Deposits up to €100,000 will be guaranteed by funds contributed by banks...Historic vote in the European Parliament completes the Banking Union: as well as banking supervision by the ECB, now failing banks will also be tackled at European level.

“The Banking Union will contribute to regaining trust in the banking sector and thereby to economic recovery in the EU. These rules on financial stability will help restore banks' ability to provide credit to the real economy and our SMEs", stated Corien Wortmann-Kool MEP, EPP Group Vice-Chairwoman and one of the main negotiators of the so-called Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM).

The EPP Group managed to establish strong provisions to prevent national taxpayers bearing the losses of failing banks. “This is an important lesson we have learned from the crisis: shareholders and creditors must bear the losses of failing banks, not taxpayers. The position concluded by the Finance Ministers in December was not ambitious enough, leading to more involvement of Member States in individual resolution cases. The European Parliament successfully managed to reduce this political interference. This ensures that banks are treated in the same way across Europe and that painful, but necessary, restructuring measures such as bail-ins are really put into practice”, added Wortmann-Kool.

The Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive adopted today will lay the groundwork for a stable European banking sector and set the rules for all 28 Member States as well as the Banking Union. “This means that Europeans will have dynamic banks and a stable banking sector”, said Gunnar Hökmark MEP, Vice-Chairman of the EPP Group. Hökmark led the work on vast legislation on the recovery and resolution of credit institutions and investment firms for the European Parliament

The deal also includes updating the Directive on deposit guarantees. It harmonises the way in which national schemes are applied, for instance in terms of the level of protection and the maximum number of days it may take to compensate the depositors in the event of a bank being put in liquidation.

Been there before, going there again, there's some very strange comments on here from people desperately trying to give the Junta in Kiev credibility,.while demonizing Putin ,they are MSN'S Fantasists devoid of reality and believing the notion that somehow we're back in the 80s Maybe they've just stepped out of the Tardis looking like Adam Ant Georgia-Russia Conflict

Georgia-Russia conflict basics: Georgia invades South Ossetia and starts killing innocent civilians who want to break away from Georgia and gain independence. Russia steps in to stop it. Russia (who is not without fault by any means historically, but actually is mostly on the good side this time) gets blamed for being the aggressor. U.S. neocons and other various warmongers get to have a field day talking about military actions against Russia, preemptive strikes, and a new cold war.

Here is a BBC broadcast that ran just before Russia intervened in Georgia’s attacks on South Ossetia. It’s interesting that they report the truth here, but within a day or two changed their coverage to fall in line with the Western medias propaganda storyline....Remember: When Georgia broke from the Soviets the U.S. supported them in their quest for independence. If Georgia has a right to independence (as they do) so does South Ossetia. I’m sure the fact that Georgia has lots of troops involved in the U.S. “efforts” in Iraq (in other words, Georgia’s troops are being trained by the U.S. so they can go back to Georgia — or other places — and carry out the desires of the U.S. government) has nothing to do with the U.S. supporting Georgia even as they commit war crimes against the South Ossetians. How is it that the U.S. was OK with Georgia having their independence, but if the South Ossetians attempt to gain it (most South Ossetians have closer ties to Russia than to Georgia) they deserve to be attacked? Hmm, the U.S. does have special forces inside of Georgia (along with some Israelis) training the Georgian military, so Georgia must be in the right! After all, the U.S. side never does anything bad! We don’t invade countries that haven’t attacked us. Oh, wait… never mind. Who says that Socialist and Communist countries are the worst offenders when it comes to corruption and propaganda? The level of hypocrisy and propagandistic lying in the Western media has reached new lows during the last week in their reporting on the conflict in Georgia. Watch as “Shep” has to take a very convenient commercial break (were his producers/the Fox censors buzzing in his ear just before he cut the lady off?). How frustrating it must be for those people closest to the events in Georgia — who know the truth of the situation — to hear it being so grossly distorted and misrepresented in the Western media

Washington will get what it wants,,,I HOPE !!!!

