Germany extends job security at PCK Schwedt refinery until the end of 2025
"The sanctions against Russian oil have put the PCK refinery in a difficult situation," Economy Minister Katherina Reiche said in a statement.
"With the extended job security, we are now creating the basis for developing concrete prospects for the site together with the state of Brandenburg, PCK and regional partners," she said.
While remaining the legal owner, Russian oil company Rosneft was stripped of control of the refinery after Berlin seized the entities following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
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The Guardian
36 minutes ago
- The Guardian
EU closing in on ‘framework' trade deal with US to avoid Trump's 50% tariffs
The EU and US are closing in on a high-level 'framework' trade deal that will avert 50% tariffs being imposed on all exports from the bloc next Wednesday, Donald Trump's self-imposed deadline. Talks in Washington could go down to the wire, but multiple diplomats and officials said the EU was now willing to accept Trump's 10% blanket tariffs. However, negotiators will accept this only in exchange for an extension in talks and possible concessions on a 25% car tariff, which is hurting the German car industry, sources said. Trump has threatened to impose 50% tariffs on all EU goods from 9 July unless the two sides reach a deal. Most EU goods already face a 10% tariff, with levies of 25% on cars and car parts and 50% on steel and aluminium. The EU's trade chief, Maroš Šefčovič, who is in Washington seeking to seal an agreement, has been granted an unexpected meeting with the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, on Thursday afternoon. Šefčovič will also meet the trade representative Jamieson Greer and the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, who has been closest to Trump in other key talks including with China. The push to go for a narrowly focused agreement in principle comes days after the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, reiterated his calls for a 'quick deal'. 'It is better to achieve a quick and simple solution than a lengthy and complicated one that remains in the negotiation stage for months,' Merz said in Berlin. Merz said a quick deal was needed 'to remove the burden of tariffs on our businesses, which are far too high'. He added that the current talks were 'not about a minutely detailed trade deal' but 'the quick resolution of a tariff dispute'. Šefčovič was seeking a standstill clause to provide 'guarantees that the US can stand over' that there would be no imposition of new tariffs in any extension period, said one politician with knowledge of the talks. One EU diplomat said they expected a deal 'if not this week then before Wednesday', as it was 'in everybody's interest'. 'It will be very high level, but enough for Trump to declare victory,' said one source. Some believe that a deal could even be struck this week, giving Trump a significant announcement on 4 July independence day celebrations on Friday. Talks between the EU and the US have been ongoing since early April when Trump, in a theatrical 'liberation day' presentation, imposed tariffs on 60-plus countries. He has concluded a formal deal with only one of those countries, the UK, although he claims to have some agreements struck with Vietnam and China. One source told how the EU delegation that flew to Washington for talks in April were handed a 'massive tome' on the US's 'grievances, country by country'. They added: 'There were about 30 pages on the EU alone.' Sources in Berlin said Merz took some time to persuade the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, to switch tack and pursue a UK-style approach. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion On Thursday, von der Leyen said: 'Indeed, what we are aiming at is an agreement in principle, because [with] such a volume, in 90 days, an agreement in detail, it's impossible … That is also what the UK did. And as far as I'm informed, there are only two countries so far worldwide that have concluded with an agreement in principle.' Others said Trump's frustration lay with the approach of a European institution used to dealing with 27 member states and the minute detail of regulation. They also indicated that the US's latest proposal – sent to EU leaders last Wednesday – 'did not include any details on … concessions from the US side'. In a briefing to EU ambassadors this week, von der Leyen's chief of staff, Bjoern Seibert, and the director general of the commission's trade department, Sabine Weyand, told member states the US wanted deals on four areas including tariffs. The other three issues were strategically important sectors such as pharmaceuticals and semiconductors, economic purchases such as oil and gas and non-trade barriers including tech regulation, and food and car regulation, all red lines for the EU. Šefčovič is expected to brief European ambassadors on the latest state of play again on Friday afternoon.
