Ambrose EP: Needless to say, it really doesn’t make any difference in the long-term whether Greece gets a bail-out or who provides the money. The country is not facing a liquidity crisis, it is facing an insolvency crisis. Assume he’s correct (as I think he is). This makes all the fuss about speculators, CDSs, hedge funds

European lawmakers pledge to forge ahead with their own efforts to revise controversial proposals to regulate hedge funds and private equity fund in spite of an impasse amongst member states

The FT reports that European finance ministers yesterday postponed a vote on the EU's proposed AIFM Directive to regulate hedge funds and private equity firms after “a last-minute intervention” by Gordon Brown. Ministers are still at loggerheads over how to regulate funds and managers established outside the EU.

R. Murphy Esq: Brussels’ logic is that by betting against the euro, hedge funds are driving its value down, so making it harder for hard-pressed states like Greece to balance their books, as the market is demanding. This then creates a vicious cycle of more government spending cuts being required in Greece,

The US is growing increasingly worried by the EU's financial reform agenda, as US officials descend on the European institutions in Brussels to warn policymakers against divergent rules on hedge funds and derivatives.

Talks in Brussels to strike an agreement on regulating hedge funds and private equity came to an abrupt end this morning (16 March) as the Spanish EU Presidency, tasked with brokering a deal, postponed talks because no agreement was in sight.

European Union finance ministers abandon efforts to get a compromise deal over the EU's controversial proposed rules at their meeting in Brussels

Pressure was mounting for a compromise deal on the European Union's draft rules on hedge funds and private equity which would reduce British opposition to the regulation

The Spanish EU Presidency is aiming to close an agreement on the draft hedge and private equity funds directive at a meeting of finance ministers in Brussels tomorrow (16 March), with teething problems on foreign fund treatment threatening to derail a deal. 

The European Commission yesterday (11 March) rejected criticism coming from Washington that plans to regulate hedge funds and private equity in Europe would cause a transatlantic rift by closing doors to US funds.