The anniversary of broken promises

The document asserts that five years after the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, EU banking regulation remains inadequate, allowing banks to maintain high leverage and permitting the growth of derivatives markets. It attributes this failure to the influence of the financial lobby on EU decision-makers and proposes a reform agenda including a Financial Transaction Tax, higher bank buffers, the break-up of 'too big to fail' banks, and personal liability for financial crimes.

• The authors contend that EU financial reforms since 2008 have failed, leaving banks under-capitalised and allowing some institutions, specifically Deutsche Bank and Barclays, to borrow more than Lehman Brothers did prior to its collapse.
• The document claims that the financial lobby has successfully blocked effective regulation by spending millions to influence decision-makers and dominating EU Commission and Council advisory groups.
• The statement identifies several necessary steps for genuine reform: implementing a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT), increasing bank financial buffers, breaking up banks that are 'too big to fail', ending food speculation, and ensuring individuals in the financial sector are personally liable for fraud and criminal activities.
• The authors argue that effective measures to stop tax evasion could generate 1,000 billion euro annually, which would be sufficient to offset current austerity measures.

APA

Various (2013). The anniversary of broken promises. Green European Journal. https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/the-anniversary-of-broken-promises/

Chicago

Various. The anniversary of broken promises. Green European Journal, 2013. https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/the-anniversary-of-broken-promises/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Various |title=The anniversary of broken promises |publisher=Green European Journal |date=20 September 2013 |url=https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/the-anniversary-of-broken-promises/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{various2013anniversary, author = {Various}, title = {{The anniversary of broken promises}}, publisher = {Green European Journal}, year = {2013}, month = sep, url = {https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/the-anniversary-of-broken-promises/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }