Open Europe : Daily Press Summary

[Politics.be]

Fricke: Germany needs Britain’s support in Europe; Leadsom: No reason why UK/EU relationship cannot ever be amended Speaking at Open Europe’s joint panel discussion with the German Embassy in London yesterday, German FDP MP and budgetary spokesman Otto Fricke argued that Germany wants “to be part of a European leadership, but we don’t want to be the European leader”, and therefore needed support from countries like Britain, in particular because “we don’t have France to lean on.”

Conservative MP Andrea Leadsom argued that Britain and Germany were already allies on issues such as fiscal discipline and economic liberalisation, but that while Germany was embarking on further eurozone integration, the UK had to find a looser relationship with the EU to align it more closely with public opinion. She added that the UK would remain at the heart of the single market so it would not be ‘isolated’. Dr. Markus Kerber, Chief Executive of the German Federation of Industry (BDI), expressed a wish for Britain to “become the speaker of the group of ten .” A short video summary of the event will be available on our website.

At a separate joint Open Europe and Friedrich Naumann Foundation event on UK-German relations in Brussels, FDP MP and foreign affairs spokesman Rainer Stinner argued that it was necessary to allow a more flexible approach to EU integration, adding, “If there are other major European countries which like to be on board in the free trade area, we should find ways for them to participate in that, but they should not need to participate in other areas.”

Meanwhile, in a letter to the Evening Standard, Open Europe’s Pieter Cleppe argues, “Britain should see the great potential for partnership with Germany to ensure that eurozone integration does not destroy the single market.”
Open Europe events Open Europe multimedia

Van Rompuy: Treaty changes after 2014 to complete economic and monetary union
The Telegraph reports on the latest roadmap “Towards a genuine EMU” drafted by European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, which sees the ECB being given an operational framework as single financial supervisor by March next year, rather than the end of this year as initially scheduled. The plan also sees the next stages of a banking union – a combined resolution fund and deposit guarantee scheme – being drawn up once the single supervisor is in place next year, with potential changes to the EU treaties after 2014. The report also argues that “national parliaments are not in the best position” to take the common interest of the union into account when making budgetary decisions, thereby suggesting more pooled sovereignty is needed.
HvR report Telegraph

Open Europe Director Mats Persson is today giving evidence to the House of Lords EU Sub-Committee on External Affairs’ inquiry into the EEAS – the EU’s diplomatic service.
Parliament TV

Prof Dr Michael Wohlgemuth – the Director of Open Europe Berlin, Open Europe’s independent sister organisation – was interviewed by Spanish daily La Razón discussing Angela Merkel’s re-election as CDU leader and what it means for the future of the eurozone.
La Razón: Wohlgemuth

Greece back in ‘selective default’ due to bond buyback
Standard & Poor’s last night once again downgraded Greece to ‘selective default’, stating that, “ constitutes the launch of what we consider to be a distressed debt restructuring.” Separately, in a letter to the Guardian, Paul Rayment, former Director of Economic Analysis at the UN Economic Commission for Europe, notes, “The Brussels bureaucracy knew very well before 2009 that several European governments were using the services of private-sector financial institutions to disguise the extent of their budget deficits. In 2005, the then EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner, Joaqu�*n Almunia, announced he was allocating more staff to the task of keeping up with the various tricks.”
Kathimerini El Pa�*s La Tribune FTD Welt Bild Süddeutsche Kathimerini 2 Guardian: Letters

European Commission proposes 1.7% pay increase for EU officials
FAZ reports that the European Commission has today proposed that EU officials ought to get a 1.7% salary increase, backdated to July 2012. The Commission has rejected the option of using a provision in the staff regulations to suspend this automatic adjustment in view of the on-going crisis, as demanded by EU member states. An ECJ ruling is still pending over the decision to award an identical pay rise to EU officials last year.
FAZ El Mundo

Silvio Berlusconi said in a communiqué that he is “besieged” by people asking him to run for Italian Prime Minister in next year’s elections, and will make a decision “within the next few days.”
Repubblica Repubblica 2 Corriere della Sera Il Sole 24 Ore Asca

The Scotsman reports that the European Commission has written to a House of Lords committee stating that, if Scottish voters were to back independence in the 2014 referendum, existing treaties which cover the UK’s EU membership would “cease to apply” to Scotland.
Open Europe blog Scotsman BBC

Scuffles between the Irish police and anti-austerity protesters took place after the presentation of the Irish budget for 2013, which envisages up to €3.5bn in tax hikes and spending cuts.
Irish Independent WSJ FT

The WSJ quotes a top Spanish government official as saying, “If guarantee the risk premium would be kept 200 basis points lower, would ask for a bailout tomorrow.”
WSJ Expansión El Economista

DPA reports that member states have been unable to meet their target of laying down common conditions for the reception of asylum seekers across the EU by the end of this year.
Open Europe research

EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht has told MEPs that Russia has done little since its entry into the WTO to scrap its protectionist policies, adding, “We would prefer to negotiate our way to a solution. However, if that does not prove possible, we are most certainly prepared to use all the legal avenues at our disposal.”
WSJ FT

European Parliament President Martin Schulz has warned that MEPs will reject the 2013 EU budget compromise unless there are guarantees that outstanding bills from 2012 will not be absorbed in next year’s budget, EUobserver reports.
EUobserver

The FT reports that three former Deutsche Bank employees have alleged in complaints to US regulators that the bank failed to recognise up to $12bn of paper losses during the financial crisis, helping the bank avoid a government bailout.
FT

EUobserver reports that, at a meeting of EU interior ministers today, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands will call for the reintroduction of visas for passport holders from Western Balkan countries.
EUobserver

Bron: politics.be