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The global financial crisis began 10 years ago and led to the European Union's worst recession in its six-decade history. The crisis did not start in Europe but EU institutions and Member States needed to act resolutely to counter its impact and address the shortcomings of the initial set-up of the Economic and Monetary Union. Decisive action has paid off: today, the EU economy is expanding for the fifth year in a row. Unemployment is at its lowest since 2008, banks are stronger, investment is picking up, and public finances are in better shape. Recent economic developments are encouraging but a lot remains to be done to overcome the legacy of the crisis years. The European Commission is fully mobilised to deliver on its agenda for jobs, growth and social fairness.

Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis, responsible for the Euro and Social Dialogue, said: "Thanks to the determined policy response to the crisis the EU economy is now firmly recovering and the Economic and Monetary Union is stronger than before. We need to build on this progress, completing the financial union, reforming our economies to foster convergence, inclusiveness and resilience, and maintaining sustainable public finances. In doing so, we should pursue a balanced approach whererisk reduction and risk sharing go hand-in-hand and the unity of the single market is preserved."

Commissioner Pierre Moscovici, responsible for Economic Affairs, Taxation and Customs, said: "Ten years after the global crisis began, the recovery of the European economy has firmed and broadened. We must use this positive momentum to complete the reform of our Economic and Monetary Union. Not all legacies from the past correct automatically. We have seen greater social and economic divergences develop in and among Member States. It is essential that our work going forward contributes to the real and sustained convergence of our economies."

Ten years ago today, on 9 August 2007, BNP Paribas became the first major bank to acknowledge the impact of its exposure to sub-prime mortgage markets in the United States, having to freeze exposed funds. In the years that followed, what was initially a financial crisis turned into a banking crisis and a crisis of sovereign debt, soon affecting the real economy. The European Union fell into the worst recession in its history, which left deep marks on our citizens, companies and Member States' economies.

In this adversity, EU institutions and Member States took strong political decisions to contain the crisis, preserve the integrity of the euro and to avoid worse possible outcomes. The EU has worked to regulate the financial sector and improve economic governance; bolster new and common institutional and legal frameworks; establish a financial firewall for the euro area; support countries in financial distress; improve Member States' public finances; pursue structural reforms and encourage investment; fight youth unemployment; improve banking sector supervision; increase the ability of financial institutions to cope with future challenges; and establish ways to manage and better prevent possible crises.

As a result of these actions, Europe's Economic and Monetary Union has been significantly overhauled and the European economy and notably the euro area economy is back in shape. The European recovery is sustained and unemployment is steadily going down. The number of Member States belonging to the euro has increased from 12 to 19 and the euro is now the second-most important currency in the world. Out of the eight EU Member States that received financial assistance, only Greece is still under a programme and is due to exit it in mid-2018. Only three Member States are now subject to the corrective arm of the Stability and Growth Pact, the so-called Excessive Deficit Procedure, down from 24 Member States at the height of the crisis. The Juncker Plan, or Investment Plan for Europe, launched in November 2014, is now set to trigger more than 225 billion across all Member States.

As robust as it is today, the EMU remains incomplete and the journey of the euro has just started. From the Five Presidents' Report of June 2015 to the reflection paper on the Deepening of the Economic and Monetary Union of May 2017, a lot of initiatives were taken in recent years to draw the lessons from the crisis and prepare the EU even better for future challenges.

For More Information

Reflection Paper on Deepening the Economic and Monetary Union

The Five Presidents' Report

The White Paper on the Future of Europe

Reflection paper on the social dimension of Europe

Reflection paper on harnessing globalisation

Follow Vice-President Dombrovskis on Twitter: @VDombrovskis

Follow Commissioner Moscovici on Twitter: @Pierremoscovici

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10 years since the start of the crisis: back to recovery thanks to decisive EU action - EU News

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Officials from a migrant centre in Ceuta, North Africa, which has been overwhelmed by the number of migrants arriving, have claimed immigration is an EU problem, not a Spanish problem.

Ceuta has become a magnet for African migrants hoping to reach Spain as it has the EUs only land border with Africa.

Early on Monday morning, almost 200 migrants from Guinea arrived in the Spanish city of Ceuta where they have been staying in a temporary centre for immigrants.

REUTERS

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African migrants react as they arrive at the CETI, the short-stay immigrant centre, after crossing the border from Morocco to Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta

It is a problem for the European Union because the autonomous cities are the way to enter the continent

Ceuta immigration spokesman

Government delegate in Ceuta, Nicols Fernndez Cucurull, blamed a security failure in the surveillance of the border for the migrants managing to enter successfully.

A spokesman from the immigration centre said: It's not our problem and we're not going to solve it.

It is a problem for the European Union because the autonomous cities are the way to enter the continent.

Often these people go to countries like France or Germany.

He said the EU does not pay attention to Ceuta because it is outside the Schengen area, which has abolished border control between EU nations.

A source from the temporary migrant centre said: Here we meet their most urgent needs for a maximum of three months, until the police authorise their transfer to the host NGOs.

GETTY

This week the Spanish police also arrested 19 North African migrants hiding in fairground lorries after a funfair in Ceuta.

The comments come as Ceuta has decided to close its border crossing because of the sheer number of migrants arriving in the city in Morocco.

The week-long agreement with the Moroccan authorities involves closing the border crossing Tarajal.

Ceuta is home to 85,000 people, measures just seven square miles and lies just across the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain.

