"I am writing to let you know where we stand on the issue of a UK in/out referendum before we address it at the December European Council. In November Prime Minister Cameron set out the four areas where he is seeking reforms to address the concerns of the British people over UK membership of the European Union. On this basis, we, in close cooperation with the Commission, held extensive bilateral consultations at Sherpa level with all Member States. We also...

he European Commission has welcomed the news that Greece has now successfully ratified the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) for the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM).  A sufficient number of participating Member States ratified the IGA before the final deadline of 30 November.  At the time, Greece had ratified but not completed the final formal step which is to deposit its instrument of ratification with the Council.  The European Commission now calls on Luxembourg to ratify as a matter of urgency, as it...

Speech at the American Council on Germany in New York | Friday, 4 December 2015 Ladies and gentlemen Thank you for inviting me to speak here today. Attending ACG events is always a pleasure for me. “The unity of Europe was the dream of a few. It became the hope of many. Today it has become a necessity for all of us.” These words will sound very familiar indeed to anyone who closely follows contemporary politics in Europe. They were spoken back...

After a slow-down in August, the value of EU agri-food exports has resumed the positive trend (+13%), as monthly exports in September exceeded imports by €2 billion. The exports to the US (+19%) and China (+18%) did particularly well. Russia fell down to fourth position as destination for EU agri-food exports, after US, China and Switzerland. Most significant increases in monthly export values were witnessed for wine, spirits and liqueurs and for chocolate and confectionaries.  Imports to the EU in...

Today, the Justice and Home Affairs Council adopted the Commission's proposal for a new legal basis for Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency. Earlier this week, the European Parliament's Committee for Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs had already endorsed the proposal. The draft regulation should now be formally approved by the Parliament, in Plenary. Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos said: "This agreement on the Europol regulation is a particularly important achievement in times when security and the...

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Article IV consultation1 with Sweden. Sweden’s economy is performing well, with real GDP growth of 3.4 percent per year in the first three quarters of 2015, up from 2.3 percent in 2014. Job creation was robust in the first three quarters of 2015, helping bring the unemployment rate down to 7.2 percent in the third quarter. Solid growth of about 3 percent is expected to continue into 2016. Core inflation (HICP...

At today’s meeting the Governing Council of the ECB decided that the interest rate on the deposit facility will be decreased by 10 basis points to -0.30%, with effect from 9 December 2015. The interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rate on the marginal lending facility will remain unchanged at 0.05% and 0.30% respectively. Introductory statement to the press conference by Mario Draghi Key ECB interest rates More information on monetary policy Compliments of the European Central Bank