Europe
Will EU break its own laws to get Lisbon through?
According to Gazeta Wyborcza, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Polish counterpart Lech Kaczynski may have struck a backstage deal at the Paris summit on 13 July, in which Warsaw would agree to ratify the Lisbon Treaty in return for the preservation of Poland's historic shipyards.
The European Commission will make a statement on 16 July about state aid in the case of three Polish shipyards - "from the point of view of European law, the chances for a favourable decision are slim", notes the article. Warsaw is reported to be attempting to push the decision on the shipyards to a political level, in the EU Council. "It is possible that if President Lech Kaczynski promised Nicolas Sarkozy, his French counterpart, that he will sign the treaty, the French president could, with Germany's support, try to exert pressure on the Council and the individual EU capitals to accommodate Poland," the newspaper notes.
According to the Telegraph, President Kaczinski said following talks with Sarkozy, "The meeting was very good. I told (Mr Sarkozy) one thing: of course, Poland will not be an obstacle to the treaty's ratification. We have established a common plan that will be made public at an opportune moment."
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on Saturday: "The shipyards and the Lisbon Treaty are issues of two different orders. The European Commission should be aware that President Lech Kaczynski will be making the decision on whether to sign the Treaty in a political context. For the public, these two issues, though legally unconnected, both have a European context. We hope this situation is understood."
Meanwhile, the Irish Government is considering inviting opposing sides of the Lisbon Treaty to a forum attended by Nicolas Sarkozy, who arrives in Dublin next week, the Irish Independent has learned.
Irish Independent BBC Monitoring Euractiv Politiken EUobserver EUbusiness Telegraph Euractiv 2 Gazeta Wyborcza Gazeta Wyborcza (EN)
Farmers overpaid £37 million in subsidies
The BBC website reports that a Public Accounts Committee report has found that more than 10,000 UK farmers were given too much EU subsidy money in 2005, and 7,000 in 2006. Nearly 20,000 farmers' entitlements under the EU's so-called Single Farm Payments Scheme (SPS) - which was fully introduced in the UK in 2005 - had been calculated wrongly. Overpayments totalled more than £37 million.
In addition to criticising the responsible authority in the UK, the Rural Payments Agency, the report described the SPS as the "most complex option for reform" implemented in the "shortest possible timescale". Committee Chairman Edward Leigh said the problems may lead to the UK Government being fined hundreds of millions of pounds by the EU and had added £50m to the project's costs. The UK has set aside £436 million in anticipation of possible fines from the European Commission over problems of the 2005 scheme.
French Employment Minister: it's time to go on the offensive for a social Europe
At a meeting of EU employment ministers yesterday French Minister Xavier Bertrand said, "2008 must be the year of restarting social Europe. Because Europe must not just make economic progress but also social progress. There is no contradiction between one and the other." According to Agence Europe he said, "The current period is not the easiest for Europe but in our spirit, we want resolutely to go on the offensive. No question of being on the defensive for a single moment, quite the opposite!"
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EU fined 56,000 euros for damaging reputation of two former Eurostat employees
The Coulisses de Bruxelles blog reports that the European Court of First Instance has ordered the EU to pay 56,000 euros in damages and interest to two French former high level officials - the former Director General of Eurostat, Yves Franchet, and his deputy, Daniel Byk - for their treatment by former Commission President Romano Prodi and former Commissioner Neil Kinnock, as well as by Eurostat itself, during the 'Eurostat scandal' in 2003. According to the blog, Kinnock suggested the two men had "personally profited" from financial irregularities, with no proof, and Eurostat failed to uphold the principle of presumption of innocence.
EU turning to price-fixing to win back popular support?
European Telecommunications Commissioner Viviane Reding will today announce plans to force mobile phone networks to cut prices for text messages sent by EU citizens outside their home country but within the 27-state bloc. The Telegraph remarks that the move is part of a wider concern within the EU to prove its use to citizens following the rejection of the Lisbon Treaty by Irish voters. Meanwhile the industry body, the GSM Association, has criticised the plans arguing that they are "not in the consumers' best interest" as cutting costs could threaten the viability of some mobile packages such as those that offer cheap handsets.
