CEEOL - Search Result

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№285. Commission v. Gazprom: The antitrust clash of the decade?

Author(s): Alan Riley / Language(s): English

Keywords: Commission v. Gazprom; market vulnerability; Shale gas liquidity; coal dumping in Europe;

It may well be that the Gazprom anti-trust case launched by DG Competition on September 4th will turn out to be the landmark anti-trust case of this decade, as Microsoft was of the last decade. The argument of this paper is that, for a host of political and economic reasons, this case is likely to be hard fought by both sides to a final prohibition decision and then onwards into the EU courts.

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№286. Monetary Policy and Banking Supervision: Coordination instead of separation

Author(s): Daniel Gros,Thorsten Beck / Language(s): English

Keywords: Monetary Policy and Banking Supervision; Chinese walls; Governing Council;

A strict separation, or ‘Chinese walls’, between the supervisory and monetary policy arms of the European Central Bank is not needed. The economic literature is not unanimous on this issue and we argue that a strict separation of supervision and monetary policy is not desirable during a financial crisis when thes ystemic stability of the financial system represents the biggest threat to a monetary policy that aims at price stability. The key problem hampering the ECB today is that it lacks detailed information on the state of health of the banking system, which is often highly confidential. Chinese walls would not solve this problem.

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№287. The New Financial Regulatory Paradigm: A transatlantic perspective

Author(s): Karel Lannoo / Language(s): English

Keywords: Financial Regulatory Paradigm; Transatlantic perspective; EU; US; Sovereign debt crisis;

Five years after the start of the financial crisis, the EU is further behind in reengineering its regulatory regime than the US. Although it seemed two years ago that the two blocs were moving in tandem, it is now clear that the US is further advanced in re-regulation and implementation than the EU. The sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone is to some extent to blame, but there is more to the story than that. Bank supervisory issues do not appear to bemoving off the policy agenda in the EU.

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№288. Principles of a Two-Tier European Deposit (Re-)Insurance System

Author(s): Daniel Gros / Language(s): English

Keywords: Two-Tier European Deposit (Re-)Insurance System; national deposit guarantee schemes;

There is general agreement that banking supervision and resolution have to be organised at the same level. It is often argued, however, that there is no need to tackle deposit insurance because it is too politically sensitive.

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№293. Open Season for Data Fishing on the Web. The Challenges of the US PRISM Programme for the EU

Author(s): Didier Bigo,Gertjan Boulet,Caspar Bowden,Sergio Carrera,Elspeth Guild,Nicholas Hernanz,Paul DE HERT,Julien Jeandesboz,Amandine Scherrer / Language(s): English

Keywords: Data fishing; US PRISM Programe; EU;

The revelation of the top-secret US intelligence-led PRISM programme has triggered wide-ranging debates across Europe. Press reports featured in the Guardianand Washington Post have shed new light on the electronic surveillance ‘fishing expeditions’ (dragnet) of the US National Security Agency (NSA) and the FBI into the world’s largest electronic communications companies.

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№294. Unemployment is the scourge, not youth unemployment per se. The misguided policy preoccupation with Youth

Author(s): Daniel Gros,Mikkel Barslund / Language(s): English

Keywords: Unemployment; youth; economic issues; labour relations;

Unemployment is one of the key economic issues in large parts of Europe – especially in the south, which has been in recession for the last 4-5 years. In countries like Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy, youth unemployment rates have risen to levels that are often reported as “alarming” or “shocking” in the media. This has prompted European institutions into a flurry of activity. The Commission has launched a number of initiatives over the last year focused predominantly on young unemployed people. A further string of new measures and the speeding up of already agreed initiatives is expected to be the outcome of the European Council meeting on June 27-28th. Some of these are sensible structural measures – such as building apprentice ship programmes and assisting in better school-to-work transitions – which are likely to have a positive impact on youth unemployment in the longer term. However, most others are found wanting, or even counterproductive.

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№295. The Opportunity Costs of STEM Degrees and the Unmet Needs of the Low-Skilled: Two labour market problems explained

Author(s): Miroslav Beblavý,Ilaria Maselli / Language(s): English

Keywords: STEM Degrees; Low-skilled workers; labour market problems;

There is general consensus that to achieve employment growth, especially for vulnerable groups, it is not enough to kick-start economic growth – skills among both the high- andlow-skilled population need to be improved. In particular, we argue that if the lack of graduates in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is a true problem, it needs to be tackled via tangible incentives and not simply by public campaigns: students are not enrolling in ‘hard-science’ subjects because the opportunity cost is very high.

