Wednesday, December 8, 2010

EEA-jelentés: nincs messze a 20 százalék

Az Európai Környezetvédelmi Ügynökség (EEA) múlt heti jelentése szerint az Európai Uniónak sikerült jelentős eredményeket elérnie a szennyezőanyag‑kibocsátás csökkentése és a megújuló energiaforrások alkalmazásának bővítése terén. Az EU kibocsátása az 1990-es évi kibocsátáshoz képest 17 százalékkal csökkent. „A jelentés közzétételének időpontja tökéletes, tekintve, hogy megkezdődtek a cancúni klímatárgyalások” – mondta Jerzy Buzek, az EP elnöke.
„A klímaváltozás kihat a polgárainkra: az ivóvíz minőségére, a táplálékra, amit megeszünk, a levegőre, mit belélegzünk. Nincs egyszerű megoldás. A jogalkotóknak, az üzletembereknek és a polgároknak együtt kell működniük. Többet kell tenni az éghajlatváltozás megfékezéséért. Az EU-nak meg kell felelnie a 30 százalékos CO2-csökkentési céljának, ahogy azt Európai Parlament múlt heti határozata megállapította”.
Link

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Dublin unveils radical austerity programme

The Irish government has unveiled a far-reaching austerity package with sweeping cuts and tax hikes in an effort to meet the tough conditions of an €85 billion EU-IMF bail-out plan, an architecture of adjustment that will radically alter the very structure of how the country is run.
It is a plan that will hit every citizen and sector of the Irish economy, but will hit working people, students and low-income earners the hardest, a move that has already provoked both a deep fury from many but also a bitter resignation amongst others.
Key measures include a slashing of welfare benefits, a hiking and broadening of income taxes, a sharp increase in university fees, the imposition of property taxes and water charges. Dublin hopes to save €15 billion over the next four years, including €10 billion in cuts and €5 billion in new taxes and other sources of revenue. The shocking sums come atop a total of €14.6 billion in austerity measures introduced in the wake of the wider economic crisis.
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"As Ireland is a small, open economy, our economic recovery will be export-led. This plan stimulates exports, increasing productivity and rebuilding competitiveness," the government said in a statement. The plan forecasts economic growth of 2.75 percent of GDP on average over 2011-2014, and hopes this will result in the creation of some 90,000 new jobs.
Dublin appears to have won the day against pressure from other EU member states and the commission that it hike its ultra-low corporation tax of 12.5 percent, calling the rate "a cornerstone of our industrial policy".
Acquiescing to an IMF demand that labour costs be slashed, pay for minimum wage earners will be reduced by a full 12 percent, higher than the 10 percent that had been predicted, from €8.65 an hour to €7.65.
Low-income earners have in recent years enjoyed considerable relief from income tax, with as many as 45 percent of employees not paying at all. This era has come to an end, with income tax from now on to be applied on all who earn over €15,300 a year, down from the current €18,300. The government hopes to raise an additional €1.9 billion this way.
VAT will also be jacked up a total of two percent, spread over the last two years of the four-year package, while water charges will be introduced by 2014.
Social welfare spending is to be lacerated by €2.8 billion and student 'registration fees' will climb from €1,500 to €2000, an adjustment of 33 percent. The figure is not as high however as had been feared, with early reports suggesting a doubling to €3,000.
The cuts in 2011 will be worth some four percent of GDP and over the four-year period, equivalent to a full 11 percent.
As part of the cuts to spending, public service staff levels will be reduced by 24,750 positions and salary adjustments, including a 10 percent pay cut and a new pension scheme for fresh hires, will shave off €1.2 billion in costs over the next four years.
Property owners will now be subject to a tax for the first time, to be initiated in 2012, and business owners will be slapped with a local services levy.
Euobserver

Monday, November 22, 2010

Lisbon 2010


This summit was not as exciting as other summits because we basically agreed on everything.”
Obama on the EU-US summit in Lisbon

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Ireland to request bailout package from European Unio

Ireland's Finance Minister, Brian Lenihan, is to recommend the debt laden country make a formal application for a bailout loan from the European Union and the IMF. He gave no indication of how much will be needed but said it would not be a 'three-figure sum' - reports today have put figure needed as high as €120bn - but said it would be "tens of billions of euros".
A rescue from the EU, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund has been wideley expected despite strong denials from Ireland. The recommendation will be made when the government meets later today to finalise a four-year plan to cut its budget deficit, he told RTE, the Irish broadcaster.
"The key issue is ensure we do not have a collapse of the banking sector," Mr Lenihan said in an interview. He acknowledged that Irish banks have become too dependant on ECB funds and had to be "weaned" a way from this funding. Mr Lenihan described the funding being applied for as 'a standby fund' and said not all of it would necessarily be drawn down.
Details of the bailout - or the conditions attached - will be the subject of discussion. However, the Irish government has been given a stark warning from some of the biggest American companies in Ireland on the risk of a mass exodus if the country's low corporation tax rate is raised.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Germany ups pressure on Ireland over business tax

Germany stepped up pressure on Ireland to raise its corporate tax rate on Tuesday with a senior finance expert in Chancellor Angela Merkel's party saying the Irish government could do so without hurting growth.
Dublin's 12.5 percent corporate tax rate, one of the lowest in the 27-nation European Union, has been a key part of its economic strategy and crucial to tempting big employers like Google Inc and Pfizer to Ireland.
Irish borrowing costs have surged in recent weeks and the country is now under pressure to ask the EU for financial assistance to help it cope with its fragile banks. It is unclear what kind of reforms the EU could demand in exchange for aid. But Michael Meister, a deputy leader in parliament and finance expert for Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), said the country needed to consider raising the levy. "The Irish rates are below the European Union average," Meister told Reuters on the sidelines of the CDU annual party congress in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe. "I therefore see here at least a possibility, given the high (Irish) budget deficit, to improve revenues without causing a negative impact on growth," he added.
The low rate is a source of irritation in some European capitals, including Berlin, which view it as unfair competition and there has been a real fear in Dublin that Europe would demand an increase. Meister's comments come one day after Elmar Brok, a senior CDU lawmaker who has sat in the European Parliament since 1980, said Ireland may have no choice but to raise the rate. "Ireland has two options to consolidate its budget -- cut expenses even further or increase taxes like the corporate tax rate," Brok said at the congress in Karlsruhe.
Ireland is relying on exports to help the economy grow by a forecast 1.75 percent next year and has repeatedly said it will not increase the rate it taxes the output of multi-nationals. A 2008 report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said that on average studies find that a one percentage point increase in the effective corporate tax rate leads to a 3.7 percent decline in foreign direct investment.
Reuters

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Thursday, September 16, 2010

EU agrees trade concessions to flood-hit Pakistan

The European Union has agreed to make trade concessions to Pakistan to help it overcome the impact of flooding, diplomats say. They say the deal could allow Pakistan significant reductions in duties paid on textile exports to EU countries.
Any move to grant Pakistan a waiver on textile duties would also require the consent of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to ensure trade rules are not violated. The details will be determined in the coming weeks, with the European Commission working with the WTO to finalise how the concessions can be be implemented.
Meanwhile, some of the estimated 10 million Pakistanis displaced from their homes by the massive July monsoon floods have begun tentative salvage operations.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Orban Confirms Hungary Pledge to Meet European Union Budget Deficit Limit

Hungarian Premier Viktor Orban reiterated his Cabinet’s pledge to cut the budget deficit to no more than 3 percent of economic output in 2011 as the country braces for currency volatility.
“This year we can’t stretch further than 3.8 percent and for next year, I don’t suggest stretching further than 3 percent,” Orban said in a speech to Parliament, referring to the budget targets.
Hungary last week gave up a drive to raise next year’s deficit target, bowing to pressure from the European Union, which helped give a 20 billion-euro bailout ($26 billion) to the country two years ago. The government’s commitment to the target came after EU finance ministers told Hungarian officials during a meeting in Brussels last week that they had no other choice if the country wanted backing from the bloc, Economy Minister Gyorgy Matolcsy said on Sept. 8.
The Economy Ministry will submit the 2011 budget and future tax plans to the government in the middle of October, Matolcsy said today.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

