Tag: ECB

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said on Monday (8 April) that Europe should look at changing the powers that the European Central Bank has, to align it more with other monetary authorities around the world and support pro-growth policies.

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi indirectly clashed with Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem, stating yesterday (4 April) that the Cyprus bailout was "no template" for possible future solutions and pledged that taxing depositors would not become normal procedure. He also slammed the Cyprus' negotiators for their initial proposal.

The weakening of the social flank in southern Europe has repercussions elsewhere in the EU, putting the trade unions and left-wing parties under further pressure, argue Klaus Busch, Christoph Hermann, Karl Hinrichs and Thorsten Schulten.

Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi and Thei Sein head Foreign Policy magazine's list of Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2012. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, at number 12, is the highest-ranking European.

The last four months created an illusion that the worst is over in the eurozone crisis and more attention can be devoted to the project's future, writes Paweł Świeboda. However, much remains to be done and the golden rule of the new European Union will be to "Trust and verify", he says.

The European Parliament is voting in committee this week on the legislation which installs the single supervisory mechanism for Europe's banks. Tricky stuff - especially when certain governments in the Council appear to be backsliding on the banking union, writes Andrew Duff.

Spain has blocked the appointment of Yves Mersch to the European Central Bank's executive board, delaying the process of filling a post that is critical to tackling Europe's debt crisis.

While the UK goes one way, the rest of the EU goes another. Europe’s ongoing financial crisis exposes systemic weakness in the way the political economy is run. Executive authority is dispersed amongst different and fairly obscure institutions, and democratic accountability is thin, writes Andrew Duff in a BlogActiv post.

Amidst the euphoria unleashed by the European Central Bank’s bond-buying plan, it is easy to miss the immense challenges posed by two complex dossiers that have just landed on leaders’ desks: the proposed EADS/BAE merger and a planned single banking supervisor, writes Hugo Dixon.

Safeguards proposed by Brussels to stop a newly beefed-up European Central Bank from calling the shots on banks beyond the eurozone are unlikely to satisfy Britain and other EU countries that do not use the common currency.

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso has joined German Chancellor Angela Merkel in believing that the eurozone crisis could not be overcome without a treaty change to transfer national competences - such as budgets - to European institutions.

Moody's has lowered the EU’s triple A rating outlook to negative, warning it might downgrade the bloc if it decides to cut the ratings on the EU's four biggest budget backers: Germany, France, UK and Netherlands.

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy interrupted his holiday in Seville yesterday (28 August) to visit Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in Madrid, while Commission President José Manuel Barroso received Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti. A flurry of other upcoming meetings marks the beginning of a heated season.

There are still significant economic disparities within the EU, such as the ones between North and South or among different EU regions. But EU member states have a common interest in tackling those challenges together, argues Rodi Kratsa-Tsagapopoulou.

The euro rose to a seven-week high against the US dollar yesterday (21 August), fuelled by speculation the European Central Bank could soon act to stem the region's debt crisis by lowering Spanish and Italian borrowing costs.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and U.S. counterpart Timothy Geithner said yesterday (30 July) they were confident the countries of the euro zone would implement reforms needed to overcome their sovereign debt crisis. Meanwhile, business confidence in the EU showed a serious decline in July.

Angela Merkel's coalition partners are lining up to demand a Greek exit from the euro, mounting pressure on the German chancellor and fanning market fears that Greece could shortly leave the single currency bloc.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, facing the first round of elections this weekend, said in a campaign speech yesterday (15 April) that he wanted to open a debate on extending the mandate of the European Central Bank (ECB) to support economic growth.