The ECB is to discuss whether to expand its stimulus measures at its next meeting March 10. Draghi said there were "a variety of instruments" the ECB could employ if it decided more is needed. It could increase its 60 billion euros in monthly bond purchases with newly printed money, a step aimed at driving down already low interest rates and raising inflation that remains too low at 0.4 percent.

He expressed some frustration with governments that have held back spending at a time of economic weakness. He urged governments that are in better shape financially to spend more on public investment that would increase grow and to avoid excessive taxation.

Monetary policy from the central bank "is the only truly stimulative policy over the past four years," he said. ECB officials have warned governments not to rely just on central bank stimulus to boost the modest eurozone recovery.

Countries do not go bankrupt. They default and the debt stays until it is written off. The problem is that the countries were allowed to join the Europe without real convergence to the Maastrict criteria. Greece should never have been allowed to enter and the Eurostat officials, heavily paid by EU tax payers, did not do their job when they were responsible to monitor the compliance.
Why is anyone surprised that Greeks did not pay their taxes. Anyone doing business in Greece knew it so how come the EU officials did not? The structural reforms agreed back in 2010 and 2012 were not implemented so the politicians in Greece before Syriza failed the Greek people. The IMF has been the biggest at fault as they consistently failed to understand that debt sustainability was not possible in a country were not a single measure was growth supportive. Their estimates of sustainable debt was a debt to GDP of 100-120%. The Europeans invested too much faith in the IMF officials who sit in their ivory tower thinking.  The EU has to get rid of the IMF and bring in people centric management of the Eurozone or it will fail. The promises of financial engineering by JCJ are a joke and will be yet another white elephant. The two countries doing well are those which borrow at historically low interest rates such as UK and USA. Why not the EU to borrow more and spend on growth inducing investment. Why wait for handouts from the EU?...The EU is a political project that all the political elites of Europe are committed to. The entire foundation being 'ever closer union' power and authority is centralised into the hands of the EU bureaucrats, once gone that power never goes back, ever.  If the Greeks left the Euro this would shatter the politically important myth that surrendering power to the EU was a one way street. The Greeks simply can not be allowed to leave.

Never mind the colossal danger that after exit and the initial hooha that things settle down and then improve for the Greeks, what kind of message would that send to the other PIGS?
The EU elites will pay the bill using their taxpayers money, they will just need to find clever ways of disguising what they are doing. Their EU dreams are at stake, their power, salary and massive pensions, the Greeks debt will be paid for them.

The Fiware project is a public-private partnership between the EU and a consortium of companies that started in 2011.  The software tools that entrepreneurs like Visser may use were developed by European telecommunication companies like Telefonica and Ericsson. The industry has said it is also investing €300 million in the project, which includes online tutorials on how to use Fiware, and local 'Fiware innovation hubs'.  Fiware is royalty-free and open source, which means that it can be used free of charge, and developers may further develop it as well.  Non-European companies can use the tools as well.   “We don't mind if they are from Japan, from US, from China, from Latin America”, said Jesus Villasante, from the department of Net innovation in the European Commission. “What we don't want is that there would be only one operator that would be able to capture value. For us the idea is that internet should be open, and therefore we should allow for open initiatives that would compete with some proprietary initiatives.”  Proprietary software, as opposed to open source, can only be used if you have acquired a license. Examples include Microsoft Windows, Adobe Photoshop, and Mac OS X.  "In Europe there is a strong potential for innovation, for start-ups, for entrepreneurs. We need to have this innovation capacity in an open environment, not in a closed environment”, noted Villasante.  To promote the use of Fiware, the EU is investing €80 million in up to 1,000 start-ups.  The money is being distributed to 16 so-called accelerators, organisations that help start-ups grow by providing funding and other support.  Konnektid is one of the beneficiaries of such an accelerator, called European Pioneers, based in Berlin.  One way the EU is trying to spread the use of Fiware is by making grant money - up to €150,000 per start-up - conditional on its use. “It's a kind of a trade-off. You need to find Fiware attractive and useful. If not, then you probably should be applying to a different accelerator”, said Ludtke, adding that the 12 start-ups under his guidance have so far not experienced it as a burden.  Michel Visser hasn't either, although he is defiant about what would happen if he found a piece of non-Fiware software that would be better for his app. “It's business first. If it's stopping my business I would definitely say: listen, I tried it, this is what I experienced, this is my feedback, but I'm going to use something different. That's what I would fight for. I'm a founder of a company and I need to run my business. ”

The EU commission's Villasante is much less strict than Ludtke - who oversees the handing out of money to some start-ups- on the use of Fiware as a precondition. Villasante said it was more important that the start-ups tried Fiware to see if it is useful to them.

