Follow Us

Follow us on Twitter  Follow us on LinkedIn
 

06 February 2014

Integrating Europe




Jump directly to

Graham Bishop

Political

Financial

Economic

Budgetary

Member State events
About this email

Articles from 30 January 2014 - 06 February 2014

Graham Bishop

Financial World: All change in 2014 (Graham Bishop article)
This year will usher in a new European Commission, President and Parliament, all of which will have important consequences for investors, says Graham Bishop.  View Article

Political

EP President Schulz: "We will not allow more Europe with less parliamentarism"
Speaking in front of the Council of Europe, Schulz stressed the importance of the cooperation of national and European parliamentarians in order to ensure that the European executive is adequately controlled and held democratically accountable.  View Article
Plenary Session: "We have to fight against national egoism and anachronistic conservatism" - Napolitano
The Italian President made a passionate plea in favour of sticking with the EU and making it better. "The new mission of the EU is to show that we live together in the flow of globalisation as a unified nation", he said.  View Article
EP elections: Race for top EU jobs speeds up
Speculations over the EPP candidate for Commission president continue, with Juncker seen ahead in the race, having reportedly received Merkel's backing. Berlusconi is said to be planning to stand in the EP elections, campaigning on an anti-German platform.   View Article
Right-wing populist parties forge alliances ahead of the EP elections
The intention of a number of populist parties to pool together is an important development as the European elections draw closer: it is indicative of a number of significant transformations taking place within the radical right.  View Article
Paul N Goldschmidt: European elections - Which kind of Europe? What for? How?
These questions are by no means theoretical: the clear answers that one will be able to formulate should underpin our capacity to save the European project - or not.  View Article
Jean-Dominique Guiliani: 2014 - A European year
The 2014 European elections are an opportunity for the EU to learn from the difficulties of the past four years. Facing serious economic turbulence and a confidence crisis for the very first time, the EU has to make an objective assessment of this experience.  View Article

Financial

ECB's Executive Board decides on new distribution of responsibilities among its members
ECB President Mario Draghi has assigned the key international portfolio to France's Benoît Cœuré, in a reshuffle of Executive Board duties that reflects a changing role in the euro area financial architecture.  View Article
BoF/Noyer: Why the EMU needs a Banking Union
Noyer stressed how crucial Banking Union was in order to strengthen the economic and monetary union. He said the version of the SRM agreed at the end of last year was not ideal, as it requires a long transition period which could fuel uncertainties.   View Article
DNB/Bonner: A call for liquidity stress-testing and why it should not be neglected
Liquidity risks can be a primary source of bank failures. As such, there are arguments not to rely on a single metric for providing supervision.  View Article
Plenary Session: Total cross-party unity against bad deal on bank resolution
MEPs across the political spectrum have refused to back a bad deal on the arrangements for winding up ailing banks. They said the Member States' position undermined the core aim of ensuring that taxpayers were not first in line to pay when banks ran into trouble.  View Article
Plenary Session: Winding up banks - EP reconfirms mandate and criticises Council for timewasting
Parliament's negotiators on the proposed SRM for ailing banks won its support for the line they have taken in talks with EU Member States on the last block of legislation needed to establish an EU Banking Union. (Includes EP group comments.)  View Article
ECON Committee: No strong bank supervision without single bank resolution system - ECB/Lautenschläger
The new bank EU supervisory structure will do away with "biased national practices", but the system for dealing with troubled banks must be ambitious, too. "Banking Union needs two legs to be strong", said Lautenschläger.  View Article
CEPS/Valiante: Framing Banking Union in the euro area - Some empirical evidence
This paper proposes two remedies to deal with moral hazard in a common currency area: a common (unlimited) financial backstop to a privately-funded recapitalisation/resolution fund; and a blanket prohibition on state aids.  View Article

