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Berschens, Ruth
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4 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.
Economic government is undemocratic
Barring a reform of the Treaty of Lisbon the economic government proposed by Merkel and Sarkozy will have no legal basis, writes the liberal daily Handelsblatt: "National parliamentarians are supposed to voluntarily commit themselves to promptly working additional cost-cutting measures into their national budgets. From a financial policy perspective such a move is no doubt sensible. ... But this go-ahead has been achieved at the expense of democratic legitimacy. The sovereign right of parliament to pass the budget cannot simply be overruled. If national parliaments are no longer able to exercise this right, the European Parliament must step into the breach. But there's no legal basis for that. The Treaty of Lisbon continues to guarantee national sovereignty in matters of financial and economic policy. Cunning ways to get around the Treaty cannot be the solution. The Eurozone must anchor a common economic and financial policy in the Treaty of Lisbon - the sooner the better."
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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Germany, » France, » Europe
Hungary's foreign company tax is justified
Several major companies have protested against the special tax for foreign companies that took effect at the beginning of January in Hungary. The government approved the new tax in October as a means of shoring up its budget, and the business paper Handelsblatt sees the measure as justified: "The Hungarian prime minister is doing exactly what the EU expects of all highly indebted member states: He is bringing the national budget back in line. He plans to bring the deficit below the EU limit of three percent by the end of the year, and is far ahead of most euro states in this respect. The population is suffering under the burden of the austerity measures: pensions and salaries in the public sector have been cut drastically, while the value-added tax has been raised considerably. It seems only fair that the big companies should also make a contribution to weathering the crisis. Since the outbreak of the financial crisis Hungary has been dependent on billions in loans from the IMF and the EU. The country now wants to extricate itself from this dependency as quickly as possible and restore its international competitiveness."
» full article (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » Corporations, » Economic Policy, » Tax Policy, » Germany, » Hungary
Europe's energy market unattractive for investors
In the EU energy strategy paper Europe 2020 to be presented today, Wednesday, EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger calls on the energy industry to build new power stations and expand its grid. The Handelsblatt business paper doubts that the sector will comply with the proposals: "Eon, for example, can't get much more out of the European energy markets. It prefers to invest in emerging economies, as the company announced at the beginning of the week - indirectly delivering a harsh blow to Oettinger's expensive expansion plans for Europe. The EU Commission should not be surprised. The investment conditions energy companies face in Europe can certainly be described as extremely off-putting. The consequences of the financial crisis and a shrinking population are checking economic growth in many EU states. ... In southern, central and eastern Europe as well as in France electricity prices are subject to state control. ... Oettinger would sound more convincing if he set a strategy for abandoning the use of polluting fossil fuels in the medium term. This is not the case, however. Therefore not only wind energy but also coal-generated power will continue to flow through the EU's energy supply network."
» full article (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Energy, » Corporations, » Europe
EU financial supervision of risky bank deals
With the EU decision to establish a European financial supervisory authority the 27 different political frameworks governing financial services will at last be centralised, the liberal business paper Handelsblatt writes approvingly: "Even Deutsche Bank should be thankful that the EU is now finally unravelling the tangle of national financial market laws and bundling them together, particularly since national legislators are constantly producing new contradictions. ... Last but not least, the foundation of the EU financial supervisory body is good news for taxpayers. They suffer under the burden of billions in costs for the huge gaps in national supervision that opened up during the financial crisis. ... The European bank supervisory authority will in future have the power to stop risky deals when a major bank gets into trouble - if necessary against the will of a passive national supervisory authority."
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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » Europe
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