Tag: financial

The European Commission is planning a "paradigm shift" in its approach to the derivatives market, moving towards strict regulation of a sector which has been blamed for worsening the financial and economic crises, according to a draft document seen by EurActiv.

The European Commission will present on Wednesday (23 September) new legislative proposals on financial supervision, including the creation of three new EU bodies to oversee the banking sector. The proposal, largely technical at this stage, shies away from deciding on sensitive political issues such as who should foot the bill in the event of cross-border bank failures.

With pressure mounting over a European Commission proposal on hedge funds and private equity, French pro-regulation MEP Jean-Paul Gauzès has been nominated to steer the controversial draft through the European Parliament.

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso spent the summer preparing his programme for the next five years after his bid to secure a second term was put on ice by the European Parliament's political group leaders in July - EurActiv asked key stakeholders to assess the Barroso Commission's achievements and failures.

The unexpectedly rapid return to growth of the French and German economies in the second quarter of 2009 is contrasting with poor figures in other EU countries, namely Eastern Europe and Spain, and does not yet signal the end of the recession, according to analysts and trade unions.

Defining common criteria to share the financial burden of bank bailouts in the event of a crisis should be one of the EU's priorities in order to shield Europe's economy from future turmoil, according to an alliance of the bloc's major financial players.

EU leaders agreed today (19 June) on a text which should pave the way for significant reform of European financial supervision. The deal comes two days after US President Barack Obama announced a major overhaul of American supervisory rules.

EU finance ministers meeting in Luxembourg haggled over the overhaul of European financial supervision proposed by the European Commission last month, and decided to send the delicate dossier to EU leaders meeting in Brussels next week.

As widely anticipated, the European Commission yesterday (27 May)  adopted a plan to overhaul EU financial supervision which  fully endors es  the  de  Larosière  report's proposals , published in the wake of the financial crisis at the beginning of the year .  Although industry representatives are  supportive of   the plan , critics  underline that it fails to address key issues. 

The European Commission will today (29 April) adopt two recommendations to match managers' remuneration to their achievements and avoid rewarding failure, as was the case during the current financial crisis.

World leaders will pledge to regulate major hedge funds for the first time and set up a new oversight board to monitor the global financial system, according to draft conclusions released by the G20.

European Union leaders meeting in Brussels on Friday (20 March) thrashed out a common strategy before next month's G20 summit in London, pushing for tighter rules to regulate global financial markets and tax havens. But they did not make any additional commitments to fiscal stimulus plans promoted by the United States.

In a single strike, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso put a stop to rampant speculation regarding issuing EU bonds, rebutted suggestions that troubled EU countries would be put on a fast-track to eurozone accession and dismissed calls for a single EU-wide financial supervision watchdog.

The European Central Bank (ECB) raised doubts yesterday (2 March) over the effectiveness of the mechanism proposed in the de Larosière report to handle the potential collapse of a cross-border bank. It remains unclear how decisions will be made and who will share the burden, the head of the ECB's supervisory body said.

EU leaders meeting in Brussels today (1 March) agreed a flexible approach to dealing with European banks' toxic and impaired assets, although "uncertainty" remains as to their number and value. They also pushed for the overhaul of EU financial supervision by June.

EU leaders yesterday (22 February) agreed to back oversight of the world's financial markets and products, including hedge funds, calling for a clampdown on tax havens as they forged a common position on global financial reform ahead of a summit of the G20 group of leading industrial powers in April.

As Europe ponders an overhaul of controls on financial institutions in the wake of major shortfalls revealed by the ongoing crisis, the European Central Bank has repeated its call for its supervision tasks to be extended.

The Czech EU Presidency is set to organise an informal EU summit at the end of February, to discuss the economic crisis and the risk of a protectionist trend taking hold across the Union.

As the global recession continues to ravage industry and employment throughout Europe, the likelihood of social unrest across the continent is increasing, with France today (29 January) experiencing its first mass strike for months.

"The G8 has been more and more eclipsed by the G20," which should now become the main forum for global economic governance, argues Eberhard Rhein, a lecturer on economic policy at the Malta-based Mediterranean Academy for Diplomatic Studies, in a post on Blogactiv.

The build-up to this weekend's G20 international summit in Washington (November 15) continues to gather momentum as finance ministers and bank leaders from the world's 20 largest economies gathered on Saturday (November 8) in Brazil.

Europe may be ready to hand over its permanent top seat at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in exchange for a bigger Chinese contribution to reforming the system, according to a paper circulated among European capitals by the French EU Presidency.

Crisis-hit Hungary will be the first EU country to benefit from a European facility worth up to €12 billion to address the ongoing financial turmoil, the European Commission has announced. Nicolas Sarkozy, French president and current EU chair, will propose to raise the ceiling to €20 billion at an EU summit next week.

Despite pleas to go further, EU leaders gathering in Brussels for the European Council only managed to agree upon limited steps to improve the cross-border supervision of banks, widely seen as one of the missing links behind the current financial crisis.