Open Europe : Daily Press Summary

[Politics.be]

New Open Europe briefing: Greece could need an immediate cash injection of up to €259bn if it left the euro todayOpen Europe published a briefing on Monday looking at Greece’s short-term future, noting that though Greece may eventually benefit from leaving the euro, the risks involved in an imminent exit could well outweigh these benefits in the short term. Due to a likely bank collapse and urgent cash shortage, Open Europe estimates that if Greece left the euro now, it would need between €67bn and €259bn in external and immediate short-term support. This support could potentially be split between the IMF, the eurozone and non-euro countries.

The briefing notes that Greece would be able to exit the euro and still remain a full EU member, though this would require the support and approval of all 27 member states and, eventually, a full EU treaty change over which the UK would have a veto. Ultimately, the paper concludes that, from a Greek perspective, an exit at the current point in time remains incredibly costly and painful – making a post-election compromise with the eurozone creditors more likely. The report featured in the FT, Times, Guardian, Telegraph, Independent, Mail, Bloomberg, CNBC, Die Welt, Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten, Deutsche Mittelstands Nachrichten, MNI news, Le Figaro, Dutch news site Nu.nl, Finnish daily Kauppalehti, Greek papers Kathimerini, Ta Nea, Isotimia, Protothema and Greek news channel Skai. Open Europe’s Raoul Ruparel appeared on LBC this morning discussing a potential Greek exit from the euro.

Der Spiegel reports on a Forza poll published in Stern which suggests that 49% of Germans believe Greece should exit the euro, while 39% believe it should stay in. The poll also shows that two thirds of respondents think that Germany should continue to insist that Greece sticks to its bailout commitments. Meanwhile, BaFin, the German Financial Supervisory Authority, said yesterday that German banks are “prepared for all possible scenarios in Greece” and that they had limited direct exposure to the country. S&P warned over the weekend that it now sees a one in three chance of Greece leaving the eurozone in the coming months.

G7 finance ministers and central bank governors held a conference call yesterday to discuss the on-going crisis in the eurozone. No statement was released following the call. The ECB holds its monthly meeting today and is expected to come under renewed pressure to take further measures to ease the eurozone crisis, although it is expected to resist and maintain the status quo, according to Les Echos.
Open Europe PR Open Europe research FT Guardian Times Telegraph Independent Mail Welt DWN Le Figaro Nu.nl DMN CNBC MNI Kauppalehti Kathimerini Ta Nea Isotimia PB Protothema Star.gr Newsit.gr Telegraph live blog Skai IBT Ziarul Financiar Les Echos Spiegel Le Monde Kathimerini 2 Les Echos FT 2 Telegraph 2 Independent 2 Times 2 Les Echos 2 Le Monde 2 FT 3 Times Times 2 Guardian Telegraph Telegraph 2 FT 4 Independent Les Echos Les Echos 2 Irish Times Les Echos 3 Guardian 2 Les Echos 4 Monday's FT Telegraph 3 Irish Times 2 Les Echos 5 Telegraph 4 Irish Times 3 Le Figaro Le Monde Telegraph 5 Monday's FT 2 El Pa�*s EUobserver Kathimerini Monday's Telegraph Soros: Speech Transcript Express Observer: Cohen

Open Europe publishes alternative EU budget that would save European taxpayers €41bn a year
Based on a line-by-line analysis of the EU’s 2012 budget, Open Europe has today published an alternative EU budget that would reduce spending by almost 30% - saving European taxpayers around €41bn annually - while focusing the spending far more effectively on boosting jobs and growth. Open Europe’s alternative EU budget includes, for example, focussing the EU’s structural funds on less wealthy member states, saving just over €20bn; slimming down and re-focusing the CAP on rural job creation, saving almost €24bn; scrapping EU quangos that duplicate others’ work and the European Parliament’s two seat, saving €431m and €180mn respectively. At the same time, spending on R&D – where the EU budget really can add value –should be radically increased.

The report was trailed by the Mail and the Times. Open Europe’s Pawel Swidlicki is quoted saying, “the Coalition is selling itself short in on-going talks over the EU’s long-term budget, given that its primary objectives of freezing spending and defending the rebate could be achieved simply by wielding its veto.” Andrea Leadsom MP is quoted by the Times, backing the proposal to focus structural funds on only the poorer member states. “It is ridiculous that we should be handing over money, that they administer, convert to euros, decide what to do with, then hand back,” she said. The report was also featured on Conservative Home and was cited separately in a leader in the Mail.
Open Europe press release Open Europe research Times Mail Mail: Leader Conservative Home

Spanish Treasury Minister’s remarks seen as an admission that Spain will need EU aid for its banks;
Rajoy U-turns on Eurobonds
Spanish Treasury Minister Cristóbal Montoro told Spanish radio Onda Cero yesterday, “The amount of money Spain’s financial sector needs is not very high, the point is where this money will come from…The figure is perfectly accessible, it’s no drama. What is needed is that the European institutions get moving and seek this bank recapitalisation through mechanisms that facilitate more Europe…and promote a European banking union.” He added, “The borrowing costs say that Spain doesn’t have the door open on the markets.” Montoro’s remarks have been seen as an admission that Spain will need to tap the eurozone’s bailout fund to recapitalise its banks. However, later in the day Montoro clarified that he was just calling for a “European banking union”, and not for a bailout.

