EFDbackup: Eurosphere agenda: “Banks fined £413m over euro rate rigging…

Monday, December 12, 2016

Eurosphere agenda: “Banks fined £413m over euro rate rigging…

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Banks fined £413m over euro rate rigging

BBC News | Europe | World Edition

HSBC, JPMorgan and Credit Agricole fined €485m (£413m) for rigging a key interest rate between 2005 and 2008.

Four EU states among world’s worst tax havens

EUobserver.com – Headline News

Cyprus, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands are among the 15 worst centres for corporate tax avoidance in the world, according to report by Oxfam.

No more EU deals to keep migrants out

EurActiv.com by Andrea Stocchiero, Jessica Poh-Janrell

The EU’s new partnership with Third World countries, modelled on the controversial Turkey deal, and trust funds to limit migration and return refugees to their home countries, have little safeguards for human rights, argue Jessica Poh-Janrell and Andrea Stocchiero of CONCORD.

Macedonia election: Conservatives and social democrats both claim victory

BBC News | Europe | World Edition

Macedonia’s governing conservatives and the opposition social democrats both claim election victory.

Romanian social democrats set for return to power

EUobserver.com – Headline News

The party, which was forced out only a year ago amid widespread claims of corruption, emerged as the winner in Sunday’s general election after campaigning to reduce taxes and increase social spending.

Pisa tests: UK lags behind in global school rankings

BBC News | Europe | World Edition

The UK is still lagging behind at education, with little progress in international rankings.

Merkel attacks populists, but calls for niqab ban

EurActiv.com by Joel Schalit

Chancellor Angela Merkel Tuesday (6 December) lashed out at populists trying to exploit fears over Germany’s refugee influx, but set out a tough line on integration, including a ban on the veil, as she launched into election campaign mode.

Secret tax deals in Luxembourg in dramatic rise

EUobserver.com – Headline News

Luxembourg has registered a 50 percent increase in the number of so-called sweetheart tax deals with multinationals since the 2014 LuxLeaks scandal.

The future of EU nationals in the UK

open Democracy News Analysis – by Dylan Brethour

Ultimately, the economic claims made by Remain were unconvincing because those in power made them so.

Participants in a pro-EU, anti-Brexit march pass through Piccadilly in London on July 23, 2016.Wikicommons/Katy Blackwood. Some rights reserved.Is the future of EU nationals in the UK really in jeopardy?

John Dewey’s ‘intelligent populism’: beyond Brexit, Trump and post-truth

open Democracy News Analysis – by David Ridley

Both left and right populism are based on a low opinion of public intelligence (an assumption, incidentally, shared with neoliberalism). What is needed is an ‘intelligent populism’.

Donald Trump with supporters. Flickr/Gage Skidmore. Some rights reserved.Neoliberalism channels vast wealth upwards, in turn supplying the financial, social and cultural capital necessary to maintain power despite enormous global economic, social and environmental instability. The 2008 financial crisis, the biggest since the 1920s, did not bring neoliberalism to its knees, it in fact strengthened its resolve. Banks in the UK and US demanded to be bailed out by the government and the ‘austerity’ agenda spread across Europe. After a period of stunned disbelief, the establishment convinced the public that it was in fact the excesses of social democracy that caused the public debt incurred as a result of this bailout.

Commission questioned on possibility of Mogherini becoming Italian PM

EurActiv.com by Georgi Gotev

Commission chief spokesperson Margaritis Schinas took a question yesterday (6 December) on the consequences of the possible appointment of Mogherini as Prime Minister of Italy, following the resignation of Matteo Renzi.

[Focus] Estonia and Finland have best EU science teaching

EUobserver.com – Headline News

Estonian and Finnish high school students do best at science out of the EU according to a study by the OECD, a Paris-based club of industrialised nations.

Debate: What can Europe learn from the Pisa study?

euro|topics

For the sixth time the Pisa Study has compared the performances of half a million 15-year-old schoolchildren from 72 states. Singapore’s pupils took first place in the ranking, while Estonia, which came third, did best out of all the European countries. Some commentators criticise that too little attention is being paid to academic performance. Others complain that the education system is failing to guarantee equal opportunities.

Trump and Erdogan haunt Nato meeting

EUobserver.com – Headline News