Tag: financial markets

Entrusted by EU leaders to come up with a proposal to reform the bloc's economic governance by the end of the month, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said his taskforce had reached agreement on the main points, but was still stuck on the nitty-gritty of the blueprint.

A month after the European Union announced plans for the biggest international bailout in history, the scheme is preventing financial disaster but failing to calm persistent fears in the markets.

To be able to properly manage the current eurozone crisis and tackle more global challenges, the EU needs to be united and more deeply integrated, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė told EurActiv in the presidential palace in Vilnius.

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 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 joint letter to EU heads of state, French and German leaders yesterday (17 March) outlined a common approach on the eve of a European meeting that will finalise the EU's position for the upcoming G20 summit on reforming the global financial system.

EU leaders meeting in Brussels yesterday (1 March) refused to back the idea of a multi-billion bail-out plan for the bloc's Central and Eastern European member states, instead opting to help the region's troubled economies on a country-by-country basis.

Despite being overshadowed by climate change and other pressing discussions at last week's EU summit, improving supervision of the banking and insurance sectors remained among the key priorities of European leaders, who called for "decisions to be taken quickly" to address the issue.

At the risk of alienating their host, US President George W. Bush, European leaders displayed unusual confidence in their ability to push through major reforms ahead of a gathering of world leaders this weekend in Washington, aimed at launching a refoundation of the global financial system.

After meeting outgoing US President George W. Bush at Camp David on Saturday (18 October), French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Commission President José Manuel Barroso unveiled plans for a series of global summits to address the financial meltdown.

The bank bail-out guidelines agreed by the eurozone countries and the UK in Paris last Sunday were endorsed by all 27 EU member states during the first day of the European summit in Brussels. Leaders also agreed to review the rules governing global capitalism and to strengthen cross-border supervision of banks.

"Worldwide concerted action based on similar policies executed by national governments" is key to handling the financial crisis, writes Klaus F. Zimmermann, professor of economics at Bonn University, on VoxEU.org.

The main focus of the European Council next week will "rightly" be on the financial crisis, but "decisive progress" must also be made on the climate change and energy package and on the Lisbon Treaty, Commission President José Manuel Barroso stressed ahead of the summit.

A surprise cut in interest rates by the European Central Bank (ECB) came as a sign that recession fears have overtaken those concerning inflation, as European financial markets yesterday continued to tailspin despite government attempts to prop them up.

Trust among financial institutions is disappearing and there is a risk that fear will spread more widely, argue a group of prominent professors and directors, all of whom have signed a Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) petition calling on national governments to provide a Europe-wide solution to the banking crisis.

Top officials from Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the EU held emergency meetings over the weekend to prevent bank and insurance giant Fortis from becoming the eurozone's first major victim of the global financial crisis.

As Wall Street yesterday (15 September) faced its biggest drop since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the European Central Bank (ECB) attempted to appease tensions by injecting €30 billion into European money markets.

After cracking down on rating agencies, the European Commission and the French EU Presidency have announced tighter supervision of the finance and banking sector in response to the credit crisis which began in the US. EurActiv reports from the Eurofi conference in Nice.

The European Commission is considering US-style rules to regulate credit rating agencies which were widely blamed for contributing to the subprime crisis in the US and the subsequent turmoil on financial markets and the world economy.

A comprehensive report outlining the European funding landscape, published yesterday (10 July) by the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA), confirms the disproportionately large share of European funds hosted by tiny Luxembourg and Ireland in comparison with the size of their national markets for investment funds.

The European fund industry has urged on the Commission to come out with final legislative proposals, by the end of April, to reform the EU retail funds market. The calls come amid a sharp decline in assets registered in the last semester of 2007, caused by the recent turmoil in global financial markets.

High oil prices, heavy stutters in the US economy and global financial market instability are on the agenda of a G7 meeting in Tokyo this weekend. Meanwhile, the European Central Bank has made comments suggesting possible interest rate cuts in the euro zone.

Speaking to business leaders in London, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown underlined the need for a stronger European engagement in order to secure trade, business and jobs, ahead of what will prove a difficult battle over the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty in Britain.

A lack of transparency and an inappropriate role for the credit rating agencies are at the root of the ongoing crisis in the US sub-prime mortgage market, according to the latest policy brief from the United Nations Conference in Trade and Development (UNCTAD).