Professor Voices » European Union

Greek bailout delayed

Jo Breiner — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 15:20:19 +0000

Officials of the European Union have announced they will delay making a decision on an $11 billion installment of a bailout loan to Greece until October. International relations professor Vivien Schmidt is a long-time EU watcher and author of Policy Change and Discourse in Europe. She offers the following comment:

“This is a very dangerous game that the EU leaders are playing.

“The problem is that the brinksmanship with regard to the second Greek bailout is not a calculated decision to try to squeeze more out of Greece while appeasing national publics in, say, Finland or Germany. Rather, it is the same muddling through that has caused the fear in the markets.

“My best guess is that the markets will respond as they have to the slow responses and lack of leadership, by continuing to bet against the weakest members of the eurozone.”

Contact Schmidt at 617-358-1092; vschmidt@bu.edu

Microsoft v. Google in EU

Jo Breiner — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 16:10:21 +0000

Microsoft has filed a formal antitrust complaint with the European Union against Google. Keith Hylton, an antitrust-law expert and the Honorable Paul J. Liacos Profesor of Law of BU’s School of Law, offers the following comments:

“There’s no irony here, though Microsoft counsel Brad Smith is clearly referring to perception rather than reality. The reality is that both Google and Microsoft have been complaining to antitrust authorities about each other for quite a long time now. For example, Google’s complaints forced Microsoft to change its browser options in the EU two years ago.

“Antitrust has become a competitive weapon used by both companies. This is troubling because you never know quite what to make of the complaints. No doubt competition can be enhanced by forcing a dominant firm to make it easer for a rival to compete against it, but incentives to invest, which matter more in the long term, may be dulled.

“I remain of the opinion that the U.S. courts have it right in generally refusing to be dragged into complaints about duties to help rivals out. But the EC is happy to jump right into the middle of these fights, and so there will never be a lack of complaints. It’s a good time to be an antitrust lawyer in Europe.”

Contact Keith Hylton, 617-353-8959, knhylton@bu.edu

“Single rulebook” for European banks

Jo Breiner — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:27:34 +0000

Banks in the European Union may soon begin operating under a “single rulebook” according to Andrea Enria, the chairman of the European Banking Authority. Enria believes the move will lead to a more uniform oversight of banks. Boston University law professor Cornelius Hurley, Director of the Morin Center for Banking & Financial Law, offers the following commentary:

“The European Banking Authority is blazing a new trail by eliminating “regulatory arbitrage” among the EU’s member countries. If the EBA can harmonize the regulatory systems of 27 independent countries, why cannot the US coordinate its own system? Time to reopen Dodd-Frank.”

Contact Cornelius Hurley, 617-353-5427, ckhurley@bu.edu