Open Europe : Daily Press Summary

[Politics.be]

Dutch PM: National parliaments have greater legitimacy than the European ParliamentIn a speech to the German liberal FDP party in Berlin yesterday, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said, “A lot of people in Europe are angry at the EU…We won't restore the future and the belief in a functioning Europe with European…The ball is now in the court of national parliaments. Their legitimacy is greater than that of the European Parliament. So they should deal at an earlier stage and also more intensely with decision making in and from Brussels.” Separately, Italy’s former Prime Minister Enrico Letta told a conference yesterday that, in the eyes of citizens, Brussels has become “a symbol of all that is bureaucracy”.Open Europe blog Süddeutsche blog EurActiv

Miliband says pre-election debates should exclude Farage;
Cameron: Clegg and Farage both “extremists” on Europe
Following the In/Out EU debate between Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage, the Times reports that Labour leader Ed Miliband said that Farage should be excluded from pre-General Election TV debates. “I think the format we had last time with parties that have representation in Parliament is a good format,” he said. Meanwhile, David Cameron dismissed both Clegg and Farage as “extremists” on Europe. The New York Times quotes Open Europe Director Mats Persson as saying that the debates, while valuable, “have also highlighted how artificially polarised the wider EU debate tends to get between two contrasting views: Outside the EU, Britain will become like North Korea: miserable, impoverished and completely isolated. Or like Hong Kong: fully liberalized and with the world at its feet.”
Open Europe blog Open Europe report: Gaming Europe's future NYT Times Independent Independent: Dejevsky Independent: Leftly Times: Leader FT

Greek government braces for more damaging leaks as it considers returning to the bond markets as early as next week
Kathimerini reports that the Greek government is bracing itself for more potentially damaging leaked videos of discussions between a top cabinet secretary, Panayiotis Baltakos, and the far-right party Golden Dawn. Baltakos has also said that he held the meetings “for the good of the country” and to find out what Golden Dawn were planning. He also insisted that the Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras knew nothing of the meetings. Separately, the paper also reports that Greece could issue up to €3bn in five year bonds as early as next week.
Kathimerini Kathimerini 2 Kathimerini 3

Open Europe’s Nina Schick appeared on Monocle 24 radio’s ‘The Daily Monocle’ show discussing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s approval of Germany’s first minimum wage of €8.50 an hour from 2015.
Monocle 24: Schick BBC

Gazprom yesterday announced that it would raise the prices it charges Ukraine for gas by 80%, claiming that Ukraine still owes it $2.2bn in unpaid bills. Separately, the EU formally lifted visa restrictions on Moldovans on Thur sday, allowing them to travel through the Schengen-area without a visa from the end of the month. The FT also reports that the EU is planning to take Russia to the World Trade Organisation as early as next week over a ban on European pork products.
FAZ FAZ: Busse FT FT 2 FT 3 Euractiv WSJ BBC Welt WSJ WSJ 2 EUobserver EUobserver 2 Spiegel Der Standard

The European Parliament yesterday voted in favour of discharging the European Commission’s 2012 budget despite “reservations over the high error rate in agriculture and regional policy spending by member states.” Open Europe's Pieter Cleppe appeared in a debate on Europarl TV, arguing that “MEPs should vote against the discharge of the EU budget…at least as long as the European Court of Auditors refuses to provide a clean bill of health.”
EP Press Release Europarl TV EP Report Voting records nr 37 p 79

The ECB yesterday held interest rates despite the threat of deflation. However, ECB President Mario Draghi stressed in his press conference that, “The governing council is unanimous in its commitment to using also unconventional instruments within its mandate in order to cope effectively with risks of a too prolonged period of low inflation.” His comments pushed the euro lower and stocks up yesterday.
FT FT 2 City AM WSJ Reuters FAZ: Plickert EUobserver NYT Guardian

City AM reports that, according to new research by TheCityUK, the EU’s financial services sector provides 11 million jobs and €636bn of value added across the bloc. The report notes that the sector accounts for 5.5% of GDP in the single market, slightly less than construction’s 5.7%. In the UK alo ne, financial services make up 7.9% of GDP.
City AM

Die Welt has a feature piece on the new French Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg, titled “He insults Germany and is promoted”, which claims that “his appointment is controversial – he is known for his failures”.
Welt

A new Infratest Dimap poll for ARD ahead of the European elections has the CDU/CSU in the lead on 40% followed by the SPD on 28%, the Greens on 9%, Die Linke on 7%, Alternative für Deutschland on 6% and the FDP on 3%.
FAZ

Joachim Nagel, interim head of banking supervision on the Bundesbank board, said in an interview with Reuters yesterday that he would “like to see more willingness to cooperate from the banking sector” over the ECB’s upcoming Asset Quality Review (AQR) and its push to clean up the balance sheets of European banks.
Reuters FT Welt

MEPs have voted to scrap EU roaming charges from 15 December 2015.
City AM BBC

More than a thousand protesters demonstrated outside Ankara’s electoral commission yesterday accusing the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, of vote rigging in the recent local elections.
Times


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