Open Europe press summary: 19 November 2008

Open Europe event November 27: "EU climate package: Are we about to be locked into the wrong policy?" For more details on speakers and registration for the event please visit www.openeurope.org.uk

Europe

Libertas: second Lisbon referendum could bring down Irish government; MEPs urge Irish government to ratify before June 2009 European elections
The Irish Independent reports that Libertas Chairman Declan Ganley yesterday told an Irish parliamentary committee: "Let's not have another referendum because if it's 'No' it will probably provoke the collapse of the Government or some senior figures in it." Ganley attacked the Lisbon Treaty as "an affront to the idea of participatory democracy". He said it was "the embodiment of the worst example of what so-called elitism can bring about in Europe".

The Irish Times reports that Ganley called for a 15-25 page European constitution as an alternative to the Lisbon Treaty: "Europe needs a constitution, it should be no more than 25 pages. It should be upfront and honest." Ganley stated that the Irish No vote "was not a vote against the EU or Ireland's membership. It was a vote against the Lisbon Treaty." He added that the referendum result meant there was an opportunity for "a reinvigoration of the European ideal".

Britain's Europe Minister Caroline Flint spoke about Ireland's rejection of Lisbon in Dublin yesterday. According to the Irish Times, Flint commented that a "vociferously euro-sceptic element" in the Irish and UK media can leave people "confused and bewildered" when it comes to EU matters, adding that the EU and those who support it need to improve their communication skills.

Meanwhile, EUobserver reports that the European Parliament's Constitutional Affairs Committee approved on Monday a report urging the Irish government to put forward concrete proposals on how to get Lisbon ratified before the European elections in June 2009.

German MEP Jo Leinen said, "A second No would be a No, and then of course you could forget about the Treaty. But a first No is volatile, let's say, because it's not a clear No against Europe. Here you have a diffuse coalition of Nos. We respect it, but we have to respect as well the Yes of the other member states."
Irish Independent Irish Times Irish Times 2 Irish Times 3 Irish Times-Browne Irish Times-de Búrca EUobserver

Commission to announce auto industry bail-out package on November 26; aid will be tied to green targets
The Guardian reports that the European Commission is set to announce a package of economic stimulus measures for European carmakers on November 26. Carmakers have been stepping up calls for up to 40 billion euros of aid to help them combat a deepening recession. However, the Commission stressed that any EU support for automobile companies will be temporary and tied to goals such as improving the sector's environmental performance in line with the EU's goals to combat climate change. A Commission source is quoted saying that, "What will not happen ... is a proposal for old-style subsidies. Any support for the car sector would be targeted, temporary measures linked to certain objectives, not the dishing out of billions of old-style aid ... Ecology is certainly an important element."

The WSJ quotes Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes saying that European governments' massive bailouts of the financial sector should be considered exceptional. "You can't compare the car industry with the financial sector, it's different," she said. "The financial sector is the blood circulation of the whole economy; if your financial system is not working anymore, it is over," she added.
Le Monde Guardian AP WSJ Reuters FT

Paris attempts to buy off Polish support for EU climate package
The FT notes that France has presented a proposal aimed at overcoming Polish opposition to important changes to Europe's emissions trading system. Poland and other east European member states have objected to a measure in the plan that called for electricity utilities to buy all of their emissions allowances at auction, beginning in 2013. They argue that their coal-dependent utilities would be forced to pass on billions of euros in additional costs to consumers at a time when their economies are slowing. Under the French draft proposal, Poland and the Baltic sates will be given a temporary exemption, with their utilities receiving up to half their emissions allowances for free until 2016.
FT

EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy will bring forward actions relating to hedge funds and private equities next month, despite repeated assurances in the past that he was against regulating these industries.
Irish Times Coulisses de Bruxelles

EU ministers will probably fail to agree a deal this year on plans to liberalise energy markets because of resistance from current EU President France.
Reuters

EU to review fishing policy amid concerns over falling fish stocks
On his BBC blog, Mark Mardell looks at a "drastic" proposal from the Commission aimed at reforming the EU's controversial fishery policy, including banning all fishing for cod west of Scotland. Mardell notes that ministers are likely to reject the proposal, but may opt for a "Norwegian" model to address the criticised practice of throwing dead fish back in to the sea merely to avoid breaching rules set up to avoid killing endangered fish. In Norway, notes Mardell, "it is illegal to throw back dead fish: logically if you catch a fish, that is counted towards your quota and there is no avoiding it. Difficult to police, certainly, but at least not patently absurd."
BBC Mardell BBC Today

