Open Europe : Cut through the chatter

[Politics.be]

ECB piles pressure on Tsipras by restricting liquidity access for Greek banks Earlier than expected, the ECB announced yesterday that it would no longer accept Greek bonds as collateral from Greek banks in return for liquidity as of next Wednesday. Greek banks will still be allowed to get emergency funding from the Greek Central Bank, via the so-called Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) facility. However, the ECB can veto the use of ELA with a two-thirds majority in the Governing Council. The ECB is due to carry out the next review of the ELA facility on 18 February. The ECB’s move increases pressure on the new Greek government to strike a deal with its creditors before the 28 February – when Greece’s bailout programme expires. The Greek Finance Ministry said in a statement that the ECB “is putting pressure on the Eurogroup [of Eurozone finance ministers] to move quickly to seal a new mutually beneficial deal between Greece and its partners.” Meanwhile, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis will today hold talks with his German counterpart Wolfgang Schäuble in Berlin. According to a leaked document seen by Reuters, the German government rejects any proposal from the new Greek government to “roll back” on the reform agenda agreed by its predecessor. The Guardian Live Blog cites Open Europe’s blog post arguing that SYRIZA appears to have blinked first in the negotiations by dropping its demands for a debt write-down. Source: ECB press release Il Sole 24 Ore Kathimerini Reuters Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Süddeutsche Zeitung Handelsblatt

New poll confirms rise of Spain’s anti-austerity party Podemos
According to a new CIS poll released yesterday, Spain’s anti-austerity party Podemos would finish second in a general election on 23.9% – ahead of the Socialist Party on 22.2%. It is the first time the Socialist Party came third in a CIS poll. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s Partido Popular is in the lead on 27.3%. The poll was conducted between 2 and 12 January, before the SYRIZA victory in the Greek elections.

Source: El Mundo
Swiss Finance Minister calls for referendum to define relations with EU
Swiss Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said on Wednesday that Switzerland should hold a new referendum to help define its new relationship with the EU. In February 2014, Swiss voters narrowly backed imposing quotas on EU migrants, jeopardising other EU-Swiss agreements which have given Switzerland favourable access to EU markets since 1999.

Source: EUobserver
Merkel and Hollande in surprise crisis visit to Kiev and Moscow
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande will make an unexpected visit to Kiev today to hold crisis talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroschenko, moving onward to Moscow on Friday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “We will put forward a new solution to solve the crisis,” Hollande said in Paris this morning. US Secretary of State John Kerry is already in Kiev for the talks, while US Vice President Joe Biden will tomorrow meet with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and European Council President Donald Tusk in Brussels.

Source: Spiegel Online The New York Times
German development bank chairman: Juncker’s investment plan based on erroneous reasoning
The chairman of the German government-owned development bank (KfW), Ulrich Schröder, confirmed yesterday that the KfW will contribute €8bn to the planned €315bn EU investment programme, remarking however that “there is a small error of reasoning in Juncker’s plan: Europe does not lack liquidity but good projects.”

Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Berlusconi breaks reform pact with Renzi after presidential election
Silvio Berlusconi’s top political advisor, Giovanni Toti, said yesterday that the pact on constitutional reforms with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi “is broken” after Renzi refused to agree with Berlusconi on the name of the new Italian President. Berlusconi’s decision is likely to make the approval of these reforms more complicated.

Source: Open Europe Blog Corriere della Sera La Stampa
New rules aim to ensure NHS claims back cost of treating EU migrants
The Times reports that under a trial scheme due to be launched in ten areas with high levels of migration, GPs will ask EU migrants to produce their European Health Insurance Card in order to allow the NHS to claim back the costs of their treatment from their respective governments. Other EU governments are already supposed to refund the UK, but due to the lack of a formalised NHS procedure, the Department of Health estimates that the UK only reclaims £73m out of a potential £500m total.

Source: The Times The Daily Mail
UK employment tribunal to look at ECJ case on commission and overtime
A UK employment tribunal will today revisit an ECJ ruling which found that in some cases employees whose overtime had not been included in calculations were entitled to extra holiday pay. Today’s case will decide if commission payments should also be included, potentially adding to employers’ costs. Separately, the Advocate General of the ECJ is expected to deliver an opinion on whether staff made redundant by firms such as Woolworths were correctly collectively consulted and entitled to compensation.

Source: The Daily Telegraph
European Commission raises its growth forecast for Eurozone
The European Commission yesterday raised its forecasts for gross domestic product (GDP) expansion in the Eurozone to 1.3 percent this year from the 1.1 percent seen in November and to 1.9 percent in 2016 from an earlier 1.7 percent.

Source: City AM
Gearing up for renegotiation: How to win in Europe

Open Europe invites you to a discussion with two former top EU negotiators on how the UK can achieve sweeping reform in Europe. If David Cameron is re-elected in May, he will have to start the promised EU renegotiation immediately to meet the 2017 referendum deadline. But does the government have the structure in place to pull off the complex negotiations on such a short timetable? Based on their experience of top-level EU talks, David Frost, the former Director for Europe, Trade and International Affairs at the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, and Nikhil Rathi, the Former Director of the Financial Services Group at the UK Treasury will look at the tone, tactics, strategy and structure that Cameron must pursue in order to win in Europe.

Places are limited and are available on a first-come-first serve basis. RVSP here or email [email protected] to register.

Bron: politics.be