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10 December 2015

Brexit 'Weekly'


Spanish General election, Brexit, CMU, Banking Union, STS securitisation, SRF, ECOFIN meeting, FTT, taxation, BIS Quarterly Review, cross-border tax rulings and more.

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Graham's Articles, Comments & Speeches
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  Articles from 03 December 2015 - 10 December 2015

  Grahams Articles, Comments & Speeches
 
 
Tusk to Cameron: “in-work benefits” may be a deal-breaker (to save 0.1% of GDP and ensure Cameron is in the history books!)
Council President Tusk responded to the “Dear Donald” letter from Prime Minister Cameron and underlined that the most difficult issue would be “people coming to Britain from the EU must live there and contribute for four years before they qualify for in-work benefits or social housing.”  View Article
What would a PP-C’s government look like?
Spanish PM Rajoy would be re-elected in December’s 20 General Election, but he’s not likely to make it back to government alone. A coalition with the most plausible king-maker - the C’s - seems possible. We review the common ground in their policies on economics and towards the EU.  View Article
Rajoy promises there will no more cuts but EU Commission calls for further reforms
Brussels is due to release an assessment of Spain’s economy urging more cuts and further job market reform. This was one of the issues discussed in the first TV debate in Spanish history with all main contenders. The Spanish PM sent his ‘number two’ to the debate instead of going himself.   View Article
 
  Political
 
 
Letter by President Donald Tusk to the European Council on the issue of a UK in/out referendum
Council's President Tusk sets out his assessment on the four baskets mentioned by PM Cameron in his letter of demands for EU reform: relations between the euro ins and outs, competitiveness, sovereignty and social benefits and the free movement of persons.  View Article
Financial Times: Brussels examines option for UK migration brake
Brussels is looking at options for Britain to restrict EU immigration if it overwhelms public services, potentially offering David Cameron an “emergency brake” as an alternative to his demands to deny benefits to migrant workers.  View Article
City AM: David Cameron’s EU renegotiation has been exposed as the fudge it is
What we are witnessing is a highly choreographed EU dance, where Cameron goes through the motions of making some soft and meaningless demands, and where the EU (represented by Tusk) accedes in general to most points but raises some technical objections to one (migrant access to tax credits).  View Article
British Influence: What would happen if the UK voted to leave?
The report shows that the British Government would have to make many important decisions about future UK policy during a period of great uncertainty and likely political turmoil.  View Article
City AM: The City must get behind the European Commission’s sensible financial reforms
The City of London's policy and resources committee chairman Mark Boleat said that "with the most developed capital markets in Europe, the UK has a key role to play in building Capital Markets Union," and urged all financial services firms to have their say by contributing their views.  View Article
Reuters: Moody's says Brexit would hurt UK economy, benefits unclear
Ratings agency Moody's said that a British exit from the European Union would hurt the country's economy by damaging trade and investment and could put its credit rating at risk of a downgrade.  View Article
City AM: FTSE 100 bosses back EU membership as public support for a Brexit soars
Top UK bosses increasingly favour remaining in the European Union, a new survey of the FTSE 100’s chairmen shows.  View Article
City AM: Former Prudential Europe boss: There's no way we'll leave the EU - A Brexit means it would take 15 years to "disentangle" our deals
A vote for Brexit could be a vote for 15 years of commercial red tape, as the UK struggles to untangle itself from countless agreements dependent on EU membership, according to a leading financial services figure.  View Article
The Daily Telegraph: David Cameron may campaign for Brexit, allies say
The Prime Minister has made clear to his closest allies that he will lead the “Out” campaign if he considers the result of his renegotiation with Brussels to be unsuccessful.  View Article
EurActiv: How to interpret Cameron’s ‘renegotiation’ strategy
David Cameron’s renegotiation strategy is as much about quelling rebellion within his own party as it is about obtaining real reforms from the EU, argues CEPS' Steven Blockmans.  View Article
POLITICO: France fears Brexit debate will boost Le Pen
David Cameron’s plans to renegotiate the U.K.’s relationship with the EU are causing concerns in France, where officials fear that any discussion about Europe as an “ever closer union” will further fuel the rise of far-right leader Marine Le Pen.  View Article
POLITICO: Achtung, Brexit
The Germans may not be exactly happy to see Britain leave the EU, if it comes to that. But neither do they seem willing to concede much to make it stay.  View Article
Financial Times: EU leaders balk at new treaty demands from Cameron
David Cameron has given up hope of a new membership deal for Britain at this month’s EU summit after European allies reacted with alarm to him stepping up demands for treaty changes to ban benefits for new migrant workers.  View Article
Open Europe: Showing the EU the red card - Why national parliaments need to be put back in control
Open Europe's report calls for a collective veto right for national parliaments over EU laws – a red card, setting out five criteria for creating a red card which would be binding and effective.  View Article
BBC: Greek parliament approves austere 2016 budget
Greece's parliament has narrowly approved the 2016 budget that includes sharp spending cuts and some tax increases amid economic recession.  View Article
 