It is protected by fences with barbed wire, video cameras and watchtowers and many migrants have died or been injured trying to enter the territory.

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Border SHUT as Spain blames EU for immigration crisis - Express.co.uk

5 hours ago by Mark Kane

Tiguan GTE concept

The European Union doesnt intend to follow in Chinas footsteps by introducing a minimum quota for all-electric or plug-in hybrid car salesor at least that is what they are saying publicly at this moment.

Renault ZOE

Currently in the EU there are only general emission requirements, that are designed to nudge(when testing is applied correctly anyway) manufacturers into selling more environmentally friendly vehicles, or pay penalties for exceeding the average norms.

With that said, in some other countries inside the Union, there are additional requirements for a certain percentage of sales to be zero emission, or low emission.

Generally speaking, the Commision is looking into ways to promote use of low carbon energy and transport, but none of them includes quotas for electric cars, the spokeswoman told reporters.

We do not discriminate between different technologies.

China is expected to set a 8% base requirement from 2018, while California (and other ZEV states) are promoting plug-ins through ZEV credits, that indirectly require the sale of plug-ins (2% of sales need offset viaZEV credits for 2018, 4% in 2019up to almost 16%in 2025), or force amanufacturer who falls short to buy credits from those who do sell plug-ins, to buy itself more time for compliance.

The European Union Commission declined quotas and underlined its stance, after the German newspaper Handelsblattstated that sourcesatthe European Commission were looking to setquotas for low emission cars, such as electric cars from 2025.

source: Reuters

Tags: europe, Europpe EV mandate

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European Union Says No To Electric Car Quotas - InsideEVs

The European Union ranks as the worlds second-largest economy by gross domestic product, but few people globally see it as an economic leader ahead of China or the United States, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.

Across the 38 nations in the survey, a median of just 9% view the countries of the EU as the worlds leading economic power. By comparison, 42% name the U.S. and 32% name China, while an additional 7% name Japan.

Even in the 10 EU countries included in the survey, a median of only 9% see the EU as the worlds top economy. By contrast, 42% name China and 38% name the U.S., with an additional 7% naming Japan. (Europe is the only region globally where more people today see China than the U.S. as the worlds leading economy.)

The comparatively low international rating of the EUs economy comes despite its economic power at least as measured by gross domestic product in purchasing power parity dollars (i.e., exchange rates adjusted for differences in the prices of goods and services across countries). By this measure, EU member countries collectively generated $20.3 trillion in GDP. The EU trails only China and ranks ahead of the U.S. and Japan.

As recently as 2014, the EU outranked all other countries in terms of GDP, but even then, few people globally cited it as the worlds top economy, according to earlier Pew Research Center surveys.

The country most likely to name the EU as the worlds top economy in the new survey is Germany, itself the worlds fifth-largest economy by GDP. Still, only one-in-four Germans say the countries of the EU are the worlds leading economic power, compared with 41% who name China and 24% who name the U.S.

The only other European countries where one-in-ten people or more see the EU as the worlds top economy are the Netherlands (13%) and Poland (10%). Outside of Europe, other countries where at least one-in-ten name the EU include Jordan (15%), Tunisia (15%), Colombia (14%), Vietnam (14%), Canada (11%), Mexico (11%), Tanzania (11%) and South Africa (10%).

Only 3% of Italians see the EU as the top economy, while a slightly larger share (7%) name Japan and about four-in-ten each say the U.S. or China. And just 5% of Greeks cite the EU or Japan as the leading economy, while 39% name China and 44% say the U.S. No more than 5% of Italians or Greeks have ever named the EU as the worlds leading economy since the question was first asked in these nations in 2012.

Countries outside the EU where 5% of people or fewer say the EU is the leading economy include Nigeria (4%), Lebanon (3%), Senegal (3%), South Korea (3%) and India (2%).

While few Europeans see the EU as the worlds top economy, Americans are far more positive about the status of their own economy. About half of Americans (51%) say the U.S. is the worlds top economic power, even though the U.S. ranks below the EU when it comes to GDP. (On a per capita basis based on purchasing power parity dollars, however, the U.S. outranks the EU, as well as China and Japan.)

The Japanese, much like Europeans, tend not to see their own country as the worlds top economic power. Just 7% of Japanese say this, and Japan does in fact rank behind China, the EU and the U.S. in GDP.

Topics: Europe, Globalization and Trade, World Economies

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Few see EU as world's top economic power despite its relative might - Pew Research Center

Within the European Union, Romania and Bulgaria have the highest shares of first children births to teenage mothers. In 2015, a total of 12.3 percent of all births of first children in Romania were part of this category. With 11.9 percent, that value is very high in Bulgaria as well.

According to Eurostat, Hungary is next, with 9.0 percent. In comparison, the share of first births to teenage mothers in Italy is only 1.2 percent, in The Netherlands and Slovenia it is 1.3 percent.

In all of the European Union, 47 percent of women gave birth to their first child, when they were between 20 and 29 years old, while 45 percent of first-time mothers were in their thirties, Eurostat said today. All of this applies to 2015.

There were 93,000 births of first children to teenagers in all of the E.U., and 87,000 to women aged 40 or older. Most of the latter cases were registered in Italy and Spain. In those two countries, but also in Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg and Portugal, there were more first births to women in their thirties, than to those in their twenties, as opposed to all other E.U. countries.

On average, women in E.U. countries, who gave birth to their first child, were 29 years old.

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European Union: Most teenage mothers in Romania and Bulgaria - The Sofia Globe