Finextra
3 hours ago
- Finextra
ECB outlines plans for integrated regulatory reporting across Europe
European and national authorities have joined forces with banks to integrate reporting requirements across Europe. 0 This will reduce costs for banks and improve data quality. In this blog post we describe the European integrated reporting initiative and present some initial results. Collecting data from banks is essential for authorities to conduct monetary policy, supervision and resolution. But banks in Europe are facing more and more regulatory reporting requirements from various European and national authorities. These requirements often differ in terms of definitions, reporting deadlines and templates. For banks, this lack of harmonisation makes reporting unnecessarily burdensome; for authorities, it complicates sharing and analysing data. In the context of the European initiative on integrated reporting, the European Banking Authority (EBA) and the European Central Bank (ECB) established the Joint Bank Reporting Committee (JBRC) in March 2024. Our goal is to harmonise and simplify banks' reporting of statistical, supervisory and resolution data, working in close collaboration with the banking industry. This initiative fundamentally enhances the European approach to banks' data reporting. Harmonising reporting standards will reduce the reporting burden on banks and enhance data quality. This aligns with the European Commission's simplification initiative aimed at boosting Europe's competitiveness. The JBRC brings together high-level representatives from European and national authorities to explore ways of making banks' reporting more efficient. It provides, for example, advice on how to harmonise definitions and reporting deadlines and how to share data among authorities more efficiently, thus enabling banks to avoid double reporting. Ideally, data would only be reported by banks once and could then be shared and reused by all authorities. The JBRC consists of the ECB, the EBA, the European Commission and the Single Resolution Board, as well as the national authorities that issue supervisory, resolution and statistical reporting requirements in the European Economic Area (Figure 2). To ensure close collaboration with the banks, we have set up a reporting contact group (RCG) composed of data reporting experts from the banking industry. The RCG holds joint meetings with the JBRC Steering Committee, which coordinates the JBRC's activities. These meetings provide a forum for authorities and reporting banks to cooperate and exchange views. In addition, hands-on cooperation can take place within the JBRC expert groups, which include technical experts from the banking industry and look more closely at the technical details of banks' reporting. The RCG will share with the authorities their practical insights on how to formulate reporting requirements. The authorities will continue to determine, depending on their policy needs, what the banks must report. The EBA's feasibility study on integrated reporting put forward a long-term vision for moving from the current system of supervisory reporting by financial institutions to a modern, efficient and effective reporting process. The JBRC was established as part of that long-term vision and has also begun work on other key areas for achieving fully integrated reporting of statistical, supervisory and resolution data. First steps towards integrated reporting The JBRC has already produced some tangible results towards more integrated reporting. Its work programme for 2025 prioritises work on common terms and definitions. It also focuses on the harmonised implementation of the revision of the statistical classification of economic activities in the European Union (abbreviated as NACE). Harmonising implementation of statistical revisions Banks use NACE to classify in their regulatory reporting the kind of counterparties they do business with. The European Commission updated NACE in October 2022. Banks still report data using the previous NACE classification but will eventually have to switch to the new version. Ideally, this shift will happen for all reporting at the same time in order to avoid parallel reporting using different classification systems. The JBRC therefore advised that the NACE revision should be implemented across the European banks' reporting frameworks simultaneously as of January 2026. The EBA and the ECB have already committed to this new implementation date. The JBRC encourages national central banks to follow the same implementation date for any national statistical data collections in which the NACE classification is used. Using the same language in reporting Another important task is to develop a common data dictionary that defines the meaning and structure of the data to be reported. For this purpose, the JBRC has set up an Expert Group on Semantic Integration, which gives advice on how to harmonise definitions of concepts - called semantics - used in reporting requirements. One focus of this group will be to give preliminary advice to the authorities on new, upcoming legislation, since definitions in draft legislation are easier to revise than definitions that are already firmly enshrined in law. Semantic integration is the process of aligning different reporting frameworks. This is done by identifying and linking elements that represent the same concepts and by standardising the terms and definitions. In the example in Figure 3, the statistical concept 'Type of instrument' matches the supervisory concept 'Instrument'. With semantic integration, we establish a uniquely defined concept ('Type of instrument') for both statistical and supervisory reporting. This concept is broken down into its constituent components, in the form of a hierarchy, with mapping across the two reporting frameworks. Having uniquely defined concepts significantly reduces the reporting burden. One of the high priority activities in 2025 is the semantic alignment of the Eurosystem's Integrated Reporting Framework (IReF) with other banking data collection frameworks, in particular financial reporting (FinRep) used for supervisory purposes. The IReF is currently scheduled to enter into force by the end of 2029. It will integrate several statistical ECB regulations into one regulation. This will help remove overlaps and harmonise reporting deadlines within the Eurosystem. In the coming months, the group will start working on the semantic integration of sustainability reporting, while also exploring further potential synergies with other frameworks, such as resolution reporting. These requirements would benefit from harmonised concepts and definitions and, together with the work on the IReF, will ultimately contribute to the creation of a common data dictionary and to the definition of the next steps towards a fully integrated reporting framework. While semantic integration is the current priority, the JBRC is also laying the groundwork for broader progress across all key areas identified in the EBA's feasibility study. The focus on semantic integration represents an important and constructive first step, creating a solid foundation to achieve fully integrated reporting of statistical, supervisory and resolution data. Conclusion Integrated reporting of statistical, supervisory and resolution data by banks would make bank reporting more efficient and improve data quality. It would also address past inconsistencies and redundancies, ensuring that such issues can be avoided in future legislation. The JBRC has made some promising first steps in this direction. It will continue to work in close collaboration with the banking industry to achieve our goal of truly integrated reporting in Europe.
Reuters
6 hours ago
- Reuters
German services sector stabilises in June, PMI shows
BERLIN, July 3 (Reuters) - Germany's services sector showed signs of stabilisation at the end of the second quarter, with business activity experiencing only a marginal decline in June, a survey showed on Thursday. The HCOB final services Purchasing Managers' Index rose to 49.7 in June, up from May's 2-1/2-year low of 47.1 but slightly below the preliminary reading for June of 49.4. Any reading above 50 indicates expansion, while a reading below that number signals contraction. "Service providers have been having somewhat of a tough time for three months now," said Hamburg Commercial Bank chief economist Cyrus de la Rubia, adding that since the COVID-19 pandemic, activity in the sector has been more volatile. The survey revealed an easing decline in new business as well as a fall in work backlogs for the 14th month in a row. Employment continued to rise modestly for the sixth consecutive month, as firms sought to expand capacity. "Taking a positive view, this could be interpreted as meaning that service providers are confident that they will soon receive more orders," said de la Rubia. "Being a bit more sceptical, higher employment could suggest that more people are needed to achieve a similar level of activity as before." Due in part to the government's economic stimulus package, "we expect economic growth in Germany to pick up in the second half of the year, benefiting not only the construction sector and industry, but also the service sector," he said. The composite PMI index, which comprises services and manufacturing, climbed to 50.4 in June from 48.5 in May.
