Finance
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Eurozone crisis
European rating agency in the pipeline
19 January 20126PresseuropDiário de Notícias -
Eurozone crisis
After the downgrades comes the downward spiral
16 January 201263Financial Times London -
Eurozone crisis
For S&P, the Emperor has no clothes
16 January 201215PresseuropCorriere della Sera, Hospodárske Noviny, Die Presse & 3 others -
Eurozone crisis
France relegated to 2nd division
16 January 201211Le Monde Paris -
15 December 201156The Times London
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7 December 2011Kathimerini Athens
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Eurozone crisis
Rating agencies – don’t shoot the messenger
7 December 201111The Daily Telegraph London -
Eurozone crisis
The destructive rise of the rating agencies
7 December 201113Libération Paris -
6 December 2011The Nation Bangkok
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Eurozone crisis
How business is preparing for Eurogeddon
1 December 20113PresseuropPresseurop -
22 November 2011De Groene Amsterdammer Amsterdam
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16 November 20111PresseuropLa Tribune
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Debt crisis
Wave of panic in France
11 November 20118PresseuropLe Monde -
Greek referendum
Democracy has junk status
2 November 201118Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Frankfurt -
Press review
Another attack from the rating agencies
19 October 201116Presseurop -
Occupy Protests
Educated, poor and in revolt
17 October 20114PresseuropFrankfurter Rundschau -
5 October 2011PresseuropCorriere della Sera
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20 September 20111PresseuropIl Sole-24 Ore
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20 September 2011Corriere della Sera Milan
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12 September 20111PresseuropLe Figaro
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Debt crisis
Czech Republic's rating increases
25 August 2011PresseuropHospodářské noviny -
12 August 2011Le Vif/L’Express Brussels
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Rethinking Europe (2)
No more working behind closed doors
21 July 20113Spiked London -
Eurozone crisis
Understand the banks and you save the euro
14 July 201111Die Zeit Hamburg -
14 July 20111PresseuropEl Periódico de Catalunya
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Eurozone crisis
ECB puts up a fight
8 July 2011Presseurop -
7 July 20115Público Lisbon
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Debt crisis
War declared on rating agencies
7 July 20111PresseuropPresseurop -
Debt crisis
Portugal’s junk status gives Ireland jitters
7 July 2011PresseuropThe Irish Times -
Debt crisis
Moody’s bins Portugal
6 July 20111Presseuropi -
5 July 2011PresseuropPúblico
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Debt crisis
Credit rating agencies go after euro
13 June 201110Libération Paris -
24 May 2011PresseuropDe Standaard
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Debt crisis
A respite for Belgium
9 May 2011PresseuropLe Soir -
24 March 2011PresseuropDe Morgen
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Financial crisis
Rescue madness will sink us
3 February 2011PresseuropHandelsblatt -
UK-Germany
Banks getting stroppier
12 January 2011PresseuropPresseurop -
THE 10 DAYS OF EUROPE | 5
Join the Church of the Concrete
28 December 20104Presseurop -
THE 10 DAYS OF EUROPE | 4
The EU is a car
27 December 20101Presseurop -
Economic crisis
The curse of credit rating agencies
21 December 2010The Guardian London -
Debt crisis
Ireland – Germany’s paradise lost
7 December 20101Der Spiegel Hamburg -
Financial Markets
ECB throws out the lifeline
3 December 2010PresseuropLa Vanguardia -
Debt crisis
And lest we forget... Romania
26 November 2010PresseuropAdevărul -
Eurozone crisis
Speculators swoop on Spain
24 November 2010PresseuropPúblico -
23 November 2010PresseuropEl Mundo
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Debt crisis
Spanish fears amidst Irish black humour
11 November 2010PresseuropEl País -
Finance
Will EU watchdogs have any bite?