EU expected to expand free trade agreements to South Korea

The European Union wants to expand its free trade agreements to include South Korea and is expected to reach an agreement between its trade ministers after the weekend.
The lifting of import tariffs would be a boost to the Korean automakers Hyundai and Kia Motors Corp. who are known for manufacturing low-cost vehicles.
The delay before the weekend and the objection to the free trade agreement comes primarily from Italy and its automaker Fiat Spa. Fiat fears unfair price competition if the import tariffs are lifted since the company operates in the same small to mid-size sedan market segment. The Italian automaker is also trying to carve out a niche in the US auto market now that it owns a 25% stake in Chrysler.
The free trade agreement would save EU exporters 1.6 billion euros and the exporters 1.1 billion annually based on all traded goods. The EU would benefit from the new free trade agreement as it would allow European exporters to more easily trade their goods in the South Korean market without specific standards or requirements.
examiner.com

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Európai szemeszter

Az uniós országok pénzügyminiszterei jóváhagyták azt a javaslatot, mely szerint a jövő évtől kezdve minden tagállam még a nemzeti jóváhagyás előtt ismerteti a többi tagországgal költségvetési tervét.
A jövőre induló rendszer értelmében az Európai Bizottság jelentése alapján a tagállamok kormányait képviselő Tanács minden év elején meghatározza majd az unió előtt álló gazdasági kihívásokat, és stratégiai iránymutatásokat ad ezek leküzdéséhez. A tagországoknak ezt figyelembe véve április végéig szükség esetén módosítaniuk kell középtávú pénzügyi stratégiájukat, illetve nemzeti reformprogramjukat. Nyáron a tagállamok ugyancsak uniós iránymutatást kapnak a következő évre vonatkozó költségvetésükkel kapcsolatban. A rendszer - a miniszterek keddi brüsszeli üléséről kiadott közlemény szerint - lehetővé teszi, hogy fél éven át párhuzamosan figyelemmel kövessék a tagországok gazdaságpolitikáját, és időben kiderüljön, ha az eltérést mutat az uniós iránytól, illetve ha egyensúlytalanság van kibontakozóban.
Az uniós zsargonban európai szemeszternek nevezett új rendszert az EU-n belüli gazdasági együttműködés javításán dolgozó - Herman Van Rompuy EU-elnök vezette - munkacsoport dolgozta ki. A csoportot (amely gyakorlatilag a pénzügyminiszterekből áll) annak érdekében állították fel a tagországok állam- és kormányfői, hogy dolgozzon ki olyan szabályokat, amelyek lehetővé teszik a gazdasági válságok megelőzését, illetve könnyebb kezelhetőségét a jövőben. Van Rompuy a kormányfők október végi találkozóján számol be arról, milyen javaslatok születtek a munkacsoportban.

Friday, September 3, 2010

Sweden, Finland urge EU to open peace institute

Sweden and Finland are urging the European Union to create an independent peace institute to broaden the scope of the bloc's peacekeeping efforts around the world.
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and his Finnish counterpart Alexander Stubb say an independent think tank could have better opportunities to help solve conflicts than traditional diplomacy. Their proposed institute would be modeled on the U.S. Institute of Peace, which is funded by the U.S. Congress but run by an independent board.
The ministers sent a letter with the suggestion to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Friday. They said they hoped to get support from other EU member countries for the initiative.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

EU, Euro Zone GDP posts fastest growth in four years

Gross Domestic Product in both the European Union and the Eurozone increased 1 percent during the second quarter of 2010, compared with the previous quarter, according to first estimates released by Eurostat. The figures show the EU and the Euro Zone have rebounded strongly as compared to the first quarter of the year. According to the statistical office of the European Union, growth rates in the first quarter of 2010 were 0.3 percent in both zones.
GDP growth in the EU and the euro common area was the fastest in four years, outstripping rivals United States and Japan. In comparison, the United States GDP increased 0.4 percent during the second quarter of 2010, after 0.9 percent rise in the first quarter of 2010. In Japan, GDP rose a nominal 0.1 percent in the second quarter of 2010, after 1.1 percent growth in the previous quarter.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Germany and France lead way in 'two-speed recovery'

The economic recovery of the eurozone slightly lost its momentum in August, with most of the growth dependent on the performance of Germany and France, a purchasing managers' index survey published on Monday (23 August) showed.
According to the preliminary figures from Markit, a UK-based research firm, the eurozone composite output index, which measures activity across the private sector, including the manufacturing and services sectors, fell to a two-month low of 56.1 in August, down from 56.7 in July.
While the outcome of the whole single currency bloc is "solid," Markit wrote in a press release, there are "worrying divergences" between national economies, as growth is largely dependent on Germany and France.
"Growth in the rest of the euro area slowed to near stagnation, and services even contracted again as austerity measures bite," Chris Williamson, the company's chief economist said.
There is little evidence to suggest that buoyant business conditions from France and Germany "are spilling over to the benefit of the periphery," he added, noting that this could spell further divergence in the euro area's "two-speed recovery."
Flash estimates from the EU statistic office Eurostat, published on 13 August, confirmed Germany as a leader of Europe's economic recovery with a GDP growth rate of 2.2 percent in the second quarter of 2010, the best German result since re-unification in 1990. France's GDP increased by 0.6 percent, while Spain, Italy and Portugal each reported increases of less than 0.5 percent. The EU's overall growth was 1.7 percent.
Euobserver

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Germany turbocharges EU economy

The strongest economic growth in Germany in two decades powered Europe's economic recovery ahead of the United States. The eurozone economy grew by 1 percent in the second quarter, its biggest quarterly expansion since the second quarter of 2006, the European Union's Eurostat statistics agency said Friday.
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Beating all analyst forecasts, Germany's economy in the second quarter of 2010 grew by 2.2 percent compared to the first three months of the year, its fastest growth in two decades. In comparison with the same time last year, Germany's economy grew by 4.1 percent, the Federal Statistical Office said Friday.

Link

France proposes EU reaction force for natural disasters

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for the EU to set up a joint rapid reaction force to handle natural disasters such as earthquakes, wildfires and floods. In a letter to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso published on Sunday (15 August), Mr Sarkozy addressed the issue of the EU's ability to react under its own name in connection to the recent floods in Pakistan.

"It seems essential, for obvious political and humanitarian reasons, that Europe shows its solidarity with the Pakistani people visibly. The interest of Europe is also to ensure the development and stability of this country," he wrote. Following the earthquake in Haiti and wildfires in Russia, says the letter, the EU "must take the necessary measures and build a real EU reaction force ... that draws on the resources of the member states." France is to draw up proposals for the force in the near future, it adds.

Paris announced Sunday that a plane with 60 tonnes of humanitarian aid will be sent to Pakistan, with Mr Sarkozy saying France is prepared to use its Nato military forces to help transport the aid. France has already allocated €1 million to Pakistan since the start of the floods, which are estimated to have affected 20 million people.

Last Wednesday (11 August), the commission said it would provide Pakistan with €10 million in immediate emergency aid, in addition to €30 million allocated in July. EU foreign ministers are to also discuss a long term aid plan for Pakistan at an informal meeting in September.

With wildfire smog returning to Moscow over the weekend, Russia itself indicated it would be interested in joining a multilateral crisis response force. "The United States and the EU have now come to the same conclusion. I think we will come to this, and such capabilities will have to be established," he told the Ria Novosti news agency.

Euobserver Link

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Slovakia: No Funds for Greece Bailout

Slovakia’s parliament rejected the nation’s participation in a loan for Greece, ending the European Union’s unity in handling the sovereign-debt crisis. The 69-1 vote, with 14 abstentions, reversed a decision by the previous Cabinet to lend Greece 816 million euros ($1.1 billion). Prime Minister Iveta Radicova's month-old government opposed the aid, saying poor countries shouldn’t pay for the profligacy of richer peers.

“The Slovak share is small, so it shouldn’t have much impact on the big picture,” said Timothy Ash, head of emerging markets research at Royal Bank of Scotland Plc in London. “On the other hand, the rejection is clearly a disappointment for the European Commission as Slovaks are thinking outside the box.”

Olli Rehn, the EU’s economic affairs commissioner, called Slovakia’s decision a “breach of the commitment” the previous government made as part of the so-called eurogroup of countries. “The eurogroup’s decision was a crucial act at a critical moment to safeguard financial stability of the euro area as a whole, including Slovakia,” Rehn said today in a statement. “I can only regret this breach of solidarity within the euro area, and I expect the Eurogroup and the Ecofin Council to return to the matter in their next meeting.”

Slovak Finance Minister Ivan Miklos has said EU fiscal rules should be changed to allow for the default of euro-member nations. Slovakia, the euro region’s poorest member by per- capita gross domestic product, was asked to pay too large a share of the Greek loan package, he said July 30.