Economic

VP Rehn: Keynote speech at the Committee of the Regions
Rehn looked at how to build a stronger recovery in Europe, and how to reinforce Europe's global role in line with its democratic values.  View Article
ECB/Cœuré: Is eurozone governance fit for purpose?
Cœuré spoke on how the balance of competences between the national and the euro area level had evolved during the crisis, saying that national ownership of the reforms prescribed by European procedures and recommendations had to be strengthened.  View Article
ECB/Cœuré: The structural aspects of euro area adjustment
Cœuré said it was crucial to continue with the reform process in all euro area countries, including those unaffected by the crisis. He concluded on a cautiously optimistic note regarding the future.  View Article
OENB/Nowotny: Future perspectives of the EMU
Nowotny looked first at the foundation of the current EMU which was laid down by the European Monetary Institute under the presidency of Alexandre Lamfalussy. He then concentrated on future institutional perspectives of the EMU.  View Article
CER/Tilford: What explains Europe's rejection of macro-economic orthodoxy?
The lack of integration within the eurozone is easily the most important reason for the dramatic decline in the quality of macro-economic policy in Europe, comments Tilford.  View Article
Interventions by Minister Venizelos and Commissioner Šemeta at the EP Plenary on the need to approve an FTT
"The Presidency of this semester will make every effort to bring this issue forward again and make it one of our policy priorities, so that there can be a specific and tangible result", said Venizelos. Šemeta said it was now time to "engage, compromise and deliver" on the FTT.  View Article
Bloomberg: Merkel coalition signals retreat on broad financial market tax
Chancellor Merkel's coalition said it was ready to accept a levy on stock trades as part of a first step towards a European tax on all financial transactions, amid resistance to a broader application.  View Article

Budgetary

German Council of Economic Experts: Working paper on Fiscal Compact
The German Council of Economic Experts released an updated version of the working paper, "Implementation of the Fiscal Compact in the euro area Member States", pointing out potential loopholes in the budget rules and in the correction mechanisms in particular.  View Article

Member State events

WSJ: Cyprus asks EBRD for financing
Cyprus is in talks with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to secure financing for its stricken banks and other projects, marking the first time an existing member of the eurozone has sought help from the institution.  View Article
Germany preparing third financial rescue for Greece
Germany has signalled it is preparing a third rescue package for Greece – provided the debt-stricken country implements "rigorous" austerity measures blamed for record levels of unemployment and a dramatic drop in GDP.   View Article
CDU's draft European election manifesto more "eurosceptic"?
The CDU manifesto is said to call for an "an effective regulation brake" and to say that the repatriation of EU powers should be possible.  View Article
Britain at odds with France and Germany over EU reforms
Germany's foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier dealt a blow to David Cameron's attempt to recast the EU membership deal, suggesting that Germany and Britain were "not pulling in exactly the same direction". Hollande said that EU treaty changes were "not a priority" for France.  View Article
EPC/Pinto: UK-EU - Two unions in a disunited relationship
In the next two years, both Britain's relationship with the EU and within itself is due to be questioned in referenda. Whatever the UK's citizens decide, the outcome is set to affect the nation's relationships within the European project.  View Article
Lubomír Zaorálek: Rebuilding an EU based on trust
Writing for EV, the Czech foreign minister sets out the new Czech government's view of the EU and the policy changes that this administration will bring.  View Article
Denmark's Thorning-Schmidt reshuffles cabinet after coalition government crisis
The Socialist People's Party, the junior coalition member, walked out in protest against a Goldman Sachs investment in a state-owned utility. This forced the Social Democrat PM to name another round of new ministers, who signalled they were ready to seek consensus on how to move Denmark forward.  View Article
Romania: Statement at the conclusion of the IMF and EC staff visit
Teams from the IMF and the Commission visited Bucharest during January 21-February 4 to conduct discussions on the combined first and second reviews under the IMF Stand-By Agreement and on the status of Romania's precautionary balance of payments programme with the EU.  View Article





© Graham Bishop


< Next Previous >
Key
 Hover over the blue highlighted text to view the acronym meaning
Hover over these icons for more information



Add new comment