vice-Minister Algimantas Rimkūnas presented to the plenary of the Legislative the Council a proposal for the EU 2014 Budget, with which many MEPs strongly disagreed, the Lithuanian Presidency issued a […]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 […]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 […]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 […]Austerity lovers and ‘relaxationists’ fight over the EU budget
May 14, 2013 by 1 Comment
The efforts to reach an agreement between the three most important EU bodies, the Council, the European Parliament and the Commission over the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020, for the Union’s proper spending power, will test not only the cohesion of the EU but also the abilities of the ‘austerity lovers’ to wreak their policy options. […]Uncovered liabilities of €5 billion may render EU insolvent
April 2, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The deplorable tactics of practically all European Union governments to hide the problems under the carpet, for the next administration to confront them, couldn’t leave Brussels untouched. In this way the European Union budget for 2013 has been loaded with a huge burden of €16.2 billion of unpaid 2012 bills, a fact that threatens the […]