Apr 14/2014 : Washington Drives The World To War Paul Craig Roberts The CIA director was sent to Kiev to launch a military suppression of the Russian separatists in the eastern and southern portions of Ukraine, former Russian territories for the most part that were foolishly attached to the Ukraine in the early years of Soviet rule. Washington’s plan to grab Ukraine overlooked that the Russian and Russian-speaking parts of Ukraine were not likely to go along with their insertion into the EU and NATO while submitting to the persecution of Russian speaking peoples. Washington has lost Crimea, from which Washington intended to eject Russia from its Black Sea naval base. Instead of admitting that its plan for grabbing Ukraine has gone amiss, Washington is unable to admit a mistake and, therefore, is pushing the crisis to more dangerous levels. If Ukraine dissolves into secession with the former Russian territories reverting to Russia, Washington will be embarrassed that the result of its coup in Kiev was to restore the Russian provinces of Ukraine to Russia. To avoid this embarrassment, Washington is pushing the crisis toward war. The CIA director instructed Washington’s hand-picked stooge government in Kiev to apply to the United Nations for help in repelling “terrorists” who with alleged Russian help are allegedly attacking Ukraine. In Washington’s vocabulary, self-determination is a sign of Russian interference. As the UN is essentially a Washington-financed organization, Washington will get what it wants. The Russian government has already made it completely clear some weeks ago that the use of violence against protesters in eastern and southern Ukraine would compel the Russian government to send in the Russian army to protect Russians, just as Russia had to do in South Ossetia when Washington instructed its Georgian puppet ruler to attack Russian peacekeeping troops and Russian residents of South Ossetia. Washington knows that the Russian government cannot stand aside while one of Washington’s puppet states attacks Russians. Yet, Washington is pushing the crisis to war. The danger for Russia is that the Russian government will rely on diplomacy, international organizations, international cooperation, and on the common sense and self-interest of German politicians and politicians in other of Washington’s European puppet states. For Russia this could be a fatal mistake. There is no good will in Washington, only mendacity. Russian delay provides Washington with time to build up forces on Russia’s borders and in the Black Sea and to demonize Russia with propaganda and whip up the US population into a war frenzy. The latter is already occurring. Kerry has made it clear to Lavrov that Washington is not listening to Russia. As Washington pays well, Washington’s European puppets are also not listening to Russia. Money is more important to European politicians than humanity’s survival. In my opinion, Washington does not want the Ukraine matters settled in a diplomatic and reasonable way. It might be the case that Russia’s best move is immediately to occupy the Russian territories of Ukraine and re-absorb the territories into Russia from whence they came. This should be done before the US and its NATO puppets are prepared for war. It is more difficult for Washington to start a war when the objects of the war have already been lost. Russia will be demonized with endless propaganda from Washington whether or not Russia re-absorbs its traditional territories. If Russia allows these territories to be suppressed by Washington, the prestige and authority of the Russian government will collapse. Perhaps that is what Washington is counting on. If Putin’s government stands aside while Russian Ukraine is suppressed, Putin’s prestige will plummet, and Washington will finish off the Russian government by putting into action its many hundreds of Washington-financed NGOs that the Russian government has so foolishly tolerated. Russia is riven with Washington’s Fifth columns. In my opinion, the Russian and Chinese governments have made serious strategic mistakes by remaining within the US dollar-based international payments system. The BRICS and any others with a brain should instantly desert the dollar system, which is a mechanism for US imperialism. The countries of the BRICS should immediately create their own separate payments system and their own exclusive communications/Internet system. Russia and China have stupidly made these strategic mistakes, because reeling from communist failures and oppressions, they naively assumed that Washington was pure, that Washington was committed to its propagandistic self-description as the upholder of law, justice, mercy,and human rights. In fact, Washington, the “exceptional, indispensable country,” is committed to its hegemony over the world. Russia, China, and Iran are in the way of Washington’s hegemony and are targeted for attack. The attack on Russia is mounting.

The US media consistently lies for the government. Reuters continues to report, falsely, that Russia invaded and annexed Crimea. The Washington Post ran an obviously false story planted in the paper by the Obama regime that the massive protests in former Russian territories of Ukraine are "rent-a-mobs" instigated by the Russian government.

Not even Washington's stooges in Kiev believe that. Officials of the Washington-imposed government in Kiev acknowledged the need for some autonomy for the Russian-speaking regions and for a law permitting referendums, but this realistic response to widespread concerns among Ukrainians has apparently been squelched by Washington and its presstitute media.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Washington-Is-Humanity-s-W-by-Paul-Craig-Roberts-Government_Rights_Russia_Surveillance-140414-37.html

The EU's financial chief has promised some of the toughest curbs on controversial use of high-frequency trading highlighted by author Michael Lewis in Flash Boys.

The restrictions are part of EU market reforms that will be voted on by the European Parliament on Tuesday.

Michel Barnier, the EU financial services commissioner, said on Monday: “With these rules the EU is putting in place one of the strictest set of regulations for high-frequency trading (HFT) in the world.

"While HFT trading might bring some benefits, we need to make sure that it doesn’t cause instability, and isn’t a source of market abuse. That’s what these rules set out to achieve.”

With high-frequency trading, a computer algorithm automatically determines whether to buy or sell a stock or currency, the timing of the order, the price and quantity. In Flash Boys, Mr Lewis claimed the use of superfast computers and algorithms allowed traders in the $22 trillion US stock market to profit at the expense of small investors by exploiting differences in prices on various exchanges.

HFT was blamed for the “flash crash” on May 6, 2010, during which the Dow Jones briefly lost almost 1,000 points.

The draft HFT rules MEPs are to vote on include a requirement for traders to have their algorithms tested on trading platforms to minimize risk as well as have them authorized by regulators.

