Tag: G20

An overwhelming majority of MEPs yesterday (10 March) pushed the EU executive to weigh up the costs and benefits of a possible tax on financial trading to compensate taxpayers for bank bailouts and plug public deficits.

"The crisis demonstrated the limited capacity of EU institutions to conduct Union-wide anti-crisis policies," Marek Dąbrowski, president of the Centre for Social and Economic Research (CASE), told EurActiv in an interview, predicting a "near-stagnation scenario" for many EU economies.

Europe's economy will rebound next year from a deep slump and accelerate in 2011, the European Commission said on Tuesday (3 November), paving the way for major budget deficit cuts across the 27-nation bloc from 2011 at the latest.

Last week's G20 summit forged the broadest of agreements in the shape of a "framework" but cast out specific EU-proposed measures intended to penalise and regulate financial markets.

In the run-up to the G20, the prospects for an ambitious co-ordinated response to the crisis have been hampered by national governments on both sides of the Atlantic pursuing "parochial" domestic policies, experts said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged countries to join in a "revolution" to use new ways to measure economic prosperity with more emphasis on the environment, as he kept up his calls for reform ahead of next week's summit of Group of 20 leaders.

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday (3 September) joined German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in saying they will not back down on reining in the financial sector, and called for "binding rules" on bankers' bonuses.

Austria, Belgium, and Luxembourg have voiced their displeasure at being placed on the OECD's 'grey list' of countries that are not yet compliant with OECD tax cooperation rules.

Ahead of the G20 meeting in London next week, the head of the Bank of England (BoE), the UK's central bank, called for caution over attempts by Prime Minister Gordon Brown to get other European countries to agree to come up with additional stimulus packages to kick start the world economy.

Two EU countries and Switzerland last week (13 March) announced their intention to amend banking secrecy rules following pressure from the OECD and its members.