See you next year!

After 9 months of classes in Zubiri Manteo School we have reached at the end of 2012 course.

It has been an unforgettable year because we met people of different places and we have not had any problems at the time of working in groups.

The subjects that we have studied in the higher grade of business and finance has been Human Resources, Accounting, Supply Management, Commercial Management, Finance, Computer Application and English. From these, two subjects we have done in English (Computer Application & Finances) and it has been here where we have worked for the European Projects.

I can proudly say that for all of us it have been a unique experience and highly recommended for everyone. And from all of them we have learned so much in a fun way.

Now we will take a little break in summer to start with more desire and forces next year, so see you next year!

Bye friends!

Nerea Diez

WE ARE GLAD YOU CAME

The School year have gone so fast, along this time, we learned to work in groups, know more about finance and business and the course offered us the opportunity to visit other countries and meet people of other European cultures practicing and improving our level of English.

Now we are in the final countdown of the first year, and this can be our last post in this blog.

So I can only say thanks for reading and do it again next year when the new students take over the blog.

Jon Mikel Cruz

See you next year!

Now, we are finishing the first course of Business & Finance. This is the last week of the course, and it’s time to make a little summary talking about this school year. During the course we have been working since first day. Some subjects were new for some of us, so sometimes we had to dedicate enough time to learn things of some subjects. We have had 7 subjects, that are: Finance, English, Accounting, Supply Management, Human Resources, Computing & Commercial Management. For me, almost all of them were known.

Apart of the usual subjects, we were in the multilingua group, doing Finance & Computing in English language. We prepare some projects in this two subjects for European projects ‘GOEM Go On… Employ me! & ‘A Step Further’. It was a fantastical experience to know and learn more about different cultures and to meet people from other countries to share with them new experiences, and to learn how to find a job when you are abroad, or how to prepare a presentation of different companies.

Now, we are studying for the last exams because we are in the last week of exams. We have to pass all the subjects this course to be prepared for the second course that will start in September. I think that the evaluation that I can do is excellent. We are learning a lot of things that we will need in the future, in our future job in a company.

See you next year.

ERIK RIOS SALAZAR.

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy: "The eurozone has shown considerable solidarity"

EU leaders want Greece to remain in the eurozone but to "respect its commitments", European Council President Herman Van Rompuy has said.

Mr Van Rompuy, speaking at an informal EU summit, said continuing "vital reforms" were essential for Greece to overcome its economic problems.
The eurozone crisis has overshadowed the talks, amid fears that Greece may have to exit the single currency.

"We are fully aware of the significant efforts already made by the Greek citizens.
"The eurozone has shown considerable solidarity having already disbursed, together with the IMF (International Monetary Fund) nearly 150bn euros in support of Greece since 2010."
He said the EU would take action to return Greece to economic growth and job creation.
But Mr Van Rompuy said "continuing vital reforms" were "the best guarantee for a more prosperous future in the euro area".

On Wednesday, European stock markets fell about 2% amid anxiety that Greece might have to exit the euro.
Mr Van Rompuy said talks had been "focused and frank".

He said there was agreement on the need for economic growth as well as measures to restore financial stability, which he described as "two sides of the same coin".

UK Prime Minister David Cameron emphasised the agreements that EU leaders had reached on Wednesday.
EU leaders began the summit with Germany resisting pressure to launch eurobonds as a way to ease the eurozone crisis.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the bonds, pooling eurozone debt, would violate EU treaties and would "not contribute to kick-starting growth".
France's President Francois Hollande said that he wanted discussion of eurobonds and Irish PM Enda Kenny said the idea would be on the table.
Earlier, Ms Merkel said talks would not result in decisions but would influence formal summit talks in late June.
The leaders would look at ways to deepen the EU internal market, boost mobility in Europe's labour market and better target European Investment Bank funding for projects. Such measures could help stimulate growth, she said.
The summit has been the first opportunity for President Hollande to shift the emphasis from austerity to growth - a key message he gave to French voters, who elected him on 6 May.
The French Socialist leader's victory is seen as a challenge to the prevailing austerity drive in the EU, which is favoured by Germany.


Xabier Sanchez

Facebook's Stock Debuts on Wall Street

After weeks of anticipation, it was finally time Friday for Facebook official debut on Wall Street. After jumping more than 10% in the first few minutes of trading, Facebook stock closed less than 1% higher.

Despite the lukewarm start, analysts say trading volumes were high. The IPO was one of the biggest in history.

The year's most hotly anticipated public offering kicked off at 11 a.m, Friday in New York, with founder Mark Zuckerberg ringing the Nasdaq opening bell remotely from Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California.

"We've actually seen a few of that type of behavior in some other tech IPOs this year where the initial excitement was high, there was a lot of buying and then it just gradually fell off," said Gayad.

After opening at $38 a share, Facebook stock closed just 23 cents higher. That's a big wake up call for a company that is now worth more than a $100 billion, said media analyst Nick Thomas.

Nerea

Comenius project: GOEM in Brussels

On 3-4 May, the European Commission organised a conference dedicated to Comenius school partnerships in Brussels. 