However, proposals to ensure orders stay on a trader's book for a minimum time, making it difficult for high-frequency traders to operate, were dropped last year.

Tuesday's vote will endorse a tentative deal agreed in January on rules to govern financial markets by negotiators for the EU Parliament and the Council of Ministers.

The rules, which will still have to be endorsed by individual nations, were designed to curb speculative commodity trading, regulate high-frequency trading and close the loopholes in the existing legislation to ensure financial markets were safer and more efficient.

Eastern Ukraine has a large Russian-speaking population and has seen a series of protests since the ousting of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in February.   Protesters in largely Russian-speaking Donetsk, 130km (80 miles) from Sloviansk, have been occupying government buildings for days and demanding a referendum on becoming part of Russia.   A similar move prompted a Russian takeover of Ukraine's Crimea region earlier this year.   The US and EU have imposed sanctions on Russian and Crimean people they say were connected with the takeover.  Russia has denied responsibility for the protests in eastern Ukraine, but Western nations have expressed concern over a build-up of Russian troops along the border.  Trouble continued in several towns and cities on Saturday despite the Kiev government setting a deadline of Friday for all occupations to end.   Interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk visited Donetsk on Friday and attempted to placate anti-government groups by guaranteeing that no restrictions would be put on the use of the Russian language.

Regional police spokesman Ihor Dyomin described how armed men were bussed to the police station in Sloviansk.   "Six or seven unknown persons got out. They fired several shots in the air and attempted to storm the police department," he said.  He added that "people in camouflage uniform" and with weapons" were inside the building.   Mr Avakov promised to deal with the attackers.  "The response will be very tough because there is a difference between protesters and terrorists," he said.

The Interior Ministry said the aim of the attack was to seize arms from the police station, where some 40 automatic rifles and 400 pistols were stored along with ammunition. One of those who seized the police station said the group had gone to Sloviansk to fight people who represented the illegal authorities of interim President Oleksandr Turchynov.   Interviewed in Russian, the man said they represented the People's Front of Donbass - the industrial Donets Basin region in eastern Ukraine.  He said those involved were peaceful Donbass residents and "not fascists".  The BBC's David Stern, who was briefly in Sloviansk on Saturday, said from what he saw the take-over was well-organised and the gunmen were quickly spreading their control throughout the town and beyond.  The roadblocks were being reinforced with more tyres as he left, and the people manning them were well-armed, he said.   Late on Saturday, pro-Russian activists seized the town administration in Druzhkovka, according to RBK-Ukraine media sources.  The occupation by pro-Russian groups of the local government building in the regional capital Donetsk is meanwhile continuing.  Alexander Gnezdilov, the protesters' unofficial spokesperson, told the BBC the group that seized Sloviansk police HQ was "an independent group who are supporting the Donetsk protest".  In Donetsk itself hundreds of pro-Russian protesters marched towards a police station demanding the resignation of a regional police chief, Kostyantyn Pozhydayev.  He later told the protesters he was standing down.  A Reuters witness said the Ukrainian flag above the police headquarters in Donetsk had been replaced by a separatist flag.

Protesters in the eastern Ukrainian cities of Donetsk, Kharkiv and Luhansk seized government buildings on Sunday. While police managed to clear the Luhansk protest site swiftly, protesters in Donetsk and Kharkiv remain entrenched.

Yatsenyuk met officials from the eastern regions in Donetsk and promised to expand the powers of local government bodies and preserve the status of Russian as a second official language. But he did not meet representatives of the protesters who have declared a "people's republic" from a Donetsk administrative building and demanded that a referendum on independence be held by 11 May

A 48-hour deadline to clear the occupied buildings announced by Ukraine's interior minister came and went without incident, despite persistent rumours of an impending assault by government forces. Protest leaders said negotiations to clear the building had come to a standstill.

In Luhansk, further east, dozens of men remained barricaded inside the state security service headquarters, armed with Kalashnikovs. They demand a referendum on federalising Ukraine.

"If we get federation, then people will decide whether they want to be inside of Ukraine or in Russia," said Aleksey Kariakin, one of the leaders of the group, who earlier held talks with Ukraine's security chief, Andriy Parubiy.

The protesters deny that they have been sustained, or prompted to action, by Russia, or have Russian nationals among their number. They claim they are backed only by hundreds of people who live in a tent camp set to protect and supply them....

TWISTING REALITY : Russia continues to spin a false and dangerous narrative to justify its illegal actions in Ukraine. The Russian propaganda machine continues to promote hate speech and incite violence by creating a false threat in Ukraine that does not exist. We would not be seeing the violence and sad events that we've witnessed this weekend without this relentless stream of disinformation and Russian provocateurs fostering unrest in eastern Ukraine. Here are 10 more false claims Russia is using to justify intervention in Ukraine, with the facts that these assertions ignore or distort.