100 posts
European Venture Capital Funds in tax havens
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We have the (first) Single Market Act (SMA I) COM(2011) 206 (in 22 EU languages, in English), the background blog entry European Council and Single Market Act I and the report from the EU Commission to the European Council 18-19 October 2012 about th...
Europeiska riskkapitalfonder i skatteparadis
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Som bakgrund har vi (den första) inremarknadsakten KOM(2011) 206, blogginlägget European Council and Single Market Act I och EU-kommissionens rapport till Europeiska rådet den 18-19 oktober 2012 om genomförandet av tillväxt- och sysselsättnings...
Cyprus Entrepreneurs fit for European Mobility
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Earlier this summer we titled a post - The Entrepreneurs that did not fit into the #Cy2012eu Agenda - never thought that it would have been so premonitory. -...
EU-strategi för snabbare standardisering
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Blogginlägget Ny förordning om europeisk standardisering konstaterade redan att EU-kommissionens förslag KOM(2011) 315 hade lett till antagande, men att den nya förordningen inte ännu hade publicerats i Europeiska unionens officiella tidning. Vi...
Bring women on board
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On 24 October, in a spectacular display of lack of solidarity following weeks of public discord, the college of European commissioners failed to give its backing to a draft directive presented by Commissioner Viviane Reding aimed at increasing the nu...
Cooperatives are crucial allies in the fight against hunger
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One of the only chances small-scale food producers have to gain competitive access to local and global markets is by banding together in cooperatives, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva told a meeting of the World Cooperatives Congress in M...
Strategia eurooppalaisille standardeille palvelujen sisämarkkinoilla
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Aiemmin oli puhe hiljattain hyväksytystä asetuksesta, joka koskee eurooppalaista standardointia. Asetus perustuu komission ehdotukseen KOM(2011) 315, mutta sitä ei ole vielä julkaistu Euroopan unionin virallisessa lehdessä. KOM(2011) 311 Sa...
Standards important ”everywhere”
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Standards for goods and services, including ICT, are hugely important for businesses and consumers, even if standards are like cleaners: You notice their absence. In the blog entry A strategic vision for European standards I already quoted a para...
A strategic vision for European standards
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The blog entry European Council and Single Market Act I told us that (only) one of the twelve ”levers” (key actions) for growth and confidence of the SMA I communication COM(2011) 206 had been approved: the European Standardisation System in Octo...
Should there be Quotas for Women in Boardrooms across Europe ?
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There is a rather surprising shortage of women in corporate boards across Europe, resulting in a serious lack of skilled human resources, when taken into consideration the high number of female graduates from university in recent years and their unde...
CoR: Delivering Europe 2020 requires more involvement of local and regional authorities and more financial investment
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The 3rd Committee of the Regions (CoR) Monitoring Report on Europe 2020 shows that widespread awareness and support for Europe 2020 are not enough to meet the ambitious targets of Europe's growth strategy. There is an urgent need to commit more...
Ny förordning om europeisk standardisering
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I blogginlägget European Council and Single Market Act I kunde vi konstatera att rådet och Europaparlamentet hade betat av en av de tolv nyckelåtgärderna i inremarknadsakten KOM(2011) 206 slutlig (på 22 EU-språk eller på svenska). Det handlade...
Company Boards and Thwarted Quotas: the Glacial Pace of Change
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Aileen McColgan Women hold fewer than one in seven seats on the boards of the largest listed public companies across the European Union.[1] In Norway, where a 40% quota has been in force for some time, they account for 42% … Continue reading &#...
Asetus eurooppalaisesta standardoinnista
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Eurooppalaisilla standardeilla on suuri merkitys yrityksille ja kuluttajille. Standardit Sisämarkkinoiden ensimmäisen toimenpidepaketin KOM(2011) 206 (eri kielivaihtoehdot tai suomeksi) kahdentoista ”viputekijän” joukossa oli palvelujen al...
