BRUSSELS, April 4 (Reuters) – EU countries are making a
fresh attempt to break the deadlock over new bank capital rules
and ministers are due to meet on May 2, officials and diplomats
said, accelerating efforts to find agreement on measures crucial
for lending and the economy.

The European Commission has proposed new standards for the
amount of capital banks across the 27-state European Union must
hold to cover risks.

BRUSSELS, March 31 (Reuters) – German attempts to win
backing for a watered-down tax on financial transactions in
Europe received a lukewarm response on Saturday, in the face of
opposition from some governments, putting a full-scale levy off
the agenda for now.

Berlin has struggled to rally support for a tax on buying
and selling shares, bonds and derivatives. At a meeting of EU
finance ministers, it made a last-ditch attempt to salvage its
prospects, offered to initially limit the tax to equities.

BRUSSELS, March 31 (Reuters) – German attempts to win
backing for a watered-down tax on financial transactions in
Europe received a lukewarm response on Saturday, in the face of
opposition from some governments, putting a full-scale levy off
the agenda for now.

Berlin has struggled to rally support for a tax on buying
and selling shares, bonds and derivatives. At a meeting of EU
finance ministers, it made a last-ditch attempt to salvage its
prospects, offered to initially limit the tax to equities.

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Germany made a last ditch attempt on Friday to salvage the prospect of a financial transaction tax in Europe by proposing to apply the charge initially only to trading in company stock, but still faced resistance to its plans.

A document circulated at a meeting of EU ministers and obtained by Reuters describes a two-stage approach of advancing towards a “comprehensive financial transaction tax”, with the first step being a scaled-down levy.

COPENHAGEN, March 30 (Reuters) – European Union finance
ministers were warned of the continued fragility of the region’s
banks on Friday as the bloc’s executive postponed a contested
proposal critics warn could make nervous banks even more
reluctant to lend.

Lending to business is essential to spur economic growth as
the euro zone slides towards recession but Europe’s banks,
shaken by the financial crisis, are more reluctant than ever to
give credit to small companies and others considered high risk.

COPENHAGEN, March 30 (Reuters) – Euro zone finance ministers
are likely to agree to temporarily almost double their financial
backstops on Friday as one of the final moves to end the
sovereign debt crisis, although Germany continues to favour a
smaller increase.

The 17 countries sharing the euro have already agreed to
adopt balanced-budget rules in an effort to convince markets
that euro zone public finances would be sustainable.

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – The euro zone should not commit more than 800 billion euros in rescue aid, and tapping that money should only be available when countries promise reforms, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Thursday.

The financial firewall would stand ready to help the bloc’s large and indebted economies, namely Italy and Spain. Finance ministers meeting in Copenhagen are due to finalize it on Friday, putting in place one of the last big pieces of the euro zone’s crisis response.

March 26 (Reuters) – Among the piles of papers on one
European diplomat’s desk in Brussels is a memo with the words
“growth” and “jobs” scrawled in blue ink, followed by a large
question mark.

“I think we’re missing something,” said the diplomat as he
sucked his pen. “There’s a lot of talk about growth strategies,
but what about the banks? They are still not lending.”

BRUSSELS/ LONDON, March 23 (Reuters) – Retail investment
funds across Europe will be subject to stricter controls that
safeguard investors, according to proposals from the European
Commission designed to prevent a repeat of the Bernard Madoff
fraud.

In a draft of a new law seen by Reuters, which will be put
to countries and the European parliament for approval in the
coming months, the European Commission proposes imposing strict
legal liability on trustees of funds should they fail to
safeguard investor cash.

AMSTERDAM/BRUSSELS, March 21 (Reuters) – The Netherlands has
rejected a proposed financial transaction tax, dealing a fresh
blow to a Franco-German bid for a levy to replenish government
coffers hit by the financial crisis.

Support from the Netherlands, one of the few euro zone
countries with a top-notch credit rating and which has sided
with Germany on key economic policy issues in the past, is
crucial to implementing the plan.