In a recent blog entry we estimated the total assets and number of banks in the euro area underdirect ECB supervision according to the agreed criteria of the Single Supervisory Mechanism. We now extend the research to all EU countries. In this blog, we start with the statistics before discussing the more complicated home-host issues and how they are treated in the new compromise legislative text. Read more
Bruegel blog
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Banking union for non-EA countries
8th January 2013
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Thunderbolts in the patent storm – EU and US antitrust strikes in the Samsung and Google-Motorola cases
7th January 2013
Standards and standard-setting processes play a key role in fostering European economic development. Standards ensure interoperability of networks and often give rise to significant reductions in transaction and production costs. Read more
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The eurozone will muddle through (again)
4th January 2013
At the last European Council summit of 2012, politicians decided to go ahead with the banking union while ending their reflections on fiscal union they had initiated in June, a time of acute market stress. The message: banking union is needed; the rest is not. This behaviour confirms that the eurozone has little appetite to think about its own future. Read more
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Alternative Fiscal Medicine?
26th December 2012
Forget the fiscal cliff. The real issue is the fiscal mountain. According to the International Monetary Fund, the challenge of reducing the public debt ratio to a safe level is daunting for most advanced countries. Read more
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Three structural reforms remain central for the euro in 2013
19th December 2012
As the year draws to a close, it is time to reflect on the economic policy priorities for 2013. I would identify three structural reform areas that are central to the success of the euro… and one less structural measure. Read more
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The euro area’s need for stabilization in historical perspective
19th December 2012
It is not unusual that some European countries register strong growth rates and others less so. Yet, significant divergence in output is historically associated with dramatic events (or crises). This implies that a euro area budget used for stabilization will end up being activated only a few times. Moreover, there is no historical record of core Europe marching above and the periphery below potential. This makes it unrealistic to conceive of a euro area budget that transfers resources on the spot from badly hit to just moderately hit countries. Some institutional engineering would be necessary. Read more
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Un budget pour la zone euro?
18th December 2012
Faut-il un budget pour la zone euro ? Enfouie depuis plus de vingt ans, la question a ressurgi ces derniers mois. Visiblement, beaucoup de ceux qui croient encore à l’euro pensent que le temps des prudences est révolu et qu’il faut revisiter sans tabous les compromis sur lesquels il a été fondé. Read more
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The Unitary patent: challenges still ahead
17th December 2012
On December 11th the European Parliament approved the proposal made by the Competitiveness Council at Ministerial level to create a “unitary” patent that would cover 25 member states (Spain and Italy opposed the system due to languages reasons). SMEs will in addition benefit from lower fees. Read more
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Slow, but real progress on resolving eurozone crisis
17th December 2012
Last week summit of heads as well as finance ministers marks an important step in completing the eurozone architecture. At the same time, the summit’s results fall short of what could have been hoped for. Read more
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Blogs review: State-dependent monetary policy guidance
17th December 2012
What’s at stake: The Fed announcement to move from a date-based approach to forward policy guidance to quantitative unemployment and inflation targets marks a major evolution in the practice of monetary policy. While there is still no consensus as to how effective this move will be, there has been wide recognition of its intellectual importance. And although similar moves appear to be in the making in the UK and Japan, the ECB has been singled out as behind the curve along this dimension of the crisis response. Read more