BRUSSELS | By Suzanne Lynch at The Irish Times via Presseurop | Ireland may choose to exit its bailout programme without the support of a precautionary credit line, the Minister for Finance said yesterday following a meeting with the International Monetary Fund in Washington.
LONDON | By The Economist via Presseurop | It’s not just sovereign borrowing; there are too many zombie firms and overindebted households.
PARIS | By Eric Sandin at Le Monde via Presseurop | In response to NSA eavesdropping and the massive collection of user data by Internet giants, it is up to the EU to lay the foundations for the future worldwide web. Because only Europe can guarantee a “responsible, shared” environment in which individuals can manage the data that concerns them.
LONDON | By BARCLAYS | EU Finance Ministers adopted the regulations that pave the way for a single bank supervision in the euro area. As we had expected, however, they failed to make significant progress on a single resolution mechanism. As long as the banking union remains incomplete, the link between banks and sovereigns will not be fully broken and financial fragmentation will continue to prevail.
CAIXIN | By George Soros | The euro crisis is now over but the visible uncertainty within markets lies in the fact that the system is still far from satisfactory.
HAMBURG | Via Presseurop |The Merkel government demands southern countries make far-reaching reforms, but denies responsibility for the consequences of the crisis. It is a harmful attitude for Europe as Germany prepares for its legislative elections, warns philosopher Jürgen Habermas. As he puts it, “Germany is not dancing on the volcano; it is asleep on it.”
LONDON | By Victor Jimenez | The recent push for apprenticeships the Prime Minister favours could be costlier in the long run against the meagre savings in higher education spending achieved in the short term.
PARIS | By Gregoire Fleurot, via Presseurope.eu | To overcome the crisis, many European countries are thinking about cutting back on paid holidays. A tempting idea, but one that could prove counter-productive.
BARCELONA | By Oriol Aspachs and Joan Daniel Pina, at CaixaBank research department | To date it is the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, who has set the pace of Europe’s construction. Without purporting to be a great leader, Germany is fulfilling this role.
MADRID | By David Fernández, financial analyst | According to a JP Morgan report, natural gas prices in the US are at least 50% cheaper than in the UK and just a third of what Germans pay.