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Channel: Elias Lacon – The European Sting – Critical News & Insights on European Politics, Economy, Foreign Affairs, Business & Technology – europeansting.com
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Data show EU Economy in a stubbornly subdued state

At the end of the first quarter of the year (end March 2014) the Eurozone economy doesn’t show any signs of change from its subdued state of the last twelve months. The bearish and widely diverging...

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Commission publishes the first report on the issuance of a Eurobond

With a brief report, an Expert Group formed by the EU Commission and mandated to study the issue of “a debt redemption fund and eurobills”, undermined the prospect of a Eurobond issuance, by refusing...

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The ECB proposes a swift solution for SMEs’ financing

The European Central Bank is deeply worried about the ability of Eurozone’s SMEs to access bank financing at a reasonable cost and under competitive terms. The present business loan stalemate has...

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Russia and the West use the same tactics to dismember Ukraine

It’s amazing how much distanced from reality the EU’s foreign policy must be, under the permanent Council Presidency of Lady Catherine Ashton. There is no other explanation than this, if one takes...

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Half of Eurozone in deflation expecting salvation from monetary measures

Five Eurozone countries posted negative inflation rate in March (Greece (-1.5%), Cyprus (-0.9%), Portugal (-0.4%), Spain and Slovakia (both -0.2%), while the rate of change of consumer prices ranged...

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EU: Protecting victims’ rights from cartels and market abuses

It was high time that the European Union took care of citizens and companies, usually SMEs, who have suffered economic losses and other damages from infringements of the EU antitrust rules, such as...

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The EU Commission implicates major banks in cartel cases, threatens with...

Three major international banking firms Crédit Agricole, HSBC and JPMorgan Chase came yesterday again under the watchful eye of the European Commission, for their role in financial sector cartels...

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ECB bets billions on Eurozone’s economic recovery

Last Wednesday, one day ahead of the regular monthly meeting of European Central Bank’s Governing Council, Eurostat, the EU statistical service, published a Press release on Eurozone’s near zero...

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Junker for Commission President: What were the stakes in this affair

Jean-Claude Juncker’s was confirmed last Tuesday as President of the European Commission for the next five years. In a secret ballot 422 MEPs who voted for him and 250 against. This goes beyond what...

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Eurozone: Bankers-politicians rig keeps robbing taxpayers

Last week the European Commission ruthlessly wrote the last chapter of the Slovenian financial tragedy. In it, this nation of only two million people was forced by Brussels to save with around €7...

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ECB doesn’t dare touch Eurozone’s big banks

While the whole world knows that the Eurozone banks are very short on truly own capital and their overall leverage ratio is less than 3%, the European Central Bank avoids analysing in detail the exact...

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Renewed pressures on Berlin to adopt growth policies

Yesterday, the European Commission in Brussels announced that euro area growth prospects are sluggish, and downgraded the projected rate of GDP increase for 2014, from 1.2% to 1%. Also yesterday...

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The EU-US trade agreement, victim of right-wing extremists and security lunatics

The 17 days, that the extreme right (Tea Party politicians) of the US Republican Party forced the American administration to partially shut down, have already cost the GOP the mayorship of New York and...

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EU-US resume trade negotiations under the spell of NSA surveillance

Finally the second round of the EU-US trade negotiations is to be held this week from Monday to Friday 11 to 15 November in Brussels. The round was originally set for 7th-11th October but it was...

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Eurozone: Retail sales and inflation point to recession

Retail sales in Eurozone point to recession, having lost in September a part of their volume. According to Eurostat, “In September 2013 compared with August 2013, “Food, drinks and tobacco” fell by...

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The financial future of Eurozone on the agenda of Friday’s ECOFIN council

  The agenda of the Economic and Finance Ministers’ Council (ECOFIN) of 15 November in Brussels is very heavily loaded. The ‘Taxation of savings incomes’ and the ‘Revision of the Anti-Money Laundering...

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The European Parliament double-checks the EU 2014-2020 budget

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...

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Eurozone banks to separate risky activities: Can they stay afloat?

Yesterday EU Commissioner Michel Barnier, in an interview to the German financial newspaper ‘Handelsblatt’, said that the European Commission has decided to go ahead and propose legislation to...

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Not much of a help the new EU Directive on pensions

Labour mobility within the European Union is considered as the main decompression mechanism of social and economic pressures, created by differences in growth rates between member states. Looking for a...

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Is Eurozone heading towards a long stagnation?

“The euro area seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 12.1% in October 2013, down from 12.2% in September”. These are the first two lines of a brief announcement issued yesterday by Eurostat, the EU...

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Ukraine pays the price for lying between Russia and the EU

Yesterday, it was a difficult day in Brussels with the EU’s Eastern Partnership under stress, because of the violent suppression of the pro-western street protests in Kiev. This same day the Russian...

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Commission offers discount on fines to banks for competition infringements

Today, the European Commission fined 8 major banks a total of € 1.7 billion for participating in cartels rigging interest rate benchmarks in markets for financial derivatives covering the European...

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Commission: Gifts of €6 billion and free trainees to ‘help’ poor employers

This newspaper feels fully vindicated after yesterday’s announcement issued by the European Commission, stating that the EU’s executive arm is proposing a Council recommendation which will...

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Only a few months away from the single European patent space

In a major breakthrough development for EU’s internal market, the EU Justice Ministers agreed yesterday on a Commission proposal, to complete the legal framework of one pan-European patent universe....

