STATEMENT OF EU HEADS OF STATE OR GOVERNMENT : At today's meeting, in line with paragraph 7 of the European Council conclusions of 23 October concerning relations between the EU and the Euro area, the members of the European Council were informed by President Van Rompuy about the state of preparations of the Euro Summit that will take place later in the day. They discussed the situation and underlined their common resolve to do their utmost to overcome the crisis and to help face in a spirit of solidarity the challenges confronting the European Union and the Euro area. They welcomed the consensus on measures to restore confidence in the banking sector reached by the Council (ECOFIN) on 22 October. On this basis, they agreed the text annexed to this statement subject to agreement on the measures indicated in this text forming part of a broader package, including the decisions to be taken by today's meeting of the Euro Summit. The Council (ECOFIN) will finalise the work and adopt the necessary follow up measures.Remarks by President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy after the meeting of EU Heads of State or Government: At today's meeting, I informed the members of the European Council about the state of preparations of the Euro Summit that will take place later in the day. We discussed the situation and all leaders underlined their common resolve to do their utmost to overcome the crisis and to help face in a spirit of solidarity the challenges confronting the European Union and the Euro area. The members of the European Council welcomed the consensus on measures to restore confidence in the banking sector reached by the Council (ECOFIN) on 22 October. The banking measures form part of a broader package, alongside the decisions to be taken by today's meeting of the Euro Summit, and are subject to its full approval. The Council (ECOFIN) will finalize the work and adopt the necessary follow up measures. The consensus concerns both the banks' short-term and longer-term needs. The overarching goal of the exercise is to foster confidence in the European banking sector. Improved access of the banks' medium- and long-term funding is essential to avoid a credit crunch and to safeguard the flow of credit to the real economy. States will provide guarantees enabling banks to raise term funds. We decided to rely on a truly coordinated approach at EU level regarding the conditions and criteria. Short term overcapitalization is needed in the current exceptional circumstances to create a temporary buffer allowing the banking system to withstand shocks in a reliable manner. Agreement has been reached that banks should be required, by 30 June 2012, to have 9 %of the highest quality capital. This figure should take into account a marking down for sovereign bond holdings against current market prices (as of 30 September 2011). Banks should raise capital in the first place from private sources, and only if that is not possible, seek support from national governments. If the latter support is not available without creating systemic risks for the Euro zone, the EFSF should provide the loans for overcapitalization. Any form of public support, whether at a national or EU-level, will have to comply to the rules of the state aid crisis framework. The Commission has indicated it will be applied with the necessary proportionality in view of the systemic character of the crisis. With these measures, we restore confidence and put Europe's banking sector on a sound footing.
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11.15am ET / 4.15pm BST: The Irish bookmaker Paddy Power has a book running on the death of the Eurozone. (You would probably get banged up with Bernie Madoff for doing this here in the US, where they don't really like you gambling on anything but state lotteries, so to be clear: this is just a bit of fun.
' A bit of fun'? Dominic will no doubt be the one chortling in the queue at the soup kitchen
And then there's smirkgate. Merkel and France's premier Nicolas Sarkozy (or Merkozy, as they are now known) seemed a little dismissive of Silvio's seriousness as the press conference on Sunday.
The Italian press are up in arms at this latest horror form the Franco-Prussian power couple.
Maybe it is not the same Italian press that people read in Italy. In real Italy the only people who didn't like Merkozy's laughs were the members of Silvio's governement.
I'd say it was a pretty sure bet, although it might be a slow death. Unless they see reason and go for another growth pact (which would actually have to mean another global growth pact as we all know).
Help! The only outcomes I can see are either another global growth pact, or wars, famines, revolutions and a new world order.
I know this is going to attract a lot of vitriol, but I wish Gordon Brown was back at the helm!
The first to arrive is Jean-Clause Junker? He's in charge of this?
Well, then we're all in big trouble.
The boiler he designed for me clapped out after 3 months.
Junker by name ...
I wonder what's on the menu tonight at this all important summit? Or will be Fish n Chips x 20 (Scrap that .. that's a UK delicacy) .. perhaps its bring a dish buffet style? Power buffet! Yeah I bet its that...
he USA is ranked above every EU nation on the UN's Index of Human Development, a quality-of-life index. (In 2010, Norway was no. 1 and the US was 4th after Austalia and New Zealand). That was in spite of lower US life expectancy, which is close to Portugal's. America is in a down cycle, but I'd still rather attend the Univ. of North Carolina than a "campus" of the Univ. of Paris. Have you actually seen French public universities? I'd rather have a library card at a public library in Atlanta than in Lyon (have you dealt with a public library in France and Belgian Wallonia?). And I'll choose a New York bureaucrat any day before I deal with a "civil servant" in Paris or Brussels, where a long lunch is more important than efficiency and helping people.
I lived in Europe for three years and read Le Monde, Der Spiegel and El Pais every morning online. I am aware of the flaws of my country as well as the flaws of the European continent. For now (October 2011), I'll take ours.
Regards,
M.
The author wrote:
While we wait for the Euro summit to get started, I have a suggestion for them: let the Eurovision Song Contest be your guide. That monster has just got bigger and bigger ... it keeps getting stronger. In 1998 Dana International, a transsexual from the little-known European country of Israel won, in Birmingham. Now if that isn't a Europe worth fighting for, I don't know what is.
The EU and the eurozone should be so lucky.
Israel is no less 'European' than many of the EU nations (and some of the wanna-bes like Turkey), and its economy is better than most.
For Israel to join Europe would be something of a step down ... for Israel.
America is in a down cycle, but I'd still rather attend the Univ. of North Carolina than a "campus" of the Univ. of Paris. Have you actually seen French public universities? I'd rather have a library card at a public library in Atlanta than in Lyon (have you dealt with a public library in France and Belgian Wallonia?).
What's your problem, you can't read Frech and you expect that French university libraries are full of American books? Well, I "have dealt with" French university libraries, included the libraries in Paris and Lyon, and I can't understand what you are talking about. Maybe your problem is that they are free and have open access for everybody, while in USA (and Britain) every bit of education is marketised as in a supermarket?
America is in a down cycle, but I'd still rather attend the Univ. of North Carolina than a "campus" of the Univ. of Paris. Have you actually seen French public universities? I'd rather have a library card at a public library in Atlanta than in Lyon (have you dealt with a public library in France and Belgian Wallonia?).
What's your problem, you can't read Frech and you expect that French university libraries are full of American books? Well, I "have dealt with" French university libraries, included the libraries in Paris and Lyon, and I can't understand what you are talking about. Maybe your problem is that they are free and have open access for everybody, while in USA (and Britain) every bit of education is marketised as in a supermarket?
Satyajit Das' take on the new shockier and awier ESFS:
The circular nature of the scheme is surreal. Highly leveraged vehicles, in part backed by weakened nations like Spain and Italy, are to undertake the “rescue” of the same countries and their banks... This is akin to an entity selling insurance against its own default.
Oh goody another summit to prove to the markets that none of the leaders can agree with each other and they haven't got a plan to solve the immediate crisis let alone one to solve the fundermental problems of the Euro.
'Towards a stronger European economic Governance' says the flag on the building in the picture.
TOWARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So they don't intend to actually get there. They just vaguely go TOWARDS it with their endless meetings and summits,
I thik that gives a clue as to the woolly minded cluttered way they are ruining their own most cherished project.
Surely it should say something like PROVIDING stronger... not TOWARDS!
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