7 September 2010De Standaard Brussels -
Economic Governance
Beefing up EU's financial supervision
3 September 2010PresseuropFinancial Times -
3 June 2010PresseuropLe Soir
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Finance
Euro in hot water
19 January 20101Die Zeit Hamburg
In the wake of the collective downgrading of 9 eurozone countries, including France, it’s become clear that the EU’s policy of rescue funds coupled with fiscal austerity has exhausted itself. It’s time for Angela Merkel and her partners to find a credible outcome, writes Wolfgang Münchau. 
For the European press, the ratings downgrade for nine eurozone countries by Standard & Poor's merely confirms what markets and leaders have known for a long time: that the difficulties of the eurozone are primarily due to rifts between the member countries. 
Standard & Poor's 13 January downgrade of France’s credit rating is a double blow: Nicolas Sarkozy and his presidential election rivals will come under even greater pressure from the markets while the North-South divide in Europe has grown significantly wider. 
Accused of isolationism for steering clear of the December 9 EU26 growth and stability pact, David Cameron is only protecting, like other European leaders, his country’s vital interests, writes a British columnist. 
Standard & Poor's threat to downgrade the eurozone as a bloc has aroused the ire of European leaders and opinion makers. But according to a British columnist, the rating agency is only telling the unpalatable truth. 
By placing the eurozone under negative watch on the eve of the European Council meeting, Standard & Poor's has confirmed the emergence of a limitless economic power that is overwhelming the structures and rules of democracy, writes a worried Libération. 
He who submits a vital issue to a referendum is a public menace to Europe. This has been the message from the markets – and since Monday night, from the politicians too. 
A few days ahead of the EU summit that should be “decisive” for the eurozone, rating agencies have degraded or threatened to degrade the sovereign rating of Spain and France and the Italian banks. A final assault while Brussels is trying to get its act together? asks the European press. 
Insulated from the public and unpracticed in the art of political leadership, small wonder EU officialdom is so powerless to tackle a eurozone crisis that risks scuppering the European project itself, argues sociologist Frank Furedi.
The fate of the euro is a matter of indifference to the financial markets. Investors are pulling their money out of Rome, Athens, Lisbon and Madrid. And Europe – especially Germany – is doing everything to drive off the financiers it so depends on. 
In deciding to raise its key interest rate and guarantee Portuguese bonds, the European Central Bank has taken a stand against rating agencies. Without actually doing any favours for the countries in crisis, notes the European press. 
Quick to denounce the ‘oligopoly’ of the rating agencies, European leaders have so far failed to take concrete steps to counter their baleful influence, writes Portugal’s Público daily. 
Considering that they failed to see the previous crises coming, Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch are suspected of wanting to destabilise the euro zone, and now they are threatening the strongest countries. 
In the eighties and early noughties as stock market prices soared, we were burning cattle in the fields of Europe. But now the cult of abstract value is giving way to a return to faith in the real value of material things, Portuguese writer Gonçalo Tavares explains. 
Europe isn’t exactly a wellspring of artistic inspiration, writes German author Thomas Brussig. It’s really more like a car, which, though a fetish object for some, is for most just a vehicle that takes you where you want to go. 
The economic destiny of nations is now in the hands of credit rating agencies Moody's, S&P's, Fitch. Unelected, unaccountable and with hugely inflated powers, they must be curbed, argues a Guardian columnist. 
Ireland, the poor, pure island, was a place Germans longed for, at least ever since Heinrich Böll. Till the country succumbed to turbo-capitalism, dealing another body blow to the euro and dashing the German dream of a better world, laments Der Spiegel. 
On 7 September Europe’s 27 member states approved plans for the launch of European authorities to supervise banks, insurers and financial markets. However, De Standaard argues that the new watchdogs have not been provided with the resources they will need if they are to be truly effective. 
Germans’ favourite countries for holidaymaking are going broke. And Europeans will have to foot the bill for the worst debtors, explains Die Zeit, lest they become the next dominoes to teeter and topple into financial chaos.