Kohler Vs. American Standard Bathtub

Committee (Finance & Markets)

The long awaited day for many European companies has therefore come: from today to the cross-border transfers within Union law will apply, by virtue of Regulation 2560/2001, the same fees provided for those taking place within a single country. On two conditions: that the amount is less than € 12,500 (the threshold will rise to 50,000 € from 1 January 2006) and that the customer provides the bank's IBAN (International Bank Account Number) and BIC (Bank Identifier Code).

Almost a revolution then, when you consider that today the cost of transfers can 'be 50 or 100 times that of a domestic bank. This effect of the non-existence, more than four years after the single currency, a single European payments area. The Commission had, since the early 90s, urged banks to start integration of national payment systems, but confronted with a lack of progress in July 2001 had decided to go the hard way and to require banks to the level of charges. "The Commission's policy objective is to create a single payment at the European level, where consumers and businesses no longer have to deal with national borders," said Internal Market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein.

hard way that the first effects are starting to feed and that is causing banks to move to create the necessary infrastructure to process cross-border payments: In June 2002, representatives of major European banks and banking associations of the major Europe gave birth to the European Payments Council (EPC) which aims to coordinate European banks in the transition to a unified payment area.

The strong initial opposition from the banks is understandable: now not only have to give up profits to non-negligible cross-border transactions, but rather will be forced to carry a loss, given that their cost for the bank industry is between 10 and 20 times higher than that of internal operations: while the latter are entirely automated, the crossing of a frontier involves several steps instead of "manual". "We will have to recover these losses by increasing charges for domestic transfers" warn by the European Banking Federation. "The cross-border transfers account for only 1 to 2% of the total, therefore, a substantial increase in fees would not be justifiable retort from Brussels.

The automation of cross-border payments is the only solution. To this end, the EPC, on 28 April, launched two STEP (Straight Through Euro Processing 2), the first pan-European clearing house for credit transfers a reduced amount, and with the agreement called Credeuro, set standards for carrying out transfers. However, this is a solution that has its costs. The McKinsey has estimated the cost of creating infrastructure and adaptation by banks more than € 1 billion, a figure considered by many excessive relative to the small number of cross-border transactions (although lower costs will certainly entail a large growth of such operations). For consumers and businesses will be up anyway to pay the bill, but at least it is not only to repay the banks of the operations at a loss, but also to build an infrastructure for the payments it makes more efficient internal market.

Sonicare Quadpacer Repair

EU passport for prospectuses toast the City (Markets & Finance)

The compromise reached Thursday 'between the European Parliament and Council on the text of the proposed directive on the prospectus to be published for the public offer or admission to trading, is a important step towards creating a more integrated European capital market.

The prediction is that the directive can be put to a vote next week in Strasbourg, and finally, already in second reading, the process just before the end of July. And finally, issuers of securities will be allowed to enjoy a true "European passport" and to turn to investors in all 15 (soon 25) member states after obtaining approval from a single national regulatory authority. It therefore exceeds the regime established by the Directive on the listing and from that, connected, on the prospectus regime based on a system of mutual recognition that, by providing translation full of prospects and opportunities for the country to introduce additional requirements for admission, has proved totally ineffective. The new system instead will introduce a mandatory and automatic recognition of prospectuses drawn up in accordance with the Directive.

According to the speaker of Parliament, the British Liberal Chris Huhne, is that achieved an "excellent compromise" that will "enhance competition, increase choice for investors and reduce the cost of capital for companies."

After months of stalemate - which could lead to a third reading and a complex and lengthy conciliation procedure between the Council and the Assembly of Strasburg - Representatives of the member states have accepted the amendments proposed by Parliament, and in particular the most controversial bond issuers will be able to choose the national regulatory authority to contact for obtaining approval of the prospectus. This freedom, the intention of the European Parliament, should be granted to any issue. The Council and the Commission - in particular to strong pressure from France, Italy and Spain, fearing such freedom could divert emissions on strong markets in London, Luxembourg and Frankfurt, as well as weaken the protection of investors - had proposed that the freedom of choice would be given only for issues with a single designation of more than € 5000 (representing about 60% of the total) and for the other authority would have to be that of the issuer's home. The compromise lowers the threshold to 1000 €, or to a level that is exceeded by about 95% of emissions.
According to the Federation of European Banks "freedom of choice is an important incentive for cross-border issues and thus creating a truly integrated European financial market."

The compromise is a clear victory for the City that has the ability to consolidate and reinforce its dominant role in the market for European bonds. But it is not impossible that more competition and freedom of choice for issuers and investors can open new opportunities for other markets.

