The Austrian  Federal Minister for Women & Civil Service Gabriele Heinisch-Hosek, has recently presented a so called Gender Budgeting initiative to help achieve gender equality at a UN conference here in New York. Public expenditure often has very different impacts on women and men – whether they relate to childcare, tax, daily travel or women’s and men’s health. This according to the initiative should be taken into consideration when public budgets are being drawn up. The goal is not to...

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NYC Fashion Production Fund Will Provide Needed Capital to Designers Manufacturing Their Own Clothing Lines New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) today announced that it is seeking a financial institution to operate the NYC Fashion Production Fund. The NYC Fashion Production Fund will provide loans for the production of goods by emerging fashion designers who need to fulfill a purchase order from a retailer but can’t obtain conventional financing. The fund will only be available to New York City-based...

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Brussels, 22 March 2012 The adoption of this Regulation by the European Parliament and the Council is the first legislative delivery from the Commission's IPR Strategy of May 2011, 'Towards a single market for intellectual property rights'1. IPR infringements are a growing threat to the economy. Between 2005 and 2010, the number of registered cases at the EU borders of goods suspected of infringing IPR increased from 26,704 to over 80,000. The OECD has estimated that the annual loss to the...

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The EU Commission is seeking comments on the risks related to non-bank credit activity, so-called “shadow banking”, and on possible measures to address them. The deadline for replies is 1 June 2012.  For more details click here.

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A completed internal market for electronic communications could boost the EU’s gross domestic product by up to €110bn a year, says study. It also suggests measures to tackle the remaining obstacles. The completion of the Internet Market for electronic communications has the potential to bring yearly gains in GDP of up to 110 billion euros through more competition and economies of scale. An integrated and interoperable Internal Market would ensure that every European has access to all content and services,...

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The Commission is seeking examples of cross-border companies that escape taxes by exploiting mismatches between national tax systems. Anonymous responses will be accepted. The deadline is 30 May. Factual examples and possible ways to tackle double non-taxation cases Title: Consultation on factual examples and possible ways to tackle double non-taxation cases Policy fields: Taxation Target groups: The Commission would like to draw on the expertise and experience of all parties interested in commenting on double non-taxation issues and possible solutions. All stakeholders – individual...

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The Commission wants to introduce common standards for central securities depositories responsible for settlements. It also seeks to speed up the process and minimise settlement failures. More about the proposal can be found here.

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EU 09/03/2012 The disbursement of the European Financial Stability Facility bonds can now proceed as planned following Greece’s implementation of all agreed prior actions. In early 2010, rising government deficits and debt levels set off a crisis of confidence in European sovereign bonds and in the euro. The market turmoil centred on Greece, which had a budget deficit in 2009 far higher than the country had forecast. To reassure investors, the EU and IMF put together a €110bn bailout package for...

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Monetary policy decisions At the 3/9/12 meeting 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 1.00%, 1.75% and 0.25% respectively. More info click here.

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