Open Europe : Daily Press Summary

[Politics.be]

Russia formally annexes Crimea; France, Germany and UK undecided on further actionRussian President Vladimir Putin formally annexed the Crimea yesterday in a Moscow ceremony featuring a fiercely anti-western speech, shortly before the first Ukrainian soldier was killed in Crimea. In response, Ukrainian president Oleksandr Turchynov has authorized Ukrainian forces in Crimea to use their weapons for self-defence. EU states have given a mixed message on further EU action, with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius announcing that “we have decided to suspend Russia’s [G8] participation.” However, Germany’s Chancellor, Angela Merkel contradicted him, saying that there had been “no change” in Russia’s G8 status. Meanwhile, UK Foreign Minister William Hague told Parliament that the UK believes “that under current circumstances there is a compelling case for EU member states to act on defense-export license.” However, France, which has a pending €1.4 billion contract to deliver warships to the Russian navy, has linked a potential arms embargo to wider sanctions. Mr Fabius said, “If Putin continues to do what he’s doing, we can envisage cancelling those sales [of Mistral ships], but we’ll ask others, I’m thinking in particular to the British, to do the equivalent with the assets of Russian oligarchs in London. Sanctions must touch everyone.”Open Europe’s briefing of the crisis, which finds that EU sanctions on Russia could have a “catastrophic impact on the Russian economy,” in the long term, is cited by the Telegraph, the Guardian live blog and Proactive Investors. Open Europe’s Raoul Ruparel appeared on LBC last night arguing, however, that broader economic sanctions could be difficult for EU states to agree. Open Europe Director Mats Persson argues on his Telegraph blog, that “the EU remains a bloc of 28 different foreign policies, so even with some potentially effective options on the table, the hardest part will be reaching a clear position.”Open Europe: EU and Ukraine: what are the limits of Europe? Open Europe: Press release Telegraph blogs: Persson Open Europe blog Libération Handelsblatt JDD French Foreign Ministry Spiegel EUobserver Reuters Deutschland Der Standard Times Times: Boyes Independent Mail FAZ FAZ 2 FAZ: Kohler Süddeutsche Süddeutsche: Hans FT FT 2 WSJ Telegraph Euractiv BBC FT 3 FT 4 Euractiv WSJ 2 FT 5 FT 6 Irish Times European Voice Guardian live blog Proactive Investors Telegraph Euractiv

Open Europe’s estimate that the top 100 EU regulations cost the UK £27 billion annually is cited by Forbes’ Capital Flows blog.
Forbes Open Europe research: Top 100 regulations

Britain could lose as many as 200,000 jobs because of protectionist financial regulations in European countries, according to a report by TheCityUK. It added that there is a “credible fear” that the new mechanisms to support the eurozone’s single supervisory mechanism, under the “banking union”, will damage the City’s standing and that the Government should therefore adopt a more “muscular” defence of the UK’s financial sector.
Times FT Open Europe research: Financial services

Politiken reports that, according to figures from the Danish Labour Ministry, government spending on unemployment benefits to migrants from Eastern and Central Europe in Denmark has increased tenfold between 2008 and 2012 – from DKK 32m to DKK 345m. The article notes that Danish politicians from across the spectrum have called for the issue to be addressed. However, the European Commission has said that the existing Danish rules on unemployment benefits breaches EU law .
Berlingske Politiken Open Europe blog

DPA reports that a working group of the German government which is examining measures to prevent the abuse of social benefits, has proposed restricting the length of residence permits for EU jobseekers in Germany; issuing temporary re-entry bans; and linking child benefit payments to tax identification numbers.
No link

Negotiators from the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament will meet today in a last-ditch attempt to agree on the eurozone’s single bank resolution mechanism in time for the European Parliament’s April plenary session – the last one before the European elections.
Expansión Le Monde

The Greek government reached a deal with the EU/IMF/ECB Troika yesterday, paving the way for the next disbursement of €10bn in bailout funds, which Greece hopes to secure at the informal meeting of eurozone finance ministers on 1 April. Separately, Piraeus bank yesterday issued €500m in bonds, the first Greek bank to do so since 2009.
Kathimerini Kathimerini 2 FT City AM WSJ City AM 2 Kathimerini 3 Bloomberg

Speaking in the House of Commons yesterday, British Justice Secretary Chris Grayling announced that the UK was unlikely to opt into a number of new EU crime and policing proposals, including on the presumption of innocence in criminal trials. Grayling said, “We do not believe in the harmonisation of court and legal procedure”.
Open Europe research: EU crime and policing laws Hansard Evening Standard

ECB Head of Financial Supervision Daniele Nouy warned yesterday that “zombie banks” in Europe will have to “disappear” in the aftermath of the upcoming bank asset review.
Reuters Reuters 2

Italy’s Supreme Court yesterday upheld Silvio Berlusconi’s two-year public office ban in the Mediaset tax fraud case. As a result, the former Italian Prime Minister will not be allowed to run in the upcoming European Parliament elections.
La Repubblica La Stampa Corriere della Sera Reuters Deutschland

The German government considers the suggested compromise over its green energy rebate for energy intensive industries put forward by EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia as “unacceptable” reports Die Welt. The paper describes the proposals as a “deception”.
Welt

Gazeta Wyborcza reports that Poland would like to join the euro in the future but without having to first participate in the ERM II – the final stage before membership where the national currency is fixed to the euro with limited scope for fluctuation – due to fears that this would expose the Polish currency to speculators.
Wyborcza