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№296. Deploying the Energy Incentive: Reinforcing EU Integration in South-East Europe

Author(s): Alan Riley / Language(s): English

Keywords: Energy incentive; EU integration; South-East Europe; Energy Community;

This Policy Brief urges the European Union to consider reinforcing the Energy Community by further Europeanising the Energy Community Treaty. It argues that the level of dysfunctionality with respect to the rule of law and corruption will make it very hard to establish a pathway for accession for most Balkan states. However, the demand across the region for a sustainable, competitive and stable energy sector creates an ‘energy incentive’ that the Union can leverage to improve the rule of law and adherence to European rules.

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№297. A Copernican turn in Banking Union urgently needed

Author(s): Thomas Mayer / Language(s): English

Keywords: Banking Union; Single Supervisory Mechanism; Single Resolution Mechanism;

At every meeting of central bankers, policy-makers and economists, there seems to be agreement that creation of a ‘Banking Union’ is essential for the survival of the euro. Yet, progress in building this union has been painfully slow. The Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) may not be ready until the middle of next year; the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) may end up as a complicated mixture between bail-in and bail-out instruments, funded at the national and euro are a levels; and common deposit insurance has been postponed into the indefinite future.

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№298. Armaments duplication in Europe: A quantitative assessment

Author(s): Valerio Briani / Language(s): English

Keywords: Productions; duplication; EU; USA;

European countries are not only hollowing out their militaries with insufficient defence spending, but are also failing to spend their existing budgets wisely, according to Ivo Daalder, former US Ambassador to NATO. As a result, EU countries may not be able to meet impending security challenges. A key issue in this regard is the duplication of platforms (i.e. vehicles bearing weapons) and systems in the land, air and sea domains. The analysis shows duplication of a ratio of 3 to 1 in European programmes/platforms, compared with the US.

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№299. Macedonia - A country in crisis

Author(s): Erwan Fouéré / Language(s): English

Keywords: Macedonia; Crisis; Political parties; Government;

Macedonia is a country in deep trouble. There is a climate of mistrust between all the political parties; intolerance of minority groups is increasing and fear is also generated by the all-pervasive control of the main governing party. In 2009 the European Commission recommended that a date be set for accession negotiations to start, but since then the country's efforts to join the EU ( and NATO ) have been blocked.

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№300. Towards ‘EuroNest 2.0’: What should the next European Parliament learn from its predecessor?

Author(s): Bruno Vandecasteele,Hrant Kostanyan / Language(s): English

Keywords: EuroNest 2.0; European Perliament; Eastern Partners;

The development and functioning of the EU-Eastern Partnership Parliamentary Assembly (EuroNest PA) is the topic of this brief. We argue that, despite organising a number of meetings and adopting several resolutions in the past two years, the Assembly is failing to reach its objectives of promoting economic and political integration between the EU and the Eastern Partners.

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№301. The Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure and Germany: When is a current account surplus an ‘imbalance’?

Author(s): Daniel Gros,Matthias Busse / Language(s): English

Keywords: Macroeconomic imbalance procedure; Germany; account balance;

The Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure (MIP) was designed to prevent the emergence of imbalances like the largeand persistent current account deficits that occurred in Spain and Ireland. But within this mechanism, a current account surplus is also viewed as a source of concern. Indeed, last year’s Alert Mechanism Report (AMR), issued by the European Commission signalled an excessive current account surplus for the Netherlands and Luxembourg, while Germany just barely scraped by with a 5.9% surplus, marginally evading the 6% threshold (over a 3-year average).

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№302. Financial Services and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

Author(s): Karel Lannoo / Language(s): English

Keywords: Financial services; Transatlantic trade; Investment partnership;

It is still an unresolved question whether aprocess for financial services regulatory cooperation and convergence will be included in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). From an enduser’s perspective, it could be argued that its inclusion could be an opportunity not only as regards product choice, but also to improve the consumer or investor protection regulatory environment on both sides of the Atlantic.

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№306. Unblocking the Lifeline of Talent

Author(s): Christal Morehouse / Language(s): English

Keywords: Economic competitiveness; emerging economies; labour mobility; EU;

Against the background of demographic decline and growing economic competitiveness from emerging economies, this Policy Brief looks into the potential benefits of increased intra-EU labour mobility. On the basis of an examination of the ‘German case’ on EU labour mobility. It proposes ideas on how to better foster a European fair deal on talent, one that would benefit the EU as a whole. It concludes with a proposal on how to increase the potential benefits of the freedom of movement.

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№307. REACH: A killer whale for SMEs?