“Many people in Germany and rich EU countries would have a lot of understanding for the Slovak position,” Ash said. “It shouldn’t be inevitable that every country gets a bailout.”

Earlier, lawmakers approved Slovakia’s participation in the European Financial Stabilization Facility, an entity that would sell debt secured by 440 billion euros in national guarantees and use the proceeds to provide loans to distressed euro-region members. Slovakia’s share in potential guarantees amounts to 4.4 billion euros.

Bloomberg

Monday, July 26, 2010

Megkezdődnek a csatlakozási tárgyalások Izlanddal

Az Európai Unió általános ügyekkel foglalkozó Tanácsa tegnap (2010. július 26.) zöld utat adott az Izlanddal folytatott tárgyalások megkezdésének – a skandináv ország csatlakozásáról szóló egyeztetések ma veszik kezdetüket egy kormányközi konferencia keretében.
Euvonal

Monday, July 19, 2010

Czech Fiscal Plans

The Czech Republic’s credit rating may be increased if the new government delivers on its promise to cut the budget deficit, Moody’s Investors Service said, pushing the koruna up as other east-European currencies fell.
The three-party government, named on July 13, has pledged to reduce the public-finance deficit to the European Union limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product by 2013, from the 2010 target of 5.3 percent. Moody’s rates the Czech Republic A1, its fifth-highest investment grade, with a stable outlook. “If we see a resumption of real convergence towards core Europe that could put upward pressure on the rating,” Dietmar Hornung, a senior sovereign-risk group analyst at Moody’s, said in a July 16 interview. “And if the fiscal plans were to be implemented as planned and result in stabilization” of debt ratios “that would also be reassuring.”
The deficit widened last year as the global economic crisis cut demand for Czech exports, including cars made by the local units of Volkswagen AG and Hyundai Motor Co., slashing tax revenue. The EU is increasing penalties on members that flout budget rules after Greece’s spiraling deficit undermined confidence in the euro.
The Czech Republic’s debt rose to 35.4 percent of GDP last year, from 30 percent in 2008, less than the 60 percent limit for joining the euro.
“The Czech Republic is acting as a stabilizing element in the region,” said Prague-based Raiffeisen Bank analyst Michal Brozka in a note to clients, referring to Hornung’s comments. The new government has 118 seats in the 200-member lower house of parliament, giving it the strongest majority since the country became an independent state in 1993. That creates “preconditions for removing the gridlock” that hampered efforts to overhaul government finances, Hornung said.
The Finance Ministry forecasts the economy will grow 1.6 percent this year and 2.3 percent in 2011, after a 4.1 percent contraction in 2009. The European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, estimates the euro area’s economy will grow 0.9 percent this year and 1.5 percent in 2011.
Businessweek

Saturday, July 17, 2010

European IT Research Gets €1.2 Billion From EU

The European Union is set to add €1.2 billion (US$1.5 billion) in funding for IT research in Europe, and about half the amount is earmarked for robotic systems, next generation network and service infrastructures, electronic and photonic components and digital content technologies.
Emphasis will be placed on technologies that address societal challenges such as climate change, energy and food security, health and an aging population, said Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn as she announced the new funding on Monday.

Friday, July 16, 2010

A legbefolyásosabb tagállamok a 30 százalékos széndioxid-csökkentés mellett

Az Egyesült Királyság, Franciaország és Németország miniszterei együtt szólították fel az Európai Uniót, hogy emelje 30 százalékra a 2020-ra megállapított kibocsátás-csökkentési célt.
Az EU jelenlegi célszáma nem lesz elég a zöld innováció serkentésére és Európa versenyben tartására az ún. „tiszta” technológiák terén, nyilatkozta Chris Huhne, az Egyesült Királyság energiaügyi és klímaváltozásért felelős minisztere, Nobert Röttgen, a német környezetvédelmi miniszter és a francia környezetvédelmi miniszter, Jean-Louis Borloo a Financial Timesnak címzett levelükben.
Az Európai Unió 2008 végén fogadta el energia- és klímacsomagját, melyben azt vállalta, hogy 2020-ig 20 százalékkal csökkenti az üvegházhatást okozó gázok kibocsátását. Az EU három legbefolyásosabb tagállamának miniszterei első alkalommal fogtak össze, hogy az egyoldalú 30 százalékos cél mellett érveljenek.
„Ha a 20 százalékos célhoz ragaszkodunk, Európa valószínűleg elveszti a versenyt az alacsony széndioxid-kibocsátású [low-carbon] világban, olyan országokkal szemben, mint Kína, Japán, vagy éppen az Egyesült Államok, melyek mind vonzóbb környezetet próbálnak teremteni a low-carbon befektetések számára” – írták a miniszterek.
Ez az elmozdulás a német álláspont jelentős változását jelzi, Berlin korábban az EU hivatalos álláspontját támogatta, mely szerint a 30 százalékos kibocsátás-csökkentést csak akkor kellene megvalósítani, ha más iparosodott országok hasonló mértékű kötelezettségeket vállalnak az ENSZ tárgyalásokon az új klímaegyezmény tárgyalásai során.
A Bizottság májusban kiszámította, hogy a recesszió miatt a 30 százalékos csökkentés most csak 11 milliárd euróval kerülne többe, mint amire a tagállamok két évvel ezelőtt vállalkoztak, amikor a 20 százalékos célt megállapították. Connie Hedegaard klímavédelemért felelős európai biztos ugyanakkor úgy vélekedik, hogy a célszám emelésének most nem lenne értelme, mert szerinte a feltételek még nem megfelelőek ehhez.
Az európai üzleti körök vehemensen ellenzik a klímavállalások emelését, azzal érvelve, hogy ezzel versenyhátrányba kényszerítenék az uniós ipart. „Rossz jelzést küldene az európai ipar számára a gazdasági válság idején” – jelentette ki Jürgen R. Thumann, a Business Europe üzleti lobbi elnöke.
Euvonal

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Romania to Raise Taxes

Romania said it would raise taxes to shore up state finances as it seeks to qualify for continued help from the International Monetary Fund and other lenders and reassure jittery markets focused on government spending and debt. Cabinet ministers approved the tax increase at an emergency meeting Saturday in order to plug a hole in the budget created Friday when the country's highest court declared that government-imposed pension cuts were unconstitutional.
Friday's court ruling, which called into question the government's ability to carry out its austerity plans, jolted markets and pushed the Romanian currency, stocks and bonds sharply lower. The currencies of neighboring Hungary and Poland also lost ground on fears those countries could have trouble curbing deficits. The cabinet's decision to boost the value-added tax to 24% from the current 19% will solve the immediate problem of holding the government budget deficit to the promised 6.8% of gross domestic product. But it is also likely to serve as a further break on economic expansion in a country where GDP fell more than 7% last year.

Friday, June 18, 2010

EU greenlights Estonia eurozone entry in 2011

Leaders of the 27 European Union nations on Thursday gave their green light for Estonia to adopt the troubled euro currency as of January 1, 2011.
According to the latest EU estimates, Estonia will post a public deficit amounting to 2.4 percent of gross domestic product this year and debt of 9.6 percent of GDP -- levels which most of Europe can only dream of. However, the European Central Bank has warned Estonia that it could struggle to keep inflation under control once it joins the eurozone.
The country shifted rapidly from a communist command economy to the free market after breaking from the crumbling Soviet bloc in 1991 and its economy began to grow quickly, especially after joining the European Union in 2004. Hit by the global crisis in 2008, Estonia's government slashed public spending to confront the crisis and maintain its drive to switch from the national currency, the kroon, to the euro. The Estonian kroon was created in 1992 to replace the Soviet ruble. First pegged to the German mark, it was then linked to the euro in 2002 and its rate has not changed since
AFP

