Euro Retail Payments Board tasks payment service industry with the development of scheme for pan-European instant payments in euro Foundation for innovative payment methods such as mobile person-to-person payments The Euro Retail Payments Board (ERPB), a group chaired by the European Central Bank that brings together associations of providers and users of payment services, has invited the European Payments Council, a body representing the payment service providers in Europe, to develop a scheme for instant payments in euro by November 2016...

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On 24 November 2015, the Council by unanimity approved the 2016 EU budget deal agreed by the Conciliation Committee on 14 November. If the agreement is also confirmed by the European Parliament on 25 November the EU budget for 2016 is adopted.  The 2016 EU budget provides for €155.00 billion in total commitments. This leaves a margin of €2.3 billion under the expenditure ceiling of the multiannual financial framework for 2014-2020, allowing the EU to react to unforeseen needs. The level oftotal...

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1. Introduction The recent Five Presidents' Report set out a number of steps to further strengthen the EU's Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). One of the key deliverables under the first stage of the Completion of the EMU is to move towards a European Deposit Insurance Scheme (EDIS) as a further step to a fully-fledged Banking Union. EDIS would mark an important step towards reinforcing financial stability by further weakening the link between banks and their national sovereigns and by...

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Banking union in a nutshell Since the crisis started in 2008, the European Commission has worked hard to learn all the lessons from the crisis and create a safer and sounder financial sector. The Commission has proposed 28 new rules to better regulate, supervise, and govern the financial sector so that in future taxpayers will not foot the bill when banks make mistakes. Most of these rules are now in force or being finalised. As the financial crisis evolved and turned...

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Good evening and welcome to this press conference. We had a extra dedicated Eurogroup meeting today to talk about Draft Budgetary Plans (DBP) and we also took stock of the discussions on Greece. Of course all this happened under the dark cloud of the migration issue and on the top of all that - the terrorism attacks in Paris and the acute situation here in Brussels. I am happy that we could meet today and that we didn't have to...

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The European Investment Bank (EIB) Group has today officially inaugurated its representative office in Copenhagen to support business, develop contacts with the public and private sectors, strengthen relations with promoters and partner banks, and enhance its outreach in Denmark. The office has been opened today by EIB Vice-President Jan Vapaavuori with the Permanent Secretary of State from the Danish Ministry for Business and Growth, Michael Dithmer, in the presence of ambassadors of the EU Member States and representatives of Denmark’s...

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The European Investment Fund (EIF) and Slovene Enterprise Fund (SEF) have signed a COSME agreement in Slovenia, benefiting from the support of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) the heart of the Investment Plan for Europe. The agreement will allow Slovene Enterprise Fund to provide EUR 180 million of guarantees to SMEs in Slovenia over the next three years. The guarantees will be provided as a result of a counter-guarantee from EIF under the COSME programme with financial backing from the European...

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Commission co-finances under LIFE programme projects supporting the environment, nature and a more sustainable economy. The Commission has approved an investment package of €264.8 million to support Europe's environment, nature and green growth. The investment covers 96 new projects spanning to 21 Member States, funded under the LIFE programme for the Environment. The projects cover actions in the field of environment and resource efficiency, supporting the transition to a more circular and sustainable economy, nature and biodiversity, and environmental governance...

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Today, the European Commission published the second edition of the "EU Transport Scoreboard", which compares how Member States perform in 29 transport categories. Today, the European Commission published the second edition of the "EU Transport Scoreboard", a benchmark which compares how Member States perform in 29 categories covering all aspects of transport. The objective of the Scoreboard is to help Member States to identify areas requiring priority investments and actions, in order to create a Single European Transport Area with high...

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2014 was the first year of positive employment growth in European SMEs since the financial crisis. The annual report on European SMEs for 2014 shows that the financial situation for small and medium enterprises is on the mend, and that they have started hiring again. The turnaround comes after years of downsizing, lasting up until 2013, when European SMEs were still shedding 0.5% of their workforce. In 2014, SMEs have accounted for the lion’s share of new jobs created in...

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