  Financial
 
 
Council of the European Union agrees on Commission proposal for simple and transparent securitisation
The European Commission welcomed the agreement at record speed at the Council on a legislative proposal to relaunch EU securitisation markets. This constitutes a good basis for further discussions with the European Parliament.  View Article
CEPS: Completing the Banking Union - Deposit Insurance
This Policy Brief argues that EDIS should have a decision-making structure separate from and independent of the SRM, since it has mainly a macroeconomic function.  View Article
EU Associations support Increased Equity Market Financing
FESE, EuropeanIssuers, Invest Europe, Better Finance, AFME, EBF, EFAMA and the ECN welcome the EC’s' Action Plan on Building a CMU as a thoughtful, well-structured package, giving priority to strengthening the European economy and stimulating investment to create jobs and growth.  View Article
European Council: Statement on Banking Union and bridge financing arrangements for the Single Resolution Fund
Following the successful establishment of the SSM, ECOFIN Ministers welcome the forthcoming entry into force of the intergovernmental agreement on the transfer and mutualisation of contributions to the SRF (IGA), which will allow the SRF to be fully operational on 1 January 2016.  View Article
Euractiv: Europe has to grow an equity culture
Christian Krohn, head of equities at AFME, writes that despite being a critical source of capital for growing businesses and a source of superior long-term investment returns, equity markets are still not being used to their full potential.  View Article
 
  Economic
 
 
Remarks by Vice-President Dombrovskis at the ECOFIN press conference
The ECOFIN meeting covered a number of issues, including the launch of the new European Semester; the agreement on a FTT by ten member states to be carried forward before the summer; the Stability and Growth Pact; and the Commission's options to prevent terrorism financing.   View Article
AFME comments on Financial Transaction Tax
Simon Lewis, Chief Executive of AFME, urged the EU11 Finance Ministers to abandon such an inefficient and harmful tax and to focus their energies on the Commission’s growth agenda.  View Article
PensionsEurope publishes position paper on the negative effects of the financial transaction tax on pension provision
PensionsEurope welcomes the EU institutions’ commitment to get Europe growing again, foster investments and create jobs. It supports the Capital Markets Union initiative. PensionsEurope however feels that the Financial Transaction Tax will be contra-productive in this respect.  View Article
ECB Monetary policy decisions
The ECB decided that the interest rate on the deposit facility will be decreased to -0.30% and that the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and that on the marginal lending facility will remain unchanged. It also decided to extend the APP until the end of March 2017.  View Article
European Council: Transparency rules adopted on cross-border tax rulings
The Council adopted a directive aimed at improving transparency on tax rulings given by member states to companies in specific cases about how taxation will be dealt with.   View Article
Council conclusions on corporate taxation – base erosion and profit shifting
The European Council welcomed the OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) conclusions and urged for full effective implementation in Europe through EU legislation.  View Article
Liechtenstein, Switzerland taxation agreements approved by EU Council
The two agreements will contribute to efforts to clamp down on tax evasion, by requiring the EU member states and the two countries to exchange information automatically.   View Article
Council conclusions on business taxation – future of the code of conduct
The European Council published its conclusions on the future of Code of conduct for business taxation.  View Article
December 2015 BIS Quarterly Review: Uneasy calm awaiting lift-off
The December issue of the BIS Quarterly Review explores how global financial markets have responded in recent months to the prospect that monetary policy paths will diverge across the major advanced economies.  View Article
European Council: Remarks by Dijsselbloem following the Eurogroup meeting
Eurogroup's president Dijsselbloem said the highlights of the meeting had been: Greece, Ireland, Portugal, the SSM and the agreement reached on the constituency for the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.   View Article
Fighting tax evasion: EU and the Republic of San Marino sign new tax transparency agreement
The EU and San Marino signed a landmark tax transparency agreement, constituting an important step forward in the fight against tax evasion.  View Article
City of London: Total tax contribution of UK financial services eighth edition
The total tax contribution of UK financial services examines the complete range of taxes paid by the industry in the year to March 2015, whilst it also gives an extensive breakdown of the change occurring over time within taxation, reflecting changing Government tax policy.   View Article
Financial Times: Why ECB’s quantitative easing won’t work and how it can be fixed
Easing will have limited impact on currency area’s real economy.  View Article
Voxeu: Distributional consequences of asset price inflation in the Eurozone
This column investigates the distributional effects associated with asset price increases. The findings show that house price increases lead to a significant decrease in net wealth inequality in the Eurozone, whereas equity price increases lead to a significant rise in inequality.  View Article
 

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