Eurozone finance chairman Jean-Claude
Juncker has backed the idea of boosting the European Investment Bank (EIB)....It is one of several measures demanded by the leading French presidential
candidate Francois Hollande to boost growth in the eurozone.
Mr Hollande has said he wants the measures added to newly agreed limits on
European governments' borrowing.
However, Mr Juncker poured cold water on the idea that the "fiscal compact"
could be amended. Despite his opposition to renegotiating the fiscal rules, Mr Juncker appeared
to offer an olive branch in a speech in Hamburg on Monday, by backing Mr
Hollande's idea that the EIB could play a bigger role.
Mr Juncker said that the bank's capital - its buffer against loan losses -
could be increased by 10bn euros ($13bn; £8.1bn), which would increase its
lending capacity by several times that figure.
The EIB is jointly-owned by the 27 EU nations - including the UK - and
finances infrastructure, small and medium businesses, and green projects among
other things.
Mr Hollande is ahead of the incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy in opinion
polls, having already narrowly beaten him in the first round of voting a week
ago...The other pro-growth measures called for by Mr Hollande include:
1 - the introduction of Europe-wide government bonds to finance infrastructure
investment:
1 - - a financial transactions taxa reallocation of unused structural funds in the European Commission
budget
If elected, Mr Hollande has said he would veto ratification of the fiscal
compact - which was agreed by EU governments, except the UK and Czech Republic
in March - unless some of his demands were met.
4 comments:
Its owners are still reeling from the very public mauling handed out by MPs yesterday but British Sky Broadcasting is doing remarkably well. The broadcaster put out results this morning showing revenue, customer numbers, operating profit and earnings per share are all on the up. Profit rose a startling 25pc to £939m, revenue is up 5pc to £5.1bn. No wonder the company’s shares were up yesterday as the market digested the possibility of News Corp being forced to sell down its blocking stake. “We have made a good start to 2012,” chief executive Jeremy Darroch said. What would major shareholders Rupert and James Murdoch give to be able to say the same? BSkyB has confirmed Ofcom is looking into the “fit and proper person” test with regard to News Corp and the Murdochs' stewardship of the company.
If banking capital requirements are your thing there will be plenty to chew over from Brussels later today. EU finance ministers are meeting at the Economic and Financial Affairs Council to discuss Basel III requirements. The Bank of England will provide economic news in the shape of lending figures to UK residents.
Lloyds Banking Group was the biggest riser across the blue-chip index after its first-quarter profits came in slightly ahead of analyst expectations.
Despite having to set aside another £375m to cover compensation for mis-sold payment protection insurance, investors piled into the stock – but warned that Europe’s sovereign debt crisis would continue to weigh heavily on the sector.
Jonathan Jackson, head of equities at Killik & Co, said: “Lloyds is making good progress on its restructuring, reducing the balance sheet size and risk, cutting costs and bringing impairments under control.
“Unfortunately, the macro environment is not supportive, with continued slow economic growth, muted loan demand, low interest rates and weak asset prices, and the net effect of this is to push out the point where Lloyds returns to a normalised earnings level.” More here.
We cannot expect non-European countries, whose citizens in many cases have a much lower standard of living, to save the eurozone.
That statement makes sense - strongest shoulders to carry most weight and all. However, Canada and the US surely aren't among those low-standard countries.
Their unwillingness to contribute surprised me since it shows a lack of transatlantic solidarity at such a crucial point in time. In dutch we have a saying "in need one knows his true friends".
It also remains hugely hypocritical to keep calling it a eurozone sovereign debt crisis.
It's still a global banking crisis in which the deleveraging is happening on the back of people that didn't start the fire. Unfair and immoral.
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