The recent rescue of two ailing Italian banks -Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca-broke away from the standard bail-in procedures introduced by the EU. The trick used for implementing that circumvention was based on the official guarantee that the two lame ducks did not represent a systemic danger.
Yiannis Mouzakis via Macropolis | Over the period of nine months that it took to complete the second programme review, the role of the International Monetary Fund as Alexis Tsipras’s strongest ally to secure debt relief was one of the many curved balls that the flew past the Greek prime minister.
Nick Ottens via Atlantic Sentinel | Support for the European Union has gone up in the last year as voters have become more confident about their future, suggesting that anti-EU sentiment is closely tied to Europeans’ overall satisfaction in life.
France’s new, more liberal regime could refuel the polemic yet again over the necessity or otherwise of the government having an investment portfolio as it does at the moment. This “holding” is valued at close to 80 billion euros.
June 19 was day one of the Brexit negotiations. David Davis and Michel Barnier will be leading what is expected to be one of the most tantalising sets of negotiations in the history of European integration. Difficult decisions will have to be taken on a number of issues, such as the rights of EU citizens in the UK and UK citizens in the EU, the Irish border and the future of the UK-EU trade relationship.
J.L.M. Campuzano (Spanish Banking Association) | From recent ECB statistics, there would seem to be a recovery in financing in line with the monetary authority’s implict goal when it implemented its extreme measures.
While the IEA found positive developments in Hungary’s energy strategy, the country clearly has much more work to do to further develop and diversify its energy sector. Leaving behind unfair regulations and taxes on renewables wouldn’t be a bad start.
Lidia Conde | “There are risks, but there is no reason to panic. It’s important that people understand that we can’t do without globalisation. And also that Europe has so many strong points that it can position itself perfectly well in the world. Overall, Europe is still a producer of excellent ideas and high-quality products which can be exported all over the world,” says Karl-Heinz Paqué, Dean at the Faculty of Economics and Management in Otto von Guericke University.
Nick Malkoutzis via Macropolis | Did Greece get what it wanted out of Thursday’s meeting of eurozone finance ministers? This is the wrong question to ask. In the case of Eurogroup meetings, the first question that needs to be posed is whether German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble got what he wanted. Invariably, the answer is “yes.” Everything else flows from there.
Fernando Rodríguez | The suspension on short-selling in Liberbank, which the CNMV has enforced for a month, has not left stock market players indifferent. Experts, fund managers, traders, analysts and lawyers, traditionally opposed to interference in the workings of the capital markets, are doubtful about the reach of such an exceptional measure. At the same time, they support the usefulness of the short-sellers.