Thursday, June 17, 2010

EU invites Iceland to membership talks

European Union leaders agreed Thursday to open membership negotiations with Iceland despite differences over whale hunting and a bank collapse that hit British and Dutch investors. European heads of state and government meeting in Brussels gave Iceland candidate status less than a year after it applied to join the 27-nation bloc.
Britain and the Netherlands said the talks should go hand in hand with negotiations over demands that Iceland reimburse compensation paid out by those two countries to citizens who held accounts at the failed Icesave bank. "My government is fully committed to resolving this issue," Johannesson said. "It's a bilateral issue."
Dutch Prime Minister Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said that while his country wasn't blocking the start of Iceland's membership negotiations. "before it can become a member, it will have to fulfil its obligations toward Britain and the Netherlands."
The Icelandic authorities will also have to make extensive moves towards shutting down their controversial whaling industry before they can think of taking their seat in Brussels, as European rules ban whale hunting.
Iceland's application to join the European Union and adopt the euro as its currency, which it lodged in July 2009, could also stumble on the issue of access for European fleets to Icelandic fishing waters.
But potential problems are not only with its would-be partners. An opinion poll this week showed a substantial majority of Icelanders want their government to tear up the EU application form. A national referendum will have to be held before Iceland can join the EU club. In a March referendum Icelanders massively rejected a deal to pay Britain and the Netherlands billions for their losses in the collapse of the Icesave bank.
It was only after the global financial hurricane battered its banks, forced its currency down and pushed it to the International Monetary Fund cap in hand that Reykjavik decided to apply for EU membership.
However European capitals see Iceland as a natural fit for the EU, as long as the obvious hurdles can be overcome. "There are a lot of conditions to be fulfilled but in due course Iceland can become a member of the club," said EU president Herman Van Rompuy.
AFP

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Tőkés Lászlót az EP alelnökévé választották

A néppárti frakció jelöltjét, Tőkés Lászlót az Európai Parlament egyik alelnökévé választották kedden (2010. június 15.).
Tőkés Lászlót 334 szavazattal, 287 tartózkodás mellett választották a tizennégy alelnök egyikévé, miután a korábbi magyar EP-alelnök, Schmitt Pál lemondott európai parlamenti mandátumáról és a Magyar Országgyűlés elnöke lett.
Az alelnök - csakúgy, mint az elnök - irányítja az Európai Parlament és szervei (az Elnökség, illetve az Elnökök Értekezlete) munkáját, valamint vezeti a plenáris ülésszakokon folytatott vitákat. Amennyiben az elnök nincs jelen, vagy akadályoztatva van hivatali kötelességei ellátásában, illetve ha részt kíván venni valamilyen parlamenti vitában, az egyik alelnök veszi át az elnöklést. Az elnök bármely megbízatást átruházhat az alelnökökre, például a Parlament képviseletét ünnepi alkalmakkor vagy eseményeken. (Az alelnökök feladatait az EP Eljárási Szabályzatának20. cikke rögzíti.)
Euvonal

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Franco-German relations hit new low

The French president has surrendered to the German Chancellor's demands on EU economic governance and her idea of "red cards" for member states that break spending rules set in Brussels. Mr Sarkozy had been determined to create an "economic government" of the 16 eurozone countries with a powerful secretariat to coordinate national budgets, tax and spending.
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President Sarkozy was then bludgeoned into accepting a German ultimatum that euro zone states that persistently breach budget deficit limits should have their voting rights suspended on economic issues, even if that requires changing the EU treaty. Previously, the issue of treaty change has been taboo for Mr Sarkozy who fears a French referendum. "If a treaty change is needed we will propose it," he conceded in Berlin.

Centre-right coalition set to take over in Slovakia

Slovakia's governing Smer-Social Democracy have boosted their support by six percent in the weekend's general election to win 62 seats, far and away the most popular party. But current Prime Minister Robert Fico will most likely not return to power, as support for his two hard-right coalition partners slumped, and all four centre-right opposition parties have ruled out working with his centre-left group.
On Monday (14 June), Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic approached Mr Fico, asking him to form a government without a majority in the 150-seat chamber. However, despite the president's move, the opposition parties, with a total of 79 seats, have already launched coalition talks among themselves.
Smer won 36 percent of the vote, almost double the next closest party, the conservative Slovak Christian and Democratic Union (SDKU-DS) of sociology professor Iveta Radicova, the likely next prime minister, who won 15.4 percent, down some three percent from the last general election in 2006. The free-market liberals of Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) - who are strongly pro-business but also favour drugs liberalisation and same-sex marriage - came second on 12.1 percent, followed by the country's second Christian Democratic party, the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) of former EU education commissioner Jan Figel on 8.5 percent, and Most-HID, an ethnic Hungarian grouping, on 8.1 percent.
The four parties should have little trouble working together, although there are frictions between the two Christian Democratic groups.
Mr Fico's main coalition partner, the extreme-right Slovak National Party, slid 11 seats down to nine on 5.07 percent - only barely above the five-percent threshold required to enter the Narodna rada, while the nationalists of former prime minister Vladimir Meciar, the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (LS-HZDS), won no seats at all.
The priorities of what will likely be a highly fiscally conservative government will focus on slashing spending in what is already the poorest country in the euro area. The country's budget deficit was 6.8 percent in 2009, well above the three-percent limit for eurozone members.
Euobserver

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Hungarian Leader Announces 29-Point Budgetary Plan

The prime minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban, introduced a mix of cost-cutting and tax measures Tuesday, including cuts in public-sector wages and new levies on banks, as part of its efforts to reassure jittery investors that the country could reach its budgetary targets.
“The time has come to replace the country’s old economic system with a new one,” Mr. Orban said, introducing the measures before Parliament, which was expected to approve them...

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Germany moves to save $96 billion

Germany will cut welfare benefits, introduce new taxes and shed government jobs to save as much as euro80 billion ($96 billion) through 2014 and set an example for the rest of Europe, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday.
The wide-ranging savings package finalized by the Cabinet includes trims in social programs such a subsidy for new parents who stay home, more taxation for the nuclear power industry, and delaying the building of a replica of a Prussian palace in the heart of Berlin.
Merkel said as many as 15,000 federal government jobs could be shed through 2014.
In addition, the government wants to levy a special charge on passengers flying from German airports until aviation is included in an international carbon dioxide emissions trading scheme. Looking farther ahead, the Cabinet said it hopes to save money by reforming the military and will consider trimming the 250,000-strong force by up to 40,000.
The new nuclear tax is aimed at netting euro10 billion throughout 2014, but the bulk of the savings will come from the welfare budget — a total of euro30 billion.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Képviselőcsere

Schmitt Pál fideszes EP-képviselő helyét Pelczné Gáll Ildikó veszi át az Európai Parlamentben; Balczó Zoltán jobbikos képviselőt pedig Kovács Béla váltja, miután Schmitt és Balczó hazatérnek a magyar törvényhozásba, mert az áprilisi választáson a magyar Országgyűlésben is mandátumot nyertek.
Euvonal

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Hungary’s Orban Assumes Power

Viktor Orban returned to power as Hungary’s prime minister after eight years in opposition, pledging to accelerate economic growth in the first European Union member to obtain a bailout in the credit crisis.
Orban has yet to unveil details of his economic policy plans. He will have to balance pledges to cut taxes and boost growth after the worst recession in 18 years with investor concern that the new administration will loosen fiscal policy at a time when the euro area’s debt crisis prompts countries from Greece to England to cut spending to defend the euro.
“Fiscal risks in Hungary are particularly high and the government appears to be shifting its focus away from budget responsibility at a time when the euro zone is mired in a sovereign debt crisis,” Neil Shearing, a London-based emerging- market economist, said in a note to clients this week.
The Cabinet will place job creation and growth above budget discipline, Gyorgy Matolcsy, the new Economy and Finance Minister, said during a parliamentary committee hearing on May 25. Hungary can only “outgrow” its debt level, the highest among the EU’s eastern members at an estimated 79 percent of gross domestic product this year, he said, referring to lowering the ratio by accelerating growth.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

$30 Billion of Budget Cuts

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Italy’s planned 24.9 billion euros ($30.4 billion) of budget cuts over the next two years are “absolutely necessary” to defend the euro.
The measures are part of a European effort to convince investors the region can tame budget deficits and shore up the euro, which has fallen 15 percent this year. The package aims to reduce Italy’s budget gap an additional 1.6 percent of gross domestic product to bring the shortfall within the EU limit of 3 percent of GDP in 2012 from 5.3 percent last year.
Italy’s cuts include a three-year wage freeze for civil servants, a 10 percent budget cut for ministries, 4.5 billion euros in reduced transfers to regional governments, a partial amnesty on illegal construction and a crackdown on tax evasion.
Berlusconi said that while public spending that accounts for about half of GDP needed to be scaled back, the measures also aim to combat tax evasion and rein in the underground economy. Those steps include requiring the use of credit cards, checks or other traceable means for any transactions of more than 5,000 euros. Italy misses out on about 100 billion euros a year in unpaid taxes and that helps create Europe’s second-biggest underground economy after Greece, worth about 270 billion euros, or 22 percent of GDP, Berlusconi said. The plan also calls for a crackdown on false disability claims. Italy pays 16 billion euros a year in benefits to 2.7 million people claiming disabilities, Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti said.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-26/berlusconi-says-30-billion-of-budget-cuts-needed-to-save-euro.html