“We don't believe that all the 1,000 start-ups will develop applications that will be successful in the market. There may also be some SMEs that play with Fiware, develop the product, but decide: this is not for me, I prefer to use this other thing. That's fine.”

Some recipients of the EU grants have told this website that they were more interested in the grant money than in Fiware.

“There are plenty of alternatives to Fiware that are also open source,” said one entrepreneur who wished to remain anonymous.

“The EU is pushing software that is not necessarily the best,” he added.

A group of other Bitcoin exchanges attempted to distance themselves from MtGox, issuing a statement claiming the "tragic violation of the trust of users of MtGox was the result of one company’s actions and does not reflect the resilience or value of Bitcoin and the digital currency industry".

However, the Tokyo-based exchange's problems have weighed on Bitcoin in general. Its price on Coinbase, another platform, fell to $480, having traded above $1,000 three months ago.

Bitcoin was founded in 2009 by a developer known as Satoshi Nakamoto, whose true identity is unknown. It spent years in relative obscurity, used only by a relatively small internet community.

Last year, it rocketed in value, due to a growing interest in alternative currencies, growing acceptance from regulators and a legitimacy stemming from the closure of the online marketplace for illegal goods, the Silk Road, which processed transactions in Bitcoin.

In the wake of years of a crisis that have shaken Europe to the core and raised existential questions, 2014 will bring a major shake-up in the political forces ascendant across the EU, in the people running things, in how the EU's rival institutions cope with and against one another.

Elections for the European parliament in May promise to be the most momentous ever held for the Strasbourg chamber. The angst of the elites across the continent is that the chamber will be captured by a motley crew of Europhobes dedicated to the destruction or subversion of the institution they have conquered.

As a result of years of austerity, soaring unemployment and the "renationalization" of European politics, anti-EU populists will do well in the elections, from Britain to Greece. France could be the big one, with Marine Le Pen's Front National tipped to win the election nationally.

The mavericks and populists will not win the election. But they could secure symbolic victories, take around 30% of seats, shape the agenda, cause the mainstream parties to trim their policies towards the far-right, and benefit from the perceived failings of lackluster leadership among the mainstream in Europe.

The fallout from the elections will also affect the next bout of horse-trading. October will see the appointment of a new European Commission, a new president of the European Council chairing EU summits and mediating between national leaders, and a new foreign policy chief.

There will be a battle between the new parliament and national leaders over who should make these key appointments and there will be the usual multi-dimensional scrapping over the plum jobs.

While these games preoccupy Brussels, Europe's real world is one of deepening social and economic impact from years of austerity and euro crisis, of the political costs of minimal growth, effective deflation, mass unemployment.

The British question will move up the agenda. Will the UK be the first country, and a big one, to quit the EU? This will concentrate continental minds.

Angela Merkel in Berlin, in the first year of her third term as German chancellor, is Europe's undisputed leader. The year should show if she really has an idea of what she wants her European legacy to be and whether she can get there. France's President François Hollande cuts an increasingly sorry figure on the European stage – he needs a new deal with Germany but there is little sign of that happening. French weakness and Italian messiness will reinforce the prevalent sense of worry about European decline.

Ian Traynor in Brussels

BRUSSELS - Belgium's EU commissioner is to appear before court later this month in a case involving charges of tax fraud.

Karel De Gucht, in charge of EU trade, was last year accused by Belgian tax authorities of failing to declare €1.2 million on a share transaction in 2005.

The tax authorities want him to pay €900,000 - a sum that would represent tax on the original amount; plus an additional amount for non-payment; plus interest on the unpaid amount.

As both sides failed to reach agreement on the levy, the matter will go to court on 25 November, Belgian media reported on Friday (7 November).

For its part, the European Commission says the De Gucht case is a "private" matter which involves events before he became the EU's top trade official.

But the news comes at an awkward time for EU institutions.

It emerged just days before the latest round of talks between the EU and US on a broad trade deal.

It also comes in the wider context of an EU fight against tax evasion.

The issue has become more politically sensitive since the start of the economic crisis.

The commission itself estimates that €1 trillion is lost each year in the EU to tax evasion and avoidance. It published an action plan on how to tackle the problems in December.

It indicated on Friday it will stand behind De Gucht, whose lawyers have rejected the tax office's accusation of "fraud."

"We are going to respect the presumption of innocence," commission spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen said.

She added that De Gucht had spoken to commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on Friday morning and assured him there was no wrongdoing.