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Resolving banks with depositors’ money?

Tomorrow’s Ecofin council, marking the last 2013 meeting of the 28 EU ministers of Finance, constitutes the final opportunity of the member states to strike an agreement in order to finalise the...

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Ukraine turns again to the EU for more money

Yesterday’s development, with half the Ukrainian government under deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Arbuzovin in Brussels to discuss and possibly sign the Association Agreement with the EU, in exchange of...

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A day that Berlin and Brussels would remember for a long time

It was not by accident that the President of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi chose the right time to ring the danger bell against a “bad Banking Union”, while speaking yesterday in the Monetary...

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Fair completion rules and the law of gravity don’t apply to banks

There is no end to EU Commission’s approvals of state aid and government bailouts of hundreds of EU struggling banks, as if the extensive fair competition legislation of the Union is valid for every...

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More taxpayers’ money for the banks

Within 24 hours, after the European Sting published on Thursday an article entitled, “Fair completion rules and the law of gravity don’t apply to banks”, and the responsible EU Commissioner Joaquín...

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Predicting two more years of economic stagnation

Yesterday, as expected, the European Central Bank kept its basic interest rate unchanged at 0.25%. As usually, the decision was taken in the meeting of the bank’s Governing Council, the first of 2014....

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Towards a seamless internal EU market for industrial goods

Twelve years after the ‘internal market’ initiative launched in 1992, with which the European Union erased the technical, fiscal and any other barrier impeding the internal circulation of goods within...

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The European Parliament x-rays the troika’s doings

The European Parliament launched an investigation on the functioning and the legitimisation of the troika, made up by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary...

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Eurostat confirms a dangerously fast falling inflation in Eurozone

Yesterday Eurostat confirmed that the euro area inflation rate for December was down to 0.8% from 0.9% in November, dangerously approaching  the negative part of the graph. The announcement coincided...

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Income inequality threatens the socio-political structures in developed...

Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of IMF, is not renowned for her social concerns and sensitivities. Yet, while speaking last week at the National Press Club, in Washington DC, about “The Global...

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Commission launches ‘Industrial Renaissance’ initiative

Last Wednesday the European Commission presented a ground-breaking communication for a “European Industrial Renaissance”. With it, the EU’s executive arm “is urging Member States to recognise the...

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War of words in Davos over Eurozone’s inflation/deflation

During the last two days, Friday and Saturday, of this year’s Davos gathering of the rich and powerful, an intense debate about Eurozone’s inflation or rather deflation, divided once again the Old...

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Foreign direct investments the success secrete of Eurozone

Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) are long-term placements in real economy business, not right away tradable, realized by investors residing outside the country. They should be sharply distinguished...

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The US banks drive the developing world to a catastrophe

How is it possible that the good news of the growth of the American economy which has raised its gear, also brings forth crisis and possibly destruction in developing countries? Yet this is exactly...

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Poor Greeks, Irish and Spaniards still pay for the faults of German and...

Government deficit decreased substantially in the third quarter of last year and reached -3.1% of the GDP in Eurozone. This is just one decimal point away from the 3% benchmark, set by the Treaty of...

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ECB tied in the anti-monetary German ideology

The European Central Bank President Mario Draghi had a very difficult job yesterday in bridging the Germanic insistence for monetary austerity with the need of supportive measures for the Eurozone real...

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The Swiss will pay dearly for voting out fellow Europeans

Xenophobics, racists and far right political extremists all over Europe have celebrated a razor-thin win of 50.3% in a Swiss referendum last Sunday, favoring an initiative “against mass immigration”....

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Commission to decide definitely on genetically modified Maize 1507 seed

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...

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Banking Union: ECOFIN and Parliament ready to compromise

The absolute necessity to conclude before May the trilateral negotiations on the functioning of the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) for failing banks and clarify the role of the Intergovernmental...

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South Eurozone urgently needs fairer distribution of taxation burden

Eurostat, the EU statistical service, published last week data on the evolution of tax revenues for the EU member states. A first reading reveals two very interesting developments. Both are connected...

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The EU Commission predicts a decimated growth in the next years

Yesterday, the European Commission after acknowledging that unemployment will continue ravaging more than half of Eurozone in the foreseeable future and predicting for this and next year a 0.1%...

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How can consumers be effectively protected from insurance sellers?

Yesterday, the European Parliament voted a series of amendments on a draft update of EU rules on the information and advice offered by insurance salesmen. The Press release issued afterwards by the...

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Ukraine: The West and Russia negotiate shares of influence

The seriousness of approach, the magnitude of the interest and the pertinence of the proposal the European Union adopted yesterday to end the stalemate in Ukraine can be seen in the kind of money the...

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How the EU sees its own and Russia’s role in Ukraine

Donald Tusk, the Prime Minister of Poland, after yesterday’s European Union summit of its 28 leaders convened to examine the situation in Ukraine, termed it as stormy. He added that the sanctions...

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Bank resolutions to remain a politically influenced affair

Today in Strasbourg the three EU decision making bodies, the Council as represented by its Greek Presidency, the Parliament and the Commission, in a procedure called ‘trilogue’ will try to bridge their...

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168 hours left for MEPs – ECOFIN Council to deliver a Banking Union

Contradicting messages are emitted from a statement issued yesterday by the lead MEPs currently negotiating the details of the legislation on the Single Resolution Mechanism and Fund for Eurozone banks...

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