Tag: Jean-Claude Juncker

Rifts show as sanctions bite EU

The foreign ministers of the European Union’s 28 member states will consider the situation around the EU’s anti-Russian sanctions for Moscow’s position on Ukrainian events at a meeting on November 17, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Federica Mogherini, said Tuesday.

Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann spoke on Tuesday against the imposition of new anti-Russian sanctions over Moscow’s position on the situation in Ukraine.

Faymann made the statement to journalists after a government meeting.

He said Vienna believes in the negotiating process to settle the situation in Ukraine, the Austria Press Agency (APA) reported.

The sanctions have had a significant impact on the Austrian economy.

Until now, Russia was the tenth most important business partner for Austria. In 2013, Austrian companies exported an aggregate of 3.5 billion Euros of products to Russia and imports reached 3.2 billion Euros. Russia had also become an increasingly important destination for Austrian direct investments.

The sanctions have particularly affected Austrian banks, who remain concerned about the possible commercial risks should Russia decide impose sanctions against the financial sectors of EU Member States, either in the form of extraordinary taxations, restrictions to capital movement or even expropriation.

It is likely that the EU sanctions and any Russian countermeasures will cost the Austrian economy in the region of 750 million Euros.

With this in mind, the Austrian government recently adopted a crisis package, including support for small and medium sized enterprises, SME’s.

The European Union’s sanctions regime against Russia is not expected to change in the near future, the new European Commission president said on Wednesday, however.

Jean-Claude Juncker said toughening or easing the sanctions is not an issue for today.

Juncker also said he would make his first visit to Kiev.

The US has urged the EU to impose several rounds of economic sanctions against Russia over the country’s alleged role in the Ukrainian crisis, while Moscow has repeatedly stated that Russia is not a party to the Ukrainian internal conflict.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel believes that latest events in Ukraine, primarily elections in self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, do not allow for consodering possible cancellation of sanctions imposed on Russia.

“There are no reasons to cancel them now,” she said in Berlin on Tuesday. Merkel named elections in the self-proclaimed republics “illegal,” noting that Moscow should influence militias more actively to prevent the conflict from escalation.

“Russia does not take effort at an extent we would like them to do so,” she said, noting importance of observing the Minsk agreements by all conflicting parties.

Germany questions appointment of French deficit commissioner

Apparently, the French electorate is just as unqualified for voting as any other

Former French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici’s appointment as the European Union’s top budget watchdog drew criticism in Germany and a reminder by the government for France to curb its fiscal deficit.

In a deeply humiliating blow for France’s Socialist government, finance minister Pierre Moscovici was unseated from the town council in Valentigny in the Doubs department in March this year, but has nevertheless now gained the most influential seat in Europe.

As incoming European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker appointed Moscovici, while France’s budget deficit will widen for the first time in five years, to 4.4 percent of gross domestic product in 2014 from 4.3 percent in 2013.

“I don’t think that the appointment of Pierre Moscovici as economic and monetary affairs commissioner was a wise personnel decision,” Norbert Barthle, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s budget policy spokesman in parliament, said in an e-mailed statement. “It will be interesting to see how Mr. Moscovici will deal with France’s excessive deficit.”

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble questioned whether former French finance minister Pierre Moscovici should be nominated as the European Commission’s next monetary and economic affairs chief given his country’s budget woes in July already.

In a question-and-answer session after a speech in the southwestern German city of Freiburg, Schaeuble said France’s violation of European Union budget rules and possible commission action against the country may stand in the way of Moscovici getting the job.

Juncker’s choice will heighten tension between policy makers in the EU’s two biggest economies after the commission allowed French President Francois Hollande twice to delay deficit targets in the wake of Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis.

“We are certain that France is aware of its responsibility,” the German Finance Ministry said in an e-mailed statement that urged EU members to fulfill euro-region deficit rules or risk losing credibility in financial markets. “Europe needs France to be economically strong.”

“The French have prevailed again,” Lueder Gerken, head of Freiburg-based CEP research institute, said in an e-mailed statement. “The Stability and Growth Pact leaves much room for interpretation” and Moscovici, “who so far hasn’t distinguished himself as a follower of structural reforms and budgetary discipline,” now has that power, Gerken said.

Merkel, during a budget debate in Germany’s lower house of parliament today, said adhering to EU rules must be the “hallmark” of policy making, even as Europe’s economic situation remains “fragile.”

“It’s now up to the commission to assess a delayed adherence to the 3 percent deficit limit and, where appropriate, take further steps” against France, Barthle said. “This is where Mr. Moscovici can show that he really represents the interests of Europe.”

And who is Pierre Moscovici? Srul Hersch Moscovici (Serge Moscovici, Serghey Moscovici), is a Jewish Bolshevik born in Romania in 1925. He and his comrades blessed Romanians with Communism. His son, Pierre Moscovici, continues his father’s work in France.

A close ally of former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who led a reformist current in the Socialist party, Moscovici jumped to Hollande’s camp after Strauss-Kahn was charged with criminal sexual assault in New York and resigned his IMF post.

Moscovici was a youthful Trotskyist, taught European Affairs at university and was a deputy president of the European parliament. He has admitted that his passion for hand-rolled Havana cigars has ruffled feathers among Socialist colleagues.

Apparently, the French electorate is just as unqualified for voting as any other.