Deutsch
English
FrançaisSub menu: Home
Home / Index of Authors
Bastasin, Carlo
5 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.
Summit alone won't save the euro
Just a few days after the EU summit to be held in Brussels on Sunday there will be another meeting of EU heads of state and government, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy agreed on Thursday. At this extra summit on Wednesday new rules are to be passed for the euro bailout facility, the EFSF. The government should not place all their hopes in the summit, the business paper Il Sole 24 Ore advises: "Political decisions are needed both at a national and European level. At their summits the politicians must now discuss changes to the EU treaty and joint measures in the area of fiscal policy. It could however be years before these decision processes reach their completion within the complex institutional structure of the EU. Until then, the only guarantee the European Central Bank can be given for any potential rescue actions is the plausible and genuine willingness of the national governments to steer their economies towards stability and growth once more."
» more information (external link, Italian)
More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » EU Constitution, » Fiscal Policy, » Europe
Berlin talks European again
With her decision to approve financial aid for ailing banks German Chancellor Angela Merkel has rediscovered her European language, the business paper Il Sole 24 Ore comments in delight: "Angela Merkel's decision to recapitalise German banks with state money should they need it represents a double U-turn. On the one hand it acknowledges that the crisis is escalating as a result of the interaction between sovereign debt and bank balance sheets and is therefore not just a problem for undisciplined countries. On the other it is an open admission that Berlin's 'policy of uncertainty' was counter-productive. It consisted in leaving a question mark over whether financial aid would be given and therefore enabled the financial markets to put the debt-stricken countries under pressure. ... The only alternative to the strategy of uncertainty is joint administration of the budgets and economies of those countries that are bailed out by the EU."
» more information (external link, Italian)
More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » EU Constitution, » Germany, » Europe
Italian crisis too much for Europe
The looming crisis in Italy must be resolved by the Italians themselves and without delay, the business newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore writes: "Europe will not be able to cope with an Italian crisis. The best response to the crisis would therefore be for Italy to approve a budget followed by a solemn declaration of intent to make balancing the budget part of the Italian constitution. ... The Eurozone crisis is a political crisis. It stems from Europe's inability to find a common response to problems that were initially restricted to small countries. This inability has been aggravated by the gulf between the slow tempo at which politics is conducted and the lightening reactions of the financial markets. For this reason the Italian response must be a political one and must come quickly. Changing the constitution to couple balancing its budget to its obligations towards the members of the Eurozone might be both the correct and the most rapid response."
» more information (external link, Italian)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » Financial Markets, » Italy, » Europe
From German to European unity
Germany's reunification is part of a difficult historical process which Germany doesn't want to have to pay for at a European level, writes the business paper Il Sole 24 Ore: "While the fall of the Berlin Wall in itself was the antithesis of the erection of a monument, the process of reunification has proved to be a denial of the opening of the border. ... With the resulting flow of financial means from West to East the reunification has created inequalities in German society. This inequality has been exacerbated by the influx of immigrants from eastern Germany. ... The asymmetrical distribution of the burden within the Eurozone [during the euro crisis] has left the Germans with an aversion to their role as 'official paymaster'. ... Both German and European unity are two parts of the same historical process. But now that German unity is a fait accompli the fate of European unity ... remains uncertain."
» more information (external link, Italian)
More from the press review on the subject » History, » Politics, » Germany, » Europe
The bank crisis requires supervisison and punishment
Carlo Bastasin, assistant chief editor of the daily, considers "the ECB's reaction to the crisis that hit Wall Street yesterday was right and convincing. This was a choice that reassures the financial market while showing great stability in Europe. It also allows the ECB to gain clout in relation to the Fed [Central American bank]. ... It is this need for stability that should encourage the penalisation of the risky behaviour of BNP-Paribas, IKB or Banca Italease. There is an epidemic of financial products being sold to clients without informing them of the risks they involve. Not all banks are the same and this crisis an opportunity to distinguish between them. ... For BNP-Paribas, Paris is expected not to react. [The French] Jean-Claude Trichet [president of the ECB] thus has an opportunity to show his autonomy by hitting the French bank that yesterday shook world finances."
» full article (external link, Italian)
More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Consumers, » Europe, » North America, » U.S.
© 2005-2012