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Ceci n’est pas une blacklist

jeu, 15/09/2016 - 17:39

What links the US, China, Canada and Japan? No, it isn’t their membership of the G20, it’s their inclusion in an EU document that is in no way, shape, or form a draft of the EU’s new tax havens blacklist.

On Wednesday, the Commission published a “scoreboard” looking at aspects of non-EU countries’ tax systems. It makes for interesting reading:

The idea is that the information can help governments whittle down which countries might be included in a blacklist of “non-cooperative jurisdictions” that the EU is planning to draw up next year.

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Catégories: European Union

Brussels Briefing: Blaming Britain

jeu, 15/09/2016 - 07:16

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If Brexit is viewed as a divorce, then Britain has only just moved into the spare bedroom. But the other 27 members of the EU have to start moving on now.

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Catégories: European Union

The EU: an existential crisis

mer, 14/09/2016 - 07:09

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When Jean-Claude Juncker gave his state of the union speech this time last year, he confessed: “Our European Union is not in a good state.”

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Catégories: European Union

The last British commissioner

mar, 13/09/2016 - 07:33

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For candidate European commissioners, a few guiding principles can help them survive confirmation hearings at the European Parliament: know something about your policy area, don’t have a dodgy past, and say lots of nice things about MEPs.

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Catégories: European Union

U-turn: Commission pulls roaming proposals

ven, 09/09/2016 - 10:47

Those squealing tyres you can hear are coming from the Berlaymont. Days after launching their proposed “fair use” policy on roaming, the European Commission has pulled the guidelines.

An initial draft was published on 5.9.2016. The Commission services have, on the instruction of President Juncker, withdrawn the draft and are working on a new version.

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Catégories: European Union

“Wakey, wakey!” Hollande strikes back

ven, 09/09/2016 - 07:38

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Francois Hollande’s rentrée speech yesterday was first and foremost a feel-good exercise. For an hour, the French socialist president, whom nearly 90 per cent of the French do not want to see running for a second term next year, was surrounded by true friends – zero risk of betrayal à la Emmanuel Macron.

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Catégories: European Union

Not an EU army

jeu, 08/09/2016 - 15:54

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Brussels is pressing on with a plan to bulk up the EU’s military capability. The FT’s European diplomatic correspondent Arthur Beesley broke the story.

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Catégories: European Union

Horse stealing in Warsaw, Budapest and Brussels

mer, 07/09/2016 - 14:18

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The “cultural counter-revolution” has started, at least according to Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Poland’s Jaroslaw Kaczynski. The two conservative ideologues from Europe’s east made a long-anticipated joint appearance on Tuesday night and showed political love can still blossom on this crisis-ridden continent. Our correspondents on the scene in Krynica-Zdroj in southern Poland saw the duo “exchange gushing compliments”, before denouncing the workings of Brussels, uncontrolled migration and the “smell” of “international capital”. Here are some extracts from Henry Foy and Neil Buckley’s report.

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Catégories: European Union

Dieselgate: the hunt continues

mar, 06/09/2016 - 13:54

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In one part of Brussels, Vera Jourova, the European commissioner for justice, was launching a campaign to make sure that national regulators pursued Volkswagen over the “dieselgate” scandal.

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Catégories: European Union

Merkel faces home truths

lun, 05/09/2016 - 10:40

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It is Angela Merkel’s home state. There aren’t even many refugees there (23,000 in 2015 to be precise). But on Sunday rural Mecklenburg-Vorpommern earned a small footnote in post-war history, becoming the first state where the CDU has ever been outflanked by a party of the right. Just three years old, the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany upstart is steadily gaining electoral ground. It may be far from seizing power, even at local level. But the warning to Ms Merkel is clear. The AfD vote patterns in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern reflect a classic protest vote. It secured 20.8 per cent and drew support from all parties – from far left, to centre to far right. Most importantly, it mobilised abstainers and helped boost turnout. There was only one subject to rally around: disenchantment with Germany’s refugee policy. That seems unlikely to diminish as we head towards federal elections in 2017.

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Catégories: European Union

Brussels Briefing: The trouble with TTIP

jeu, 01/09/2016 - 07:07

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TTIP is in a sorry state.

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Catégories: European Union

Brussels Briefing: Ireland’s €13bn reverse mugging

mer, 31/08/2016 - 07:18

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It is the least welcome fiscal boost in history. By demanding that Apple hands over €13bn to Ireland, Brussels has metaphorically bundled the Irish government into an alley, while forcibly shoving €50 notes into its pocket.

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Catégories: European Union

The Apple case: an even bigger deal than you think

mar, 30/08/2016 - 09:41

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Apple faces paying back billions in back-taxes when Brussels rules that a sweetheart tax deal with Ireland amounted to illegal state aid later today.

Everything about this decision is big. Apple is the world’s largest company. The back-taxes due will run into ten figures. The legal methods are relatively untested. And the political stakes are huge.

The Apple case cuts to the heart of the power struggle between Brussels and Washington over who sets the standards – whether on tax, privacy, or finance – for global business.

