Member News

European Court of Justice: principle against double jeopardy does not preclude dual fines

By Floris ten Have | Stibbe The European Court of Justice recently confirmed that a national competition authority can impose a single fine on a company for infringements of both national and EU competition law without violating the principle against double jeopardy. The Court of Justice held that the principle applies to the repetition of proceedings which have previously been concluded by a final decision and not to the situation in which a national competition authority applies national and EU competition rules in...

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Chapter News, News

Luis de Guindos on challenges for bank profitability

Speech by Luis de Guindos, Vice-President of the ECB, 1 May 2019 Introduction Sustained economic expansion over the past six years and greater banking sector resilience have supported financial stability within the euro area. But the recent softening of growth prospects heightens risks. The financial stability environment has become more challenging than it was a year ago. The risks that have been with us for some time now – a possible disorderly increase in risk premia, debt sustainability concerns, low bank profitability...

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Chapter News, News, Uncategorized

Strength in unity: Commission makes recommendations for the EU’s next strategic agenda 2019-2024

Brussels, 30 April 2019 Ahead of the meeting of EU27 leaders in Sibiu, Romania, on 9 May 2019, the European Commission is today setting out a number of policy recommendations for how Europe can shape its future in an increasingly multipolar and uncertain world. With the European Parliament elections on 23-26 May 2019 and the change of political leadership of the EU institutions that will follow, the time has come for new policy orientations and new priorities. As both the priorities...

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Member News

Tradewind Delivers Credit Facility to Icelandic Seafood Exporter

Tradewind has announced the closing of a €400,000 accounts receivable facility for an exporter of fresh and frozen fish that is based in Iceland and sells to the UK, Netherlands and North America. The company is using Tradewind’s facility—structured in EUR, GBP, and USD—to capitalize on growth opportunities and enter new markets. In order to help the seafood exporter meet these objectives, Tradewind enlisted a senior leader from its Iceland office to customize a financial solution that addressed the company’s...

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Member News

Is Brexit an Enabler for Fraud?

By Andrew Durant | FTI Consulting The results of our recent Brexit survey, Brexit in the Boardroom - Autumn 2018 Update, show that 80% of UK business leaders are fearful of job losses in their company as a result of Brexit. And two thirds (66%) said they were concerned about employees committing fraud due to the lack of job security that Brexit brings. These results do not come as surprise to me after 30 years of investigating fraud. Motive has always...

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Member News

EY ITEM Club 2019 Spring Forecast

By Mark GegoryChief Economist, UK | EY The EY ITEM Club Spring Forecast has cut its GDP growth projections to 1.3% for 2019 (from 1.5% in the EY ITEM Club Winter Forecast) and 1.5% for 2020 (down from 1.7%). Despite likely solid-looking GDP growth in the first quarter of 2019, the downward revision for 2019 primarily reflects the prolonged Brexit uncertainty, following the decision to delay the UK’s exit from the EU to a flexible 31 October deadline. A weaker...

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Member News

Via, an on-demand shared ride services today expanded its Chicago-area service to include Evanston.

All shared rides within Evanston will have a $3 flat fare. Via aims to be a first-and-last mile solution, connecting residents and commuters to rail stations without the need for a personal vehicle. “At Via, our goal is to eliminate the need for private car ownership by providing affordable, convenient, and eco-friendly on-demand shared transportation that can seamlessly integrate into existing public transit infrastructure” said Alex Lavoie, US General Manager of Via. Using the Via app, passengers select their pick up and drop...

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Member News

GDPR: (Almost) one year later

The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) took effect 11 months ago. After almost a year of GDPR that became applicable on May 25, 2018, it should be investigated how the main subjects of this Regulation – the companies processing personal data and the member states’ supervisory authorities (“Supervisory Authorities”)– are dealing with it. For instance, the recent Open Right Group’s survey (see below)  shows the number of complaints made by the data subjects (Chart 1) and the number of data breach notification...

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Chapter News, News

Facts and figures: European Parliament’s 2014-2019 term

What was the European Parliament like during its 2014-2019 term? Find out some interesting facts ahead of the European elections on 23-26 May that will shape the next Parliament. Less than half of the MEPs that arrived in July 2014 were new to the Parliament. Some 51.5% had served as MEPs previously. Greece had the largest proportion of new MEPs at 90.5%. The share of women MEPs was 36.9% at the start of the term, decreasing slightly to 36.5% at end...

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Brexit News, Member News

Weekly Vulcan View | Analysis of latest EU developments 22 – 26 April

Key Events This Week Brexit: State of Play If Brexit goes ahead, the Scottish Nationalist Party under Nicola Sturgeon will seek another referendum before the 2021 Scottish Parliamentary Elections. Sturgeon suggested that the case for independence is “even stronger now”, given the “profound changes” that have occurred since 2014. Brexit has been a political gift to the SNP. 62 percent of Scots rejected it, in every single region – the most resounding Remain vote of the UK’s four nations. A year after...

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