EU Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier has said banks that pay employees monthly allowances, in order to boost their take-home pay without directly contravening the EU’s bonus cap, will be examined by the European Banking Authority.
City AM

China and the EU have resolved a dispute over the pricing of a key component in solar panels. Chinese officials have also suggested that Beijing and Brussels should establish an “early warning system” to prevent future trade battles.
Open Europe blog FT

US medical device entrepreneurs who have relocated their businesses to Europe in search of a more favourable regulatory climate fear that an overhaul of EU rules will slow down approvals, the FT reports.
FT

The European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy has voted for amendments to EU telecoms proposals that would hand the Commission more powers to review how governments allocate spectrum, ending roaming fees, and rules on net neutrality that would stop internet providers from discriminating against traffic from particular sources.
WSJ

Women who become mothers through surrogacy cannot claim maternity leave, the European Court of Justice ruled yesterday. However, from next April in Britain, intended parents via surrogacy would be entitled to take paid leave.
Times WSJ
EU and Ukraine sign political chapters of Association Agreement with Ukraine;
EU extends targeted sanctions list as Russian Parliament formally approves annexation of Crimea
EU leaders and Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk this morning formally signed the political chapters of the Association Agreement setting out closer cooperation between the EU and Ukraine in Brussels. The economic chapters of the Agreement are expected to be signed by 1 November 2014 – pending approval from Kiev.

Meanwhile, EU leaders yesterday decided to add 12 more people onto its list of targeted sanctions, following a move by the US to extend its own list and to specifically target Bank Rossiya over its close ties to the Kremlin. EU leaders maintained that the bloc that it would move to “step three,” or broader economic sanctions, on Russia if the situation continues to deteriorate.

Separately, both houses of the Russian Parliament have today formally approved the draft law annexing Crimea into Russia. Open Europe’s Nina Schick appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme; BBC World Service’s Newshour, and BBC World News’ World Business Report discussing the EU’s response to the crisis, and the ongoing talks for an IMF bailout of the Ukrainian economy. Open Europe’s briefing on the crisis is cited by AFP.
Open Europe briefing Times BBC European Voice European Voice Euractiv Telegraph FAZ FAZ 2 FAZ: Veser FAZ: Kohler Süddeutsche Irish Independent Bild Rzeczpospolita Welt Irish Independent 2 WSJ WSJ: Fidler Economist: Charlemagne European Council conclusions AFP Spiegel Handelsblatt live blog Reuters Deutschland Reuters Deutschland 2 WSJ: Pomerantsev Economist FT Times: Leader European Voice Euractiv Telegraph TVN 24 FAZ Bild TVN 24 Wyborcza Rzeczpospolita

Swedish Moderate MEP: European Parliament acts as a “cheerleader” for the Commission rather than holding it to account
At an Open Europe debate in Brussels on how MEPs across the political spectrum can work together to achieve EU reform, Swedish Moderate MEP Christofer Fjellner argued that the European Parliament acts as a “cheerleader” for the Commission rather than holding it to account, and that far too often, “when the Commission comes up with a good proposal, the Parliament makes it bad. When the Commission comes up with a bad proposal, the Parliament makes it worse”.

Conservative MEP Martin Callanan, who leads the ECR Group, praised the move towards more “roll-call votes” – where MEPs’ presence and votes are registered – but he noted that even this modest reform had been held-up for a long time. Swedish Green MEP Carl Schlyter argued that the EU needs to become more transparent, with better public access to documents, as “500 million Europeans will do a much better job scrutinising than one internal controller could ever do.” The event was covered by Swedish EU news website Europaportalen.
Open Europe events Europaportalen

The Telegraph reports on new figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility which show that the UK’s contribution to the EU budget will increase by £1bn as a result of weak eurozone growth.
Open Europe blog

The FT reports on CBI research which finds that companies would be more likely to “reshore’’ operations if the EU reduced business regulations, quoting the CBI’s chief policy director Katja Hall as saying this “shows a real appetite across the continent to reform the EU and bring more jobs back to Europe… European businesses want a single market fit for the 21st century, better regulation and a Commission that respects national boundaries.”
FT

Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander has told the Independent that “I take UKIP very seriously. The truth is that UKIP presents an electoral challenge to all political parties” and that “Of course people want change so the EU works better for Britain” adding that “If there is a transfer of sovereignty from Britain to Brussels in the future, then there will be an in/out referendum. But that is not our priority.”
Independent: Alexander

As new details on the phone-tapping scandal involving Nicolas Sarkozy continue to emerge, the former French President writes in Le Figaro, “I’ve never demanded to be above the law, but I can’t accept being below it. To those who fear my comeback: be sure that the best way to avoid it would be to let me live my life simply, quietly. Basically, as a ‘normal’ citizen.”
Le Figaro: Sarkozy

In an interview with EurActiv, Labour’s shadow Europe minister Gareth Thomas claimed that “It is nonsense, complete nonsense, to suggest we are thinking of leaving the European socialist party (PES).”
EurActiv

At the European Council yesterday, Luxembourg and Austria – the two EU member states most wedded to bank secrecy - agreed to back EU plans to increase transparency in tax reporting.
EUobserver Welt FAZ Handelsblatt

The Times reports that, in private talks with President Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel backed Jens Stoltenberg, 55, the former Norwegian Prime Minister, to become the new NATO Secretary General.
Times

New figures published by the Spanish government today show that over 3 million tourists visited Spain in February – an 11.2% increase compared to February 2013, reports Expansión.
Expansión El Mundo




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