Open Europe : Daily Press Summary

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Leaked ECB report shows that €1 trillion in asset purchases may boost eurozone inflation by only 0.2% to 0.8% FAZ reported over the weekend that, according to a leaked report from the ECB, the central bank has modelled the impact of a €1 trillion per year Quantitative Easing (QE) programme. The models found that purchasing that level of euro-denominated securities would only boost inflation by between 0.2% and 0.8%, while central bank officials warned that the programme could create side-effects, and that the market for private assets in Europe may not be large enough for such a programme. Reuters FT Weekend Saturday’s FAZ

Die Zeit: “Europe should urgently listen” to Open Europe’s reform proposals
Die Zeit’s London correspondent, John F. Jungclaussen, writes, “There are not only shrill tones in the cacophony of the British Europe debate. In the lower frequencies, there are contributions which Europe should urgently listen to. They come from a group of parliamentarians from both Houses and different parties that joined efforts because they want to engage constructively. Together with the think tank Open Europe, they develop concrete reform proposals which are just as pragmatic as they are meaningful. A particularly good example: the completion of the Single Market in Services.” Jungclaussen cites Open Europe’s report showing that further liberalising the EU’s services markets would produce a permanent increase to EU-wide GDP of up to 2.3% or €294bn.
Open Europe report: Kick-starting growth Zeit: JungclaussenGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU party officially adopted its European elections manifesto at its party congress in Berlin over the weekend. The manifesto includes the provision that “a repatriation of competences to the national level should be possible.”
CDU European Manifesto

CDU considers limiting German Constitutional Court’s powers to rule on EU policy
FAZ reports that German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière (CDU) has consulted leading constitutional law experts about the possibility of restricting the German Constitutional Court’s powers over EU policy. However, Justice Minister Heiko Maas, of the SPD, replied that, “The criticism is exaggerated and inappropriate. There will be no changes to the structure and competences of the Constitutional Court under my watch.”
EUobserver

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has won a landslide victory in Sunday’s parliamentary elections. According to exit polls, the far-right Jobbik party won 20.7% of votes, up from 15.9% four years ago.
FT EurActiv BBC Spiegel Handelslblatt

Pro-Russian forces seize buildings in Eastern Ukraine;
Russia threatens to cut off Ukraine’s gas unless bills are paid
Fears of a Russian invasion of Eastern Ukraine were revived on Sunday, as pro-Russia forces attacked local government buildings in Donetsk, Kharkiv and Luhansk calling for referenda on independence. Ceske Noviny reports that Czech President Milos Zeman has urged NATO to send its troops into Ukraine in the event of a Russian invasion. Separately, Russia is threatening to cut off Ukraine’s gas supply on Monday, unless it starts paying off an outstanding debt of $2.2bn and agrees to a gas-price hike of 80%. Open Europe’s research showing that only 1% of the UK’s financial services exports go to Russia, compared with 6% to Switzerland and 37% to the EU, was quoted by the Observer.
Open Europe research: EU and Ukraine Observer FT City AM WSJ WSJ 2 WSJ 3 Times Independent BBC EUobserver Ceske Noviny Bloomberg

Open Europe’s blog post featuring a translation of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s speech to the FDP in Berlin is cited by Deutsche Wirtschaftsnachrichten. Rutte used the speech to stress that national parliaments’ legitimacy “is greater than that of the European Parliament.”
Open Europe blog DWN

The new French government led by Prime Minister Manuel Valls will face a vote of confidence in parliament tomorrow. Ahead of the vote, over 80 Socialist MPs have signed a letter calling for “an end to the austerity policies that have sunk Europe into recession” as one of the conditions for their support to the new government.
JDD Le Figaro Les Echos

According to leaked EU documents seen by the Telegraph, the UK Government’s plans to opt back in to the EU’s European Arrest Warrant but apply a new “proportionality” test could be blocked by France and Spain. MPs will debate the Government’s opt-in plans today, but there will be no vote.
Open Europe research Open Europe research 2 Telegraph

The European Court of Justice will tomorrow announce its verdict on whether the EU’s Data Retention Directive is compatible with the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Germany – the only EU member state not to have transposed the Directive into national law – has said it will wait for the ECJ ruling before putting forward new domestic legislation.
Welt

The UK’s EEF manufacturers’ association has called for a “cull” of the EU’s 28 European Commissioners, and a cut in red tape to remove barriers to growth. It also calls for a “one-in, one-out” principle for proposed EU laws.
Open Europe research: EU regulation FT City AM Telegraph

Writing in the Telegraph about air pollution, London Mayor Boris Johnson notes, “It would be fair to say that we have not been assisted in our campaign by some more or less useless EU standards for vehicle emissions.”
Telegraph: Johnson

Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen has announced that he will step down in June. A communiqué issued by Katainen’s National Coalition Party stresses that he is “interested in European or other international positions, should the opportunity arise.”
NCP communiqué La Tribune FT

City AM reports that, according to a spokesman from the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, the UK’s £5bn Export Refinancing Scheme – launched in July 2012 – is not operational because it has been caught in bureaucratic EU processes for two years.
BBC CityAM Guardian Hansard

Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission President candidate of the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), said in Berlin on Saturday, “If I become European Commission President, there will be no Eurobonds.”
FAZ Reuters

Kathimerini reports that the Greek government will probably seek to issue new bonds this Thursday or next, as it looks to return to the bond markets. Meanwhile, Klaus Regling, Managing Director of the ESM, the eurozone’s bailout fund, has warned Greece not to pay too high a price when returning to the markets.
Kathimerini Kathimerini 2 Kathimerini 3 Reuters FAZ

The FT Weekend reports that negotiations over part of the EU’s Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive have reopened after the Bank of England found that the wording of the law could prohibit national central banks from providing emergency lending to banks without forcing them to take losses.
FT Weekend

The FT reports that, following pressure from Germany, the European Commission has watered down its draft rules for renewable energy subsidies, including restrictions on industry rebates in order to allow Germany’s renewables law to be put to the federal cabinet prior to their publication on Wednesday.
FT

The Telegraph reports that Polish MP Artur Debski is living as a migrant in London on £100 a week, in order to find out “what works in the UK, and bring these things to Poland.” The paper quotes an IPSOS poll showing that 72% of Poles living in the UK intend to stay, and that 40% are thinking of applying for British citizenship.
Telegraph


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