Business Brief

Polish shipyard aid

European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes on Monday (28 August) demanded the repayment of subsidies paid by the Polish government to shipyards if plans for the restructuring of the sector are not submitted by the end of the week. Since Poland’s accession to the EU, millions of euros have been paid to shipyards in Gdynia, Gdansk and Szczecin.

Working time warning

The European Commission is to take legal action against nine member states for failing to implement EU rules on working time, it was disclosed on Tuesday (29 August) at a hearing on international road transport organised by the European Parliament’s socialist group. Commission official Szabolcs Schmidt said court cases against countries failing to transpose the working time directive into national law were now being prepared.

Italian bank tie-up

Banca Intesa and Sanpaolo IMI, Italy’s second and third largest banks, announced last week (24 August) that they were considering a merger. Italian Finance Minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, while stressing the merger was not being actively backed by his government, expressed his strong approval. The tie-up would set in motion the long-awaited consolidation of Italy’s heavily fragmented banking sector.

Telecoms thoughts

The Commission presented three studies on the telecoms market last week (25 August), intended to serve as ‘food for thought’ in the ongoing review of the 2002 regulatory framework for electronic communications. The three studies support the Commission’s plans to step up EU regulatory oversight.

Growing less with age

Eurozone economic growth risks falling to as little as 1% of gross domestic product per year in 2020-50 because of its rapidly ageing population, according to a report published by the European Central Bank. An increase in working hours and later retirement would be the only way to avoid economic decline, it said. By 2050, it is projected that a third of EU citizens will be older than 64.

Russia pipeline hopes

The Russian government announced yesterday (30 August) that it expected to reach agreement with Greece and Bulgaria on a pipeline project by the end of this year. The three countries have been co-operating on a plan to ship Russian oil by sea to Bulgaria to be carried by a pipeline from the Bulgarian port of Bourgas, to Greece. Russian President Vladimir Putin will be in Athens on Monday (4 September) to meet his Greece and Bulgarian counterparts for energy talks.

The Spanish government has indicated that it will ask the European Commission for more time to explain the conditions it is attaching to approval of E.ON’s €29.1 billion bid for Spanish energy group Endesa.