Honeyball’s Weekly Round-Up
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It was a busy week for Commissioner Reding who is responsible for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship. For many months she has been working on draft legislation which would see a mandatory quota of 40% women who sit on Europe’s … Co...
France: Will Winter Come Early for Nice's Famous Flower Market?
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On the occasion of the Sainte Fleur festival on 29 September, Nice-Matin, the local daily paper of the capital of the French Riviera, published an article titled "Nice: the famous flower market of the Cours Saleya in danger". According to Sophie Casa...
Poland Leads World’s Business Reformers
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Six of the top 10 reformers in Doing Business 2013 are TOL countries – and Poland is top dog worldwide...
Quotas for women on company boards – BBC Daily Politics programme
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Yesterday I was very pleased to be invited by the BBC Daily Politics programme to talk about quotas for women on the boards of top companies. I was on with my Conservative counterpart in London, Marina Yannakoudakis MEP. This is our … Cont...
Seven Days in Europe
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Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding had to shelve plans to introduce a directive that would make it mandatory for company boards to reserve 40% of their seats for women. Despite facing opposition Reding tweeted that she will not give up, and …...
Polish Oil Firm’s Shares Jump on Dividend Hopes
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Shares in Polish oil firm PKN Orlen SA jumped as much as 2% Thursday after its chief financial officer said the company’s management was seriously considering recommending a dividend payout from 2012 net profit, after years of not paying any.
EU:n komission työohjelma vuodelle 2013
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Tavallisille kansalaisille Euroopan unioni on jäänyt varsin etäiseksi ja tuntemattomaksi, joskin mielenilmaukset voivat olla vahvoja kun EU nousee kahvipöytäkeskustelun aiheeksi. Sitävastoin suuryritykset, etujärjestöt, alueet (osavaltiot)...
Investing in Poland
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The Polish Embassy in London threw its doors open to the Wednesday Club of the Institute of Directors (and a couple of journalists, including me) this evening, to promote investment opportunities in Poland. The country has much to be proud of, having...
Russia’s Business Climate Improves, Foreign Investment Slows
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Despite a six-place jump by Russia in the World Bank’s annual measure of countries’ business regulations, a separate report found that foreign direct investment in Russia tumbled 39% in the first half of 2012 from the same period a year earlier.
EU-USA women will work together to develop innovation and leadership
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I was delighted to meet a delegation from the Global Women’s Innovation Network (GlobalWIN) in Strasbourg today. GlobalWIN is a not for profit organisation based in the United States which provides a dynamic forum for women executives and opini...
Compact for Growth and Jobs – Report to the European Council
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After the Barroso highlights, we turn to the report: Implementation of the Compact for Growth and Jobs – Report to the European Council 18-19 October 2012 (14 pages). - This helpful report has been published in other EU languages as well. Click on...
Croatia: Small business red tape cut in efforts to stimulate self-employment
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Although received with a fair amount of skepticism and confusion by many in Croatia the government’s seemingly swift move to cut red tape, simplify small business registration and make it affordable to any entrepreneur or person with a view to ente...
Industrial competitiveness: centre-right politicians called to action
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Here is my ‘net take’ from the European Ideas Network (EIN) conference, where I was on a panel discussing industrial competitiveness. This fits well with current concerns about growth and job losses, as policy-makers try to think beyond t...
Compulsory Quotas for women: What the EU should do next
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Later this morning I will be speaking at Europe House, Smith Square, London on the need for compulsory quotas on company boards. My thanks to the European Parliament Information Office in the UK and the National Alliance of Womens Organisations ̷...
My article for the New Statesman on support for mandatory quotas for women on boards
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Last week I wrote a piece for the New Statesman explaining why planned legislation to introduce mandatory quotas for women on company boards is so importnat. You can read the article and comments from their readers by clicking on this link, R...
We can't allow Germany and France to run our defence industry
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By Con Coughlin With BAE Systems and EADS locked in frantic negotiations to save their proposed £28 billion m...
