After months of complex negotiations, Parliament gave its blessing to the EU’s long-term budget for 2014-2020 on Tuesday. All the conditions set out in its July resolution – which followed a political agreement at the highest levels between Parliament, the Irish Presidency and the Commission were met. The overall budget for the next seven years […]
1-in-3 of Europe’s SMEs Not Getting Finance They Need
One third of SMEs didn’t get the full financing they had planned for during 2013, and 15% saw access to finance as a significant problem for their companies. Europe’s companies believe that bank financing conditions worsened during 2013, with respect to interest rates, collateral and required guarantees. Despite this sorry tale, 85% of all loans […]
German Growth ‘Normalisation’… Whatever That Might Look Like
Back to normal. After a strong second quarter, the German economy has returned to its potential growth rate in the third quarter. According to the first estimate of the German statistical office, the economy grew by 0.3% QoQ, from 0.7% QoQ in 2Q. On the year, German GDP is up by 1.1%, from 0.9% in […]
Carbon Neutral Copenhagen – ‘European Green Capital 2014’
With an eye to the New Year, Cummins Power Generation is preparing for Copenhagen’s green leadership. John Dorman, Power Systems Director, EMER, Cummins Power Generation, reports on Copenhagen’s ambitious carbon neutral plan as it prepares to lead as ‘European Green Capital 2014’. Earlier this year, Copenhagen was designated European Green Capital 2104. The European Green Capital […]
Generation 2018 – Rise of the iWorkers
The number of ‘intelligent workers’ (iWorkers) in European businesses is expected to rise sharply over the next five years, according to new research commissioned by Ricoh Europe. Research from McKinsey highlights that companies with higher concentrations of knowledge workers (above 35 per cent of the workforce) create, on average, returns per employee three times higher […]
Save 20% of European Revenue By Digitising Data, Says Ricoh
70 per cent of European business leaders believe that digitising hard copy documents would save between five and 20 per cent of their annual turnover. New research commissioned by Ricoh Europe illustrates the benefits to European businesses of tackling the ‘bigger data’ opportunity – the digitisation of business critical, hard copy documents for business decision-making. Leaders […]
The ECB Preview, Going In Circles
Last week’s data has given rise to renewed speculation about further ECB action. Headline inflation below 1% and unemployment above 12% have fueled market speculation that the ECB could cut rates at this week’s meeting. In our view, this speculation is premature for two main reasons: (1) the ECB simply does not have a reputation […]
She’s ‘Big In Japan’. Catherine Ashton Secures The East
She’s ‘Big In Japan’. Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy met today with Japanese Foreign Minister, Fumio Kishida and Defence Minister, Itsunori Onodera. Ashton said they took stock of “…our bilateral relations and discussed our common objectives for the forthcoming EU-Japan Summit. We also discussed global and regional issues […]
The Slim Summit. Barroso Gets Refit And Focused On SMEs
David Cameron is always convinced the EU is losing a few pounds, but more evidence of health fads at the Commission emerged post-Summit. Gone was mention of a well-toned financial Six-Pack, but, wait for it, we’re all buzz with REFIT… Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, is King of the Political Treadmill, but everyone […]
Digital Single Market By 2015… Upload ‘Optimism’ File.
The Digital Single Market is expected to be completed by 2015. It stands as a key priority on the Lithuanian EU Presidency agenda, said Lithuania’s President Dalia Grybauskaitė. But if there’s one thing politicians don’t understand very well, just one thing, it’s the digital world – ask Obama, or ask Merkel if you haven’t got Obama’s […]