EMU Archives

Austrian Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz prioritised the protection of the external borders during his country's EU Presidency stint, in order to safeguard the Schengen area, as a recent deal between Germany’s conservative parties could lead to a resurrection of the bloc's internal borders.

Despite previous promises to achieve results on eurozone reforms in June, EU leaders postponed until December an agreement on the backstop to wind down failing banks and did not include any date for starting discussions on a European deposit guarantee scheme.

Eurogroup head Mário Centeno warned Monday (25 June) of differing opinions towards a plan by France and Germany to establish a eurozone budget, ahead of a key EU summit to discuss the matter.

In the early hours of Friday (22 June), the Eurogroup reached an “historic” deal on a debt relief for Greece, solving the last political hurdle to conclude its rescue programme after more than eight years.

Spain's new Socialist government said on Thursday (21 June) it had “no reasons” to believe that it would miss its deficit target, despite a planned increase to pensioners’ benefits  being questioned by the EU institutions.

Germany turns out to be a major beneficiary of Greece’s debt crisis as it earned a total of €2.9 billion between 2010 and 2017. This emerges from a response of the Federal ministry of finance in Berlin to a parliamentary request from the Greens (Bündnis90/Die Grünen) in the German Bundestag obtained by EURACTIV.

Germany's finance minister on Wednesday (20 June) defended a euro zone reform blueprint agreed with France against criticism by Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives that it could undermine monetary stability.

Eurozone ministers will on Thursday (21 June) try to resolve their differences over the terms of Greece's departure from its massive bailout programme with splits over the degree of debt relief needed by cash-strapped Athens.

A meeting between Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron was meant to foster a breakthrough on possible eurozone reforms. But the declaration brokered on Tuesday (19 June) is full of language that leaves a lot of room for interpretation. EURACTIV Germany reports.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday (19 June) won German Chancellor Angela Merkel's backing for reforms that are aimed at bolstering the eurozone against crises, including a vaunted budget for the bloc.

OECD Secretary-General Ángel Gurría has blamed governments for the rise of populism and political fragmentation across Europe, claiming they also did not deliver benefits that were promised to citizens, he told EURACTIV in an interview.

The European Fiscal Board has discredited the Commission’s proposed fund to protect investment as “very modest”, “narrow” and not well designed, its chair Niels Thygesen said on Monday (18 June).

Greece and its creditors are getting closer to a deal on a debt relief package to be sealed during the next Eurogroup meeting on 21 June, senior EU officials said on Wednesday (13 June).

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Wednesday (13 June) the EU should use the tools that are already available to support reforms and protect the euro, in his latest criticism of proposals to deepen the bloc's integration.

France and Germany made "significant progress" towards an agreement on eurozone reforms at marathon talks in Paris this weekend, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Sunday (10 June), but aides said there was still some work to do.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday (10 June) she was more open to French President Emmanuel Macron's plans to reform migration and defence policy in Europe than his hopes to bolster the euro.

With an eye on Italy and Spain and the possible political and financial turmoil there, the European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker called once again on Tuesday (5 June) for a fast and deep reform of the Economic and Monetary Union.

European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis welcomed German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s proposals to strengthen the euro area, noting the similarities between the Bundesrepublik's and EU executive’s ideas on structural reform and investment support.

A spike in unemployment numbers would give EU countries access to €30 billion of soft loans to maintain investment in times of economic turbulences, according to proposals unveiled by the European Commission on Thursday (31 May).

Populist forces in Italy are “playing with fire” and exposing the country to market pressure, vice-president of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament Maria João Rodrigues warned in an interview.

A former governor of the Bank of Spain told EURACTIV that Luis de Guindos has the right CV to become vice-president of the ECB, a post he will take up later this week. But the ex-minister’s “brutally wrong” decisions led the country to the “disaster” of the bailout, he added.

Member states have reached an agreement on a package of measures aimed at reducing risk in the banking industry. The political consensus built upon a joint proposal by the French and German Finance ministers paves the way for a deepened reform of the Economic and Monetary Union.

The European Commission on Wednesday (23 May) approved Italy’s efforts to balance its public accounts but asked the new government for a “credible response” in order to further reduce its immense public debt.

Market pressure, the strong hand of EU institutions and the limits of power will determine how far the new Italian government will go in shaking up the eurozone’s status quo.