December 18th European Council: Where was the financial/economic content?

19 December 2014

Perhaps not much should have been expected from this Summit as the economic crisis is not extreme at the moment and the shadow of Russian activities in Ukraine was hanging over the meeting.

Nonetheless, it was an exceptionally anodyne outcome:

For financial markets, there was a generalised blessing of the concept of capital market union. It may be a year or two yet before the Heads of State/Government (HoSGs) actually come face to face with the practical implications of what is needed to give effect to this concept. They may be quite surprised to find the full implications to which they are effectively signed up already.

For economic governance, the `Four Presidents’ are to be wheeled out again but this time, they are merely requested to produce an `analytical note’ in February.  But the spectre of France’s failure to reform sufficiently must surely be looming over the HoSGs.


© Graham Bishop