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The European Commission has adopted additional legislative proposals to further strengthen financial supervision in Europe. Following the adoption of a legislative package to strengthen financial supervision in Europe on 23 September 2009, including the creation of a European System of Financial Supervisors with three new European Supervisory Authorities, the Commission proposes to make targeted changes to existing financial services legislation to ensure that the new Authorities can work effectively.

In August 2009 compared with July 2009, the euro area (EA16) industrial new orders index rose by 2.0%. In July the index increased by 3.0%. In the EU271 new orders grew by 1.2% in August 2009, after an increase of 1.6% in July. Excluding ships, railway & aerospace equipment, for which changes tend to be more volatile, industrial new orders rose by 2.4% in the euro area and by 2.0% in the EU27.

There are widespread problems with refusals of orders for EU consumers trying to purchase goods online in another Member state, according to a new European Commission report on cross border consumer e-commerce. An extensive independent mystery shopping exercise was carried out for the Commission where shoppers across the EU tried to purchase a list of 100 popular products –for example cameras, CDs, books, clothes - from a cross border provider. Over 11,000 test orders were carried out. The research found that 60% of cross border transactions could not be completed by consumers because the trader did not ship the product to their country or did not offer adequate means for cross border payment.

According to the latest revisions, the EU27 external current account recorded a deficit of 49.2 billion euro in the second quarter of 2009, compared with a deficit of 76.3 bn in the second quarter of 2008 and a deficit of 54.6 bn in the first quarter of 2009.

The European Investment Bank’s Board of Directors today approved loans to European-based car makers worth a total of EUR 600m.

In 2008, the government deficit and government debt of both the euro area (EA16) and the EU27 increased compared with 2007. In the euro area the government deficit to GDP ratio increased from 0.6% in 2007 to 2.0% in 2008, and in the EU27 it increased from 0.8% to 2.3%. In the euro area the government debt to GDP ratio increased from 66.0% at the end of 2007 to 69.3% at the end of 2008, and in the EU27 from 58.7% to 61.5%.

MEPs demanded €1.5 billion in fresh money to finance the economic recovery plan and €300 million for a new dairy fund in a vote on Thursday. In general, they restored the Commission's preliminary draft budget after the Council's cuts.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index™ (LEI) for France increased 0.9 percent and The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index™ (CEI) remained unchanged in August.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index™ (LEI) for Germany increased 1.3 percent and The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index™ (CEI) decreased 0.2 percent in August.

In the construction sector, seasonally adjusted production decreased by 0.4% in the euro area (EA16) and by 0.5% in the EU27 in August 2009, compared with the previous month. In July, production fell by 1.4% and 0.5% respectively.