Open Europe : Cut through the chatter

[Politics.be]

Front National finishes ahead in first by-election after Charlie Hébdo attack Front National candidate Sophie Montel won the first round of the by-election held in the Eastern constituency of Doubs on Sunday with 32.6% of votes – a 9% rise compared to the 2012 legislative election. She will face Socialist candidate Frédéric Barbier in the run-off next Sunday. The Doubs seat was vacant after Pierre Moscovici took over as EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner in November. The by-election was the first electoral test after last month’s terrorist attack on the headquarter of French satirical weekly Charlie Hébdo. Source: Le Point Le Monde

Greek Minister: Greek parliament will veto TTIP
Georgios Katrougkalos, the deputy minister for administrative reform in the new SYRIZA led government , told EurActiv “I can ensure you that a Parliament where SYRIZA holds the majority will never ratify the deal. And this will be a big gift not only to the Greek people but to all the European people.”

Source: EurActiv
New Greek government starts charm offensive across Europe, as ECB threatens to pull the plug
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis met his French counterpart Michel Sapin yesterday and is in London today for talks with UK Chancellor George Osborne. Speaking after the meeting, Sapin said France would help Greece achieve “a new contract” with its Eurozone partners, but ruled out a write-down of Greek debt. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told Bloomberg that Greece plans to repay its debts to the IMF and the ECB, and will try to reach “a mutually beneficial agreement” with other Eurozone countries. Meanwhile, Finnish Central Bank Governor Erkki Liikanen warned, “Greece’s programme extension will expire at the end of February, so some kind of solution must be found, otherwise can’t continue lending.”

Separately, Spanish daily El Pa�*s and German business daily Handelsblatt report that the European Commission is considering making a proposal to dissolve the EU/IMF/ECB Troika, in what would be a concession to the new Greek government. Open Europe’s breakdown of who currently holds Greek debt is cited by the BBC and Portuguese daily Diário de Noticias. Open Europe’s Head of Economic Research Raoul Ruparel is quoted by Reuters and The Daily Telegraph discussing Greece’s economic situation and the upcoming debt negotiations.

Source: Bloomberg El Pa�*s Le Point Handelsblatt City AM The Financial Times Reuters BBC The Daily Telegraph Diário de Noticias The Daily Telegraph: Lord Lamont
Tens of thousands attend Madrid rally of Spanish anti-austerity party Podemos
Tens of thousands of people took part in a march organised by Spain’s anti-austerity party Podemos in Madrid on Saturday. Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias told the rally, “One needs to listen to Nobel Prize winners and restructure the debt” of countries such as Greece and Spain. “European sovereignty is not in Davos or in the Bundesbank. It doesn’t belong to Merkel. It belongs to the citizens”, he added. Open Europe’s Vincenzo Scarpetta is quoted by German financial magazine Euro.

Source: El Pa�*s The Wall Street Journal
Renzi scores political win with election of new Italian President
On Saturday, the Italian parliament elected Constitutional Court judge Sergio Mattarella new Italian President with 665 votes – a large majority. Silvio Berlusconi ordered his party to abstain in disagreement with the choice of Mattarella. Open Europe’s Vincenzo Scarpetta is quoted by the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal as saying, “Renzi can celebrate a political win. He has united his party, kept his coalition together and forced Berlusconi into a corner. The key is whether this presidential election will have a negative impact on the broader reform process, since Renzi and Berlusconi are working together on wide-reaching plans to streamline Italy’s political system.”

Source: The Financial Times The Wall Street Journal La Stampa La Repubblica
Environment Secretary: CAP is having a damaging effect on British Farmers
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Environment and Rural Affairs Secretary Liz Truss claimed that she sees “all the time” the damaging impact that the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy can have on British farmers, citing the “three crop rule” – which stipulates that all but the smallest farms must grow at least three different crops in order to encourage “diversity” and protect the environment – as a problem because “it means that Brussels bureaucrats are going to be deciding what our farmers produce, rather than what consumers want.” She also argued that rules around pesticide use should be decided at the national rather than the EU level.

Source: Open Europe Intelligence Sunday Telegraph Sunday Telegraph 2
Lords warn UK losing influence over EU financial regulation
The House of Lords EU sub-committee on economic and financial affairs has warned that the UK Government needs to do more to beef up UK influence in the EU’s financial policymaking. The committee added that the EU’s three financial supervisory authorities – the European Banking Authority, the European Securities and Markets Authority and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority – lacked sufficient authority and funding, were insufficiently independent of the European Commission and needed to be strengthened to fend off future financial crises.

Source: The Times The Daily Telegraph Open Europe Intelligence
New poll: 58% of Conservative party members would vote to leave EU
Over half of Conservative party members polled by the website Conservative Home would vote to leave the EU. 33% said they would vote to stay in the EU, 58% to leave and 9% said they don’t know.

Source: Conservative Home
Open Europe publishes guest essay by Financial Times journalist Janan Ganesh

Open Europe has today published a guest essay by Janan Ganesh, political columnist for The Financial Times, in which he makes a reluctant case for Britain’s continued membership of the EU. Ganesh argues that while Europe is bossy, hidebound and increasingly removed from the world’s real motors of economic growth in Asia and America, there is currently no model for Brexit that would give us access to that market and influence over the rules of the single market. Instead, Ganesh argues that a substantial revision of the terms of our membership is achievable, and that should David Cameron remain as Prime Minister after the election, he should target changes to banking regulation, social policy and EU migrants’ access to welfare in his renegotiation.

Timeline

2014
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

2015
Cut through the chatter

28 countries. 14 languages. All policy areas. Today’s fresh EU developments.


Events Daily Shakeup
Campaigns Blog



Bron: politics.be