"This enquiry concerns issues that are unrelated to the functions of a commissioner," she said.

BRUSSELS - EU justice commissioner Viviane Reding has said the Union should create its own intelligence service by 2020.

Speaking on Monday (4 November) to Greek daily Naftemporiki on the US snooping scandal, she said: "What we need is to strengthen Europe in this field, so we can level the playing field with our US partners."

She added: "I would therefore wish to use this occasion to negotiate an agreement on stronger secret service co-operation among the EU member states - so that we can speak with a strong common voice to the US. The NSA needs a counterweight. My long-term proposal would therefore be to set up a European Intelligence Service by 2020."

Revelations by US leaker Edward Snowden say America's National Security Agency (NSA) intercepts millions of Europeans' emails and phone calls.

It is also said to spy on 35 world leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

EU countries' intelligence services already co-operate to an extent.

They share classified information on conflicts and terrorist threats in IntCen, a branch of the EU foreign service.

Counter-terrorism specialists also meet in the so-called CP931 working group in the EU Council.

Outside EU structures, European intelligence chiefs meet in what they call the Club de Berne and in a Club de Berne offshoot, the Counter Terrorism Group.

In terms of the EU's own intelligence gathering, IntCen posts staff to non-EU countries on research trips. But they do it with the agreement of the host state.

The EU foreign service gets updates from its 13 civilian and military crisis missions, such as Eulex in Kosovo or EUTM in Mali.

It has 40-or-so Regional Security Officers, who file reports from EU embassies in risky places, such as Lebanon or Libya. It is also hiring EU countries' experts as military attaches in a handful of delegations.

None of it is comparable to an offensive foreign intelligence service, such as the UK's MI6 or France's DGSE, however.

An EU official told EUobserver that Reding spoke off the cuff in Naftemporiki and has not discussed her idea with fellow commissioners.

The official noted that creating a European Intelligence Service would need an EU treaty change and that Reding's notion, if it is taken up, would have to be dealt with after EU elections in 2014.

The idea already came up in 2004.

Austria and Belgium at the time proposed creating an EU intelligence service in reaction to the Madrid train bombings, which killed almost 200 people.

Their proposal fell on deaf ears in France, Germany and the UK.

Austria still has an appetite for it.

Its counter-terrorism chief, Peter Gridling, told a European Parliament hearing in 2011: "It is time to ask ourselves this question: 'Is it realistic to start thinking about a future EU intelligence service?' I think it's realistic."

But there is no sign that large EU states hold different views now than 10 years ago.

IN THE U.K. - More than 600,000 unemployed European Union migrants are living in Britain at a cost of £1.5 billion to the NHS alone, according to an EU report.

The authoritative study, obtained by The Sunday Telegraph, shows the number of jobless European migrants coming to Britain has risen dramatically in the past five years, intensifying demands for the Government to renegotiate EU membership.

Opponents of the EU seized on the figures to suggest Britain could not afford to allow European migrants to come here at will while continuing to provide a universal benefits system.

The 291-page report, to be published this week by the European commissioner in charge of employment and welfare, discloses:

• The number of “non-active” EU migrants in Britain has risen by 42 per cent between 2006 and 2012;

Forecasters last night warned the entire country is set for a horror freeze which will bring brutal winds and fierce blizzards.

Temperatures have already started to plunge as a swathe of cold air from the Arctic has swept across the UK in the past few days.

The first long-range forecasts warn of "record-breaking snowfall" next month.

Heavy wintry showers are expected to cause widespread chaos with below-average temperatures possibly lingering until February.

Long-range forecasters blamed the position of a fast-flowing band of air known as the jet stream near to Britain and high pressure for the extreme conditions. Jonathan Powell, forecaster for Vantage Weather SERVICES said: 'We are looking at a potentially paralyzing winter, the worst for decades, which could at times grind the nation to a halt.

'Persistent cold snaps with some very heavy snowfall are likely, and I would not be surprised if some records are not broken this year.

'The main issue will be the extreme cold which is showing signs of really bedding in, thanks to freezing winds from the north."

He blamed the 'poorly positioned" jet stream which is expected to be 'blocked" south of the UK, allowing a continual flow of freezing Arctic air.

James Madden, forecaster for Exacta Weather, said it was likely to be the worst winter for more than 100 years.

He said: 'A horror winter scenario is likely to bring another big freeze with copious snow for many parts.

'There is also a high risk that we will experience a scenario similar to December 2010 or much worse at times, especially in January.

'This is likely to produce major disruption to public transport and school closures on a prolific scale."

He went on: 'The cold theme from the latter part of October is likely to continue into November - and for the vast majority of the month.