Monday, May 10, 2010

Mentőcsomag az euró elleni spekulációs támadások elhárítására

Az uniós tagállamok pénzügyminiszterei hétfő hajnalban, Brüsszelben a közös fizetőeszköz, az euró védelmében több milliárdos mentőcsomagot szavaztak meg. Az 500 milliárd eurós csomagról szóló döntés a közös valuta elleni spekulációs támadások elhárítását célozza.
A csomag részben hitelről, részben hitelgaranciáról szól. Ebben az összegben nincs benne azonban az a hitelkeret, amelyre szükség esetén - vagyis ha fizetési gondjai támadnának az eurózóna valamelyik országának - a Nemzetközi Valutaalaptól (IMF) számítana az Európai Unió.
Az IMF-pénz további 220 milliárd eurót jelenthet, vagyis összesen 720 milliárdos lenne a teljes mentőcsomag értéke. A megbeszélésekről korábban kiszivárgott hírek arról szóltak, hogy a németek "csak" mintegy 100 milliárd eurónyi IMF-pénzkeretre számítanának.
Az 500 milliárd úgy tevődik össze, hogy 50 milliárdról 110 milliárdra - vagyis 60 milliárddal - növelik azt a hitelkeretet, amely eddig csupán az eurózónán kívüli uniós tagállamok megsegítésére szolgált az Európai Bizottság közreműködése révén, de ezentúl a közös pénzzel fizető országok is részesedhetnének belőle.
A további 440 milliárdot az euróövezet országai bilaterális támogatás formájában bocsátanák rendelkezésre. A mentőmechanizmus a tagországok reményei szerint megakadályozhatja, hogy a görög pénzügyi válság az euróövezet más országaira is átterjedjen.
A tanácskozás versenyt futott az idővel, hogy a megállapodást még a főbb ázsiai piacok nyitása előtt elérjék, és azoknak pozitív üzenetet küldjenek.
Euvonal

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

ECB suspends rating threshold for Greek debt

The European Central Bank on Monday said it would suspend the application of the minimum credit rating threshold in the collateral eligibility requirements for credit operations in the case of debt instruments issued or guaranteed by the Greek government. This suspension will stay in place "until further notice."
On Sunday, the Greek government approved an economic and financial adjustment program, under which it would receive 110 billion euros from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
The ECB said the program was "appropriate." "This positive assessment and the strong commitment of the Greek government to fully implement the program are the basis, also from a risk management perspective, for the suspension announced herewith," the central bank said.
The suspension applies to all outstanding and new marketable debt instruments issued or guaranteed by the Greek government.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Greece Gets Aid, Promises Austerity


Euro-zone countries and the International Monetary Fund, seeking to halt a widening European debt crisis that has threatened the stability of the euro, agreed to extend Greece an unprecedented €110 billion ($147 billion) rescue in return for Draconian budget cuts.
Under the three-year agreement announced here late Sunday, Greece would receive €80 billion in loans from other euro-zone members and €30 billion from the IMF. The planned rescue is the largest ever attempted by the IMF and a first for the 16-member euro zone. It still requires final approval from national governments.
The bailout removes the worry that Greece won't meet its immediate funding needs—€8.5 billion in borrowings due May 19. But it introduces fresh questions, among them whether the country can bear the harsh budget-cutting measures that are the price of the aid.
The prospect of a rescue has been controversial in Europe. Some euro-zone countries, led by Germany, worried that a bailout would set a dangerous precedent by encouraging other members to flout the bloc's deficit and debt rules. A rival faction, led by France, favored speedy intervention, viewing the crisis as a moment of truth, both for the 11-year-old common currency and the broader European Union. The divide delayed action, which some critics say worsened the crisis by allowing it to spread to other countries, raising concerns about the cohesion of the euro zone.
Even with the austerity measures, Greece now projects that its debt, which last year stood at 115% of its gross domestic product, will surpass 140% by 2014 before it begins declining. That is worse than was believed even a few weeks ago. The budget cuts will slash the deficit from 13.6% of GDP last year to 8.1% this year. Economic output will fall 4% this year, Greece says.
(...)

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Germany says Europe needs its own rating agency

Germany's Foreign Minister says the European Union should create its own rating agency because of the financial crisis. Guido Westerwelle on Thursday told "WAZ" newspaper group the EU "should counter the work of rating agencies with efforts of its own."
Westerwelle said rating agencies must not develop, sell, and rate financial products all at the same time. He said such conflicts of interest must be ruled out.
Peter Bofinger, a member of the government's independent economic advisory panel, criticized Standard & Poor's move to lower the ratings for Greece and Portugal. The economist told the "Welt" newspaper that "we should not make the welfare of Europe dependent on rating agencies," pointing to their failure to spot problems ahead of the financial crisis.
AP

Thursday, April 22, 2010

EU Sovereign Debts Exploded In 2009

Recent predictions by ECB staff that warned of 16 years of pain before sovereign debt levels in the Eurozone would recede to the treaty level of 60% are getting backed up by the accelerating trajectory of the European debt pile-up, new Eurostat data shows. Desperately trying to immunize their countries against the Eurozone recession 2009, governments have embarked on a spending spree that resulted in an increase of public debts by a breathtaking 225% in 2008 and and an equally horrendous 211% in 2009, when they took on new debts of € 565 billion after €181 billion a year earlier.
So far these new stones around taxpayer's necks have not yet resulted in more than a modest bounce back in some industries that may find an explanation in the most recent decline in construction activity.
More...

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Greek Debt Costs Climb as Talks With IMF, EU Begin

Greece took a further battering from financial markets Wednesday as government officials began talks in Athens with the International Monetary Fund and the European Union over conditions for a package to help rescue the country from its debt crisis. Interest rates on Greek 10-year bonds rose above 8%, the highest since Greece joined the euro in 2000, and the euro itself weakened.
Meanwhile, other bond markets around Europe displayed nervousness following a warning from the IMF that Greece's government-debt troubles could spread to other nations. Big budget deficits that have followed the economic slowdown and financial crisis promise a glut of government bonds in all major Western economies.
Meanwhile, other bond markets around Europe displayed nervousness following a warning from the IMF that Greece's government-debt troubles could spread to other nations. Big budget deficits that have followed the economic slowdown and financial crisis promise a glut of government bonds in all major Western economies.
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The IMF said Greece's troubles could represent a new phase of the global financial crisis. "In the near term, the main risk is that, if unchecked, market concerns about sovereign liquidity and solvency in Greece could turn into a full-blown sovereign-debt crisis, leading to some contagion," the IMF said in its World Economic Outlook published Wednesday.
In a separate report Tuesday, the IMF said that Portugal, and to a lesser extent Spain and Italy, were likely to suffer most from Greece's debt problems. European banks are big holders of Greek debt and would also suffer knock-on effects if Greece couldn't pay its way.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Bizottság vizsgálja a vulkánkitörés gazdasági hatásait

Az Európai Bizottság felméri a vulkánkitörés hatásait az európai gazdaságra - közölte José Manuel Barroso, az Európai Bizottság elnöke. A vulkánkitörés miatt számos uniós esemény megrendezése bizonytalan.
Barroso felkérte az uniós közlekedési biztost, hogy koordinálja az Európai Bizottság ezzel kapcsolatos lehetséges válaszait, és teljeskörűen értékeljék a vulkáni hamufelhő gazdasági hatásait, különösen a légi iparra gyakorolt hatásokra tekintettel. Barroso szerint fontos, hogy minden szóba jöhető intézkedést európai szinten hangoljanak össze.
A vulkáni hamufelhő miatt számos uniós rendezvény megrendezése kétségessé vált...

Saturday, April 10, 2010

EU mourns sudden death of Polish leader

The EU leadership remembered Polish President Lech Kaczynski on Saturday as a patriot to his nation, putting aside his eurosceptic views in the aftermath of his death in an air crash.
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Herman Van Rompuy, the former Belgian prime minister who is the European Union's first president, said the news of the crash in Russia that killed Kaczynski and a host of other Polish officials had left him "deeply upset".

