The European Commission today presented a major package of budgetary surveillance announcements, covering 13 euro area Member States and 3 non-euro Member States, with a special focus also on the euro area as an economic entity in its own right. For the first time, the Commission has issued opinions on euro area Member States’ Draft Budgetary Plans, which from this year must be submitted to the Commission by 15 October, at the same time as draft budgets are sent to...

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The European Commission will adopt a number of documents to mark the start of the fourth European Semester for economic policy coordination in the EU. The Annual Growth Survey will set out general economic priorities for Member States to follow when drawing up their budgets and reform plans over the next year. The Alert Mechanism Report will screen EU economies for potential macroeconomic imbalances, and indicate which economies require further analysis. This year the Annual Growth Survey will be accompanied by...

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The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued a set of corrections to its final regulations under the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). Click here to read document "TD 9610". The IRS also published two sets of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): FATCA - FAQs General FATCA - Registration System FAQs

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ALFI: Asset managers should broaden their appeal to all savers in society A report entitled "Beyond 10%: the case for enlarging the pool of retail investors in Europe's investment funds," commissioned by ALFI and prepared by research company Mackay Williams highlights the fact that there is a ?4 trillion pool of household assets in Europe that are not managed professionally and which is therefore either losing value or failing to grasp growth opportunities that are available through long-term investment vehicles....

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The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its final report on "Guidelines on reporting obligations under Articles 3(3)(d) and 24(1), (2) and (4) of the AIFMD". The guidelines aim to clarify provisions of the AIFMD and its "delegated act" ("Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 231/2013 of 19 December 2012") on required information, which will help to have a more comprehensive and consistent oversight of AIFMs' activities. ESMA has also published an Opinion that proposes introducing additional periodic reporting...

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The EU and U.S. EU negotiators met on Monday November 11th in Brussels for the first day in a second round of talks to foster progress in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The beginning of the week will be devoted to discussions on investment rules and trade in services. The teams of negotiators will continue working on those topics during the course of the week, as other negotiators meet to discuss a range of regulatory issues, including regulatory...

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The Lithuanian Presidency of the EU Council is paying special attention to promoting vocational education and training (VET). Directors general responsible for VET in the EU member states, together with experts and social partners, have gathered in Vilnius to discuss how to enhance quality of vocational training, making VET directly meet the demands of the labour market, as well as promoting VET openness and inclusiveness to all. Dainius Pavalkis, this semester presiding over the meetings of EU ministers of education...

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On 11 November the Council and the European Parliament agreed on the 2014 EU budget and on the financing of € 400.5 million to redress damages from natural disasters in four member states. In the Conciliation Committee, the two institutions agreed on € 135.50 billion for overall payment appropriations and € 142.64 billion for commitment appropriations for the EU budget for 2014. This is a decrease of 6.5% for payments and of 6.2% for commitments compared to the EU budget for 2013. Both institutions...

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The Governing Council of the ECB decided that the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility will decrease to 0.25% and 0.75% respectively. The interest rate on the deposit facility will remain at 0.00%. IN THIS CONTEXT: Introductory statement to the press conference by Mario Draghi Key ECB interest rates More information on monetary policy

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