Roller Skate Cake Pan

Immigration? for the EU is only public disorder (Markets & Finance)

European leaders meeting in Thessaloniki last night tried to revive the EU's commitment to immigration. In the background, reports of new landings of illegal immigrants and new tragic shipwrecks off the coast of Italian, Greek, English. And it is the southern European countries who ask, in a Union where there are no internal borders (almost) over and where migration flows directly to a member of any other concern, that the "burden" of political control dele borders to share more equally and not only loaded on the countries most exposed.

To begin with, the Heads of State and Government should give their support to two programs offered by the Commission: the first provides for the appropriation of EUR 140 million until 2006 for the promotion of closer cooperation among states, in particular through a plan for computerization of data on visas and through harmonization of procedures for the repatriation of illegal immigrants. The second involves the appropriation until 2008, 250 million euro for the creation of agreements "technical and financial assistance" with the countries of origin of migrants, which would be induced to cooperate in recovering illegal immigrants. So the attention of the Thessaloniki Summit will be including the fight against illegal immigration.

As for asylum but the EU is still on the high seas because of the difficulty of agreeing criteria for the granting of refugee status which is acceptable to all member states. The summit, however, could give the green light to a few pilot projects to create service centers for refugees outside the EU. The United Kingdom in particular, with the support of Denmark, Holland and Austria, has sought to promote the idea of \u200b\u200b"transit centers" designed to deal with applications for asylum in certain parts of Africa and Asia. "The current system is too expensive and vulnerable. The centers would provide protection refugees without forcing them to travel dangerous, "said a British diplomat." It 'a denial of asylum "retorts Amnesty International.

Although in 1999 the Amsterdam Treaty gives the European Union has jurisdiction over immigration and asylum, the progress in this field have been uncertain until now. This is why the Convention has proposed the full communitarisation of immigration policy and the abandonment of the unanimity rule. But it seems not easy to predict that this will do, as long as immigration continues to be treated exclusively as a problem of public order and as long as they continue in the EU policies - such as the Common Agricultural Policy or the co-operation agreements with dictatorial regimes - increased poverty. Britain with its proposal offers the "hands in the pot", but certainly something in the countries of emigration could be done. For example, export a bit less camembert and a little more democracy.

Sixtieth Birthday Speech

software patent battle between the U.S. and the EU (Markets & Finance) Italian

Linus Torvalds, the father of the open source operating system Linux, the only one capable of competing with Microsoft in particular in the strategic market for servers, announced Tuesday he wanted to devote all their energies to the development of her child and diffusion of open source: will work with the Open Source Development Lab, the association created by a group of big science (Including IBM, HP, NEC, Fujiitsu, Hitachi) on the Linux platform that has a lot invested.

In the same hours the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament has expressed its support for the proposal submitted by the Commission in February 2002 on the patentability of computer implemented inventions "or software capable of" industrial application "and that it is a "technical contribution".

"This is a proposal to widen and make more uncertain the limits to the patentability of software and which could bring a death blow to many companies, like those we represent, have developed open source products and promoted important innovations, "said the Eurolinux Alliance believes that the proposal" written under the dictation of Microsoft and other software giants gathered in the Business Alliance.

expressed satisfaction but the rapporteur, British Labour MEP Arlene McCarthy: "The patentability of software already exists enough to see over 2000 patents granted in different countries, it is only applied to harmonize the rules across the EU so that it is based on the same criteria wherever and overcome a situation of uncertainty that threatens to penalize European companies . Indeed, the amendments adopted by Parliament set more stringent conditions than those proposed by the Commission. "

And it is the stakes set by the MEPs that could lead to a new battleground between the EU and U.S. policies that are applied to software patents in Europe would become more stringent and would lead, for example, the non-recognition of protection for certain " business methods "protected instead of the Atlantic, as in the case of the now famous" one-click "developed by Amazon, which, moreover, even in the U.S., was the subject of bitter litigation and multimillion because seen by some as merely a combination existing techniques. But according Eurolinux "the stakes set by Parliament would be bogus, Amazon can 'even hope to see more of the first patent-protected in EU his 'inventions' type one-click ".

The software is now generally protected by copyright, and the dispute is whether and when it is possible to extend the patent protection. The risk is that a concession as to avoid indiscriminate patents may both hamper competition and innovation in a sector such as computer, characterized by "incremental innovations" and the other lead, as happened in the U.S., to a high - and expensive - number of legal disputes . How should consider the needs of the open source industry, vital for a growing number of companies. A difficult balance to achieve: as claimed by Trevor Cook, a lawyer expert in intellectual property, "I have the impression that copyright is not enough and that the patent is too much."

