The Netherlands, Austria "and all too often Germany" are preventing deeper euro zone integration, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told German newspaper Handelsblatt.
Financial representatives poured cold water on Thursday (24 May) on the European Commission’s proposal to create sovereign bond-backed securities (SBBS), insisting that not all the elements exist yet for a successful market for the product.
The European Commission has said that the zero-risk weight of its forthcoming sovereign bond-backed securities proposal will be a ‘game changer’, but member states and the financial sector remain sceptical about how the new asset could work in practice.
The European Commission backed alternative options to referendums in order to pass major changes needed to deepen the Economic and Monetary Union amid “broader questioning” about the single currency.
Germany's Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said on Tuesday (23 May) that it is "unrealistic" to consider changing European treaties at this stage, calling instead for incremental steps by national governments to move EU integration forward in specific areas.
Spain's conservative government has added its voice to calls for deeper integration in the eurozone, suggesting to Brussels in a paper that members of the bloc should pool some aspects of their debt management and share a budget to fight crisis shocks.
European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis said today (27 January) that the goal of setting up European Safe Assets is to reduce banks' exposure to sovereign debt.
Martin Schulz is known in Germany mainly as a European politician and an ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel. But later this year they will face off in the country's leadership race. EURACTIV’s partner Der Tagesspiegel reports.
Germany's Constitutional Court confirmed on Tuesday (17 May) it has received a complaint against the European Central Bank's monetary policy, as reported by the Welt am Sonntag newspaper at the weekend.
A common European Union policy to manage external borders and cope with the refugee crisis should be funded with common resources, including through the issuance of EU bonds, Italy said on Monday (22 February).
Eurozone countries have to find a way to deal with the high public debt built up during 2008-2012, and which puts European economies on divergent tracks, EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said on Wednesday (6 May).
European Ministers in Germany, France and Italy have joined forces hoping to boost economic growth in the EU, mulling new financing instruments to realise their goals. EURACTIV Germany.
Italy, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, is keen to re-launch debate on long-term "project bonds" to finance infrastructure projects, Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan told French business daily Les Echos.
All eurozone governments need to issue bonds jointly to ensure that the common currency survives the sovereign debt crisis, investor George Soros said on Tuesday (9 April).
Eur zone countries should consider clubbing together to borrow as well as paying into a central budget that could be used to help struggling countries, according to a report prepared by senior European officials ahead of the EU summit next week (18-19 October).
France is open to the idea of a new European Union treaty to deepen integration if it is deemed necessary for new "solidarity" mechanisms in the bloc such as debt mutualisation, said French Minister for European Affairs Bernard Cazeneuve.
France’s President François Hollande has insisted that the European Union needed more solidarity and a system for debt mutualisation, a position which fell foul of Germany’s insistence that this should only happen after countries agree to greater fiscal oversight from Brussels. EURACTIV France reports.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel sought to bury once and for all the idea of common eurozone bonds yesterday (26 June), as Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti repeated calls to use the EU's bailout funds to ease pressure on Italian debt.
In an unusual departure from traditional EU language, European Commission vice-president Olli Rehn and Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Monti have issued dramatic warnings yesterday (31 May) on the euro zone, while European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi openly admitted that the common currency was fighting for its survival.
European Commission President José Manuel Barroso has said he will propose a roadmap and "calendar" for more European integration at the next summit of EU leaders on 28-29 June, without discarding the possibility of a treaty change aimed at injecting more federalism into the Union.
Ahead of yesterday's EU summit, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt criticised both the 'project bonds' and the 'Eurobonds' that were put forward as a way to relaunch the European economy.
In the absence of an agreement for launching Eurobonds, the EU institutions agreed yesterday (22 May) to launch the first ‘project bonds’ as a pilot project to boost investment in energy, transport and the digital economy.
The OECD called on EU leaders today (22 May) to ease the pace of austerity, saying aggressive budget cuts to curtail the eurozone's debts threaten to suck the currency area into a downward spiral that could spill over into the global economy.