Tag: ECB

Eurozone finance ministers are expected to approve a second bailout for Greece today (20 February), a move they hope will draw a line under months of turmoil that has shaken the currency bloc, although there is work to be done to make the figures add up.

The proposed 'fiscal compact' treaty currently being negotiated overly emphasises austerity and is insufficient to resolve the economic difficulties, says German MEP Jo Leinen. However the unprecedented attention brought to the EU by the crisis also presents an opportunity for European federalists to make their case to the public, he says.

European stock markets and the euro fluctuated as investors tried to make sense of the deal struck by EU leaders earlier today (9 December), in the attempt to forge measures that would halt the slide of eurozone government bond markets after two years of deepening crisis.

Going for a treaty change is unnecessary and the proposal submitted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy being discussed at the EU summit today (8 December) is unveiling the disaccord of the German-French couple, Martin Schulz, leader of the Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, told EurActiv in an interview. 

France and Germany are expected to outline joint proposals today (5 December) to address the ongoing sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone. However, in many respects, the views of Europe's two largest economies remain far apart over the details of a 'fiscal union', EurActiv.fr and EurActiv.de report.

The European Central Bank cut interest rates by a quarter point to 1.25% in a surprise move on Thursday (3 November), acting boldly to support the ailing eurozone economy at the first policy meeting where President Mario Draghi's was in charge.

The euro's rise as an international exchange and reserve currency is being slowed by the incoherence of European monetary and fiscal policy, said economist Barry Eichengreen in an interview with EurActiv.

Political leaders failed to halt a global stock market rout that gathered steam yesterday (8 August) as investors lost confidence that Europe and the United States can rein in their budgets quickly and fear spread of a double-dip recession.

Instead of piling extra loans and debts onto the Greek economy, the European Union should provide a "Marshall Plan" to Greece for strategic investments such as the modernisation of property registration and tax collection systems, argues Barry Eichengreen.

Up to one in six European banks is set to fail an EU-wide financial health check, according to eurozone sources close to the stress testing, as officials scramble to set up backstops for those at risk.

EU leaders appointed Italy's Mario Draghi as the new head of the European Central Bank on Friday, to replace current ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet as of 1 November, EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy announced.

Europe need not choose between catastrophe and simple debt-sharing, according to economist Jean Pisani-Ferry, who argues that the euro crisis could be resolved by giving "breathing space" to distressed countries in order to pave the way for a prepared and orderly restructuring of Greek debt.

As workers in Greece prepare for a general strike today (15 June), EU finance ministers yesterday night failed to reconcile a German-led push for bondholders to share part of the cost of a new Greek aid package, amid warnings from the European Central Bank (ECB) that any coercive solutions could unleash a new wave of contagion.

The case for coordinating wage policy in the euro zone to avoid a proliferation of imbalances and beggar-thy-neighbour policies is overwhelming and it is alarming that it has been ignored for so long, write Frank Hoffer and Friederike Spiecker in this commentary. They conclude by setting out concrete proposals to rebalance the European economy.

European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet does not fully support new EU fiscal rules agreed in a deal between Germany and France, a central bank spokesman said on Thursday (21 October).

Despite the fact that the EU economy is expected to grow at a rate that is almost double the one forecast in the spring, access to bank credit remains tight for enterprises while constraints are predicted to last longer than previously anticipated, the European Commission said yesterday (13 September).

Following the opposite fiscal policy to that of European policymakers would tackle the economic crisis more effectively, argue Mario I. Blejer, a former governor of the Central Bank of Argentina, and Eduardo Levy Yeyati, a visiting professor at the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics.

The president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Jean-Claude Trichet, yesterday (21 June) called for no holds barred reform of the EU's fiscal and macro-economic policy, with deeper and more detailed surveillance of economies that are out of step with the EU's debt targets.

Analysts argue that the European Central Bank has held back in extending its credit lines to new member states struggling to regain liquidity in their public accounts, making it harder to restore investor confidence in those markets. 

The European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB) yesterday (19 January) agreed on a two-year programme of €2.65 million to boost macro- and micro-prudential supervision in the Western Balkans and Turkey.

As Spain takes the helm of the EU's rotating presidency, the country's prime minister appears to be on an economic recovery mission, pushing for the establishment of a new European body to track systemic financial risk in the 27-member bloc.