Open Press summary - 22 September 2008

Europe

EU extradition law faces legal challenge
The Sunday Telegraph reported that civil rights groups Liberty and Fair Trials International are considering a legal challenge to new EU laws that would allow citizens to be extradited automatically if they are convicted in their absence by foreign courts. The groups said the new law, passed by the European Parliament and certain to be ratified by member states, threatened the "fundamental principle of the right to a fair trial" and said they were considering a challenge in the European Court of Human Rights.

Liberty's Director Shami Chakrabarti, said: "This isn't about being pro- or anti-Europe, it's about what kind of Europe we want to live in - surely one where people aren't taken from one country to another without so much as a case to answer in a local court?" Open Europe's Pieter Cleppe was quoted in the article, saying "the new law is a pretext for making it easier to extradite people"
Sunday Telegraph Open Europe research

Commission proposal on direct drug advertising could increase cost for NHS
The Observer reported that the Commission will next month unveil plans for allowing drug firms to use the media to give information about prescription-only medicines. Opponents argue the proposals would come close to contravening the longstanding ban on companies advertising branded drugs and could lead to higher drug bills for the NHS. The British Medical Association, Which? and Royal College of Physicians are among nine leading organisations that have written a joint letter to the European Commission urging it to abandon its plan. "If we increase the demand for branded medicines the NHS drugs bill could go sky-high, putting its finite resources under threat," Pete Moorey, the Public Affairs Manager at Which?, said.
Observer

EU plans more regulation as a response to financial crisis
Responding to the financial crisis, Gordon Brown will today outline proposals for an international regulatory body, under the authority of the International Monetary Fund, while declaring he had been trying to convince his international counterparts for years of the need for "a global system of financial regulation."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has renewed a previous call for greater oversight of hedge funds that had been opposed by the US and the UK on a G8 meeting earlier this year. Her idea is supported by MEPs who will call for EU legislation to force private equity groups and hedge funds to disclose unprecedented amounts of information about their activities.
Meanwhile, the European Commission is to propose stricter conditions for banks offering credit to other financial institutions, according to draft documents seen by the Financial Times Deutschland. Under the proposal, banks would now have to say if they maintain part of the risk in their own accounts when offering credit. The proposal is to be approved by the Commission on Wednesday.

European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pöttering and former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt have called for the EU to intervene more in international financial markets. Also French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde has also joined the debate, saying in an interview with Europe 1 Radio it was time to take action on 'perverse' pay practices in banking, adding that the issue will be on the agenda of the next Ecofin meeting in October.

Meanwhile, Mail on Sunday noted that EU pressure and aggressive bankers persuaded the US Securities and Exchange Commission to relax borrowing rules for five firms now at the centre of the financial crisis, according to a former SEC director.
EUobserver Forbes Die Welt PR Inside Guardian EUobserver Mail on Sunday NY Sun

Business and politicians turn against EU climate change package;
Amato: "This plan is garbage. It's politically correct, but it won't happen"
AFP reports that the EU's package of proposals for reducing carbon emissions by 20% by 2020 are coming under fire from businesses and politicians around Europe. The cost to industry is estimated at some 44 billion euros per year between 2013 and 2020, with a tonne of C02 costing 30 euros.

Business leaders have denounced the policy as a "tax", threatening to take their investments elsewhere and move their more polluting activities out of Europe. A number of European politicians are now speaking openly about diluting, or even abandoning the project. "This plan is garbage. It's politically correct, but it won't happen," former Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato said at the end of August. Renato Brunetta, Italy's minister for innovation and a trained economist, said "If it happens, it would kill the economic upturn. No one needs to kill themselves".

One negotiator involved in the talks between the Commission and member states, said: "We're hearing these arguments more and more, notably from countries such as Italy and Germany, where industry is increasingly worried." European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said: "I'm counting on Mr. Sarkozy's authority that the package will be adopted without being watered down before the end of the year."

According to PA, UK Business Secretary John Hutton told the Labour Party conference today that the British Government would "put UK energy security at the centre of our plans for Britain's economic future. To make it a first thought, not an afterthought... No coal plus no nuclear equals no lights. No power. No future."
AFP

EU immigration ministers to agree 'blue card' idea
Agence Europe reports that on Thursday this week, EU immigration ministers are expected to agree in principle on the idea of an EU 'blue card' to attract highly qualified immigrants from outside the EU. The draft directive on the blue card, unveiled by the European Commission in October 2007, is expected to be unanimously adopted by member states. It also reports that EU Permanent Representatives managed to strike a compromise last Wednesday on the salary criterion for people wishing to emigrate to the EU. The delegations agreed that pay of at least one and a half the average gross pay should be stipulated, with member states having the option of reducing this to 1.2 times.
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PA reports the GMB union is attempting to table an emergency motion at the Labour Party conference in Manchester calling for an end to the UK's opt-out from the Working Time Directive. The motion calls for an urgent clarification of the Labour Party's policy on the Directive.
No link

Irish government trying to amend law on non-EU spouses' rights
The Irish Times notes that the Irish government is joining forces with Denmark in a bid to amend the 2004 EU Directive on freedom of movement, following a controversial ECJ ruling stating that member states are violating the Directive by preventing spouses of EU citizens who are not themselves EU citizens from living in the member state in question - the so-called "Metock" case. The issue will be brought up at meeting of EU Justice Ministers on Thursday. The Irish government maintains that it should be allowed to deport non-EU spouses to better control immigration into the EU and combat "marriages of convenience". Several other member states, including the UK, are said to support an amendment. However, a spokeswoman for the Immigrant Council of Ireland said any move to redraft the directive could undermine one of the fundamental cornerstones of the whole EU project - free movement of people.
Irish Times

German State PM: Company law is not EU's business
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and various other German politicians have hardened their stance in the dispute with the Commission concerning the power of Lower Saxony over carmaker Volkswagen. "German company law is no business of the EU," Lower Saxony State Premier Christian Wulff said, according to Deutsche Welle.
Deutsche Welle

EU launches "multi-million-pound expansion drive"
The Sunday Express reported on the EU's "multi-million-pound expansion drive", citing initiatives such as the European Parliament's new £7 million TV station, and major public works likely to cost tens of millions of pounds that are being planned in Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg. These will include hundreds of new offices, restaurants and other facilities, plus a museum of European history in Brussels. A leader says that the EU "must tighten belts like everyone else", commenting that "news that EU leaders plan to squander euro cash on a museum and a satellite TV system is typical of their total disregard for the people they are supposed to serve."
Sunday Express

Agence Europe reports on a meeting in Italy of members of the EPP-ED group in the European Parliament last week, and cites Commission President Jose Barroso saying, "We need more Europe" during a speech about the current financial crisis.
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Veteran Danish MEP Jens-Peter Bonde and Czech President Václav Klaus have pledged to support Declan Ganley to launch Irish No to Lisbon group Libertas as a pan-EU political party.
Irish Times

The European car industry lobby group has managed to persuade some members of the European Parliament's industry committee that new fuel-efficiency standards should be "phased in" over several years.
FT-letters

Human rights take back seat at EU-Central Asia talks
EUobserver reports that EU and Central Asian Foreign Ministers pledged to work together on new gas pipelines and counter-terrorism at a meeting in Paris on Thursday, with the problem of grave human rights abuses in the region pushed down the agenda.
EU Observer

The EC will ask member states to reinforce stricter controls, following the milk scandal in China.
Le Monde