How Much Do You Pay For Moped Insurance

new deal but be careful not to overdo it (Markets & Finance)

The President of the European Investment Bank, Philippe Maystadt, presented yesterday before the Economic Commission of the European Parliament, the annual report for 2002, the year in which the EIB has granted new loans for a total of 39, € 6 billion, an increase of 2.8 billion the previous year resulting in particular from increased efforts in the 10 acceding countries and candidate countries.

In pursuit of the mandates conferred by the European Council, the EIB has come to mobilize, including loans and guarantees, resources 31 December 2002 amounted to a total of 234 billion euro. Figures suggest that Maystadt to say that "the EIB is able to fulfill its role of strong support for the objectives of economic growth and social priorities of the Union". Role that seems destined to grow further, driven by an enlargement and on the other side of the growth targets set by the Lisbon competitiveness: between 2003 and 2006, the Bank's program "Innovation 2010" will invest 20 billion euro in particular in research and development in information technology and communications.

The EIB is prepared for future challenges with the capital increase decided January 1, bringing the registered capital from 100 billion to 150 billion euro and the potential investment of 375 billion euro.

Figures Maystadt shows that, with evident satisfaction. "Our policy-oriented economy and transparency we have earned the unanimous approval of a AAA rating," concluded the President.

no mention in the explanatory memorandum to the "Action for Growth" proposed by Giulio Tremonti, who own the Bank assigns a central role in collecting new resources for 50 to 70 billion Euros per year. Then, stressed, Maystadt said that the proposal is welcome and we are interested in exploring with the Commission and the Presidency Italian "He added," However, we should not overestimate the impact of initiative on the economic cycle that is projected over the long term, perhaps by the end of the year we will be able to judge which of the new financial instruments proposed by Italy, you can use , then for the project implementation will take several years. However, it is also possible that in the short term it can trigger an effect on business confidence. "" There is a broad consensus on the initiative ", says the Finance Minister Nikolaos Christodoulakis greek, current president of Ecofin, which, getting ready to intervene in the economy after the Board President of the EIB, the crosses on the door. "Anyway, when it comes actions for growth and we all agree, "he added Christodoulakis.

Addressing reporters, Maystadt states that" if up to now many of the projects contained in the Delors White Paper of 1992 (which inspired the proposal Tremonti, ed ) have not been realized is not only due to lack of financial resources: in projects including - in particular in the trans-European networks - several states, most of the delays created by regulatory and other policy issues. "Perhaps we should also rely on a New Deal this.

Jo Guest Pin Daily Sport

EU Socialists promote the plan Tremonti (Markets & Finance)

"It 's time to take decisive action to restore growth, a shift in policy that will restore confidence businesses and investors, a new New Deal. "This is the message charming and ambitious, illustrating the Italian proposal for a" European Action for Growth ", Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti, has launched yesterday morning MEPs During the meeting of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.

"Every period has its own social model of development: if the market was in the eighties, the nineties was the new economy. In the current decade should be public investment, "said Tremonti, who will chair the Ecofin Council in July.

The Director General of the Treasury Domenico Siniscalco then stated that the plan - inspired that contained in the Delors White Paper of 1992 - aims to boost European infrastructure by mobilizing resources between 50 and 70 billion euro per year, a figure close to 1% of EU GDP, resources tapped by strengthening the role of the EIB ( European Investment Bank) and the identification of new financial instruments that can leverage to increase the capacity of member States and the EIB itself (extended term loans of up to 35 years, project financing, securitization, guarantees for bond issues, SPV ).

setting, this, that, according to Siniscalco prevent further government budgets to fulfill the Stability Pact and by eliminating at the same time the element that has prevented the "Delors Plan" to have decisive impact: the lack of financial resources.

The Commission welcomed the proposal: "We are working in the same direction," he said yesterday, the spokesman for the Commissioner Pedro Solbes. Among the political forces in the European parliamentary consent is transversal. Indeed, it is the Socialists to set aside the proposal, the clear impression Keynesian, the warmest welcome. "It 's an initiative gathering broad support," said the chairman of the Economic Commission, the German Socialist Christa Randzio-Plath, who, however,' added "I am afraid that even if one of the heads of government will be broad consensus, the ministers Finance to point your feet. "The strongest objections come from the Liberal benches:" There is no evidence that the problem of infrastructure, both financial and political rather than regulatory. He says he wants to raise funds on the market and not with the public debt. But, if so, 'the problem is the rate of return of items: if this is appropriate you do works, there is no need of special plans, "said Chris Huhne Liberal coordinator, who on the sidelines of addressing a colleague would have called Tremonti "another star of PR." Wim Duisenberg, speaking in committee after the economy minister, declined to comment on the proposal, pending "information clearer ", it merely reiterates the urgency of structural reforms. Reforms that, pending the new deal Tremonti, are likely to take second place.