Keys Corner

The EU is planning to shake up the mortgage market (worth 4 trillion Euro, or 40% of EU GDP) by making it easier to get cross-border mortgages. At the moment, only 1% of mortgages are financed from a different country to that where the property is located. Ideally, the reforms will harmonise the legal requirements and the handling of deeds in the member countries. Doing this would reduce the complexity of cross-border financing and thus make the market more efficient, benefiting consumers in the EU and creating about 600 000 new jobs in the process.

Unfortunately, the Guardian reports that the terrible two, France and Germany, are taking a protectionist stance and blocking the reform.

A bad move, Herr Schröder, given the lame German economy and the highest unemployment in Germany since the Weimar Republic.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 14th, 2005 at 12:02:22 and is filed under Economics, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.