Author(s): Lorna Schrefler,Jacques Pelkmans,Ineke Gubbels / Language(s): English

Keywords: REACH; SME; EU; Substance Information Exchange Forum;

REACH is a very demanding system for any business either large or small, yet right from the startone of the more serious concerns was whether and how SMEs could cope with the Regulation. After all, some 27,600 companies in EU chemistry are SMEs (95% of all firms). Seven years downthe line, many of these fears are materialising.

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№308. Policy Lessons for Macroeconomic and Financial Crisis Management in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean

Author(s): Rym Ayadi,Willem Pieter DE GROEN / Language(s): English

Keywords: Macroeconomic and Financial Crisis Management; Southern and Eastern Mediterranean;

The 2007-09 global financial crisis led to a virtual collapse in economic activity and increased financial volatility worldwide. For the developing countries, the main channel of transmission has been a drop inexternal transactions, such as trade, financial and capital flows, and remittances. The southern and eastern Mediterranean countries (SEMC) have also faced declining economic activity, although there seems to be considerable variation in the relative magnitudes and timing of the decline.

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№309. Net Neutrality and Mandatory Network-Sharing: How to disconnect the continent

Author(s): Andrea Renda / Language(s): English

Keywords: Net Neutrality; Mandatory Network-Sharing; Connected Continent legislative;

A lively debate emerged on the proposed “Connected Continent” legislative package presented by the European Commission in September 2013. The package contains a proposed rule on the ‘open Internet’, which was heavily discussed in European Parliament hearings in early December. This commentary argues that while the proposed rule is in principle balanced and appealing, it is utterly impractical due to the enormous uncertainty that itsapplication would entail. At the same time, the rule is very far from what neutrality proponents have argued for almost a decade: rather than the place for internet freedom, it would transform the Web into a place requiring constant micro-management and tutoring of user behaviour. Both arguments lead to the conclusion that the current proposal should be at once reformed and analysed under a more holistic lens.

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№310. The Governance Gap in European Security and Defence

Author(s): Giovanni Faleg / Language(s): English

Keywords: Governance Gap; European Security and defence; CSDP; EU;

This policy brief argues that a ‘governance gap’ explains the existential crisis of the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). The true causes of the EU’s inertia as a security actor in its neighbourhood and beyond are not a lack of capability or even austerity measures, but the absence of a core group of states committed to driving integration forward. Member states are reluctant to set clear common strategic priorities and struggle to agree on a revision of the institutional rules. Their strategic cultures and interests differ significantly; they hold different visions of CSDP, and are unwilling to use the CSDP instruments at their disposal.

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№311. The Asset Quality Review and Capital Needs: Why re-capitalise banks with public money?

Author(s): Daniel Gros / Language(s): English

Keywords: Asset Quality Review; Capital Needs; re-capitalise banks; public money;

It is generally assumed that any capital needs discovered by the Asset Quality Review the ECB is scheduled to finish by the end of 2014 should be filled by public funding (= fiscal backstop). This assumption is wrong, however. Banks that do not have enough capital should be asked to obtain it from the market; or be restructured using the procedures and rules recently agreed. The Directorate-General for Competition at the European Commission should be particularly vigilant to ensure that no further state aid flows to an already oversized European banking system.

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Series:CEPS Policy Briefs

№285. Commission v. Gazprom: The antitrust clash of the decade?

№286. Monetary Policy and Banking Supervision: Coordination instead of separation

№287. The New Financial Regulatory Paradigm: A transatlantic perspective

№288. Principles of a Two-Tier European Deposit (Re-)Insurance System

№293. Open Season for Data Fishing on the Web. The Challenges of the US PRISM Programme for the EU

№294. Unemployment is the scourge, not youth unemployment per se. The misguided policy preoccupation with Youth

№295. The Opportunity Costs of STEM Degrees and the Unmet Needs of the Low-Skilled: Two labour market problems explained

№296. Deploying the Energy Incentive: Reinforcing EU Integration in South-East Europe

№297. A Copernican turn in Banking Union urgently needed

№298. Armaments duplication in Europe: A quantitative assessment

№299. Macedonia - A country in crisis

№300. Towards ‘EuroNest 2.0’: What should the next European Parliament learn from its predecessor?

№301. The Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure and Germany: When is a current account surplus an ‘imbalance’?

№302. Financial Services and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

№306. Unblocking the Lifeline of Talent

№307. REACH: A killer whale for SMEs?

№308. Policy Lessons for Macroeconomic and Financial Crisis Management in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean

№309. Net Neutrality and Mandatory Network-Sharing: How to disconnect the continent

№310. The Governance Gap in European Security and Defence

№311. The Asset Quality Review and Capital Needs: Why re-capitalise banks with public money?