EU plans to cut agricultural subsidies and production restrictions under fire
EU Commission plans to cut a large number of subsidies and restrictions for agriculture have met with protest from member states and small farms. De Telegraaf reports that southern European member states are using the discussion to ask for a scaling back of an earlier decision to stop tobacco subsidies in order to combat smoking.
Telegraaf FWI

Martin Wolf: sterling depreciation not all bad - "Eurozone membership is still no answer for UK"
Martin Wolf argues in his column for the FT that the UK now needs a strong depreciation in the real exchange rate, and that what some consider a sterling crisis is actually good news. Wolf argues that membership of the euro area would mean a decade-long grinding adjustment through the real economy, instead of the exchange rate. He lists six reasons why the exchange rate has to fall.

Ruth Lea argues on Conservative Home that "It is clear that the pro-euro battalions are already marshalling their forces for another attack on sterling's citadel. But they are not the battalions of salvation. If anything, they are the economic equivalent of the four horsemen of the apocalypse."
Conservative Home FT

Commission urges UK to end immigration restrictions on Romania and Bulgaria
The EU's Employment Commissioner Vladimir Spidla said yesterday that EU governments should lift their restrictions on workers from the bloc's newest member states. The Times reported on a report from the Commission saying that the recent 'influx' from Poland for example "had not reduced wages or local job opportunities". The FT publishes Commission figures that show that migration within Europe has contributed to the EU's aggregate GDP by 0.28 per cent since 2004. The UK Government is due to review its immigration restrictions on Romania and Bulgaria by the end of this month, the Times notes.
Times FT DW

Lib Dem MEP asks "Is the EU being held hostage by its citizens?"
Conservative Home reports that Lib Dem MEP Graham Watson gave a speech in Brussels entitled: "Four years after the Constitution, one year after the Lisbon Treaty: Is the EU being held hostage by its citizens?"
Conservative Home

Sarkozy announces summit to create "new model" for capitalism
French President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday formally announced an "international summit" to be held in Paris on 8 January, entitled "New World: Values, Development and Regulation," continuing France's ambition to create a "new model" for capitalism in the wake of the global financial crisis. Tony Blair will co-chair the summit alongside Sarkozy.
EUobserver

Evans-Pritchard: Brown should be wary of Sarkozy's attempts to create a system of managed currencies
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard argues on his blog against a new Bretton Woods system. He writes that "rigged, dysfunctional, exchange regimes of various kinds have played a key part in almost all the financial smash-ups of the last century, and are the source of our current ills". He notes that "France's Nicolas Sarkozy has his own agenda in pushing a managed currency system. It promises Paris partial control over the European Central Bank... Gordon Brown is playing with fire by going along with any initiative that heads in this direction."
Telegraph

Austrian coalition talks between the two main political parties have stalled over EU integration issues and whether future EU treaties should be ratified by a referendum.
Irish Times

The Mail reports that the 'booze cruise' trade is under threat as MEPs voted to slash personal consumption of alcohol and cigarettes, but national parliaments have to approve the new limits before the proposal can become law in the UK.
Mail

The Metro reports that UK MEP Ashley Mote spent £9,000 of taxpayers' money on a bus which he used as a 'mobile office'. EU officials deemed this to be 'an inappropriate use' of allowances.
Metro

An Irish parliamentary committee has called for a law to control referendum campaign funds, suggesting that there were grounds to say that both sides in a referendum debate should be publicly funded.
Irish Times

The FT reports that Insurers have warned against the watering down of the EU 'Solvency II' Directive for insurance.
FT

ECB President Jean Claude Trichet has said that the British government must respect EU budget rules when considering a fiscal stimulus plan to lift the economy.
Reuters

The European Parliament has voted in favour of a £370m programme to give school children free fruit every day, in plans to tackle obesity across the EU.
Mail

According to an opinion poll, a majority of Poles are against joining the Euro in 2012.
Irish Times