European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has criticized French moves to
protect EU cultural industries as "reactionary" ahead of upcoming talks on a
massive EU free trade agreement with the United States.
European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso has criticised French
moves to protect
Europe's film and cultural industries as "reactionary" ahead of upcoming
negotiations on a major EU free trade agreement with the United States. "Some
say they belong to the left, but in fact they are culturally extremely
reactionary," the Commission president said in an interview with the
"International Herald Tribune" published on Monday. Without specifically
naming France, Barroso said that those fearful of a US
cultural invasion of Europe "have an anti-cultural agenda". Such fears
indicate "no understanding of the benefits that globalization brings, also from
a cultural point of view," he added. Hollande said on Monday that he found
Barroso’s remarks “hard to believe”. The unusually harsh criticism from
Barroso followed marathon talks Friday between the bloc's 27 trade ministers to
agree on the terms of the Commission's mandate to negotiate the EU-US trade
agreement, which would be the biggest free trade deal in the world. France
insisted on a cultural exception that would exclude the audiovisual sector from
the negotiations. After 13 hours of talks, a compromise was
reached agreeing to French demands while stating that the Commission could
review the issue later if necessary. "I am going to listen to what my American
friends say on this [and] then we can ... ask for additional mandates" if
needed, said EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht. EU officials have repeatedly
warned that excluding any economic sector could hand the US an early bargaining
chip in what promise to be tough negotiations. Washington says no areas should
be excluded from the talks. Ministers were under intense pressure to agree to
the guidelines on which the European Commission will negotiate the EU-US
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) so the talks could be
formally launched at the G8 meeting starting on Monday. If a deal is struck, it
will establish the world's largest free trade arrangement, with bilateral trade
in goods last year worth some €500 billion ($670 billion) and another €280
billion in services. Trillions of euros flow between the bloc and the United
States in annual investment. The EU says a trade deal would add some €119
billion euros to the EU economy a year and would result in a €95 billion annual
boon for the United States.
Access Investments-Building Awareness - European Union-ROMANIA
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has criticized French moves to
protect EU cultural industries as "reactionary" ahead of upcoming talks on a
massive EU free trade agreement with the United States.
European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso has criticised French
moves to protect
Europe's film and cultural industries as "reactionary" ahead of upcoming
negotiations on a major EU free trade agreement with the United States. "Some
say they belong to the left, but in fact they are culturally extremely
reactionary," the Commission president said in an interview with the
"International Herald Tribune" published on Monday. Without specifically
naming France, Barroso said that those fearful of a US
cultural invasion of Europe "have an anti-cultural agenda". Such fears
indicate "no understanding of the benefits that globalization brings, also from
a cultural point of view," he added. Hollande said on Monday that he found
Barroso’s remarks “hard to believe”. The unusually harsh criticism from
Barroso followed marathon talks Friday between the bloc's 27 trade ministers to
agree on the terms of the Commission's mandate to negotiate the EU-US trade
agreement, which would be the biggest free trade deal in the world. France
insisted on a cultural exception that would exclude the audiovisual sector from
the negotiations. After 13 hours of talks, a compromise was
reached agreeing to French demands while stating that the Commission could
review the issue later if necessary. "I am going to listen to what my American
friends say on this [and] then we can ... ask for additional mandates" if
needed, said EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht. EU officials have repeatedly
warned that excluding any economic sector could hand the US an early bargaining
chip in what promise to be tough negotiations. Washington says no areas should
be excluded from the talks. Ministers were under intense pressure to agree to
the guidelines on which the European Commission will negotiate the EU-US
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) so the talks could be
formally launched at the G8 meeting starting on Monday. If a deal is struck, it
will establish the world's largest free trade arrangement, with bilateral trade
in goods last year worth some €500 billion ($670 billion) and another €280
billion in services. Trillions of euros flow between the bloc and the United
States in annual investment. The EU says a trade deal would add some €119
billion euros to the EU economy a year and would result in a €95 billion annual
boon for the United States.
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BRUSSELS - The eurozone's bailout fund will be able to directly prop up weak banks from next year, after ministers reached agreement on Thursday night (20 June)
Under the deal agreed by the bloc's finance ministers in Luxembourg, €60 billion out of the European Stability Mechanism's €500 billion lending capacity will be allocated to bank recapitalization.
Klaus Regling, the German managing director of the ESM, indicated that the direct recap instrument would be ready in the second quarter of 2014, in time for the next round of 'stress tests' on Europe's banks and before the European Central Bank assumes its new duties as supervisor of the eurozone banking sector. He described the €60 billion as "more than sufficient".
Member states seeking to utilise the new instrument would have to stump up 20 percent of the recapitalization costs. Governments would also be required to inject extra funds to bring banks up to the 4.5 percent minimum capital buffer.
The formal guidelines for the recap instrument will be drawn up on the basis of the rules on bank recovery and resolution currently under discussion with ministers and MEPs.
Ministers agreed "one of the building blocks of banking union," said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who chairs the Eurogroup, at the press conference following the talks.
He also left open the prospect of the eurozone's four bailout countries being allowed to use the new facility.
"It will have to be decided case-by-case and by mutual agreement," he said, adding that "it's up to the member states to apply for it."
The agreement brings a close to a year of tortuous negotiations on one of the main tools in breaking the links between indebted banks and governments. Ireland and Spain were pushed to the point of bankruptcy as a result of guaranteeing the debts accrued by their private banks.
German finance minister, Wolfgang Schaueble, who had led resistance to allowing the bailout fund to directly support banks, called the move an "important step on the way to the banking union by agreeing on the main points for a future regime for direct bank recapitalization."
For his part, EU economic affairs commissioner Olli Rehn welcomed what he described as "serious progress on direct bank recap".
"We have taken another step to…break the vicious link between banks and sovereigns by diluting the link between them," he added.
Ministers also backed Latvia's bid to become the eighteenth member of the single currency in January 2014, with EU leaders expected to confirm the decision at next week's summit.
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