'November could turn out to be a record-breaking month. There is the potential for some significant falls of snow. The northern half is likely to experience the worst conditions, 

'It is also likely the southern half will experience a number of major snow events throughout November."

The forecast of a harsh winter comes amid fears that millions of pensioners will face an 'eat or heat" dilemma this year as energy prices are set to rocket by up to 10 per cent.

Households in some areas have all ready been forced to crank up the heating in near-freezing conditions.

Government forecasters said overnight temperatures over the next few days will hover close to freezing in the North with the South in single figures.

Severe storms are thought to have caused the deaths of two people yesterday. A man was killed on the A350 near Trowbridge, Wiltshire, while a driver died when his Jeep spun off the A35 near Bournemouth.

Bad weather also led to ferry delays between Dover and Calais. During the storms, several tons of scaffolding collapsed in Great Yarmouth and trees came down in Essex.

The Met Office is warning of more heavy rain this weekend, with more than an inch in some areas, especially in the South. It issued a severe weather warning for the region today.

A spokesman said: 'Heavy rain is likely to continue into the weekend. Most of the wet weather stays in the South-east, East Anglia and the East Midlands. It is likely to feel cold, especially in areas of rainfall."

The IMF said Dublin was on track to meet its obligations under the deal, but "near-term prospects are weaker and significant fiscal, financial sector and unemployment challenges remain".

Ireland was forced to seek help after a property crash left its banks massively under-capitalised and the state's finances collapsed.

Since then it has stuck rigorously to the recipe of austerity laid out in the programme by its "troika" of lenders.

The EU is desperate for Ireland to exit the rescue smoothly to show the tough-love approach can succeed, given the struggles of fellow bailout recipients Greece and Portugal and deep-rooted public dissatisfaction across the region.

Ireland has met nearly all its funding needs through next year by issuing debt periodically over the last 12 months, having issued a 10-year bond in March for the first time since being locked out of markets in late 2010.

Yet banks continue to shun calls from households and businesses for easier credit conditions while struggling with low profits and a ratio of bad loans that has reached 26%.

Unemployment also remains a huge problem. A fall in the jobless rate from 15% to 13.7% since early 2012 has eased the social security burden but 58% of those without work are considered long-term unemployed, "posing a risk to Ireland's growth potential", said the IMF.

"Greece is determined to avoid another international bail-out even though it faces a gaping hole in its public finances, the country's deputy prime minister has said". May I suggest pollyfilla or Red Devil or a good quality expanding foam. If none of this works then try Germany. Oh! BTW he takes up two seats when he is flying business class if he slimmed down he could reduce the cost to the state by 50%. What he surely means is an "adjustment", as the EU likes to call it, the latest of which, in November last year, involved the extension of the maturities of the bilateral and EFSF loans by 15 years and a deferral of interest payments of Greece on EFSF loans by 10 years. "Our demand is not debt relief. It is additional reprofiling without problem, without additional burden for our institutional partners," he added. "It is not possible to implement new fiscal measures. It is not possible to impose new cuts on wages and pensions," he said. If that isn't a clear indication that Greece is in the wrong currency I don't know what is.  I think the Eurozone needs to get on with its "re-profiling" because if Venizelos thinks there is a magic money tree that will allow him to keep paying his public sector friends their guaranteed hard currency (Euro) salaries he is in for a rude awakening. The Euro money tree is looking more stressed by the day, and Greece will take another bail out because they have no other option. If the Euro crisis is not dealt with meaningfully the Euro will crash. German hyperinflation awaits if this carries on, get your barrows ready. Clearly Greece is still unable to repay their Eurozone Payday Loans on the terms agreed. This is of course no problem whatsoever. It will no doubt be rolled over further. The taxpayer will bear the cost and, let's be absolutely clear here, that may well involve the UK taxpayer next time around, as part of our EU budget may well be used in future EU bailouts!

Please remember to only apply for a Eurozone Payday Loan if you know you can't afford to repay the amount borrowed.

Quite astonishing to think that anyone reading this would be gullible enough to believe it. Whilst Greece remains in the € - it will need continuous bailouts from the rest of the € zone. Eventually, it will require debt write off and the fools providing the bailouts will then lose all their money.

The fools are the unwitting € zone taxpayers who don't fully realize (yet) they have been stuck with this unrecoverable Greek debt - and with the rest of the FPIGS debts too.

Greek unemployment rises to record 27.6%

The Greek jobless rate rose to 27.6% in May from 27% in April as austerity and recession continued to weigh on prospects.

