TAG: Capital markets union
France could ease trader layoffs to attract more finance companies
PARIS — France wants to make it easier to sack high-level finance employees in an attempt to remain a top destination for financial firms. The changes could be part of a financial attractiveness bill that aims to draw more financial companies to the count...
6 months ago
A new inconvenient truth: Europe’s global plans all require money no one has
BRUSSELS — EU leaders are on a grandiloquent streak, even by their standards.The EU can stay relevant in a world of resurgent big power politics. Europe won’t drown in the sea of public cash the U.S. and China are throwing at futuristic industries. We can...
5 months ago
More cash, less screen time: 5 policy takeaways from Macron’s Sorbonne speech
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron outlined his priorities for the future of the European Union on Thursday in an almost two-hour stump speech with about six weeks to go until the European election in June. The marathon address at Sorbonne Universit...
5 months ago
To do: 6 thorny issues lurking in MEPs’ inboxes
This article is part of the Brussels Survival Guide.Becoming a member of European Parliament isn’t just about fancy gifts and bottomless (well, €4,950 a month) general expenses. There’s also serious work to be done. But a new term doesn’t mean a blank sla...
2 months ago
Europe’s €10 trillion gamble
BRUSSELS ― Unlike Americans, Europeans don’t take risks. If they did, the €10 trillion they have languishing in their bank accounts ― that’s more than a third the size of the U.S. economy ― could be invested in the stock market instead. That would give co...
2 months ago
The secretive €6M EU lobby group paying for lawmakers to stay in fancy hotels
LONDON ― An opaque self-styled "think tank" that offers businesses access to EU politicians and regulators has raked in almost €6 million in fees from the finance industry, POLITICO can reveal, fueling concerns about lack of transparency and cash-for-infl...
1 month ago
Von der Leyen set to reward France with bigger EU top job after Breton’s exit, French officials say
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron is negotiating a powerful, wide-ranging competitiveness portfolio within the European Commission for his new commissioner-designate Stéphane Séjourné ahead of Tuesday's announcement by Ursula von der Leyen.The Fren...
4 weeks ago
France mourns its loss of influence in von der Leyen’s new Commission
BRUSSELS — Emmanuel Macron's clout on the European stage just isn't what it used to be.One day after now-former French Commissioner Thierry Breton resigned in a huff, five French officials bemoaned a loss of influence for Paris in Brussels after Ursula vo...
4 weeks ago
Berlin livid as UniCredit tightens its grip on Commerzbank
In the battle for Commerzbank, the gloves are off.Things hit fever pitch on Monday after Italy’s UniCredit, led by veteran dealmaker Andrea Orcel, announced out of the blue that it had entered into derivatives transactions that would raise its stake in Ge...
3 weeks ago
Financial services role goes to Albuquerque ― but she brings baggage
BRUSSELS ― Maria Luís Albuquerque, who has been selected to oversee financial services in the new European Commission, has a mixed reputation at home.The Portuguese lawmaker was a surprise victor in the brawl for the role, seeing off competition from fina...
3 weeks ago