The European Union and the Republic of Moldova (hereinafter "Moldova) held today the second meeting of the Association Council under the Association Agreement. The EU and Moldova reconfirmed the common determination to implement their commitments to strengthening Moldova´s political association and economic integration with the EU. While acknowledging the provisional application of the Association Agreement since September 2014, the Association Council highlighted the forthcoming full entry into force of the Agreement, now that Moldova and all EU member states have...

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Economic activity is poised for a pickup this year as the drag from the unfavorable external environment diminishes. Thanks to many years of fiscal effort, the budget deficit now stands at an appropriate level, and over the medium term the focus should be on avoiding any deterioration in structural terms. Sustainably advancing Lithuania’s living standards now depends on making determined progress with structural reforms, which ideally should be bound together in a comprehensive and coherent package to provide strategic...

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In jurisdictions with financial sectors deemed by the IMF to be systemically important, including Ireland, financial stability assessments under the Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) are a mandatory part of Article IV surveillance, and are supposed to take place every five years. IMF FSAPs are currently being conducted in a number of Euro area countries including Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland. An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission, headed by Daniel Hardy, visited Ireland during December 2015 and March 2016...

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The Commission suggests policy measures to support the European steel sector to overcome its serious challenges, largely due to global overcapacity. The European Commission has presented today a Communication setting out how the European steel sector can overcome its short-term and long-term challenges with the support of Member States and the EU institutions. A joint effort is needed to overcome these serious challenges fuelled by global overcapacity, a dramatic increase of exports and an unprecedented wave of unfair trading practices. High...

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The European Commission grants the USA the equivalent regulatory regime for central counterparties as the European Union. The European Commission has determined that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has the equivalent requirements as the EU in regulating central counterparties ('CCPs'). This follows the announcement of 10 February 2016 by Commissioner Hill and CFTC Chairman Timothy Massad on a common approach for transatlantic CCPs. This decision will ensure that both EU and US CCPs operate to the same high standards...

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European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, Neven Mimica, and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Deputy Managing Director, Carla Grasso, met on March 14, 2016 in Brussels to discuss the further strengthening of the EC-IMF partnership. The EC and the IMF are natural strategic partners, with both institutions having a long track record of supporting economic reforms in their developing partners (EU) and member countries (IMF), including, for example, in the areas of  mobilizing domestic revenue, improving public financial management, and...

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Opinion piece by Vítor Constâncio, Vice-President of the ECB, 11 March 2016 This week the ECB adopted new measures to reinforce its monetary policy in the face of recent headwinds. That decision was taken against a backdrop of vocal scepticism in the media and markets. The sceptics’ reasoning is two-pronged. First, that monetary policy is not sufficient to address the present low growth trend; and second, that monetary policy is increasingly ineffective in any case. The notion that monetary policy alone cannot...

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Mario Draghi, President of the ECB, Vítor Constâncio, Vice-President of the ECB, Frankfurt am Main, 10 March 2016 Ladies and gentlemen, the Vice-President and I are very pleased to welcome you to our press conference. We will now report on the outcome of today’s meeting of the Governing Council, which was also attended by the Commission Vice-President, Mr Dombrovskis. Based on our regular economic and monetary analyses, we have conducted a thorough review of the monetary policy stance, in which we also...

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