Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Open Europe press summary, 4 June 2008

Europe

Recruitment and Employment Confederation says "1.3 million temp workers are keeping business in the UK moving" - don't let EU directive wreck it

PA reports that new research published today by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation shows that an increasing number of firms are hiring temporary workers in the face of the current economic difficulties. The report said temporary posts increased at a "solid pace" in recent months while permanent jobs fell. Kevin Green, the Confederation's Chief Executive, said: "Every week, 1.3 million temporary workers are keeping business in the UK moving. Temp and contract work provides vital opportunities for workers which is why it is crucial that the detail of the proposed EU agency workers directive which is being discussed in Luxembourg next week does not impact on the viability of the UK temp model."

REC

Conservative Party asks Chichester for "full explanation" of £445,000 MEP staff allowances paid to family firm

The Telegraph reports that David Cameron has asked the leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament, Giles Chichester, to give a "full explanation" of the £445,000 MEP staff allowances paid to Chichester's family firm since 1996. The article notes that EP officials have contacted Chichester twice, raising a "potential conflict of interest". A Conservative Party spokesman said last night: "We have asked Mr Chichester for a full explanation and a detailed account of his Parliamentary expenses". Open Europe's Neil O'Brien is quoted as saying, "David Cameron will want to act decisively to make sure Conservative MEPs are seen to be accountable for spending public money. Clearly anyone who is found guilty of wrongdoing can not continue in their position."

Conservative Home argues that come next year's European elections "Our MEPs could be vulnerable on a number of fronts and it is vital that David Cameron acts now to deal with some of the ethical questions surrounding them. Decisive action may be uncomfortable in the short-run but he will build his status as a politician who wants to restore faith in politics. Mr Cameron took decisive action against Derek Conway and must take similar action against any MEPs who are found guilty of wrongdoing."

Telegraph Conservative Home

"Unfair" European energy markets hurting UK consumers and industry

The front page of the Mail reports that UK energy consumers are facing increasing bills as a result of the strategy of foreign energy companies of "rationing" supplies to Britain.

The article says "the country is no longer self-sufficient in gas from the North Sea and has become reliant on imports during the winter. Foreign power firms are buying cheap North Sea gas from Britain in the summer and putting it into vast storage facilities on the Continent. They then refuse to pipe it back to the UK when it is needed in the winter, effectively rationing supplies and pushing up prices. The UK is vulnerable to these strong-arm tactics because we have such tiny gas holding facilities that we cannot store cheap North Sea gas in the summer for use in the winter."

According to the OECD, UK energy prices have jumped 13.6 per cent in the past year, adding hundreds of pounds to domestic bills. This compares with 9.5 per cent in Germany, 12 per cent in France and just 2.8 per cent in the Netherlands.

The Guardian focuses on the negative effect on British industry caused by the "unfair" state of energy markets. Christopher Tane, Chief Executive of the chemical company Ineos ChlorVinyls, said: "It is perfectly clear that liberalised continental markets will not happen over the next 10 years. It is clear that British industry, unless something significant changes during that 10-year period, will be damaged irreparably. Once assets close down, they do not come back to the UK." Tane suggested that the Government has failed to even recognise that there is a problem.

Jeremy Nicholson, Director of the Energy Intensive Users Group, said: "We have a number of member states ... that have no intention of fully liberalising their gas markets."

Guardian Mail

Government: EU's renewables target to cost UK £5 billion a year by 2020

During a debate on the draft EU directive on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable resources yesterday, Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks said the cost to the UK of meeting the EU's target for 15% renewables use by 2020 could be around £5 billion a year by 2020. He said: "Achieving the UK target will require a step change increase in the proportion of our energy generated from renewable energy resources over the next 12 years--almost a tenfold increase."

Labour MP Michael Connarty, Chairman of the EU Scrutiny Committee, pointed out that: "This directive is asking for a massive increase in commitment to renewables, and it is not one that the UK can sustain, for a number of reasons that I have outlined. We are all dealing with one of those reasons at the moment: our constituents are fed up to the back teeth with the increase in fuel prices." He noted that the Government wanted unanimity on the measure, but the Commission is pushing for the targets to be decided by QMV, and said, "The first thing that the Government must do is to ensure that these targets are agreed by unanimity."

Meanwhile the FT reports that Paul Golby, Chief Executive of Eon UK, has warned of higher energy prices as the need for new nuclear power stations and wind farms has created an unprecedented demand for investment, which could be £100bn or more by 2020. The new power generation capacity will have to be built to meet EU targets for renewable energy and to replace old plants that are being shut down. Moreover, up to 90 per cent of Britain's wind power might need to be backed up with fossil fuel plants. Golby said. "We have allowed people to think that green energy is plentiful and cheap, and that is not the case." About 70,000 megawatts of new capacity could have to be built by the end of the next decade, Eon believes; almost as much as Britain's entire generation capacity today.

