Europe needs a comprehensive plan to fight record high inflation, according to S&Ds after the decision of the European Central Bank (ECB) to further increase the key interest rates in a race to tame skyrocketing living costs. This plan, says the Group, should include social, fiscal, economic, employment and investment measures. Comment came from Biljana…
Lately, rents and residential real estate prices in most areas have known only one direction: steeply upwards. But while citizens groan under the exploding costs, officials at the ECB have paradoxically been complaining about too low rates of inflation for a long time, writes Sven Giegold. This is in part because housing costs have so far played only…
Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron have proposed that the EU borrows on the financial markets in order to disperse some €500bn through grants to European economies hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic. Under the Franco-German proposal the member states receiving the funds would not need to repay the cash. Liability for the debt would instead…
George Soros has called for countries including Germany and the Netherlands to “think again” and consider his proposal that the EU should issue perpetual bonds to fund the two trillion Euros needed to tackle COVID-19 and climate change. The financier and philanthropist says these threats are the “crisis of my lifetime” that “endangers the survival…
In its ruling yesterday, the German Constitutional Court declared the ECB decisions on the bond purchase programme (PSPP) to be in breach of competences. The judges declared the previous positive preliminary decision of the European Court of Justice to be incomprehensible and thus arbitrary, because the Court had excluded the economic effects of the programme…
Commission Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis on Tuesday presented proposals for a temporary reduction of capital requirements in the Corona crisis. The Commission wants to ensure that banks continue to provide credit to the real economy despite the crisis. The package of measures includes a proposal to compensate for the effect of the new accounting rules…
Future economic policy must be in line with the European Green Deal, says the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC). The Committee urges EU Member States to make sustainable economic growth the top priority for European and national economic policies in 2020 and beyond and recommends complementing the current accommodative monetary policy of the European…
MEPs on Wednesday asked the European Central Bank to step up its green credentials and address growing financial technology challenges. The resolution, setting out Parliament’s priorities on the European Central Bank‘s (ECB) future policies, spearheaded by Kostas Mavrides (S&D, CY), was approved on Wednesday by 452 votes in favour, 142 against and 33 abstentions following…
Emily O’Reilly has been re-elected by Parliament as European Ombudsman with 320 votes in favour out of 600 votes cast. Her second mandate will last for five years. “I am delighted to have been re-elected for a second term. I wish to sincerely thank my fantastic campaign team for the huge effort over the past four…
