Banking
Commission
proposes revision of banking regulation to strengthen rules on
bank capital and on remuneration in the banking sector
- 14 July
The European Commission has put forward a further revision of EU
rules on capital requirements for banks that is designed to
tighten up the way in which banks assess the risks connected
with their trading book ; impose higher capital requirements for
re-securitisations; increase market confidence through stronger
disclosure requirements for securitisation exposures; and
require banks to have sound remuneration practices that do not
encourage or reward excessive risk-taking. - eGov
Monitor website
Denmark
Denmark
plans forces for Arctic - 16 July
Denmark plans to set up an Arctic military command and task force
because the melting of the ice cap is opening up access to the
region's resources. Denmark's activities will be focused on its
vast ice-covered island Greenland and the Faroe Islands. Details
of the plan, for the period 2010-2014, have emerged in recent
days. Danish MPs approved it last month. - BBC
News website
Foreign
Policy
"Asylum
seekers must receive equal treatment" says EU's ministers
- 17 July
Asylum seekers should be treated in the same way, irrespective of
which EU country receives their application for asylum. At the
informal meeting between the EU's ministers for justice and home
affairs (JHA), which opened on Thursday in Stockholm, the
ministers for migration discussed how the differences in asylum
practice within the EU can be evened out. Today, which Member
State the asylum seeker applies to often has more influence on the
process than his or her grounds for protection. - eGov
Monitor website
Germany
'Nazi
guard' Demjanjuk is charged - 13 July
Prosecutors in Germany have formally charged alleged Nazi war
criminal John Demjanjuk with 27 900 counts of being an accessory
to murder in World War II. The prosecutors' office in Munich said
the charges had been filed on Monday. There was no immediate word
on when the trial of the 89-year-old retired car worker, who was
deported from the United States in May, might begin. - BBC
News website
Italy
Dozens
jailed in Italy Mafia case - 17 July
An Italian judge has jailed 49 members of a Sicilian Mafia
syndicate - some for up to 20 years - for running protection
rackets against businesses. The government says the case is a
landmark in the ongoing battle against organised crime in southern
Italy. - BBC
News website
Poland
Teen pregnant after
'swimming in pool' - 9 July
A woman is suing an Egyptian hotel claiming her daughter got
pregnant - from using the swimming pool. Magdalena Kwiatkowska's
13-year-old returned to Poland from their holiday expecting a
baby. Magdalena believes the teenager conceived from stray sperm
after taking a dip in the hotel's mixed pool. She is now seeking
compensation from the hotel. - The
Sun website
Switzerland
Swiss
court releases Mobutu money - 15 July
A Swiss court has ruled that the assets of Mobutu Sese Seko,
former leader of Zaire, now the DR Congo, who died in 1997, be
returned to his family. The court rejected an appeal to extend a
freeze on assets worth more than $6m that are held in Swiss bank
accounts. Switzerland had repeatedly blocked the release of the
funds, which were said to have been gained illegally. - BBC
News website
Judge
delays trial in UBS tax secrecy case
- 13 July
A Miami judge approved the delay in the US tax authority's case
against UBS to allow a possible out of court settlement that
could result in America making do with a fraction of the
information it had demanded from the Swiss bank. Switzerland and
the US Department of Justice (DoJ) are now locked in
negotiations in an attempt to end a civil suit that put to the
test Switzerland's reputation for banking privacy and
America’s campaign against tax evasion. - Times
Online
website