It was the highest since the country's statistics agency started publishing the data in 2006, and more than twice the 12.1% eurozone average in June.

The number of unemployed people in the country is now 1.38m, an increase of 30,558 compared with April.

A breakdown of age groups shows unemployment among 15-24 year olds hit 64.9% in May:

15-24 - 64.9%

25-34 - 37.7%

35-44 - 24.7%

45-54 - 20.9%

55-64 - 16.2%

65-74 - 9.6%

Welcome to the USA Mr Samaras - where the FED (the cause of the Great Depression of 1929 and the rise of Fascism in Germany and Italy) resides and prospers! We really have a lot of sympathy for your poor downtrodden masses because the Fed-backed ECB and IMF have created the un-ending debt that caused them! We hope our little "media show" of sympathy will put food on everyone's plate in Greece real quick!

It is time to open central banking books for two overall reasons: either they are totally incompetent imbeciles or this depression is being orchestrated for financial gain and control of sovereign nations. Whatever the answer may be, banking officials need to be reviewed by independent government panels and then removed for crimes against humanity.

After all, these bankers have steeled themselves to loss of life and livelihood for generations – the rest of us need to steel ourselves to getting rid of them pronto before their scheme for ultimate control is finalized. For a start, fair referendums need to be allowed in all EU nations for an end to this “Euro Madness” and a return to individual currencies printed directly by government treasuries.

BLOWIG HOT AIR ... Greece is far form being OK...Greeks are though...

GERMANY BLOWING HOT AIR - "Greece is getting on track," German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said in Brussels as the meeting ended. "It is not easy for them."  The agreement reached on Monday night foresees an initial payment of €2.5 billion this month to be followed up by more payments in subsequent months. Greece's creditors are primarily concerned by the slow progress Athens has made on downsizing its public sector, with thousands of additional layoffs pending. The country's privatization program has also generated much less cash than expected, most recently as a result of the government's inability to find a buyer for the natural gas company DEPA. Tax reform and the pursuit of tax dodgers is another area where Greece's creditors have demanded improvement. "It's time to step up the momentum of reform in Greece," said European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn.  Still, the public sector cuts are controversial in Greece, with thousands of teachers and municipal workers taking to the streets of Athens on Monday and Tuesday. Some 12,500 state employees are to be placed on administrative leave by the end of September with an additional 12,500 to join them by the end of the year. They will receive 75 percent of their salary for eight months. If they haven't found a new job by then, they will be unemployed.

There is concern that the additional cuts could further damage the country's fragile economy which, while slowly improving, is still stuck in its sixth straight year of recession. Economists forecast that the country could return to growth next year -- a tiny increase of just 0.6 percent -- but some worry that dividing up aid payments could derail the slow recovery. The agreement to continue funding Greece, however, was by no means unexpected. Despite widespread concern with Athens' slow pace of reform, there is little appetite for risking a return of the euro crisis by withholding funding. The situation in Portugal has made European finance ministers even more cautious. Political instability in Lisbon last week recently triggered a spike in the interest rate on Portuguese sovereign bonds. The country was able to avoid a collapse of the government, but Lisbon must nevertheless push through an additional €5 billion austerity package in the coming months, and there are concerns that political worries might return.

Greece too has seen its share of political instability in recent weeks, with the government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras almost collapsing due to its sudden and controversial shutdown of public broadcaster ERT. One of the parties in his three-party coalition left, leaving him with a tiny three-seat majority in parliament.

It is unclear whether France's proposal to provide direct aid to Greek banks will gain much traction. Some €60 billion of the €500 billion ESM fund has been made available to provide direct assistance to euro-zone banks that need it. But it remains controversial. Furthermore, European leaders only recently agreed to involve shareholders, creditors and individual countries should large banks find themselves in need of help. It remains unclear whether that agreement applies to existing cases like Greece.

There is no alternative other than let the free market loose and wait for the consequences.

The Governments prevented a crash by Q.E. and bail outs. Government action has saved the day. Left to the "free market", would have resulted in catastrophe. The USA is still pumping Billions every month into the system to prevent a crash....to keep the system going. There is no alternative other than let the free market loose and wait for the consequences. Obviously this cannot be allowed to happen, so we are living through a era o protectionism....the phrase "kicking the can", just means keeping the system going....stock markets and house prices are maintained because the alternative is too frightening. What is the alternative, to maintaining the "free market" and low wages in the face of global competiveness...

Answer... a global depression with mass unemployment.

Why is the free market having to be supported and "too big to fail" having to be bailed out.?...This is the new phenomenon...a game changer...Governments propping up a market that cannot be allowed to fail...How long can this be maintained or is the patient cured,?