12 Comenius school partnerships presented themselves in an exhibition at the conference and more projects served as examples in workshop discussions.

They explored the links between school projects and wider school policy developments in four thematic workshops looking at school co-operation in the light of current policy issues such as improving learning environments, teachers' competences, inclusive education and the internationalisation of schools.

In the 4^th theme, about supporting the internationalisation of schools, was our Comenius-GOEM project represented by the coordinator Ian Patterson, from Belfast.

More info at:

• http://comeniuspartnerships.teamwork.fr/en/information
• http://comeniuspartnerships.teamwork.fr/docs/partnerships.pdf
  

(THEME 4 Supporting the internationalisation of schools)

It means that we are doing a great job!  =)

Moody’s said to downgrade Spanish banks

Moody's is reportedly set to downgrade 21 Spanish banks according to a Spanish economic daily, thereby casting another blow to the banking industry in Europe.

The move wouldn’t come as a surprise -Moody’s has been poised for the rating cut since February, when the agency announced it was planning to downgrade 122 financial institutions by May. The ratings of 114 banks from 16 European countries were put under consideration, with the downgrade risks mainly relating to the eurozone periphery.

The rumors of a possible Spanish downgrade come days after the agency cut the ratings of Italian banks. On May 14, Moody’s dropped the debt rating of 26 financial institutions, including the giant UniCredit, as Rome struggles with recession, tough austerity measures and 1.9 trln euro of outstanding public debt.

The banking sector across Europe is very much under pressure this year. In April, the IMF issued a report saying that the total assets of 58 largest EU banks are likely to be decreased by 7% (2.6 trilion dollars) by the end of 2013. By May, the ECB conducted two long-term refinancing operations (LTRO) totaling 1 trln euro to stimulate banks and economic growth. Though Moody’s insists that the support from the European Central Bank lowered the default risk for many of the banks, analysts and market players are waiting for the LTRO III.

Jon Mikel

Facebook ‘friends’ aim to net up to $2.7 bln in IPO

Accel Partners, Goldman Sachs and Digital Sky plan to sell as much as $2.68 billion in shares of the world’s largest social network in order to get their slice in its ambitious IPO.

These three groups are the Major investors of Facebook. 

Goldman Sachs is selling 13.2 million shares, worth as much as $461.6 million. Accel Partners, is going to sell around $1.3 billion of shares, while the remaining stake would be valued at about $5.7 billion, according to Bloomberg. The two companies would be the biggest sellers at Facebook’s IPO.

Digital Sky, which invested $500 million in Facebook, is selling 26.3 million shares to yield as much as $919 million.

Meanwhile Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of the social network, is hoping to sell 30.2 million of his own 533.8 million shares for as much as $35 apiece. He is expected to make up to $1.1 billion.

Facebook is expected to be valued at $96 billion, bringing executive and investor sales up to $5.5 billion.

Nerea Diez

TNK-BP to Join Rosneft’s Arctic Shelf Projects

Russian-British joint oil venture TNK-BP has confirmed its intention to join state-controlled oil major Rosneft in developing hydrocarbon deposits in Russia’s Arctic, Rosneft head Eduard Khudainatov said on Saturday.

The move follows a similar decision by Russia’s largest private-owned company LUKoil.

The LUKoil head said the company was ready to work with all leading world oil companies with experience, qualification and technologies on the Arctic shelf.

Rosneft had previously made an offer on the joint development of 12 fields on the Arctic shelf to domestic oil companies LUKoil, Bashneft, Surgutneftegas and TNK-BP.

Under existing rules, only companies with over 50 percent state ownership and no less than five years experience working in marine exploration are allowed to develop the Russian continental shelf. Only Rosneft and gas giant Gazprom currently meet these requirements, which has prevented the other companies taking on shelf projects without their participation.

Aitor

Eurozone jobless rate hits record high

Unemployment in the eurozone reached a record high again in March as spending cuts continued to hit the working population. Eurostat says that the jobless rate rose again to 10.9%, the highest since the euro was formed in 1999.

17.4 million are now looking for work and more than 3 million of those are under 25.

Italy's unemployment rate reached a 12-year high, up to 9.8% and, in a surprise move, the jobless rate in Germany rose to 6.8% in March, official figures showed, having been expected to stay at the previous month's 6.7% after six months of declines. The number of Germans out of work is now at 2.87 million.

For the whole of the European Union, including countries such as the UK and Denmark, the jobless rate is 10.2%. Last week, Spain said that the number of jobseekers rose for the eighth month in a row in March to hit 5.6 million, a record rate of 24.4%.

Spain has the highest unemployment rate in the European Union and it is expected to rise further this year.

A debate is raging in Europe about whether politicians have prioritised austerity at the expense of economic growth, making recovery even harder for themselves.

Eurostat said that the EU member countries that had the biggest falls in unemployment in the past year were Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and those with the biggest increases were Spain, Greece and Cyprus.

Separately, a survey of eurozone manufacturing indicated that the sector slipped further into decline last month as new orders fell for the 11th straight month.

Xabier