Meanwhile, Die Welt reports that the eurozone’s temporary bailout fund, the EFSF, is readying an emergency credit line which Spain could use if the situation of its banks deteriorates further over the coming weeks. However, this option has been ruled out by Volker Kauder – the leader of the parliamentary faction of Chancellor Merkel’s CDU party – in an interview with ARD this morning. He added that “Spain should resort to the EFSF” to recapitalise its banks.

Open Europe’s Raoul Ruparel appeared on BBC 5 Live yesterday, discussing Spain’s economic situation. Separately, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy told the Spanish Senate yesterday, “ needs to support those who are in trouble and needs fiscal integration with a fiscal authority and banking integration, a banking union with Eurobonds, with a banking supervisor and a guarantee fund for European deposits.” Rajoy had previously said that Eurobonds were not a priority in the short term. Open Europe’s Raoul Ruparel was quoted by the Observer discussing the democratic constraints on the potential for a fiscal union in the eurozone.
Reuters España Welt Monday's Telegraph Monday's Times Monday's FT Monday's FT FT 2 El Mundo 3 El Mundo FT Times Times Guardian Irish Times Le Figaro Le Figaro 2 Les Echos Le Monde Mail Telegraph Independent EUobserver El Pa�*s El Mundo 2 Expansión El Mundo 4 Expansión 2 Süddeutsche

The Commission will today release its proposals for a new European bank resolution mechanism as talk of a European ‘banking union’ intensifies. The plans are expected to detail how losses can firstly be enforced on bondholders rather than taxpayers in the instance of a bank bailout.
FT FT Editorial Irish Times Le Figaro Les Echos Telegraph Mail IHT El Pa�*s Les Echos 2 Times Guardian

Rodney Leach, Baron Leach of Fairford, Chairman of Open Europe, writes on Conservative Home that the UK should not follow damaging EU legislation and “not hesitate to face infraction procedures if we are faced with badly thought-out measures imposed by Brussels.”
Conservative Home: Lord Leach

Monday’s Guardian reported that the UK Government has tried to water down a number of EU climate change targets on renewable energy and energy efficiency. These include the new EU commitment to source 30% of energy from renewables by 2030, and to make the current voluntary target of improving efficiency by 20% by 2020 mandatory.
Monday's Guardian

French Finance Minister: France will meet targets without additional austerity measures;
Former Prime Minister: Hollande threat to Franco-German axis
French Finance Minsiter Pierre Moscovici said on Monday that France would meet its 2013 3% budget deficit target and its 2017 balanced budget target without introducing fresh austerity measures. “I told that not only is it doable but it will be done” he said, adding “we take seriously the demands for budget credibility that the Commission is asking of us and which the situation demands of us”.

Meanwhile, in an interview with Le Figaro, former French Prime minister Francois Fillon warned that French President Francois Hollande’s insistence on European growth measures would “jeopardise the Franco-German relationship, which is the only partnership which can still take quick and efficient decisions in the current crisis”. He added that focusing on eurobonds was “misguided…how can we expect Germany to accept to pay for other countries when they have already made colossal efforts to increase their competitiveness and reduce their own deficit?”
Le Figaro EUobserver

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso failed to reach an agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the humanitarian crisis in Syria. Van Rompuy conceded that Russia “might have some divergent assessments”, after Putin refused to drop his support for the Assad Syrian regime. Van Rompuy and Barroso continue to endorse UN envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan, widely acknowledged as a failure over the weekend.
Times

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has played down a comment made on his Facebook page on Friday, in which he called for Italy to exit the single currency. He wrote on the social networking site the following day that the comment had been made “with a smile and irony…that a joke…could be mistaken for a proposal is certainly a serious error for those claiming to provide political news”.
Monday's Times Monday's Independent

A majority in the Czech parliament yesterday approved the change to the change to the EU treaties allowing for the creation of a €500bn European Stability Mechanism, the permanent eurozone bailout fund, due to be formally launched in July. Czech President Vaclav Klaus must still endorse the vote.
EUobserver

EUobserver reports that MEPs on the European Parliament’s recently established anti-mafia committee and the European Commission have revived talk of creating an EU public prosecutor's office. EU home affairs commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said it would be a “good idea,” but added that wider political backing was required.
EUobserver

The French government yesterday pressed at a public hearing in the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg to annul a key vote by MEPs, who last year voted to merge two of their October parliamentary sessions into one week in Strasbourg to save costs.
Singleseat.eu

Martin Callanan MEP, leader of the Conservative MEPs, writes on Conservative Home that the European Commission should “undo some of its previous actions and legislation, and even hand away some of its own powers to a much lower level.”
Conservative Home: Callanan

The Irish Times reports the Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte as saying the debt crisis needs to be resolved before any further talk of EU integration; “We have to tackle these problems and solve them right now – and not become lost in lengthy structural discussions about the future of Europe. Only then, once the immediate debt crisis has been resolved, will there be a firm base from which to reform the structure of the alliance – and tackle issues such as banking supervision.”
Times Irish Times

The Express reports on an ICM poll stating that 44% of Britons expect the UK to leave the EU compared to 31% who think it would remain a member.
Monday's Express

The Economist reports that Romania has the lowest absorption rate of EU funding across all member states at only 7.4%. Analysts blame a range of problems including corruption, a lack of motivation and information, inadequate administrative capacity and major gaps in understanding how EU institutions work.
Economist Open Europe Reasearch: EU Structural Funds

Bron: politics.be