Chapter News

09 Dec
Chapter News

Latvia: Staff Concluding Statement of an IMF Staff Visit

Latvia continues to make steady progress. Unemployment continues to fall, and now stands at just under 10 percent, half its crisis peak. The current account deficit remains modest, and inflation is picking up slowly towards the euro area target. While overall economic sentiment shows little change, consumer confidence has reached levels not seen since the crisis. The supply of bank lending, though still shrinking, shows some signs of stabilizing. Growth appears to be accelerating. This is despite somewhat softer growth...

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09 Dec
Chapter News

EU Commission proposes modern digital contract rules to simplify and promote access to digital content and online sales across the EU

Delivering on its Digital Single Market strategy, the Commission today presents two proposals to better protect consumers who shop online across the EU and help businesses expand their online sales. One of the Digital Market Strategy's pillars is to ensure better access for consumers and businesses to online goods and services across Europe. E-commerce is growing, but its full potential remains untapped both for businesses and consumers in Europe: only 12% of EU retailers sell online to consumers in other...

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08 Dec
Chapter News

Council conclusions on corporate taxation – Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS)

The Council:   NOTES that effective corporate taxation can be undermined by base erosion and profit shifting; STRESSES that unfair tax competition between Member States as well as between the latter and third countries could affect the functioning of the Single Market, whilst acknowledging the importance of taxation for competitiveness; RECALLS and CONFIRMS the European Council conclusions of 18 December 2014 stating the urgent need to advance efforts in the fight against tax avoidance and aggressive tax planning, both at the global...

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08 Dec
Chapter News

Fighting tax evasion: EU and the Republic of San Marino sign new tax transparency agreement

The EU and San Marino signed today a landmark tax transparency agreement, constituting an important step forward in the fight against tax evasion. The new agreement marks the end of bank secrecy between San Marino and the EU. As of 2017, San Marino and EU Member States will automatically exchange information on the financial accounts of one another's residents. Pierre Moscovici, Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs, said: "This agreement between the EU and San Marino is an...

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08 Dec
Chapter News, Uncategorized

Antitrust: Commission opens formal investigation in the biofuels sector concerning ethanol benchmarks

The European Commission has opened a formal antitrust investigation to scrutinise whether three ethanol producers have, in breach of EU antitrust rules, manipulated ethanol benchmarks published by a price reporting agency. The companies concerned are Abengoa S.A. of Spain, Alcogroup SA of Belgium and Lantmännen ek för of Sweden, together with their relevant subsidiaries. They produce, distribute and trade ethanol. Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, stated:"Competitive biofuels markets are crucial to promote cleaner transport and to cut greenhouse...

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07 Dec
Chapter News

Remarks by J. Dijsselbloem following the Eurogroup meeting of 7 December 2015

Good evening everyone and welcome to this press conference. I was going to say that we've had busier turnouts - looking at the audience tonight - but it makes sense, because we also had a short Eurogroup meeting.  Let me first make a couple of remarks on Greece, which was one of the countries discussed today. After successful implementation of the first set of milestones last month, today we took stock of the implementation of the second set of milestones....

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07 Dec
Chapter News

Letter by President Donald Tusk to the European Council on the issue of a UK in/out referendum

"I am writing to let you know where we stand on the issue of a UK in/out referendum before we address it at the December European Council. In November Prime Minister Cameron set out the four areas where he is seeking reforms to address the concerns of the British people over UK membership of the European Union. On this basis, we, in close cooperation with the Commission, held extensive bilateral consultations at Sherpa level with all Member States. We also...

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07 Dec
Chapter News

Commission welcomes the successful ratification of the Intergovernmental Agreement on the Single Resolution Mechanism by Greece and calls on Luxembourg to follow suit

he European Commission has welcomed the news that Greece has now successfully ratified the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) for the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM).  A sufficient number of participating Member States ratified the IGA before the final deadline of 30 November.  At the time, Greece had ratified but not completed the final formal step which is to deposit its instrument of ratification with the Council.  The European Commission now calls on Luxembourg to ratify as a matter of urgency, as it...

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04 Dec
Chapter News

Andreas Dombret Speech: The euro area – where do we stand?

Speech at the American Council on Germany in New York | Friday, 4 December 2015 Ladies and gentlemen Thank you for inviting me to speak here today. Attending ACG events is always a pleasure for me. “The unity of Europe was the dream of a few. It became the hope of many. Today it has become a necessity for all of us.” These words will sound very familiar indeed to anyone who closely follows contemporary politics in Europe. They were spoken back...

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04 Dec
Chapter News

EU agri-food exports still at record level

After a slow-down in August, the value of EU agri-food exports has resumed the positive trend (+13%), as monthly exports in September exceeded imports by €2 billion. The exports to the US (+19%) and China (+18%) did particularly well. Russia fell down to fourth position as destination for EU agri-food exports, after US, China and Switzerland. Most significant increases in monthly export values were witnessed for wine, spirits and liqueurs and for chocolate and confectionaries.  Imports to the EU in...

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