Friday, April 2, 2010

EU to train Somali troops

The European Union has given the go-ahead for a military mission in Somalia, which reportedly aims to train Somali forces against local fighters.
The training mission known as 'EUTM' is led by Spain and involves around 100 troops plus several dozen additional staff. Germany and France have already committed troops to the mission and Britain is expected to participate.
The EUTM is expected to train around 2,000 Somali troops in coordination with international partners, in particular the United Nations, the African Union Mission in Somalia and the United States.
It is to start operation on April 7, mainly in Uganda, where some Somali forces are already stationed.
The goal of the mission is to strengthen Somalia's transitional government. However some members of the 27-nation bloc believe that without a long-term financial and political commitment, training Somali troops and providing them with guns could cause more problems than it will solve.
Somalia has had no effective government for 19 years. At least 21,000 Somalis have been killed since the start of 2007 due to ongoing violence and political conflicts in the country, 1.5 million have been uprooted from their homes, and nearly half a million are refugees in other countries in the region.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Feloszlik a Nyugat-Európai Unió

Az Európai Unió 10 tagállama tegnap (2010. március 31.) közös közleményben jelentette be, hogy feloszlatják az európai védelempolitika egyik úttörő intézményét, a Nyugat-Európai Uniót.
A nyilatkozat felhívta a figyelmet arra, hogy az Európai Unió reformszerződésének, a Lisszaboni Szerződésnek a tavaly december elsejei hatályba lépésével új szakasz kezdődött az európai biztonság- és védelempolitika szempontjából. Az Európai Unióról szóló szerződés 42.7 cikke ugyanis kimondja, hogy ha az EU valamely tagállamának területét fegyveres agresszió éri, akkor a többi EU-tagállamnak kötelessége segítséget nyújtani minden rendelkezésre álló eszközzel (kölcsönös védelmi klauzula). E segítségnyújtásban a kötelezettségvállalásnak és együttműködésnek összhangban kell állnia a NATO-kötelezettségvállalásokkal, hiszen a a közös védelem alapját a NATO jelenti.
Az 1954. október 23-án létrehozott Nyugat-európai Unió a közös európai védelem megteremtését igyekezett elősegíteni, majd a közép- és kelet-európai rendszerváltást követően a válságkezelés felé fordult. Mivel a NYEU a NATO és az Európai Unió árnyékában nehezen találta helyét, már az 1999. júniusi kölni csúcson döntés született az EU-ba való fokozatos beolvasztásáról. Egy 2000. novemberi döntésnek megfelelően 2001. július elsejével a szervezet érdemi működése megszűnt, de névlegesen eddig nem számolták fel. A brüsszeli székhelyű szervezet parlamenti közgyűlése tovább működött Párizsban, mintegy hatvan alkalmazottal, évi 13 millió eurós költségvetéssel.
A NYEU-ban tíz teljes jogú tagország fogott össze: Németország, Franciaország, Nagy-Britannia, Olaszország, Spanyolország, Portugália, Görögország, valamint a három Benelux állam. További 18 ország „társult tag”, „társult partner”, illetve „megfigyelő” státust kapott, de valamennyiüket összekapcsolja egymással a NATO- és/vagy az EU-tagság.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

EU Welcomes Serbia's Srebrenica Apology

The European Union praised Serbia on Wednesday for acknowledging its troubled past after parliament in Belgrade apologised over the 1995 killing of thousands of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica.
Nearly 13 hours of debate that ended after midnight highlighted deep divisions about Serbia's wartime past at a time when the country aspires to join the EU. "This is an important step for the country in facing its recent past, a process which is difficult but essential for Serbian society to go through," EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a joint statement with Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule. "This is not only important for Serbia, it is the key for the reconciliation for the whole region."
The Serbian resolution expressed sympathy to the victims and apologised for not doing enough to prevent the massacre, but stopped short of calling the killings "genocide." The measure was approved by 127 of the 149 deputies present in parliament. Some opposition parties left the chamber shortly before the vote.
"With this (declaration) the people of Serbia demonstrated they want to distance themselves from that monstrous crime," Serbian President Boris Tadic told a news conference.
The New York Times

Monday, March 29, 2010

United States and European Union Sign New Open Skies Agreement

The United States and the European Union have just agreed to a second Open Skies aviation agreement. This one significantly liberalizes transatlantic aviation regulations.
The first Open Skies deal, which came into force March of 2008, allowed unlimited access to and from Europe and the United States for international carriers. The second stage of this deal now seeks to allow European and American airlines to take major stakes in competitors.
Right now foreign control of United States carriers is currently capped at 25 percent. United States airlines can gain ownership of European Union carriers by 49.9 percent. Any effort to boost European ownership of American airlines more than this in the past would require approval from the United States Congress.
The European commission vice president responsible for transport, Siim Kallas, welcomed this as a major step forward. He said that both sides have agreed to increase regulatory co-operation and remove the barriers to market access that have been holding back the development of the world’s most important aviation markets. The European Union has long pressed for such an outcome. They said that it would represent a key step towards liberating the airline industry from the outdated regulatory constraints in the area of foreign investment that prevent it from acting like any other industry.
However, John Byerly, the chief United States Negotiator, said that the progress in the negotiations is far from assured. He insisted that the united States has made no commitments to change its ownership limits. He said that there are no requirements and no timetable. Thus, only time will tell what this new Open Skies Agreement will truly hold in store for the aviation world.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Megegyeztek az unió vezetői a görög támogatásról

Az uniós csúcson a tagállamok vezetői megállapodásra jutottak arról a pénzügyi mechanizmusról, amelyet szükség esetén az eurózónához tartozó Görögország vehet igénybe.
Különtalálkozójukon az eurócsoport 16 országának vezetői elfogadták Angela Merkel német kancellár és Nicolas Sarkozy francia elnök közösen kidolgozott tervét - jelentették be uniós diplomáciai források a tanácskozás helyszínén, Brüsszelben. A megállapodás szerint Athén a Nemzetközi Valutaalaptól (IMF), illetve kétoldalú alapon a többi euróövezeti országtól is hitelhez juthat, ha a piacokról normális feltételekkel már nem tud kölcsönözni.
A megállapodást azonnal üdvözölte Jeórjiosz Papandreu görög miniszterelnök, aki szerint az uniós szolidaritás szempontjából nagyon kielégítő megoldás született. Hangoztatta, hogy az EU és Görögország is tett egy fontos lépést előre. A kompromisszum szerint egyetlen tagállam számára sem kötelező Görögország segítése, de – mint José Sócrates portugál kormányfő elmondta – minden euróország jelezte, hogy szükség esetén részt vállal a hitelezésből.
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A kompromisszum része az is, hogy még idén döntenek az eurózónában érvényes pénzügyi fegyelem szigorításáról. Ennek az a célja, hogy a jövőben elkerüljék a göröghöz hasonló eseteket.
Euvonal

Saturday, March 20, 2010

EU Calls for Bank Collapse Fund

The European Union's finance executive called Friday for banks to pay into a fund that could be drawn upon in case of collapse, an effort to shield taxpayers from the fallout of future crises.
Officials are also calling for new ways to deal with insolvent financial groups that operate in multiple countries to avoid a repeat of the messy and expensive cross-border wrangling that followed the September 2008 collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers.
EU financial services commissioner Michel Barnier, who can draft new EU rules, said taxpayers should not pay for "the excesses and inconsiderate risk-taking of financial institutions."He said environmental rules insist that the polluter pays and "in financial matters, I don't see why it should be any different." He didn't promise to draft rules, saying he would first examine ways for sharing out the costs of bank failure.
The head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn also called on the European Union to come up with "a fire brigade" to deal with the collapse of banks that operate across several countries. He suggested that a new European resolution authority should deal with insolvent banks that would force shareholders and uninsured creditors to bear the costs of failure.
The new agency should be funded as far as possible by levies on financial groups and deposit insurance fees, he said, and should have clear guidelines on rescuing or dissolving a bank that splits its business across different nations.
ABC news

Monday, March 15, 2010

4 million jobs vanished in 2009

Official data show that some 4 million jobs disappeared in the European Union last year, when countries were struggling to emerge from recession. In a Monday release, the EU statistical agency Eurostat said EU employment numbers dropped 1.8 percent from 2008 and that 221.1 million people were working in the region in the last three months of the year.
In the 16 nations that use the euro, some 2.72 million jobs vanished as employment fell 1.8 percent from the previous year. Some 144 million were employed in the fourth quarter.
Eurostat says the highest number of job losses were in the manufacturng industry, construction and trade, transport and communication services. Agriculture and public administration, health and education added jobs.
AP

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Európa 2020

Középpontban az innováció, fenntartható fejlődés és a munkahelyteremtés
Az Európai Bizottság ma terjesztette elő az Európa 2020 stratégiát, amelynek célja a válságból való kilábalás és az európai gazdaság felkészítése a következő évtizedre.