I would hazard a guess and say that the real cause of all this is due to....

• 1)  DEBT of unimaginable proportions...AND GROWING.
• 2) Unsustainable growth...we are at a tipping point in human history...where resources are unable to meet demand...Peak oil, peak food production etc.....the importance of the exponential, when there is a limit....The limit has been reached.
• 3)  We now live in an overpopulated World.
• 4)  The lack of productive jobs...With the advent of the computer and the internet (another game changer), millions of "workers", for want of a better word, are now sitting in front of a computer screen...the operative word here is "sitting".
• 5)  The consumer society cannot continue consuming and growing with limited resources.
• 6)  The rise of the city...Now nearly half the world's population are concentrated in cities...These cities are pure consumers../they don't produce anything and are not self sustaining. As these growing cities compete for resources, there could be trouble.
• 7)  The rise of China...the tiger awakes...So what is the answer.?....Austerity...we must learn to live within our means....painful but necessary....otherwise it is keep printing the money and propping up dinosaurs...as we are seeing today.

The Bank of International Settlements did nothing to prevent this crisis, which it failed to foresee. On the contrary, it and its members in the 'central bankers' club' supported and promoted the economic dogmas, such as the 'efficient market', that led to the crisis. Why should anyone have faith in what in now says about how to get out of a mess it helped to create? We must learn to live within our means...but we won't.

Trouble ahead.

The Wall Street Journal flags up that weaker euro-zone governments would be able to borrow from the currency union's rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism, to top up their own backstops. But it won't be easy: Taxpayer-funded bailouts will only be allowed under "extraordinary circumstances," when it is technically impossible to impose losses on certain creditors in a rush or when a government is worried about effects on financial stability, officials said. Such exceptions will have to be authorized by the European Commission, the EU's executive arm. Rich countries like Germany and Finland worked hard to make it as difficult as possible for poorer countries to tap the euro-zone rescue fund. Ministers agreed that the common fund could eventually be used to recapitalize failing banks directly, but only to protect depositors—not shareholders or bondholders—and if the bank's home government has run out of money. Speaking to reporters after the deal was agreed, Dutch finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem argued it was a significant step forward: If a bank gets in trouble we will now, throughout Europe, have one set of rules on who pays the bill," he said. "The financial sector itself will now to a very, very large extent become responsible for dealing with its own problems. Dijsselbloem had been heavily criticised a few months ago for indicating that the Cyprus bailout (which forced massive losses on some large depositors) was a template for future rescue deals. He backtracked on the comments, but this deal confirms that the Cypriot experience could be repeated across the continent. And German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble confirmed this point, telling reporters: They can affect German savers just as well as they can affect any other investor in the world. France's Pierre Moscovici told the press pack that Europe's bailout fund could still be used for bank rescues (after creditors have been hit). Reuters got the quotes: French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici signalled that ministers also agreed to French demands that the euro zone's rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism, can be used to help banks in the 17-nation currency area that run into trouble. It makes the whole thing coherent," said Moscovici. "It creates a solidity for the system and a system of solidarity.

Greece's coalition leaders are due to sit down in two hours time to discuss the way forward, following the row over state broadcaster ERT's closure. The Junior partners, Evangelos Venizelos of Pasok and Fotis Kouvelis of Democratic Left, have already held a meeting to agree a joint position ahead of their crunch talks with PM Antonis Samaras. Could the government collapse? Mujtaba Rahman, European director at Eurasia Group, reckons not.Here's highlights from Rahman's latest analyst note: Importantly, neither PASOK nor Democratic Left have threatened to leave the government. Instead, they have been looking to extract certain concessions. Venizelos wants a cabinet reshuffle to actually increase his party's participation and visibility in the government (his original strategy was to shadow the government in case things went wrong; however, as the program has performed Samaras has been swallowing all of the credit). In terms of specifics, the current speculation is that PASOK is targeting the ministry of administrative reform as well as some deputy minister positions in the health and labour ministries. Likewise Kouvelis does not object to a reshuffle. Venizelos's and Kouvelis also keep repeating their desire for a renewal of the government's agreement and better "coordination of the government". In the aggregate, these statements should be interpreted as a warning to Samaras that he cannot decide on big policy issues without more active involvement and agreement of the coalition heads. Of course, the latest opinion polls show that Pasok and Democratic Left would be big losers if an election was held soon. Both are currently polling around the 4-7% mark, compared to New Democracy at 29-30%....Rahman adds: Samaras personally comes in around 43% compared to Syriza's Tsipras at 37%, depending upon the poll). And government collapse would almost certainly lead to an internal leadership challenge within PASOK.

