In his 2013 State of the Union address to the European Parliament, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso set out his vision for the European Union in the year to come. He recalled the EU's determined response to the global financial crisis and what has been achieved since then, noting that Europe has good reason to be confident. "For Europe, recovery is within sight," President Barroso said, but warned that Europe must continue to reform. "This should push us to...

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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 and the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 0.50%, 1.00% and 0.00% respectively. 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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Growth and jobs, fairer taxation, financial regulation, trade and Syria were the main themes at the G20 summit held in St Petersburg on 5-6 September 2013. "The G20 has proven its worth, in the face of the major challenges the global economy has experienced over the last 5 years, as the world's premier forum for economic cooperation: all G20 members remain determined to implement our ambitious commitments and take further steps on the way to strong and sustainable growth. We...

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++ ANNOUNCEMENT ++ President Barroso will deliver the fourth “State of the Union Address” on the morning of Wednesday, September 11, 2013 to the European Parliament. The speech will be followed by a debate with MEPs. https://europa.eu/newsroom/calendar/event/452050/state-of-the-union-address-2013 On Thursday September 12th, the President will answer questions from citizens in a live Euronews interview and Google+ Hangout. Questions can already be posted on Google+, Facebook and Twitter, using the hashtag #askBarroso. Social media posts, pre-recorded video and text questions will be incorporated in the...

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The Commission has today adopted a communication on shadow banking and proposed new rules for money market funds (MMFs). The communication is a follow-up to last year's Green Paper on Shadow Banking (IP/12/253). It summarises the work undertaken so far by the Commission and sets out possible further actions in this important area. The first of these further actions - the proposed new rules for money market funds – is unveiled today and aims to ensure that MMFs can better...

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Global efforts to battle trade protectionism need to be reinforced to help shield the fragile economic recovery across the world. In a report released today, the European Commission identified about 150 new trade restrictions introduced over the last year, whereas only 18 existing measures have been dismantled. A total of almost 700 new measures have been identified since October 2008, when the European Commission started monitoring global protectionist trends. Although the trend is slower than it was in 2011 and...

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Recently released economic figures and survey data suggest that the EU's economy is beginning to gain momentum. GDP rose by 0.3% in the EU in the second quarter of 2013, signaling subtle signs of a recovery. EU Commission Vice-President Olli Rehn's blog explains. Read more.

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European Commission - IP/13/790   23/08/2013 In August 2013, the DG ECFIN flash estimate of the consumer confidence indicator improved markedly in both the euro area (-15.6 after -17.4 in July 2013) and the EU (-12.8 after -14.8 in July 2013). Computation of Flash CCI To compute the flash consumer confidence indicator for the EU and euro area, DG ECFIN uses the data available on the cut-off date. The estimation procedure combines historical data with information from those Member States for which...

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On 16 July 2013, the European Union (Alternative Investment Fund Managers) Regulations 2013 (No. 257 of 2013) (the “Regulations”) were signed into Irish law, giving effect to the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (the “AIFMD”) in Ireland. The transposition of the AIFMD into Irish law follows the announcement by the Central Bank of Ireland (the “Central Bank”) on 15 May 2013, that it was accepting applications under the AIFMD. In conjunction with this, the Central Bank published revised Application Forms,...

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