Brexit 'Weekly'

21 January 2016

Brexit, a new eurozone treaty, ECON, CBI/PwC Financial Services Survey, ECOFIN, Eurogroup, Single Market, corporate taxation, card payments and more.

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  Articles from 14 January 2016 - 21 January 2016

  Political
 
 
Paul Goldschmidt: “Brexit” - The E.U. and the U.K. are both making hazardous bets!
The British are deliberately ignoring the recent major political developments that are shaking Europe and that demand more European Union rather than less. On the other side, the EU, fully aware that maintaining the UK in the fold is by far preferable, is tempted to offer excessive concessions.  View Article
OMFIF: Why Europe needs to resolve euro trilemma
If Cameron and Juncker fail to bring their negotiations together - on EU membership and the Five President's Report respectively-, and Britain is asked to vote in 2016, the chances of Brexit will markedly increase.  View Article
Financial Times: UK benefit reform demands appeal to rest of EU
Britain’s contentious push to curb EU migrant benefits is gaining political traction in Europe, with expectations of a February deal rising and countries such as France and Germany considering whether to introduce their own variants of the reforms David Cameron seeks.  View Article
OMFIF: Light in the multicurrency tunnel
How Merkel’s weakness could help the UK negotiation of EU reform.  View Article
MEPs quiz Commission's chief negotiator on progress ahead of UK referendum
Questions such as the need for treaty changes to meet UK demands or the safeguards of the four freedoms were put by members of EP's constitutional affairs committee to Jonathan Faull, head of the Commission's task force related to the UK referendum.  View Article
Reuters: Don't mention the Brexit: EU bans Plan B studies
European Commission economists have been banned from researching the impact of Britain leaving the 28-nation bloc, or even talking about it, for fear of getting embroiled in the heated British debate ahead of a referendum, officials said.  View Article
EurActiv: House of Lords warned EU will punish UK if it votes for Brexit
The UK’s House of Lords has been warned that Britain will be made an example of by the European Union, if it votes to quit the bloc in the upcoming referendum.  View Article
Bloomberg: Chairmen of BT and Barclays Say ‘Brexit’ Talk Damages Britain
Britain’s financial industry will be damaged if the country votes to leave the European Union, and the “Brexit” debate has already cost the U.K. some foreign investment, according to two of the nation’s most senior corporate directors.  View Article
Reuters: British funds body warns Brexit would bring 'massive disruption'
Leaving the European Union would bring "massive disruption" to Britain's 5.5 trillion pound (€7 trillion) mutual funds sector, which could lose market access without gaining regulatory freedom, a top industry official told UK Parliament.  View Article
The Telegraph: The EU must know we're prepared to quit
Conservatives for Reform in Europe promises a voice to thousands of party members and full backing to David Cameron's campaign.  View Article
The Telegraph: Chris Grayling calls EU 'disastrous' for Britain in clearest signal yet he plans to back Leave campaign
Writing for the Daily Telegraph, the Leader of the House of Commons says he backs David Cameron's plan to renegotiate Britain's membership.  View Article
The Guardian/Nicky Morgan: Britain’s future must lie within a reformed Europe
The education secretary is the first minister to declare her allegiance for the European Union ahead of the crucial referendum.  View Article
BBC/David Cameron: There's 'a good case' for new UK sovereignty law
A new law reasserting the power of UK Parliament law over the EU could be passed, David Cameron has said, once his reform talks are concluded.  View Article
EurActiv/EPC: The Frankfurt Protocol: Calling for a new treaty for the eurozone
Faced with a series of unprecedented difficulties, the EU has little choice but to move forward swiftly to the next stage of integration. The way to do that is through treaty change, argues Andrew Duff in his latest pamphlet 'The Frankfurt Protocol'.  View Article
The Telegraph: Brexit will trigger collapse of EU, warns Poland
A British exit from the EU could have catastrophic consequences for the bloc, Andrzej Duda, the Polish president, said.  View Article
Remarks by Council President Donald Tusk after his meeting with President of Poland Andrzej Duda
Tusk talked about Poland, the refugee crisis, and said that "it is in the interest of the EU and Poland that the UK remains a member of the European Union," stressing that "there will be no room for discrimination" regarding UK in-working benefits for immigrants.  View Article
Report by Council President Donald Tusk to the European Parliament on the outcome of the December European Council
European Council President Tusk outlines the main highlights of the December meeting of the Council: Brexit, completing EMU and the single market, migration, terrorism and how to keep Schengen alive, among others. Commission President Juncker talks afterwards about Brexit and other European issues.  View Article
European Council: Remarks by J.Dijsselbloem following the Eurogroup meeting
Main highlights of Eurogroup president Dijsselbloem's statement were euro area recommendations, banking union, Greece, Cyprus, the reform of insolvency frameworks and the AIIB.  View Article
European Commission President's New Year's press conference
President Jean-Claude Juncker underlined his determination to focus on the Commission's number one priority – growth and jobs –, calling on Member States to pursue the strategy set out by the Commission a year ago: structural reform, fiscal responsibility and strategic investment.   View Article
 