TARGET2 - Legal base - A Decision of the ECB of 24 July 2007 concerning the terms and conditions of TARGET2-ECB (ECB/2007/7)

The Governing Council of the ECB decided to legally construct  a multiple system with the highest degree of harmonization of the legal documentation used by the central banks within the constraints of their respective national legal framework, named TARGET2.  All ECB legal acts related to TARGET2 can be found on a dedicated website. TARGET2 is the real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system owned and operated by the Euro system. TARGET stands for Trans-European Automated Real-time Gross settlement Express Transfer system. TARGET2 is the second generation of TARGET. Payment transactions are settled one by one on a continuous basis in central bank money with immediate finality. There is no upper or lower limit on the value of payments. TARGET2 mainly settles operations of monetary policy and money market operations. TARGET2 has to be used for all payments involving the Euro system, as well as for the settlement of operations of all large-value net settlement systems and securities settlement systems handling the euro.  TARGET2 is operated on a single technical platform. The business relationships are established between the TARGET2 users and their National Central Bank. In terms of the value processed, TARGET2 is one of the largest payment systems in the world.

• TARGET2 had 999 direct participants, 3,386 indirect participants and 13,313 correspondents;
• TARGET2 settled the cash positions of 82 ancillary systems;
• TARGET2 processed a daily average of 354,185 payments, representing a daily average value of €2,477 billion;
• the average value of a TARGET2 transaction was €7,1 million;
• two-thirds of all TARGET2 payments (i.e. 68%) had a value of less than €50,000 each; 11% of all payments had value of over 1 EUR million each;
• the peak in volume turnover was 29 June 2012 with 536,524 transactions and peak value turnover was on 1 March 2012 with €3,718 billion;
• TARGET2’s share in total large-value payment system traffic in euro was 92% in value terms and 58% in volume terms;
• the SSP technical availability was 100%;
• 99.98% of TARGET2 payments were processed in less than five minutes.

Just a thought :

Europe just went through a debt crisis that was entirely avoidable. Iceland showed us the way in 2008, no sovereign debt crisis there.

Unemployment below 5%, 7 consecutive quarters of growth averaging 2.5% per annum as of January this year. More GDP growth than other Nordic countries.

No wonder the rest of Europe is disillusioned. People are fed up with paying through the nose for debts that don't belong to them.

The burden of banking debts is tearing apart social cohesion.

Commission published a web-based information guide....

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) will drive the recovery in Europe, but they need improved and easy access to finance. Over the last few years the European Commission has been constantly working to improve their situation.  This commitment is reiterated in a joint European Commission/European Investment Bank (EIB) Group report published today. At a time when the situation remains difficult, the EIB Group's support for SMEs reached €13 billion in 2012. In addition, with a budget of €1.1 billion, Commission-funded guarantees helped to mobilize loans worth more than €13 billion, boosting nearly 220 000 small businesses across Europe. Today´s report covers the results of the current funding schemes as well as the new generation of financial instruments for SMEs. Financial resources for SMEs will be significantly enhanced through the €10 billion increase in the EIB’s capital.  As part of the Commission’s continuing efforts to support SMEs, European Commission Vice President Antonio Tajani, responsible for enterprise and industry policy, today also launched a new single online portal on all EU financial instruments for SMEs as well an information guide to promote SME stock listings, at a meeting of the SME Finance Forum on the eve of an Informal Competitiveness Council on 2 and 3 May in Dublin.  European Commission Vice President Antonio Tajani, Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship, said: "

Access to finance of SMEs remains difficult and is one of the main reasons for the current economic downturn. Therefore we intend to enlarge our loan guarantees to SMEs under the new COSME  programme as of 2014. Each euro dedicated to our guarantees has the power to stimulate - on average – 30 euros in bank loans. This is crucial to help Europe's jobs engine, our small enterprises, to run smoothly again. It is they who create 85% of all new jobs."

The European Commission also launched today a targeted information campaign to promote SME listings and stimulate investors’ interest in SMEs and mid-caps. To this end the Commission published a web-based information guide for SME stock listings. This tool provides advice to small and medium-sized businesses on how to go public.

It will be combined with the creation of an award for the best European stock market listings among small and mid-cap companies.

