European Commission


No Picture

Juncker Plan still raising some doubts

BRUSSELS | By Alexandre Mato | The European Commission has finally launched its promised €315bn plan to revive the continents stagnating economy. With concerns abounding about creating more debt within Members States, Brussels has turned to financial engineering to fill the investment gap with a very modest €21bn. The aim of the Juncker plan is to ultimately produce 1.3 million new jobs over the next three years.


No Picture

No `serious` fault found, France, Italy 2015 budgets pass EU review

MADRID | The Corner | The European Commission said on Tuesday it had found no serious fault with eurozone member states’ 2015 budget plans, clearing France and Italy after they made last-minute changes to meet EU demands. The budget review covered all 18 eurozone countries, with the focus on struggling France and Italy after Brussels told them that their original plans fell well short of what was required to meet European Union norms.


No Picture

Greece: Coalition reaches compromise on candidate for European Commission

ATHENS | Via Macropolis | Greece has decided to nominate current Defense Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos as its representative for the new European Commission after he proved to be the most appropriate compromise candidate. Avramopoulos’s nomination was confirmed on Sunday after Prime Minister Antonis Samaras spoke to one of the frontrunners for the job, ex-Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis to inform her that she would not get the nod.


juncker1

Juncker: will we see some Junck Bonds?

MADRID | The Corner | President elected of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker will officially start his mandate on November 1. He describes himself as a “champion of the social market economy” –although he says it would only work with social dialogue, insists that he is not a federalist and calls for a “re-industrialisation of Europe.” What else should we know about him.


Juncker

Juncker’s victory breaks EU’s financial heart

MADRID | By Ana Fuentes | Despite British PM David Cameron’s intense campaign against him, Jean-Claude Juncker was chosen as European Commission new president on Friday with 26 out of 28 heads of states’ votes. Candidate of the centre right European People’s party, the largest group in the parliament, and a veteran EU deal-broker, Luxembourg’s former PM vows for increasing the power of Brussels and reducing the voice of nation states. He’ll be officially appointed on July 16 with the strong opposition of the EU’s financial centre.

 


dd666fdee7737a27a2ae6a6dfc62c9a8

Durao Barroso points to Bank of Spain’s “serious mistakes” in supervising crisis

SANTANDER | By Ana Fuentes | European Commission President José Manuel Durao Barroso chose his last days in the job to dot the i’s and cross the t’s. Surprising many by his candor, he directly accused the Bank of Spain of making “important mistakes” supervising the financial sector. “It was not the EU nor Ms Merkel who originated the crisis,” he said.


apple ireland

EU’s probe on Apple puts multinationals tax deals under the spotlight

MADRID  | The Corner | The European Union may get tough on its country members having sweetheart tax deals with global corporations. So far Ireland (and possibly Luxembourg and the Netherlands soon) will have to submit information about its fiscal arrangements granted to multinationals like Apple, Amazon or Starbucks. The move came after last year the US Senate accused Ireland of giving a special fiscal treatment to Apple. Where are the loopholes?



No Picture

Brussels demands more austerity to Spain to meet deficit target, praises banks’ reform

MADRID | By The Corner | In its first surveillance report after the Spanish banking sector bailout, the EC believes that entities are stronger and cleaner. Even if NPLs ratio has not stabilized, banks “are shifting towards more stable funding, such as deposits, and are relying less on borrowing from the Eurosystem.” As market access conditions have greatly improved, Brussels Spain’s return to positive economic growth (using February data, when growth estimates for 2014 were 1% instead of 1.1%) and was positive about the labour market slight improvement, although it warned that jobless rate remains very high (26% 2Q13). Brussels considers that unless further austerity measures are adopted the crisis-battered country won’t meet its deficit goals.