Tag: euro zone crisis

Greece could generate budget revenues amounting to 5% of national output annually if it reforms tax collection and clamps down on tax cheats, the European Union's tax chief, Algirdas Šemeta, told a Greek newspaper.

Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem played down but did not deny speculation that he is a serious candidate to take over as head of the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers from Jean-Claude Juncker.

Eurozone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund have agreed to release €49.1 billion in aid to Greece by the end of March, a sum that should help the country stay afloat until then and avoid bankruptcy.

EXCLUSIVE / EurActiv France has obtained a copy of the draft conclusions of the EU summit in Brussels on 13-14 December. Plans to complete the legal framework for a European banking union are partly delayed until 2013. And the debate over deepening economic and political integration in the eurozone - including changing the EU treaties - will not take place until after the 2014 European elections.

German Finance Minster Wolfgang Schäuble has signalled a readiness to compromise on the EU's planned banking union and said leaders are working intensively to agree on a legal framework by Christmas, German media reported.

Eurozone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will seek to unfreeze the second bailout package for Greece on Monday (26 November), but they first need to agree whetehr some of the official loans to Athens might eventually be forgiven to cut Greek debt.

The European Union's top economic official, Olli Rehn, sought to rule out any write-off of Greece's debt to governments on Thursday (15 November) after a European Central Bank policymaker said for the first time that a "haircut" on part of it was probable.

Greece's international lenders agreed on Monday (12 November) to give the country two more years to meet its debt-reduction targets, leaving a funding hole of €32.6 billion in the country's finances up to 2016. A further meeting on 20 November will decide on how to fill that gap.

Eurozone finance ministers will hold a conference call today (31 October) to discuss progress in negotiations of the revised Greek bailout but are not expected to make any decisions yet, two eurozone officials said.

Rising expectations that Spain will soon ask for a euro zone credit line to help cut its borrowing costs look set to dominate a European Union summit beginning on Thursday (18 October), potentially crowding out talks on a disputed banking union.

A point of no return has been reached in the negotiations between the Spanish and Catalan governments, raising doubts about the future of the country, says Joan Marc Simon.

Germany, the Netherlands and Finland have issued a joint declaration that appears to unravel much of what was agreed at the last European summit in June, when EU leaders paved the way for the direct recapitalisation of troubled banks.

The eurozone could be turning its back on the all-austerity answer to the sovereign debt crisis as finance ministers consider giving Greece more time to meet its budget deficit objectives, after Portugal won similar concessions last week.

On 12 September Germany's constitutional court will issue a preliminary verdict on the European Stability Mechanism and the fiscal compact. Whatever the court does, the debate about a new, pro-European constitution will hot up this autumn. But do not be fooled: Germany is still a very long way from agreeing to eurobonds, says Katinka Barysch.

To come out of its debt crisis, the eurozone is not confronted with a binary choice between disintegration and a United States of Europe, writes Mario Draghi. "Those who claim only a full federation can be sustainable set the bar too high. What we need is a gradual and structured effort to complete EMU," writes the ECB President.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is considering an EU 'convention' to draw up a new treaty for closer European political unification and help overcome the bloc's sovereign debt crisis, the weekly Der Spiegel reported on Sunday (26 August). Merkel later denied the report.

The European Central Bank is working out plans to launch a new and more transparent scheme for purchasing sovereign debt that will be tied to intervention by the European rescue funds and political action. But Germany's Bundesbank on Monday (20 August) stepped up its resistance to the idea.

Italy's divided political parties restated their support for Prime Minister Mario Monti at the weekend, seeking to calm fears of instability that helped drive Rome's borrowing costs to dangerous levels last week.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday she was confident that a majority of German lawmakers would back aid for Spain's ailing banking sector at a special sitting of the lower house Bundestag set for Thursday (19 July).

The eurozone's debt crisis may have reached a turning point if agreements from last week's EU summit are implemented correctly and with some help from the European Central Bank, rating agency Standard & Poor's said.

Finland and the Netherlands, the eurozone's most hardline creditor states, cast the first doubts on Monday on a European summit deal designed to save Spain and Italy from being engulfed by the currency bloc's debt crisis.

European leaders meeting in Brussels aim to agree a roadmap for a new banking union and fiscal integration, with the former providing the most opportunity for solid progress in the short term.

EU leaders are meeting in Brussels on 28-29 June to agree a roadmap for further fiscal and budgetary integration in the eurozone as well as more immediate measures to stimulate economic growth. Below is a summary of the main events leading up to the meeting, starting from the previous summit, which closed on 24 May.

Italy should consider leaving the euro unless Germany agrees to the European Central Bank acting as a guarantor for sovereign debt and printing money to reflate the economy, former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said yesterday (20 June).