En modern innovationspolitik utan patent
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I fredags talade jag inför huvuddelen av Sveriges patentombud om vad Piratpartiet vill med patent, varumärken och upphovsrätt. Ingen ska beskylla mig för att enbart predika för kören. Även om jag inte direkt tror att jag lyckades övertyga jus...
PAVING THE WAY TO A NEW INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN EUROPE
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Number of View: 8Do we need a boost towards a re-industrialisation of Europe? Yes: the low contribution of industry to the EU economy is among the conditions that diminished our capacity to react to the crisis. Can we put our future competitiveness a...
SMEs and the EU Economy
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This is a infographic outlining how SMEs – Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises – contribute to the European Union’s economy. A whopping 75 million people work in SMEs – that’s the population of Poland, Portugal, Hungary,...
Can Europe become an entrepreneurial society?
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In his landmark book Innovation and Entrepreneurship, published in 1985, Peter Drucker described the tectonic shift that he perceived in its early stages – the move from an employee society toward an entrepreneurial society. This shift was, and...
Let's break up BAE Systems
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Now that the BAE-EADS merger is off – vielen Dank, Frau Merkel – what future does the defence giant have? After all, having been keen to sell the company to a foreign conglomerate, the management can no longer argue that there is something inviol...
BAE/EADS deal collapse shows national interests still rule when it comes to defence
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A lot of people on both sides of the Europe debate got very excited last month about the ‘Future of Europe’ report produced by a group of EU Foreign Ministers chaired by Germany’s Guido Westerwelle. The report was certainly controversial, not l...
Europe cannot fly
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Thursday, 11 October 2012 The only winners from the collapse of the proposed €36bn merger between BAE and EADS are the Americans – and, at a pinch, the Bavarians. Among the big losers are shareholders in the U...
Americans backed the failed merger
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John Stevens Thursday, 11 October 2012 The failure of the EADS/BAE link-up must be considered a reverse for those both within and outside Government who have been campaigning for closer Anglo-French defence co-...
Abortive BAE Systems merger: EADS roll | Editorial
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The failure of the deal advertises the vulnerability of the UK's biggest manufacturer in an era of shrinking defence budgetsAnti-European sentiment in Britain is sustained by a powerful mix of tradition and sentiment. The strongest card of those who...
Why Europe needs the BAE-EADS merger to succeed | David Gow
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Europe's defence market has been far too fragmented for decades and needs the merger to consolidate its positionThe proposed pan-European aerospace and defence merger between BAE and EADS may not fly; many now believe it will collapse by the UK Takeo...
The importance of the military-industrial base
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In the third edition of European Geostrategy’s ‘Long Posts’, Daniel Fiott analyses the importance of the European military-industrial base. Why is this element of European industrial infrastructure so important? Why must it be maintained as Eur...
Business Leaders as Heroes
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Can a merchant be a hero? Someone in the grips of the leadership fad that began in the 1980s in business might reply, “yes, of course.” A hero said to be in a corporation might be labeled as a “champion,” “servant leader,” “coach,
EU strategy 2020: Re-industrialization of European continent
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Dear reader,first of all the initial reporting in German by the usually well-informed newspaper "Die Welt":EU plant Re-Industrialisierung des KontinentsThis author would like to thank Florian Eder, the author of this report, that he, as far as this a...
Are new ICT sectors a platform for European growth?
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Authors: Reinhilde VeugelersCompared to the United States, Europe has a less efficient ICT growth model: the EU’s economy specialises less in ICT sectors, ICT contributes less to growth in the EU, and the EU is lagging in terms of private expenditu...
Growth and jobs in cultural and creative sectors
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Things have advanced a bit, since I mentioned the new EU strategy for growth and jobs in the cultural and creative sectors (in Finnish, in more detail in Swedish). Instead of an almost final version of the communication COM(2012) 537 in English, fi...
Can local businesses help fight global poverty?
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On 16-17 October, the European Commission will be hosting EU Development Days, a two-day forum on international affairs and development cooperation that will see Heads of State, Nobel Prize laureates, business leaders, and development professionals m...
