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The Greek end-game?
Greece is on a "knife edge". That was how Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos put it on Saturday ahead of emergency talks between Greek political parties and the EU/IMF/ECB troika (with eurozone countries and private sector bondholders thrown...
Another exposure which could sink Greek banks?
An interesting but niche issue has come to our attention recently in relation to the on-going troubles in Greece. The 'Baltic Dry Index' (a measure of global shipping demand/prices) has fallen for a month straight to record lows. When this index fall...
Sarkozy: a Tobin Tax is an "absurdity"
In a debate with Francois Hollande and François Bayrou, a youthful Nicolas Sarkozy calls the Tobin Tax an “absurdity”. You heard that right. Sarkozy - who recently announced his plan to introduce a Financial Transaction Tax(FTT) by the 1st of Au...
Calm down dear: Cameron's EU veto isn't dead yet
Over on the Telegraph blog, we argue:MPs and MEPs – from different parties and for different reasons – have lined up over recent days to explain how David Cameron lost the plot over his EU veto, as it has become clear that the EU institutions...
Merkel takes the fight directly to Hollande
The politics of the eurozone crisis took several new twists and turns over the weekend, including the news that Angela Merkel intends to step in and “actively” support Nicolas Sarkozy’s Presidential re-election campaign (although he is yet to f...
Germany still doesn’t understand Greece
Despite being locked together in economic turmoil for almost two years, the reports which emerged over this weekend further suggest that Germany still does not understand the depth of some of the problems facing Greece (and that they cannot be tackle...
Fifth time lucky?
Thanks to La Stampa Brussels correspondent Marco Zatterin's blog, we've just got hold of the fifth (maybe last) draft of the new 'fiscal treaty' on budgetary discipline, due to be discussed at today's meeting of EU leaders in Brussels.As we are at th...
Senior Labour MPs back devolving structural funds back to the UK
This is an interesting development. Amid everything else that's happening on the Europe-front, a bunch of Labour MPs today come out in force, backing the idea of devolving EU structural funds back to the UK. In a letter to the Guardian, 17 Labour MP...
How much change is there down the back of the structural funds sofa and what can it be used for?
A recent Franco-German paper (leaked to EurActiv and others) outlined a set of proposals on how to achieve a better balance between austerity and pro-growth measures in tackling the eurozone crisis. One suggestion was:“the establishment of a fund f...
A new year, the same old problems...
Ahead of the first (full) EU summit of the new year, we've put together our thoughts on what progress to expect. As per usual there are lots of topics to be discussed but we don’t expect too many concrete decisions. We’d expect a final draft of...
What keeps central bankers in Frankfurt awake at night – and why should Britain care?
In a blog post for the Telegraph, we argue,In his speech in Davos yesterday, David Cameron outlined some very sensible proposals for how to deal with Europe's economic crisis. But, almost in passing, he also called for a eurozone “central bank t...
A crude agreement
On Monday Brussels announced an EU-wide ban on oil contracts between Iran and member states. The hope is that these sanctions will choke the Islamic republic’s finances, and prevent its nuclear programme from progressing further. However, as with c...
Off target: The case for bringing regional policy back home
In a weighty new report published today we take a critical look at the EU’s structural funds which are the means through which the EU implements its regional policy. We estimate that over the course of the current 7 year EU budget, the UK will pay...
Harsh
Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg - whose country is currently grappling with whether to sign up to the euro fiscal pact - is not impressed by Greece's implementation of its EU-led austerity programme.This is what he reportendly told journalists i...
So where does EU money come from?
Ahead of our impending paper looking at the effectiveness or otherwise of the EU’s structural funds (watch this space) we came across this timely comment from Hungarian PM Viktor Orban - who has been subject to some (ehum) controversy over recent w...
The Draft Euro Fiscal Pact - Episode IV
We have just got our hands on the fourth draft of the European 'fiscal pact' (this time, the Telegraph's Bruno Waterfield - who is always quick off the blocks - beat us to it), which is being circulated among national delegations tonight. At a first...
Fresh Trouble for the Fiscal Pact
One week after we published the third draft of the new European 'fiscal treaty' setting out tougher deficit and debt rules for eurozone countries, and with a fourth draft imminent, a quick update on where negotiations are at the moment.The big news t...
More IMF contributions? conditionality is king
The rumours were finally confirmed today as the IMF released a statement announcing its plans to increase its funding base by up to $500bn. There’s been a lot of talk in the British media in recent weeks about the potential increased UK contributio...
Which candidate has the most to gain from France's downgrade?
The race to the Elysee took another turn on Friday when Standard & Poor’s downgraded French debt. The decision had been widely anticipated by the markets since December, when the ratings agency conducted a review of Eurozone finances. Although...
Friday the thirteenth in the eurozone…
Over on the Telegraph blog, we look at today's euro developments:It all looked so good in euroland after a market rally and successful Italian and Spanish bond auctions this week. However, on Friday the eurozone crisis again took a turn for the worse...
