European Union News - Economic & Financial Affairs

The European Commission made a proposal to strengthen the protection of the euro and other currencies against counterfeiting through criminal law measures. In particular, the proposed Directive includes the strengthening cross-border investigations and introducing minimum penalties, including imprisonment, for the most serious counterfeiting offences.

The European Commission presented two proposals to reinforce the EU's existing rules on anti-money laundering and fund transfers. The two proposals foresee a reinforcement of the sanctioning powers of the competent authorities by introducing for instance a set of minimum principle-based rules to strengthen administrative sanctions and a requirement for them to coordinate actions when dealing with cross-border cases.

The second review of the financial sector assistance programme for Spain carried out from 28 January to 1 February 2013 concluded that since the start of the last review, programme implementation has progressed, bolstered by developments in global capital markets and effective initiatives at a European level to tackle the sovereign debt crisis.

The latest estimates published by Eurostat showed that both the EU and the euro area unemployment rates remained stable in December 2012 compared with November. The lowest unemployment rates were recorded in Austria (4.3%), Germany and Luxembourg (both 5.3%) and the Netherlands (5.8%), and the highest in Greece (26.8% in October 2012) and Spain (26.1%).

The report published by the European Court of Auditors shows that although in almost all the regions selected some improvements in the management of waste were observed, the effectiveness of structural measures funding for municipal waste management infrastructures was hampered by the poor implementation of supporting measures.

The European Commission published that in January 2013, the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) increased by 1.4 points in both the EU and the euro area. For the same month, the Business Climate Indicator (BCI) for the euro area remained broadly unchanged at -1.09.

According to the European Parliament Vice-President Othmar Karas, national parliaments must play a much more active role in the European Semester because, although it shapes recommendations in almost all policy fields, it is elected representatives who ultimately must take responsibility for decisions.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Bankinter signed an agreement to finance the investment projects – especially innovation projects – of SME and midcap companies (with up to 3,000 employees) in the industrial and service sectors. The EIB will contribute with €200 million and Bankinter will match this EIB loan with the same amount.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) announced the lending of €250 million to the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development to finance smaller projects promoted by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), mid-cap companies and municipalities in Croatia.

The Internal Market Committee at the European Parliament backed the public procurement "concession" contracts in a vote held the 24 of January. According to MEPs, these "concession" contracts enable public authorities to transfer the economic risk of projects such as building roads bridges or sports arenas to the private sector. MEPs stressed that the attribution of a concession is not synonymous with privatisation of public services.