CEO Profiles
Karl-Johan Persson, H&M
Will the grandson of fast fashion retailer, H&M's founder give confidence in his ability to steer the business through current economic woes?Christian Jourquin, Solvay
Following a lifelong career that groomed him for the top position in chemicals giant Solvay S.A., the CEO has sold off one of its top performing divisions within three years of taking overDieter Zetsche, Mercedes
The architect in the revelations behind Daimler and Chrysler, Zetsche attempts the same miracles with Mercedes. But there are flaws in his strategyOpen for business
How Ireland is timidly opening up to new investment strategies.
Bulgarian squeeze
How the EU are putting pressure on the Eastern European country.
Danone a good job
We profile Franck Riboud, CEO Danone
Artistic investment
Investing in art can yield big dividends, we investigate the market for corporate acquisitions
Schaeuble calls for closer Eurozone integration
UN launches review of criticised climate panel
Britain's Northern Rock shrinks losses in 2009
Aer Lingus full-year operating loss quadruples
Greece won't need aid, cenbank chief tells paper
BOJ mulling easing again
Deputy minister: Greece should meet '10 budget target
Irish Life sees 2011 return to profit
GM triples Opel financing, cuts state aid request
Euro in most difficult phase since launch
Talking telepresence
We talk to Geir Olsen EMEA President of TANDBERG about improvements in telepresence technology.The advantages of telepresence
21st century technology: real time telepresence meetingsReal-Time communication
Peter Quinlan explains the manifold benefits of benefits of telepresenceLatest Edition
In this issue...
To view the latest virtual edition of European CEO magazine please click here.Germany says no deal yet on EADS troop plane
Germany said it had not had an answer from Airbus parent EADS on buyer nations' final offer for the A400M military transporter plane, though a source ...Bermuda: right on the money
...Clamping down on tax dodgers
OECD action is going to mean a reduction in tax havens...Addressing Indian FDI
India has opened the door to FDI...Global dispatches
- Schaeuble calls for closer Eurozone integration
- UN launches review of criticised climate panel
- Britain's Northern Rock shrinks losses in 2009
- Aer Lingus full-year operating loss quadruples
- Greece won't need aid, cenbank chief tells paper
- BOJ mulling easing again
More profiles
- Baudouin Prot, BNP Paribas
- Jürgen Hambrecht, BASF
- Didier Lombard, France Télécom
- Andrea Illy, Illycaffe
- Alfredo Sáenz Abad, Banco Santander
- Norbert Reithofer, BMW
- Andrew Witty, GlaxoSmithKline
- César Alierta Izuel, Telefónica
- Jeroen Van der Veer, Shell
- Richard Adkerson, Freeport-McMoRan
- Jochen Zeitz, Puma
- Anthony O'Reilly, Independent News & Media Group
- Gerrit Jessen MPI
- Paul Polman, Unilever
- Jorgen Knudstorp, Lego
- Peter Löscher, Siemens
- Hector Sants, FSA
- Andrin Waldburger, PwC Switzerland
Ex-Fastweb CEO sought in money-laundering probe
Italian investigators probing a money-laundering racket have issued an arrest warrant for Italian telecoms billionaire Silvio Scaglia, the founder and former top executive of broadband operator FastwebEurope ready to back bluefin tuna trade ban
Europe looks set to support an unprecedented ban on the international trade in bluefin tuna, a species driven towards extinction by insatiable demand from Japan, where a single fish can fetch $100,000Political risk becomes key market volatility driver
From southern Europe's debt crisis to US banking reform, politics has emerged as a driver of volatility in Western markets this year in a way normally more associated with emerging economiesGreek woes could slow ECB's exit from crisis mode
Turmoil brewing in Greece could slow the ECB's withdrawal of its extra liquidity measures, especially if other countries become infected with similar woesSchaeuble calls for closer Eurozone integration
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble called for greater
integration between euro zone members and stronger surveillance of
member countries' finances to protect the monetary union from further
crisis.
In a column published in the Financial Times,
Schaeuble said Europe's monetary union was facing a critical moment and
must take steps to protect itself from a new crisis.
"The
fallout from the crisis is becoming ever more visible, labour markets
in some countries are languishing and government debt almost everywhere
is far in excess of permissible deficit limits," Schaeuble wrote.
"There
is only one course of action: all eurozone members must return to
adherence to the stability and growth pact as rapidly as possible."
"Co-ordination between euro members must be more far-reaching; they must take an active part in each other's policymaking."
Greece
is battling a debt crisis and EU policymakers have been debating ways
of providing financial support for it and other troubled euro zone
members.
German politicians have pushed the idea of a rescue
fund which euro zone countries could tap on tough conditions if they
faced default. Questions over who would finance such a fund remain
unanswered.
Yves Mersch, European Central Bank Governing
Council member and Luxembourg central bank chief, made clear on
Thursday that the ECB would not provide emergency funding for countries
in a budget crisis.
Schaeuble said any aid offered would be
subject to strict conditions, but could improve the EU's ability to
sort out its backyard problems without the help of the IMF.
"The
prospect of emergency aid connected with hard corrective fiscal action
would boost the confidence of financial markets, thus preventing a
deepening of the crisis and obviating the eurozone members' need to
call upon the IMF in future."
Schaeuble echoed the calls of
Eurogroup Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker for euro zone finance ministers
to step up their surveillance of countries' finances.
"Economic
and fiscal policy surveillance in the Eurozone was insufficient to
prevent undesirable trends in a timely manner," he said.
"From
now on, a member state with an excessive deficit should not receive EU
cohesion funds if it is not making sufficient savings."
Referring
to Greece, which provided the bloc with false economic statistics,
Schaeuble said the EU statistics office, Eurostat, should be given
increased powers to inspect public finances.
Schaeuble,
finance minister of Europe's largest economy, urged calm and said
decisive handling of the crisis would help to strengthen the
credibility of the ECB.
"If we are successful in putting
fiscal policies in the member states back on the right course, the
crisis will have brought about a change for the better."









Flying high