Az Európa 2020 stratégia három, egymással összefüggő és egymást kölcsönösen erősítő szakpolitikai területre épül: intelligens növekedés, azaz a tudáson és innováción alapuló gazdaság kialakítása; fenntartható növekedés, azaz erőforrás-hatékonyabb, környezetbarátabb és versenyképesebb gazdaság létrehozása; és inkluzív növekedés, azaz a foglalkoztatás magas szintjét biztosító, szociális és területi kohéziót eredményező gazdaság ösztönzése.
A stratégia előterjesztése kapcsán Barroso a következőket nyilatkozta: „Az Európa 2020 stratégia arról szól, mit kell tennünk ma és holnap ahhoz, hogy az uniós gazdaságot visszaállítsuk a növekedési pályára. (...) Határozottan kell fellépnünk gyengeségeink orvoslására, és arra a – nem is kevés – területre kell építenünk, ahol erősek vagyunk. Új gazdasági modellt kell kialakítanunk, amely a tudáson, a környezetbarát gazdaságon és a foglalkoztatás magas szintjén alapul. Ehhez a küzdelemhez minden európai szereplő hozzájárulására szükség van. (...) Együtt sokkal erősebbek vagyunk, ezért a válságból csak úgy tudunk sikeresen kilábalni, ha gazdaságpolitikáinkat szorosan egyeztetjük. Ha nem így teszünk, a relatív hanyatlás „elvesztegetett évtizedének” nézünk elébe: jóvátehetetlenül lelassul a növekedés, és strukturálisan magas lesz a munkanélküliség.”
Az előrehaladást az unió öt kiemelt célkitűzés megvalósulása alapján értékeli majd, és a tagállamok feladata lesz, hogy ezeket a célkitűzéseket lebontsák a kiindulási helyzetet is tükröző, nemzeti szintű célokra. Az öt kiemelt uniós célkitűzés a következő:
  • A 20–64 évesek körében legalább 75 százalékra kell emelni a foglalkoztatás szintjét.
  • Az uniós GDP 3 %-át kutatásra és fejlesztésre kell fordítani.
  • Teljesíteni kell a „20/20/20” éghajlat-változási/energiaügyi célkitűzéseket.
  • Az iskolából kimaradók arányát 10% alá kell csökkenteni, és el kell érni, hogy az ifjabb generáció legalább 40 százaléka rendelkezzen felsőoktatási oklevéllel.
  • 20 millióval csökkenteni kell a szegénység kockázatának kitett lakosok számát.

A Bizottság e célok elérése érdekében javasolja az Európa 2020 programot, amely néhány, az alábbiakban felsorolt, kiemelt kezdeményezés köré szervezi a feladatokat. Közös prioritásunk, hogy ezek a kezdeményezések megvalósuljanak, ezért az uniós szintű szervezeteknek, a tagállamoknak, a helyi és regionális hatóságoknak egyaránt cselekedniük kell.

  1. Innovatív Unió – a kutatás-fejlesztési és az innovációs politikát a főbb kihívásokra kell koncentrálni, és elő kell segíteni, hogy a tudományos eredményekből mielőbb piacra dobható termékek szülessenek. A közösségi szabadalom eredményeként például a vállalkozások minden évben 289 millió eurót takaríthatnának meg.
  2. Mozgásban az ifjúság – a diákok és a fiatal szakemberek mobilitásának ösztönzésével növelni kell az európai felsőoktatás minőségét és nemzetközi vonzerejét. Ide tartozó konkrét feladat, hogy a tagállamokban megnyíló lehetőségeket Európa-szerte hozzáférhetőbbé kell tenni, és megfelelően el kell ismerni a szakmai képesítéseket és tapasztalatot.
  3. Európai digitális menetrend – a nagysebességű internetre épülő egységes digitális egységes piac révén fenntartható gazdasági és társadalmi előnyöket kell teremteni. 2013-ra minden európai számára elérhetővé kell tenni a nagysebességű internetet.
  4. Erőforrás-hatékony Európa – támogatni kell az elmozdulást az erőforrás-hatékony és alacsony szén-dioxid-kibocsátású gazdaság felé. Tartani kell a 2020-ra kitűzött célokat az energiatermelés, -hatékonyság és -fogyasztás tekintetében. Ennek eredményeként 2020-ra 60 milliárd euróval csökkenthet a kőolaj- és földgázimport költsége.
  5. Környezetbarát iparpolitika – az Unió háttériparát segíteni kell abban, hogy a válságot követő világban is versenyképes legyen, ösztönözni kell a vállalkozási kedvet és az új készségek elsajátítását. Ennek nyomán több millió új munkahely jöhet létre.
  6. Új készségek és munkahelyek menetrendje – meg kell teremteni a munkaerőpiac modernizálásának feltételeit, hogy növekedhessen a foglalkoztatás és biztosítani lehessen társadalmi modelljeink fenntarthatóságát a háború után született nemzedék nyugdíjba vonulását követően is.
  7. Szegénység elleni európai platform – biztosítani kell a gazdasági, társadalmi és területi kohéziót azáltal, hogy segítjük a szegénységben és társadalmi kirekesztettségben élőket, és képessé tesszük őket arra, hogy aktív társadalmi szerepet játsszanak.
Az Európa 2020 által megfogalmazott törekvések megvalósítása az eddiginél magasabb szintű irányítást és elszámoltathatóságot kíván. A Bizottság felkéri a tagállamok állam- és kormányfőit, hogy vállaljanak felelősséget az új stratégia megvalósításáért, és a stratégiát hagyják jóvá az Európai Tanács tavaszi ülésén.
A Bizottság folyamatosan nyomon követi az elért haladást. A nagyobb koherencia érdekében az Európa 2020, illetve a Stabilitási és Növekedési Paktum esetében egyidejűleg folyik majd a jelentéstétel és az értékelés; ezáltal lehetővé válik, hogy e két stratégia hasonló reformtörekvéseket próbáljon megvalósítani, miközben továbbra is külön eszközökként működnek majd.
Euvonal

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Commission welcomes fresh Greek austerity measures

The European Commission has said Greece's budget deficit plans are now on track, following the Greek government's announcement on Wednesday (3 March) of fresh austerity measures worth €4.8 billion.
Athens presented its budgetary plan - known as a 'stability programme' - to the commission in January, in which it pledged to reduce its budget deficit by four percent of GDP in 2010. After a three-hour cabinet meeting on Wednesday morning, Greek government spokesman Giorgos Petalotis said the agreed new measures amounted to €4.8 billion, split between €2.4 billion in new revenues and €2.4 billion in spending cuts.
  • They include a dramatic 30 percent cut in the holiday bonuses of Greek civil servants.
  • The plans also include a 12 percent cut on other civil servant bonuses, a freeze on all pensions, a 2 percent rise in the VAT rate to 21 percent and a 20 percent increase in the tax on alcohol and tobacco, as well as an 8 cent-a-litre increase in the price of petrol.
  • There are also plans for a tax rise on luxury goods such as expensive cars.

In return for the fresh austerity measures, Greece is hoping for greater details of a bailout plan to be made public, a step which Athens argues will bring down its borrowing costs. Euro area states have so far resisted however. Greek hopes have recently centered on a meeting between Mr Papandreou and German chancellor Angela Merkel this Friday, but a German official said on Wednesday that Berlin would not offer financial aid to Greece at the meeting.

