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Former European Commissioner Stavros Dimas is the nominee of the New Democrat Party for the presidential election in December 2014. He needs 180 votes in parliament by the third round of voting.

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The EU summit under the presidency of Germany completes its task for setting up the European Recovery Fund and providing nonrepayable aid to countries hardest hit by the pandemic that would otherwise have to spiral their already high debt levels to unsustainable levels or provide little assistance to their suffering public. These countries include Italy, Spain, Greece mostly in southern Europe. Also needing aid are eastern European countries Hungary and Poland. For the first time the European Union is jointly taking on this debt of nonrepayable aid to member states most in need. This is a historic step. The Dutch prime minister, almost ruined the solidarity of Europe with his continual effort to cut the amount of funds and place conditions. The Dutch have favored austerity in Europe but at what cost and at what does it say about the Dutch in Europe. Reports show the Netherlands have gained back billions of dollars that would have gone in taxes to the governments of France, Spain and Italy by setting up tax haven. The Netherlands population 17 million, Sweden population 10 million, Denmark population 7 million, together make up less than half the population of any one of the major countries of Europe, Spain and Portugal, France, Germany, Italy. The combined population of about 350 million people in southern, eastern, and western Europe was arrayed against these 34 million northern countries in the long negotiations, that show solidarity but are also a sign of the changes in Europe as these countries in northern Europe were always guided by their own personal or country interest. Rutte fought hard because of elections he faces a second time against the far right wing parties, for a second time since the 2017 election. It could not get more personal than that. Even Britain if it was still in the European Union is likely under Boris Johnson to have reversed policies of Cameron to support solidarity in Europe and aid for recovery, considering how the government has tackled the pandemic in Britain. Setting conditions would only go part of the way is the reality today. The bigger part of preventing mismanaging of funds comes from the individual experience and hardship of people in southern European nations of Italy, Greece, Spain and other countries after the missteps in the eurozone finances in the last two decades. This provides the necessary dose of internal financial discipline. Not acting quickly in solidarity today would have been a serious mistake for Europe. Still Mr. Rutte and the Dutch have cut the European Recovery Fund's nonrepayable aid by 110 billion euros from the initail target set by Macron and Merkel of 500 billion euros. The agreed target now is $390 billion euros. ...

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This report in the DW on Brexit shows Britain deeply divided, with older voters supporting Leave and younger voters coming out for Remain. Most of northern England and Wales coming out for Leave, and London, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds  with Scotland and Northern Ireland coming out for Remain. The failure of Labor Party to rally its supporters under Corbyn also rankles with some in the Remain campaign. Corbyn avoided joint appearances with the Remain campaign and said he was 7.5 out of ten in favor of remaining in the EU.

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A fragmented political landscape and slowing economic growth are two challenges facing the European Union in 2019.

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India is a major farm exporter with over $50 billion in exports of farm products. New trade agreements with US and EU will shrink the current $14 billion surplus over imports as imports increase to meet US and EU negotiation requests.

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EU leaders meeting in Brussels agreed on Dec. 12 for a single banking supervisor for large banks in the eurozone. The European Central Bank will act as the supervisor with powers to force banks to raise capital buffers and close banks it considers unsafe. The Federal Reserve, U.S.'s central bank, has similiar powers in the U.S. Germany's finance minister Schauble says the national parliaments would be able to ratify the new supervisor by Feb. 2013, and the new supervisor should be in place by March 2013. Differences between Germany and France on which banks should come under the supervision of the ECB were resolved by giving the ECB resposibility for banks that have over 30 billion euros in assets, are over 20% of a country's GDP, or operate in at least two countries. At least 3 banks in each country in the eurozone would come under ECB supervision. The remaining smaller banks would remain under national supervision as Germany had insisted earlier. The focus now is on coming up with a common resolution authority for winding down failing banks, a function performed by the FDIC in the U.S. These are two of the three major parts of the new European financial architecture to support the euro currency. The third is deposit insurance, which is provided by the FDIC in the U.S. system. It is a major step forward and clears the way for direct recapitalization of banks in Spain and Ireland, two countries affected by having to take on responsibility for failing banks. By breaking the link between sovereign debt and failing banks the new agreements makes it possible for these countries to return to economic growth....

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A single patent system that will be implemented for the European Union. The European Commission says its plan would allow companies to register an EU wide patent for about the cost in the U.S. of $2700. Currently companies first register with the European Patent Office, and then reregister in every EU member state.

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Experts say lengthy antitrust investigations in which companies are required to follow the rules set by regulators leads to legal experts being consulted at each step in the product development process. The effect is stifling on the corporate culture and creates an effect on employees over time. Microsoft product development slowed down in the period following the EU investigation. This could happen at Google as it faces EU charges in 2015, say experts.

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Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, wants to see stricter requirements than Basel III on capital reserves for U.K. banks. The Bank of England has expressed its strong disapproval of UK banks lobbying activities in Brussels to push for a dilution in Basel III standards. The British government and the Bank of England want to have the flexibility to set their own stricter standards and not to be bound by a relaxed standard set by the EU. The risk to British taxpayers is a principal concern. In the U.S. Fed governor Daniel Tarullo is pushing for capital reserve requirements stricter than Basel III's 7% requirement- calling for a requirement of 10-14%.

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One of the goals of the Northern Ireland deal is closer relations between the EU and Britain putting to rest the tensions from Brexit. The EU sees Sunak as a good faith negotiator and made concessions on the application of EU laws for Northern Ireland. In Britain 60% of people now say in opinion surveys that they see the 2016 vote to leave the European Union as a mistake. A genuine relationship with the EU will happen only after a change in power from the Conservatives to the Labour party in the January 2025 election, says Mark Landler in the NYT.

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Germany imports hardly 6% of it's oil from the Middle East compared to 13% for the European Union. This makes it possible for Germany to take its own position on Iran independent of oil supply considerations.  More important for Germany is Iran's support for Russia in the Ukraine war, a sore point for Germany and the EU considering the enormous damage done by Iranian drones in Ukraine including civilian targets. Merz says" the threat posed by this regime stretches far beyond the region. It must be shut down."  A breakdown of German imports of oil shows mostly all from outside the Middle East, after the shift away from Russia Germany has made a decision to stay away from the volatile Middle East for supplies. (Germany had a deal with Qatar for LNG but the EU has already done a deal with the US for LNG and Germany has followed the EU with its own trade deal to import LNG from the US.) Norway, 2.5 million tons, United States, 12.4 million tons Libya, 10.4 million tons, Kazakhstan 10.3 million tons The UK, 8.7 million tons, Guyana, 4.2 million tons ...

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This article details the manner in which pharmaceutical companies like Sanofi, Novartis and other western pharma companies are using EU patent laws to have customs offices in the Netherlands and other European transit points to detain pharma shipments by Indian companies to developing countries. Cipla and Ind-Swift shipments are mentioned. India's pharma exports of generics and other medicines is $4.9 billion in 2009 according to Global Trade Information Services. Indian pharma companies are having to divert these shipments through Singapore and other transit poits to avoid this detaining of shipments and this costs more. India plans to file a complaint with the World Trade Organization according to India's commerce secretary, which one expert says it has agood chance of winning.

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EU's Leyen recasting environmental change plans to cut bureaucracy regulation and costs to match changes by DJT in the US. Leyen takes up the challenge to make the EU competitive and reduce burden of regulations, spur productivity in the EU.