European Union News - Internal Market

The European Commission has cleared acquisition under the simplified merger review procedure of Lubrizol, a US specialty chemical company by Berkshire, a US company which is engaged through its subsidiaries in diverse business activities.

The European Commission and the Cedefop presented a Green Paper in which the Professional Qualifications Directive is evaluated. The Green Paper's main aim is to gather stakeholders' views on a modernisation of this directive. The contributions can be made by 20 September 2011.

Further to a working meeting held in Brussels, European Commission President, José Manuel Barroso, and Commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, Olli Rehn, expressed Commission's satisfaction about the proposals made by President Sarkozy and Chancellor Merkel, as a step forward in the common efforts to strengthen the governance of the Euro area.

Flash estimate for the second quarter of 2011 showed an increase of Gross Domestic Product both in the Euro are and the European Union as a whole of 0.2% and 1.7% respectively, compared to same data of the previous quarter. These figures are also higher that those released for the first quarter of the year when GDP increase registered 0.8%.

Given the concerns raised by volatility experienced in European markets by the beginning of August 2011, some market regulators over the European Union have decided to take action and announced bans on short-selling or on short positions. These measures, taking effect on August 12th, are to be into effect over two weeks.

Jean-Claude Trichet, the President of the European Central Bank has made a statement after the recent developments with regard to the tensions happened in some financial markets in the euro area. The President of the ECB reaffirmed what the Governing Council agreed on the 4 of August, its support to the economies of the euro area.

The European Commission has opened formal anti-trust proceedings to investigate an alleged refusal by several luxury watch manufacturers to supply spare parts to independent repairers. These proceedings does not imply that the Commission has conclusive proof of an infringement. It only means that the Commission will investigate the case as a matter of priority.

The Governing Council of the European Central Bank has decided to conduct a liquidity-providing supplementary longer-term refinancing operation (LTRO) with a maturity of approximately six months, given the renewed tensions in some financial markets in the euro area. In addition, the ECB decided that the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged.

According to the Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU, in June 2011, the volume of retail trade up by 0,9% in euro area and by 0,7% in the EU compared with May. Compared with the same month last year, the retail sales index decreased by 0.4% in the euro area and by 0.2% in the EU.

The European Commission approved under the simplified merger review procedure the acquisition of Popular Gestión, a Spanish asset management company, by Banco Popular Español S.A. ("BPE", Spain) and Allianz SE ("Allianz", Germany).