WTO talks to resume next week - Mandelson urges show of unity
WTO negotiations will resume next week (21 July), in what is seen as the last attempt to secure a deal in the Doha round. Ahead of the talks, Peter Mandelson has urged EU countries to make a "show of unity" adding that France is "very mindful of its responsibilities as the presidency of the EU." In an open letter in yesterday's IHT, the trade ministers of Britain, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia and Slovenia also urged the EU to keep a united front, arguing "We cannot afford to miss the chance to counterbalance the present negative trends in world economic affairs. The credibility and respect of the whole multilateral trading system must be maintained."
EUobserver IHT IHT-letter Open Europe blog
FT: Turkish crisis is an indictment of the EU's "lamentable failure" on Turkey
The FT has a leader on what it calls the "political crisis" gripping Turkey in the wake of nearly 100 arrests on coup-plotting charges. It says that the ruling AKP has been wrong to put the issue of headscarves so high up the political agenda, but that secularists "must accept that if democracy delivers Islamic governments, they must accept the voters' verdict - as long as those governments do not themselves threaten democratic rights, which the AKP has not."
It notes that "The crisis is also an indictment of the European Union for its lamentable failure to handle Ankara's membership bid positively. If the union had given Turkey a clear set of conditions and timetable, both the generals and the AKP could have concentrated their energies on accession, not headscarves." It concludes that Turkey acceding to the EU would pose far fewer problems for Europe than if the country is allowed to slip into violent instability.
Belgium thrown into new crisis
Last night the Belgium PM, Yves Leterme, tendered his resignation, throwing the country into a new crisis. It resulted from his inability to reach an agreement between the North (Flanders) and the South (Wallonia) of the country and their respective parliamentary parties. In a statement Mr. Leterme said: "It has turned out that the opposing visions between the communities for the necessary creation of a new equilibrium in how our state is constructed are today irreconcilable".
The Economist blog reports that many Belgians have told pollsters they expect the country to break up, a result supported by 49.7% of Flemish people and the Economist itself, which claims "the death of Belgium looks more likely in the near-term than the death of the European Union".
Brussels Journal Economist blog Euractiv EUobserver European Voice BBC Tagesspiegel El Pais
Stephens: the pressing logic of Anglo-French defence
Philip Stephens argues in the FT that a more coherent European defence identity looks more likely as both the British and the French confront the problems facing their militaries. Wishing to remain leading international security actors, and facing increased pressure from the US for Europe to act more in the Balkans and Afghanistan, both nations must do this within present budgetary constraints. In order to best achieve their goals, it seems that Britain and France ought to strike a deal, he concludes.
Irish mortgage lenders raise rates above ECB increase
Soaring bank funding costs in Ireland have led TSB and the Halifax to raise interest rates over and above the ECB's quarter point increase earlier this month. This comes at a time when a number of other mortgage lenders have begun phasing out tracker mortgages, believing that the ECB is no longer an accurate benchmark for mortgage costs.
World
Will Sarkozy's Mediterranean Union be more than a big photo-op?
Reports today continue to question whether anything significant will be achieved by the new Union for the Mediterranean. However there are some promising signs with the Syrian and Lebanese governments agreeing to open diplomatic offices in the others' country for the first time. "This was not a one-off," said Eric Chevallier, a spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry. "This was an important moment and it will be followed by many others. We are determined to keep it going".
The meeting also received tentative support from the US State Department. A spokesman said: "I think, generally, it's an effort that we can, at the least, be supportive of". Despite this there are still sceptics, many of whom cite the squabbling over whether to call Israel a nation-state on Sunday as an example of the petty differences which look set to characterise the Union. The Telegraph also notes that the prospects of the union were delivered a blow following comments from the Syrian leader stating that any attack on Iran would "cost the United States, [Israel] and the planet dear".
Deutsche Welle reports that EU leaders and human rights groups have welcomed the International Criminal Court's decision to issue an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir.
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