Open Europe : Daily Press Summary

[Politics.be]

Following a Freedom of Information Request by Open Europe, reported on page 2 of the Times, Treasury officials have disputed the claim made by Lib Dem Ministers Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander that the department believes three million jobs would be at risk if Britain left the EU. In June, Mr Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said that “the latest Treasury analysis shows that 3.3 million British jobs are connected to Britain’s place in Europe.”However, Treasury officials confirmed that the figure “is not an estimate of the impact of EU membership on employment”. The Times cites Open Europe’s analysis of the claim, which notes that the methodology was ten years old and imprecise, and the way that Mr Clegg and Mr Alexander used the statistic suggests that they believe UK exports to Europe will be nil if Britain leaves the EU, which is almost certain to be wrong. The Huffington Post also reports on the findings.Times Open Europe blog Open Europe FOI request Huffington Post

FAZ reports that, according to a study by the Allensbach Institute for Public Opinion Research, 44% of Germans, 58% of French, 41% of Spaniards and 62% of Brits want some EU powers returned to the national level – while only 7% of Germans, 16% of French and Spaniards, and 4% of Brits want the EU to get more powers.
No link

Kurt Lauk, President of the CDU’s Economic Council, an advisory group linked to Angela Merkel’s party, told Corriere della Sera, “Europe must open up the services market. This would bring benefit not only to Germany, but also to those countries that have a competitive advantage in this sector, such as Spain and Portugal.”
Open Europe research

Reports of Russian armoured vehicles entering Ukraine as shelling in Donetsk intensifies
The Russian convoy of trucks carrying humanitarian aid is reported to have stopped some 20 miles short of the Ukrainian border. The two sides, along with the EU and Red Cross, are in talks over reaching an agreement on how to get the aid into Ukraine. Speaking in Crimea yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would do everything in his power to deescalate the situation in Ukraine. However, Guardian and Telegraph reporters have said they saw over twenty Russian armoured trucks and personnel carriers crossing into Ukraine overnight.

Separately, fighting has intensified in Donetsk – with the centre of the city being shelled for the first time. The Ukrainian government has denied it was responsible for the shelling. Meanwhile, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico yesterday criticised the Ukrainian government for imposing its own sanctions on Russia, arguing that “a country which we are trying to help, instead of co-ordinating its actions with the EU, is taking unilateral action which endanger the economic interests of individual EU states.” Separately, the EU has said it will next week begin to compensate farmers hit by Russia’s retaliatory sanctions.
Guardian Telegraph FT WSJ Reuters WSJ 2 FT 2 FT 3 City AM Wyborcza Times Wyborcza 2 Welt Süddeutsche DWN FAZ

EU foreign ministers hold extraordinary meeting to discuss Iraq;
German Defence Minister does not rule out arms supplies to Kurds
EU foreign ministers will today hold an extraordinary meeting to discuss the situation in Iraq. The UK is prepared to supply weapons directly to Kurdish forces fighting against the Islamic State (Isis) in northern Iraq, reports the Guardian. In an interview with Bild, German Defence Minister Ursula Von der Leyen does not rule out arms supplies to the Kurds if Isis forces continue to gain ground. “If a genocide can only be prevented with German weapons, then we must help”, she argues.
Guardian NYT Bild: Von der Leyen

Kathimerini reports that the Greek government will likely continue to resist calls from the IMF for independent debt collection agencies to be employed to recover millions of euros of unpaid social security contributions. Estimates suggest there is currently €18bn in unpaid contributions outstanding.
Kathimerini

Die Welt reports that six Christian-Democrat MPs from Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands have written to German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) criticising his planned toll on foreign nationals using German roads as violating the EU principle of non-discrimination, and calling for border areas to be made exempt.
Welt

Writing in Handelsblatt, former Bundesbank President Axel Weber warns that “orientating monetary policy towards a short term inflation goal is risky.”
No link

A leader in the Economist argues, “The Dublin Regulation, a building block of Schengen, says that the first EU state where a migrant arrives, his fingerprints are stored, or an asylum claim is made, is responsible for the asylum claim…That is unfair and short-sighted.”
Economist: Leader Open Europe research

Bron: politics.be