The leader of Italy's anti-establishment Five Star Movement political party, the second most popular by opinion polls, has added his voice to the anti-austerity rhetoric that will likely dominate the country's upcoming election campaigns. Beppe Grillo, an Italian comic, echoed Silvio Berlusconi's scathing criticism of the current prime minister Mario Monti's policies as 'German-centric' when he told US broadcaster CNBC that Mr Monti is a mere "bankruptcy curator" who "needs to disappear". He said:

The ECB puts out money that is meant to help our banks,but they do not use it to finance our businesses, but they give it to them to buy back their debt, to help French and German banks. That was Monti's work. The CNBC interview came on the same day Mr Grillo expelled two prominent party members who had voiced criticisms over his leadership style, branding it dictatorial. His expulsion of the pair unleashed at outpouring of criticism from the party's young supporter base, who compared him to famous dictators including Benito Mussolini and Joseph Stalin.

Sunday posting - "the German fist"

European leaders will discuss whether to weld the funds together at a summit in Brussels this week. But, Germany has so far refused to say whether it would support such a move.... Germany also raised doubts that finance ministers would come up with a deal on IMF funding this weekend. “I expect no decision at the G20 summit on boosting the IMF’s resources,” said Jens Weidmann, head of Germany’s central bank. ...Other major contributors to the IMF are insisting that Europe must combine its two existing bail-out funds as a pre-condition of any extra money from the IMF. The European Financial Stability Facility, which is worth about €250bn, will be joined this summer by the €500bn European Stability Mechanism. “We have to take a hard look at the firewall,” said Angel Gurria, head of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. “The bigger, the thicker, the deeper and the taller it is, the more credible it will be and the less likely it will have to be used.” Becoming the first member of Germany’s cabinet to openly call for a Greek exit, Hans-Peter Friedrich told Der Spiegel magazine that Greece’s chances of restoring its financial health would be greater outside the euro. “I’m not saying that Greece should be thrown out but rather to create incentives that it can’t say ‘no’ to,” he added.

Joseph Daul at the EPP Congress in Marseilles speaking at the EPP Congress in Marseilles

Joseph Daul at the EPP Congress in Marseilles, speaking at the EPP Congress in Marseilles. "We will not allow ourselves to be hindered in our effort to rebuild the 'House of Europe' by those who refuse to move forward. But we cannot build a solid, safe house if those living in it don't feel comfortable" - Speaking at the EPP Congress in Marseilles on the eve of the European Council, the Chairman of the EPP Group (center-right) of the European Parliament called for Europe to choose "the right path". "The right path is that of governance of the Euro through freely-shared sovereignty on budgetary, tax and social aspects. The right path is that of a common effort from the 27 Member States, and an even bigger effort from the 17+ Euro zone countries, to better manage their public finances and to help entrepreneurs create new wealth and jobs." Joseph Daul said that the EPP has the heavy responsibility of getting Europe out of the crisis: "But the EPP has always proved in the past that it is up to meeting challenges, be it the creation of the European Community, European reunification, the Single Market or implementing moral standards for the financial markets." Finally, the Chairman of the biggest parliamentary Group in Europe called for "great caution on how we plan our exit from this crisis." "We will either succeed or divide, depending on whether our plans are inclusive - equally respecting small and bigger Member States - or dictated. Depending on whether we prioritize relative strength or whether we prioritize cohesion, we will either emerge from this crisis or we will stay mired in it." On any eventual change to the European Treaties, Joseph Daul said that if the Council is in favor, the European Parliament and the European Commission, guarantors of the general European interest, will actively play their role in the negotiations.

The EU will this week launch plans to invest €50bn (£44bn) in modernising digital, energy and transport networks, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs over the next few years. The European commission scheme envisages the use of bonds backed by the European Investment Bank (EIB) to fill funding gaps left by cash-strapped governments and leverage up private investment. The plans, due to be revealed on Wednesday, are designed to pay back taxpayers for the aid and guarantees of €4.6tn given to the financial sector in the past three years. Despite this taxpayer funded support, venture capital investments in Europe slumped last year to just €3bn. EIB president Philippe Maystadt said: "Infrastructure finance in Europe has suffered since the financial crisis and banks face new constraints on long term lending. Project bonds could be a way to attract capital from other investors, such as pension funds and insurance companies, and be a useful addition to traditional financing options." The EC says developing smart infrastructure could require up to €1.5-2tn for trans-European transport networks, the energy sector and information and communication technologies. That equates to the putative size of the eurozone bailout fund discussed by G20 finance ministers at the weekend. The bulk of the funds to be announced this week (around €32bn) would go to transport infrastructure projects, with €9bn each earmarked for energy, including smart grids, and for broadband infrastructure and digital public services. Kroes said the money would be largely in the form of equity, debt or guarantees provided by the EU and EIB, thus improving the credit rating of projects. These would be proposed not only by telecoms operators but water and electricity utilities, co-ops or construction firms.

IMF to relax deficit targets for the co-funding of more EU projects

The IMF should relax budgetary gap targets for Romania so that more EU projects could be co-funded, states Andreas Treichl, a CEO with Erste Group, which controls BCR. "Romania is in a situation of conflicting objectives: its strong advantage are the funds available from the EU, but governmental funding is also necessary for these funds to be used. If money from the budget is allotted, deficit targets agreed on with the IMF are overshot and a conflict of 'interests' emerges. The IMF could relax the targets for the European funds to be used. This will be a very interesting exercise in the following months," Treichl stated.Banks have a direct interest in the success of such a move, considering many entrepreneurs and public authorities need loans to be able to co-fund the European funds they try to get. It remains to be seen whether the banking lobby in this respect will be as strong as in the case of modifications requested for Ordinance 50 regarding retail loan contracts.

Romania's international foreign currency reserves

Romania's international foreign currency reserves do not necessarily need to grow as they stand at a comfortable level, according to the governor of Romania's Central Bank (BNR), Mugur Isarescu.
He mentioned we have to give up the idea that it is a good thing if the international reserve is growing, NewsIn states.
As to the gold reserves of the neighbor countries, he said the central lender of Bulgaria has a reserve of 39.8 tons, that from Latvia 7.8 tons, that from Lithuania 5.9 tons, that from Poland 103 tons and that from Slovakia 31.7 tons. Romania's gold reserve stands at 103.7 tons.
The governor also talked about the gain from administering the international reserves, which dropped dramatically from 2008 and 2009 and even more in 2010.
The price of gold rose 2.5 times in the past five years.
Romania's foreign currency reserves lowered by 1.13 percent in June from the previous month, to 31.62 billion euros, according to a release issued by the central lender BNR.
Romania's international reserves – foreign currency and gold – eased 0.7 percent at the end of June to 34.99 billion euros, from 35.25 billion euros at the end of May.
The gold reserve maintained at 103.7 tons, but the evolution of international prices increased its value by 3.37 percent to 3.37 billion euros, from 3.26 billion euros in the previous month.