  Financial
 
 
ECON: Report on stocktaking and challenges of the EU Financial Services Regulation
Impact and the way forward towards a more efficient and effective EU framework for Financial Regulation and a Capital Markets Union.  View Article
CBI/PwC Financial Services Survey – December 2015
The final quarter of 2015 has seen financial services firms focus on the development of new products and services, in response to the emergence of FinTech. There are however still huge concerns around IT resilience and cyber threats.  View Article
 
  Economic
 
 
Remarks by European Parliament Vice-President Dombrovskis at the ECOFIN press conference
EP's Dombrovskis outlined the main issues discussed at ECOFIN meeting, such as the European Semester; the deepening of EMU and therefore completing Banking Union with measures such as implementing SRF, DGS, BRRD, and EDIS; and VAT fraud.  View Article
Commissioner Moscovici's opening remarks at the Eurogroup press conference
Commissioner Moscovici talked about the IMF’s latest review of the euro area economy, growth and jobs, and diverging national insolvency frameworks across the euro area. The Commission is tackling this through the CMU Plan, the Single Market Strategy and the Banking Union.  View Article
CEPS: What strategy for a genuine single market?
This strategy paper focuses on making the most of the EU single market. The strategy is based on a clear design of the genuine single market and subsequently concentrates on ‘what it takes’ with ten types of actions.  View Article
The Huffington Post: Single Market - The EU in the Internet Age
The EU exists to break down barriers, and the digital frontier may be the next one to go. MEPs voted on a report setting out the European Parliament's vision of a Digital Single Market.  View Article
Illegal corporate tax deals: European Parliament calls for compensation for countries that suffer
If the European Commission decides that an EU member state should recover money from a company due to infringements of tax-related state aid rules, this money should be returned not to the same member state, but to member states that have suffered an erosion of their tax bases or to the EU budget.  View Article
ECB: Results of the December 2015 survey on credit terms and conditions in euro-denominated securities financing and OTC derivatives markets
Less favourable credit terms are being offered to counterparties across the entire spectrum of securities financing and OTC derivatives transaction types. Liquidity and functioning of markets has deteriorated for many types of euro-denominated collateral.  View Article
ECB's Mersch: Growth potential and competition – what lies ahead for card payments?
Speech by ECB's Yves Mersch in which he highlights three areas critical to the realisation of the SEPA for cards: standardisation, interoperability and security. Mersch also talks about innovation and how it will impact cards.  View Article
ECB's Cœuré: Rebalancing in the euro area: are we nearly there yet?
In his speech, ECB's Cœuré notes that sustainable rebalancing is key to ensuring growth and stability in the euro area as well as to completing EU monetary union, because the political will needed to achieve this project will not exist unless economic divergences are first ironed out.  View Article
 

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