Balances of banks sitting in the Eurosystem and percentage of respective country’s GDP
Published on 10 May 2022 and as previously published by irefeurope.org but with more detail behind the numbers
The European Central Bank (ECB) held its latest Governing Council meeting on 14 April 2022 and issued its normal press release. It issued its longer ‘Combined […]
The subscribed and paid capital contributions of the 19 ESM members
Published on 7 April 2022 where the underlying article was published for the first time on www.brexit-watch.org on 6 April 2022
The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) is the main Eurozone bailout fund should further members be unable to access capital markets directly: the ESM would finance […]
Original IREF article of 16 March 2022 accessed on 21 March 2022
Published on 23 March 2022
The EU recently announced partial financial sanctions on Russia, designed to keep payments for energy moving. The EU accepted the contention – disproved below – that a bank either gets cut off from SWIFT, the global financial telecommunications network, completely […]
Brexit-Watch article where this piece was originally published
Published on 7 March 2022
The UK’s financial sanctions over the Ukraine invasion fall well short of cutting Russia off SWIFT, maxing out on the usual self-congratulatory hyperbole whilst opening up significant risk. When we should be distinguishing our PR approach from that of the Kremlin, we instead get […]
What is SWIFT? Screenshot of its homepage
Published on 26 February 2022
As already published on Facts4EU and Brexit-Watch
It has been reported that Chancellor Scholz has rejected the proposal that Russia be cut off from the SWIFT system as a punishment for its invasion of Ukraine. The Guardian has disseminated misinformation that it would anyway do little […]
Most of my contribution appeared on Facts4EU.org
Published on 11 February 2022
On the second anniversary of the UK’s leaving the EU, it was worth relecting on what had been gained, even if Theresa May and now Boris Johnson could claim very little credit for it.
Here were my First Eleven of benefits, which made up the bulk […]
First published on en.irefeurope.org
Published on 8 February 2022
In recent times, the EU authority has been challenged by Romania and Poland, both of whom have asserted the primacy of their domestic laws over EU treaty law in certain areas. Hungary is also a well-known thorn in its side. Given these threats, and the reputational sleight of […]
This article was first published on brexit-watch.org
Published on 4 February 2022
Facts4EU.Org has revealed that the EU, in Christmas week, floated the concept of new taxes to bring in an amount of €380 billion between 2026 and 2030, of which €85 billion would flow to Brussels. €247 billion of the new taxes are carbon-related, and €133 […]
TARGET2: scale of invisible Eurozone liabilities demands action by global financial regulators
Published on 12 December 2021
We recently had a blog published by Politeia about the lack of transparency in the accounting for the debts of EU/Eurozone member states. The member states’ contingent liability to backstop the debts of the EU is an example. Member states […]
Published on 10 December 2021
The Eurosystem’s balance sheet now shows that its assets of €12 trillion exceed the Eurozone’s 2020 GDP of €11.4 trillion. This is attributable to the emergency response to Covid by the European Central Bank (ECB), who both created the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (the PEPP), extended the programme of unsecured loans […]