Euobserver

Thursday, February 11, 2010

China officially tops Germany as world's No.1 exporter

Official data released from Germany on Tuesday (9 February) confirmed that China has stripped Europe's largest economy of its top exporter title. Data released by the German Federal Statistics Office showed the country's exports fell by 18.4 percent in 2009 when compared to the previous year, hitting a dollar equivalent of $1.121 trillion. China's exports for 2009 totaled $1.202 trillion.
Despite the drop, which represents the greatest year-on-year decline for Germany since 1950, the news of China's takeover was not greeted with great alarm by German economists.
"This is something that was expected. Everyone agrees that China's currency is undervalued, but still it was only a matter of time," Gernot Nerb, head of the industry department with the Ifo Institute for Economic Research, Munich, told this website.
The official figures also showed a strong export recovery in the fourth quarter of the year, helping to pull Germany out of its recession and providing a silver lining to the more gloomy annual data. With more than 60 percent of Germany's exports going to other EU countries, concerns have been raised that the bloc's forecast low rates of growth in the coming years could prose a problem for Germany's export model.
"There is some concern but we are mainly exporting investment goods, and you can not postpone investment for ever," said Mr Nerb, conceding that investment levels will probably not pick up before 2011-12 however. A breakdown of the German figures shows exports to the EU were down 19.1 percent year-on-year, with sales to faster-growing regions of Asia and South America faring little better and falling 17.1 percent. German imports also declined rapidly in 2009 as result of the financial crisis, dropping fell by 17.2 percent.
Euobserver

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Greece gets three years to solve budget woes

While Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou went on national television to dramatize his country’s failing economic state because of out-of-control debt – a dilemma he said requires 10% cuts in public workers wages and higher taxes – the European Union said it would give Greece until the end of 2012 to regain control of its finances.
The drama mounted both in Athens, where public workers said they would take to the streets in protest, and in Brussels, where the European Commission said it would not take immediate punitive action although Greece’s near 13% deficit is more than four times the EU’s ceiling of 3% for countries using the euro as their currency. But the EU said it would monitor Papandreou’s near-Draconian austerity program and step in if Greece failed to meet regular benchmarks because the crisis has threatened the stability of the euro.
Under pressure from the EU to get its fiscal house in order, Papandreou said a public sector pay freeze and fuel duty increases were essential, because the economic crisis was threatening the country with disaster. “I want to be honest. We are making a national effort to stop the country from falling off the cliff,” Papandreou said in his TV address, which drew instant anger from many Greeks who blame the government, including past administrations, for lying to the EU about its financial condition, which has necessitated the wage cuts and tax hikes that would cut deep in a country where the minimum wage is only 700 euros monthly and where many Greeks are under a tsunami of debt to banks who got 28 billion euros in state aid but have refused to lend to consumers. Papandreou made a plea for understanding and cooperation. “Every citizen should be prepared to fight to protect the economy,” he said, but when the question of wage cuts was raised previously, members of the Greek Parliament, who make more than 7,000 euros a month, said they didn’t want to take pay reductions while workers would.
The move came as the European Commission set out the most detailed monitoring system it has ever imposed on a Eurozone country, effectively taking control of sweeping aspects of the Greek budget. “This is a very tough system of monitoring, but the confidence about the success of the program ... is directly linked with the political support that the Greek authorities will receive” from Greek society and the EU, Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia told journalists in Brussels.
The Commission “will monitor the execution of the budget and of the reforms very closely and regularly,” he said. The Commission threw its full weight behind a detailed Greek plan aimed at bringing the government’s debt back under control and restoring its vanished credibility by slashing spending and increasing tax revenues. That effectively binds the Greek government to measures such as freezing public-sector wages, stopping new hiring in 2010 and boosting excise on tobacco and alcohol sales, since the EU’s executive will step in if they are not implemented. “Every time we observe slippages, we will ask the Greek authorities to adopt additional measures,” Almunia warned.
The euro, the EU’s flagship currency, has taken a battering in recent months following the revelation that the last Greek government - voted out of office in October - had massively understated its budget deficit when it said it was 3.5%. Immediately after the election, the new socialist government revealed that the real figure for 2009 was 12.7%, provoking outrage across the EU, with some states accusing the Greeks of fraud.
Money markets also responded with dismay. Over the last two months, the euro has lost some 8% of its value against the dollar - largely thanks to concerns over Greece and fears that other euro states, such as Portugal, could also face budget problems. Greece and Portugal “share some common problems,” such as falling competitiveness and high external financing debts, Almunia admitted.
Almunia welcomed that move, rejecting suggestions that Greece might have to be bailed out by the International Monetary Fund and saying that the EU was strong enough to tackle the problem alone. “I am fully convinced that the EU and the euro-area countries and system have instruments enough to cope with this challenge, to deal with this issue, to solve these problems, and it’s what we are doing,” he said.
Almunia also said that the next Commission - expected to take office later this month - would propose laws to give its statistical branch, Eurostat, the power to audit national accounts. EU member states rejected an earlier proposal to that effect in 2005. “If Eurostat had received audit powers during the previous years, it is possible that the present statistical problems would not have occurred,” Almunia said.
New Europe

Európa leértékelődik

Az EP jóváhagyta az új Európai Bizottságot

Az Európai Parlament mai ülésnapján (2010. február 9.) Strasbourgban 488 igen, 137 nem szavazat, és 72 tartózkodás mellett jóváhagyta a José Manuel Barroso vezette 27 tagú új Európai Bizottságot.
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Thursday, February 4, 2010

Elmarad az EU-USA csúcs

Az Egyesült Államok Külügyminisztériumának szóvivője többek között a Lisszaboni Szerződés ellentmondásosságára hivatkozott, mikor bejelentette, hogy Barack Obama elnök nem jön el a májusra tervezett EU-USA csúcsra Madridba.
Philip J. Crowley szerint a szerződés ellentmondásos abból a szempontból, hogy nem egyértelmű, hogy kivel és mikor kellene találkoznia az Egyesült Államok elnökének az unió részéről. A szóvivő szerint a jelenlegi új struktúrában a Tanács félévente rotálódó elnöksége mellett az Európai Tanácsnak is van már egy állandó elnöke, mely igaz a Bizottságra is, és számukra is kérdéses, hogy a majdani csúcstalálkozókat az EU részéről ki és hol fogja megtartani.
A hír nyomán számtalan cikk jelent meg a nemzetközi sajtóban arról, hogy ez a lépés egyértelmű jele annak, hogy Európa leértékelődött az Egyesült Államok számára. Az El Mundo című spanyol napilap kedden arról írt amerikai forrásokra hivatkozva, hogy a legutóbbi, tavaly novemberben tartott csúcstalálkozó „elvette Obama kedvét attól, hogy részt vegyen egy újabb ilyen találkozón májusban”. Az El País szerint Obama „hátat fordít Európának”. A napilap azt írta, hogy Obama a novemberi lisszaboni NATO-csúcstalálkozóval egyidejűleg szeretne sort keríteni az EU-USA-találkozóra. (Euvonal)
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Why Obama won't bother to attend the EU summit?
Months after the European Union ratifies a treaty aimed at increasing its clout in the world, President Barack Obama's decides not to travel to a summit with EU leaders in Spain because he has more important things to do. Predictably, the decision is interpreted in Europe as a snub for the Spanish government of Jose Luis Zapatero and also for the EU, still recovering from the failure of its efforts to lead by example at the Copenhagen climate talks.
Indeed, the decision reinforced a developing narrative within Europe that was one of the themes of last week's meeting in Davos. With the rise of China, and to a lesser extent economies such as India and Brazil, Europe is less of a player than it was on the world stage. Add this to Europe's current economic travails—sovereign debt problems within the euro zone, feeble economic growth and badly-wounded banking systems—and the outlook is a testing one for Euro-optimists.
Unsurprisingly, Washington did its best to protest that Europe was still at the top of its agenda. Philip Gordon, the senior State Department official responsible for European affairs, said in an interview that the decision of the president not to come is "not a slight; nor is it a cancellation."
...
He said the decision was no reflection on the U.S.'s bilateral relationship with Spain, which had improved significantly since Mr. Zapatero, directly after he was elected in 2004, withdrew all Spanish troops from Iraq and earned the enmity of President George W. Bush. "I think we have really turned the corner on a problematic relationship during the Bush administration," Mr. Gordon said.
Neither was it a commentary on the importance of the U.S. relationship to Europe. He echoed comments from his boss Hillary Clinton, who addressed head-on in a speech last week "concern that the Obama administration is so focused on foreign policy challenges elsewhere in the world that Europe has receded in our list of priorities." "European security remains an anchor of U.S. foreign and security policy," she said.
Mr. Gordon denied suggestions in Europe that the administration had been disappointed by the support given to Mr. Obama's plan to pour 30,000 more troops in Afghanistan – to which European governments have added a further 9,000. "I think we were quite pleased with the response to the president's speech on Afghanistan," he said. Despite these protestations, many Europeans think the EU and its member governments would be unwise to ignore the message from Mr. Obama's non-cancellation.
Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, a London-based think tank, said this president does not have the attachment to the old continent of many of his predecessors. "Obama is very unemotional about the E.U.," he said.
The key to getting him to attend E.U. summits is to provide practical solutions to problems. "He's not going to take the E.U. seriously unless the E.U. delivers," he said.
Mr. Grant's point is reinforced by what, according to many European press reports, was European squabbling ahead of the Madrid meeting over transcendental questions such as who was going to sit next to Mr. and Mrs. Obama at the summit dinner, who would shake Mr. Obama's hand first (Mr. Zapatero) and who would sit to his right (Herman Van Rompuy, new president of the European Council).
The Wall Street Journal