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Catégories: European Union

Europe’s Hydra: a continent still in crisis

lun, 29/08/2016 - 08:38

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Welcome back! For a few happy weeks, officials were able to put Europe’s multiple crises to the back of their minds. No longer.

Those returning to their desks in Brussels, Berlin, Paris and beyond are confronted with a Hydra of misery: the refugee crisis rolls on, growth is still stagnant, and security concerns are mounting following a string of terror attacks.

A potentially huge referendum in Italy awaits as does another chance for Austria to vote in a far-right president. The fallout from Turkey’s failed coup creates instability at the EU’s border and – if the EU-Turkey refugee deal falls apart – further trouble in its core.

On top of all this, Britain has to decide how to extricate itself from the EU. Welcome back, indeed.

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Catégories: European Union

Brussels Briefing: IMF’s Athens Hangover

ven, 29/07/2016 - 16:05

By Arthur Beesley in London

Europe is transfixed these days by Brexit, terrorism, migrants and the populist advance. But the riddle of Greece remains.

A damning new report by the IMF’s in-house inspectorate finds fault on several grounds with the fund’s approach to the country. This is backwards-looking exercise, which takes stock of bailouts for Greece, Ireland and Portugal. Yet there are clear implications for the next phase of the long battle to restore fiscal stability in Athens.

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Catégories: European Union

Brussels Briefing: He’s Back

jeu, 28/07/2016 - 09:19

The scourge of the City of London, the Frenchman who sought to regulate the British financial services industry piece by piece, the Brussels commissioner who had the former Bank of England governor banging on his desk has returned.

The European Commission’s announcement yesterday that Michel Barnier is to lead its Brexit negotiation team was, in a town notorious for leaks, a genuine surprise. In Britain, his return has been received coolly by the government, and has widely been seen as a provocation. Remember also that Barnier has form with David Davis, Britain’s Brexit minister; the FT here looks at their first run-in as Europe ministers in the mid-1990s.

But who really is Michael Barnier? And what clues can be drawn from his past in Brussels to guide us about how he will approach this job?

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Catégories: European Union

Brussels Briefing: Political Terror

mar, 26/07/2016 - 09:39

After the horror comes the soul searching. And, with unseemly speed, so too comes the politics.

The revelations that the Syria refugee who blew himself up on Sunday night at a Bavarian music festival had pledged his allegiance to Isis has brutally revived nagging doubts in Germany about Angela Merkel’s refugee policy – specifically her decision in 2015 to welcome more than a million asylum seekers.

 

Germany is reeling. The suicide bombing was one of four attacks in the last eight days, three of which involved Afghan and Syria refugees as perpetrators. FAZ, in an editorial, asks simply how the country can“prevent the madness.”

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Catégories: European Union

Brussels briefing: An anxious summer

lun, 25/07/2016 - 09:25

The offices have cleared, the traffic is calm, the sun is (supposed) to be out. Brussels is tranquil. But it belies a precarious week for the poor souls still left in town. There are still some delicate issues to deal with.

Italian banks are top of the list. Stress tests results will be released on Friday and a fix for the troubled Monte dei Paschi di Siena is still to be found. Matteo Renzi will be more fidgety than ever.

Germany and France are grappling with the aftermath of attacks – Germany faced an apparent suicide bombing last night, its fourth violent incident in a week – which are as unnerving as they are different.

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Catégories: European Union

Brussels briefing: Renzi’s bank problem

ven, 22/07/2016 - 08:43

Matteo Renzi is politically cornered. Troubled banks – or more precisely Monte dei Paschi di Siena - have left the Italian premier facing a problem with no good answers.

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Catégories: European Union

Brussels briefing: State of emergency

jeu, 21/07/2016 - 11:08

No relent in European news overnight. One state of emergency was declared in Turkey – suspending rights and giving president Recep Tayyip Erdogan near unlimited power – while another was prolonged in France, where the government is facing a harder time asserting its authority. Britain’s Theresa May met Angela Merkel for the first time, easing Brexit pressure on the UK a touch and prompting a journalistic scramble to find more similarities between the two leaders (a love of hill walking has been uncovered). Italy is racing to find creative answers to its banking woes and Matteo Renzi’s political quandary – while Italy’s populists call for taxpayer bailouts. And another Italian, Mario Draghi, will be forced to wrestle with his policy demons in public as the European Central Bank holds its monthly meeting. Oh, and happy Belgian national day.

Erdogan’s rule

 

Three months of emergency powers The move was announced following back to back national security council and cabinet meetings. Erdogan said: “As the president and commander in chief elected by the people of this country, I will take forward the struggle to cleanse our armed forces of this virus…The aim of this action is to quickly and effectively eliminate the threat to democracy in our country, the rule of law, and the rights and freedom of our citizens.”

What does it enable? Not since the martial law of the early 1980s has Turkey been subject to such unchecked central power. The FT’s Mehul Srivastava explains that it allows Mr Erdogan’s cabinet to issue decrees that take immediate effect and are not subject to review by the constitutional court (two judges on that court are among the 2,750 removed in the purge against suspected supporters of Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic cleric who Mr Erdogan blames for instigating the coup).

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Catégories: European Union

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