Gold’s price slide has been going on for months, with February marking the fifth in which it fell, the longest run of monthly declines since 1997. Holders of gold know it is volatile, with everything from hints of central bank easing – sending investors to the metal as a protection from inflation – and movement in the dollar, to changing jewellery demand in India, shifting the price. Gold also has a curious status in that it can behave as both a “risk-on” and “risk-off” asset. While investors flocked to buy the metal in the summer of 2011 during the eurozone debt crisis, in still more extreme times of market stress, such as at points during the credit crunch, the price has plunged, as people start selling their gold to cover losses elsewhere. Investors were recently unnerved to see a particular signal at the end of last month, gold’s so-called “death cross”, when the price’s 50-day rolling average drops below its 200-day moving average. Two out of the last three such “death crosses” were followed by marked sell-offs. As sentiment turned more bearish, an eye-catching note from Goldman Sachs grabbed attention. The bank cut its forecast for the gold price this year to $1,600 an ounce from $1,810, and predicted that next year the price will be $1,450.

“The turn in the gold cycle has likely already started,” the bank’s analysts warned, pointing to “a quickly waning conviction in holding gold positions, especially ETFs”. Goldman is not the only one to notice that, Paulson aside, holdings in exchange-traded products backed by gold have been shrinking at a rapid rate. On Thursday, they fell to 2,486.2 tonnes, the lowest since September, according to data from Bloomberg.

The waning enthusiasm for gold among the ETF investors is being treated as particularly significant, as they are seen as long-term “buy and hold” types rather than more speculative investors.

Recent weeks have also seen other investment banks express similar views on the gold price to Goldman, BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse and Citigroup, to name a few of those turning sour.

But there is no consensus. Bank of America Merrill Lynch still expects prices to rise strongly next year to an average of $1,838 an ounce, although it sees prices turning lower in 2015.

At the more extreme end of forecasts, Capital Economics, the UK economics consultancy, says gold will reach a new record of $2,000 later this year, warning that the eurozone will flare up again and the rally in equity markets may run out of steam.

That is not quite as eye-popping a forecast as it might seem, as when the impact of inflation is factored in, the price of gold was considerably higher, at about $2,400 an ounce in “real” terms, in early 1980.

Crucially, Capital does not see the ETF movement as driving the gold price in the future, but rather reflecting what has already happened. If the price rises, investors would soon be heading back in, argues Ross Strachan, Capital’s commodities analyst. “You tend to get people looking at it as 'they are flowing out, that should push the price down’. But to some extent that has already happened,” he notes.  Still, he admits: “There is an inherent difficulty in valuing gold – it’s much trickier than for almost any asset you care to name.” .........Bears and bulls beware.

Another euro-pegged government defending an overvalued exchange rate bites the dust, a reminder that the underlying economic and social disaster across the Europe’s Arc of Depression is still getting worse. Bulgarian prime minister Boiko Borisov resigned this morning after days of mass protests against austerity across the country. “I will not participate in a government under which police are beating people. Every drop of blood is a shame for us,” he said. “Our power was handed to us by the people, today we are handing it back to them.” This follows the defenestration of the free-market finance minister earlier this week. Bulgaria is of course a complicated country, still grappling with the legacy of communist rule and a police state. It is a stronghold of organised crime, offspring of the old security services. It went through near hyper-inflation in the 1990s and does not want to flirt with that again. The immediate protests are as much about Mafia control and soaring electricity prices as about spending cuts. But Bulgaria is also in much the same position as Greece, Portugal, Spain, and Italy, trapped in the ante-chamber of monetary union with a misaligned currency, forced to undertake an internal devaluation....

Britain's 15 years of consecutive growth were ignited by the leaving of the ERM straight-jacket that Thatcher signed us up to.

Germany has three choices:

1. It coughs up to pay the debts of the poorer countries.

2. It allows the poorer countries to leave the Euro.

3. It deals with the consequences of a wave of civil unrest and possibly terrorism/revolution across Europe.

They, along with France, made this bed - now its time that they lay in it.

Free trade not only for growth but social security, freedom - "Free trade is a driver not only for economic development in poor countries, but is also essential for building social security and promoting access to human rights and freedoms", said Alf Svensson MEP, responsible for the European Parliament's response to the Commission's year-old statement on trade, growth and development.The Report, that got the full support from the EP's Development Committee in a vote on Tuesday, calls for the EU's Aid for Trade instruments to be focused not only on trade between the EU and developing countries, but also on support for internal and South-South trade, in order to promote growth and prepare developing countries for trade on the global market.
It further calls on the EU to actively use the many instruments at its disposal to support peace, good governance and sound public finances in developing countries and thereby help create a conducive environment for efficient trade development.

"Human rights and free trade are two pillars for sound and sustainable societal development, and the EU needs to use its development instruments to promote both pillars", concluded Alf Svensson.  The Report will be voted in the March plenary.