Negotiations on Brexit have begun. Talks on the departure of Great Britain from the European Union have begun in Brussels. The EU wants to first talk about the need to preserve the rights of EU citizens in Britain, even after Brexit. The second important thing for the union is settlement of all the financial obligations that Britain has taken on as a member of the bloc. And the third is precisely the regime on the new external EU border which will arise between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK.
Newly elected French President Emmanuel Macron has also won a comfortable majority in the National Assembly. Theoretically he could therefore push through the planned reforms of the rigid labor market without problems.
ECB interest rates will not be reduced more. The European Central Bank has ruled out further interest rate cuts and introduced new forecasts in which it improved its predictions for economic growth and lowered its estimates for inflation. ECB head Mario Draghi has made it clear that the economy is developing favorably.
The largest German banking company Deutsche Bank has agreed that it will pay 170 million dollars to settle an investor lawsuit according to which it manipulated the EURIBOR interest rate in cooperation with other banks. The settlement agreement still has to be approved by the US court.
After the problems of Italian banks, with Rome preparing to rescue two troubled regional banks under pressure from EU institutions, the attention of the European banking market is shifting to Spain, where Banco Popular, the sixth largest bank in the country de facto failed. It brought with it a package of outstanding bad loans and mortgages from 2008.
Greece will be able to receive a new part of the loan from the third rescue programme in the amount of 8.5 billion euros from the eurozone's ESM rescue fund. In a statement from the meeting, finance ministers of countries with the euro also made clear their readiness to take further steps aimed at alleviating Greek debt immediately after the current programme ends.
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