Tag: eurozone crisis

As Germany and France meet today (28 May) over a joint youth employment initiative, EU officials have rebuffed as “groundless” and “dangerous” criticism from the German finance minister that the Commission is failing to address joblessness, EurActiv Germany reports.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel may not have a "bosom friendship" with her French counterpart, she said on Thursday, but her working relationship with François Hollande was strong and crucial for Europe.

Analysing Europe's economic crisis it is worth realising that today’s Europeans have entered a phase of history where the buccaneering spirit has left them. “The desire for knowledge has separated itself from the hunger we have for wealth and glory”, writes George Friedman.

The banking union is “an urgent necessity” for the eurozone according to Germany’s finance minister, but current plans are insufficient to ensure its long-term solidity, he writes in the Financial Times, calling for a “two-step approach” crowned by a change of the EU’s founding treaties.

Spain's population fell last year for the first time since the 1940s as immigrants fled a five-year on-and-off recession that has sent unemployment soaring.

The European Parliament has voted to curb bankers' bonuses and reduce speculative risk-taking, and to step up capital provisions to help banks better cope in times of crisis. 

Addressing the European Parliament today (16 April) in Strasbourg, Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen pleaded for the new concept of “fair integration”, which he said would keep the EU safe from the twin threats of nationalism and populism. Many MEPs saw his speech as a jockeying exercise for one of the EU's top jobs, which will be up for grabs in 2014.

A recently published report of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development shows that aid to developing nations has fallen in nearly all EU states as governments tighten budgets.