FT Hansard AFP

Head of EP Foreign Affairs Committee: Foreign policy will move "from one era to another" with Lisbon Treaty - EU will eventually have its own army

EUobserver notes that a report outlining visions for the EU's future foreign policy will today be discussed in the European Parliament. The head of the foreign affairs committee and one of the people behind the report, Polish MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, said that EU foreign policy will move "from one era to another" with the new Lisbon Treaty. The new EU Foreign Minister, the diplomatic service and the possibility of "structured cooperation" in defence, he argued, mean that foreign policy is "one of the most innovative parts of the treaty." According to the paper he also said the EU looks set to develop its own army in future.

The report calls for Parliament to be "fully consulted" on foreign policy issues. "If we start sending soldiers into danger, it is up to the parliament to give its blessing," Saryusz-Wolski said. It also calls for more money to be injected into the EU's foreign policy budget. Saryusz-Wolski will next week travel to Paris to discuss the issue and the report with the French government.

EUobserver

UK Treasury Minister: CAP costs European consumers £30bn a year

At a meeting yesterday European Union finance ministers failed to agree a response to food and fuel price inflation, with Austria blaming "speculation" in the global market and Italy proposing an extra tax on oil companies. According to PA, Chief Secretary to the UK Treasury Minister Yvette Cooper called for the Commission to suspend tariffs on agricultural commodities, saying "I do not see how Europe can justify keeping EU prices so much higher than world market levels at a time when people across Europe are really feeling the pinch," adding that the CAP costs European consumers £30 bn a year.

FT EUobserver

Ireland's biggest farmers' group, the Irish Farmers Association, yesterday said it will encourage its members to vote 'yes' to the Lisbon Treaty, after PM Brian Cowen indicated he would veto any world trade deal that would go against farmers' interests in Ireland.

EUobserver

French diplomatic drive for EU immigration pact continues - Madrid and Paris to present "detailed proposals" before the end of the month

El Pais reports that the Europe Ministers of Spain and France announced yesterday that they will propose a joint text for a common EU migration pact at a summit between the two countries on 27 June in Zaragoza. Lopez Garrido, the Spanish Europe Miniser, was confident that by this date the two countries would have ironed out differences and arrived at "a very detailed position" to put forward to the other 25 member states, with the aim of having the measure adopted by October.

Specific details of France's plans for EU immigration were reported in yesterday's press summary, available here.

Meanwhile, following a meeting between Nicolas Sarkozy and Silvio Berlusconi yesterday in Rome, Le Figaro reports that Italy has given its support to French plans for immigration policy. According to the paper, "Paris and Rome also agreed on the desire to protect their agriculture." On the subject of energy, Sarkozy welcomed suggestions by Berlusconi that he is ready to move towards nuclear energy, banned in Italy since 1987, with the construction of five nuclear plants by 2015. Berlusconi also welcomed the Mediterranean Union plan. Le Monde reports that the meeting has been viewed by the Italian press as "the promise of a Franco-Italian axis in Europe."

El Pais Le Figaro Le Monde

In the Independent Simon Carr picks up on Conservative MP Peter Lilley's suggestion yesterday in Parliament that MPs' salaries should be reduced as a result of the huge number of UK laws being of EU origin.

Independent Mail Letts Conservative Home

World

UN food summit round-up

There is widespread coverage of the ongoing United Nations food summit in Rome. The FT reports that Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, said that "nobody" understood why cereals had been diverted from human consumption "mostly to satisfy a thirst for fuel vehicles" and why rich countries had "distorted world markets with the $272bn (175bn euros, £138bn) spent on supporting their agriculture...The problem of food insecurity is a political one." However, the FT reports that biofuels and trade restrictions remain the most divisive issues at the summit, with views on how to deal with the food crisis diverging.

Several leaders and comment pieces criticise biofuel policies in the US and EU, and call for the EU to scrap its biofuel targets. A leader in the Guardian argues that world leaders "should use this summit to press the case for stopping biofuel production where there is any evidence that it is interfering with food supplies. Whether or not that bid is successful, the EU must halt its own biofuels bandwagon."

Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed rising food prices on "Zionists".

Telegraph Telegraph leader FT Guardian Guardian leader IHT BBC-Mardell Times-Maddox Times-biofuels EUobserver-biofuels

NATO's Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, has demanded that Russia withdraw troops it sent to the breakaway Georgian province of Abkhazia last week.

BBC

The Telegraph reports that NATO's departing commander in Afghanistan has called for more troops to fight the Taliban.

Telegraph

WTO negotiations on industrial goods have been suspended.

IHT


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