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BackThe news over the past few weeks, that the Greek national debt was far greater than expected has put a lot of pressure on the Euro. The EU Commission reacted by imposing a rigid savings programme on Greece that the Greek Prime Minister intends to implement immediately. Particularly hit by the austerity course are the workers, who immediately took to the street to protest against pay cuts. The example of Greece now also raises the question as to the lack of economic policy coordination within the Eurozone.
Get out of debt, but how?
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BackThis week, the Ministers of Finance and Economic Affairs of the EU27 met in Brussels. On the agenda were the budgetary situation in Greece, which is a welcome opportunity for speculators to attack Greek state securities and the Euro, as well as an initial debate with the new Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier and the introduction of a paper on the future of the internal market by former Commissioner Mario Monti.
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BackLast week, the European Parliament (EP) voted on a new Framework Agreement on cooperation with the Commission. This will be newly negotiated for each legislative period. Barroso made far-reaching concessions and secure the still undecided votes of the MEPs for the “Team Barroso II” and his second term in office as the President of the European Commission.
Legislative Initiative reports request Commission to act at last
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BackThe European Parliament (EP) and the Council this week agreed by way of informal trialogue, to make community funds of € 100 million available to grant disadvantaged groups in the labour market micro credits to assist them in starting their own business. Right to the end, the issue of financing put the entire project into question. Agreement was reached almost at the last second, however, not without severely curtailing the original requests of the EP.
EP wanted more, but was not able to assert itself in the end
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BackThe coming into effect of the Lisbon Treaty will once again result in changes of the legislative process. From now on, Council and European Parliament have an equal say in the matter. A glance at the statistics shows that it can take years until both EU institutions, together with the author of the draft bill of the European Commission, come to an agreement: in extreme cases, negotiations of a new legislative act can last up to 13 years.
If Council and European Parliament come to an instant agreement, a legislative act can be passed in just one reading.
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BackThis week, the European Commission introduced the annual Social Situation Report and the first Special Eurobarometer Social Climate Survey. The latter concerns the subjective well-being of European citizens. The survey examines long-term social trends within the EU in more detail to obtain current, reliable and comprehensive information on the social situation. It is a shame though that the report uses data from 2006/2007, hence long before the outbreak of the financial and economic crisis.
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BackLast week, the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) of the European Parliament met in Brussels to discuss the impending issues within the area of financial market regulation. The deliberations of the MEPs, however, were very much under the impression of the far-reaching new proposals of the US President on tougher banking regulations, which caused quite a stir.
How should banks be regulated in future?
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BackIn the European Parliament this week, the European social partners launched a debate on the EU 2020 Strategy, which will build on the achievements of the Lisbon Strategy. The aim was to get first reactions to the consultation document of the Commission. The majority of MEPs and European social partners, however, criticised the new proposal.
The European Commission started a public consultation on the EU 2020 Strategy on 24.11.2009 to turn the EU into a more intelligent and ecological social market.
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BackIncluding environmental costs into the calculation of the HGV toll hardly causes any additional costs. This is the result of a new study carried out by the Joint Research Centre, which was introduced in the Transport Committee of the European Parliament this week. The CO2 emission, however, would be significantly reduced and the authors expect a substantial welfare gain.
Six different transport corridors were examined in the study, including the Milano-Lübeck corridor, which partly leads through Austria.
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BackThousands of small investors in Austria recently lost their entire or at least a large part of their savings. One of the reasons was that investors were not, or not adequately, informed about possible risks. A proposal on a new Prospectus Directive could improve protection.