Open Europe : Cut through the chatter

[Politics.be]

Labour manifesto pledges reform of EU budget, CAP and immigration rules The Labour Party unveiled their general election manifesto yesterday pledging to argue for a range of EU reforms including “tougher budget discipline,” reforming the Common Agricultural Policy and changing the rules around EU migrants’ access to benefits. The manifesto also includes a red-card mechanism allowing national parliaments to block EU legislation, a pledge to advocate the “completion of the single market” and a pledge to protect the interests of non-Euro members – all policies that have been proposed by Open Europe in the past. Open Europe’s Pawel Swidlicki is quoted by EurActiv saying, “Once we get past the rhetoric, there is a substantial degree of cross-party consensus on the substance of EU reform. Nonetheless, the single biggest difference is in terms of strategy; the Tories favour a tough and direct renegotiation backed up by a referendum while Labour favour a more piecemeal approach.” Source: Labour Party Manifesto Open Europe Blog EurActiv

Gibraltar warns over prospect of Brexit
The Financial Times reports that Fabian Picardo, Gibraltar’s Chief Minister and Leader of the Gibraltarian Socialist Labour party has warned that “The only existential threat to our economy is one where we are pulled out of the European Union against our will and denied access to the single market.”

Source: The Financial Times Open Europe Intelligence
Greek government denies reports it is considering default or early elections
The Financial Times reports that the Greek government is readying plans for a debt default if an agreement on the release of bailout funds is not reached with the Eurozone by the end of April. The plan would see Greece withhold €2.5bn in payments to the IMF in May and June. The office of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras rejected the report, stating that talks are moving “swiftly towards a mutually beneficial solution.” The government also rejected yesterday’s Bild report that it is considering early elections.

Meanwhile, European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis said in an interview with Bloomberg TV, “Right now the discussions are gaining speed but on the other hand time is also running out. There is still lots of work to do, lots of ground to cover,” adding that at the start of the negotiations “lots of time was wasted on relatively irrelevant topics.”

Source: Kathimerini The Financial Times Reuters Bloomberg TV La Tribune
Chief EU-US free-trade deal negotiator complains about lack of support from European leaders
Ignacio Garc�*a Bercero, the EU’s chief negotiator on TTIP, the EU-US free trade agreement, complains in Het Financieele Dagblad that “if leaders of EU countries want the negotiations to succeed, they need to take responsibility and explain to the public how things are. They already do this better than before, but whenever it gets politically sensitive it remains easier to shield behind the European Commission.” With regard to investor protection clauses (ISDS), Garc�*a Bercero says, “I would have trouble explaining to a European company which feels discriminated in the US that it needs to address a US judge, while a Japanese competitor would be able to make use of an arbitration court.”

Source: Het Financieele Dagblad
ECB suggests asset purchases have helped boost lending to real economy
The ECB has said that, according to results of its quarterly bank lending survey, the additional lending created by its asset purchase programme “seems to be effective in supporting lending to the euro-area economy.” The survey showed 28% of banks used the additional liquidity to grant loans to companies, 17% used it for mortgages and 18% to lend to households. Overall, credit to enterprises eased while credit to households tightened slightly.

Source: European Central Bank: Press Release
Gazprom warns Europe may face higher gas prices
Speaking at a conference in Berlin yesterday, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller warned that Europe could face higher natural gas prices if the EU presses on in its effort to reduce Russia’s energy-market power. Meanwhile, the foreign ministers of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France released a statement after a late-night meeting in Berlin yesterday, calling for more heavy weaponry to be withdrawn from the front lines in eastern Ukraine.

Source: The Wall Street Journal BBC The Financial Times
Dutch member of EU Court of Auditors: Incomprehensible that MEPs keep signing off on EU accounts
Alex Brenninkmeijer, the Dutch member of the European Court of Auditors, has told De Volkskrant, “It’s incomprehensible that the Court of Auditors has criticised the EU’s accounts for twenty years, but the European Parliament has approved them afterwards anyway.” He suggests the Court temporarily stop publishing its annual report, noting that “it costs €80m per year, which is 60% of our budget.”

Source: Volkskrant Volkskrant 2 Z24
Google must ‘respect our rules’ or we will ‘force’ them to - European Commissioner
European Digital Commissioner Günther Oettinger has said that he expects a decision in the EU’s proceedings against Google soon. Reuters Deutschland quotes Oettinger as saying that the Commission needs to demonstrate that it has teeth and that “we need to need to ensure that these platforms, these search engines, respect our rules here in Europe – if necessary we will force them to do so.”

Source: Reuters Deutschland
Wilders: Islam does not belong in Germany
Speaking at a rally of the ‘anti-Islamisation’ Pegida movement in Dresden, Geert Wilders, the leader of the Dutch anti-immigrant PVV party argued, “Your Chancellor, Frau Merkel, has said Islam belongs in Germany and I ask you, is she right? She’s not right.” Wilders also demanded the reintroduction of border controls within the EU. The rally was attended by around 10,000 people – less than Pegida had hoped. Wilders’ appearance was roundly condemned by politicians from the CDU and SPD.

Source: Die Welt Handelsblatt The Guardian
Finnish elections: Populist Finns party in tight race for second place
The Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat reports that the Centre Party has fallen from its peak of 26% to 23%, while both Prime Minister Alexander Stubb’s National Coalition Party (NCP) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) are on 17%. Meanwhile, support for the Finns Party has risen to 16.2%.

Source: Helsingin Sanomat
Hundreds of migrants feared dead attempting to cross Mediterranean
Italy’s coast guard has said 5,629 migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean were rescued over the weekend in operations carried out by the coast guard and navy. However, hundreds of migrants are feared dead. “This is a human tragedy in the making,” Carlotta Sami, a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Rome, said “What is missing is a credible European operation that is able to save thousands. A few Italian coastguard ships are not enough.”

Source: The Financial Times The Wall Street Journal The Times

Bron: politics.be