Open Europe press summary: 8 December 2008

Open Europe is hosting a debate on the potential end of the UK's opt-out from the EU Working Time Directive, on Wednesday 10 December, from 3pm until 4.30pm. For more details, please see our homepage: http://www.openeurope.org.uk/ Places are limited - if you would like to attend, please contact Susannah Prins on 0207 197 2333 or susannah@openeurope.org.uk

Europe

Irish government under increased pressure to give a timetable for re-run vote on Lisbon
Reuters reported over the weekend that the Irish government is expected later this week to announce a re-run referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, to take place before January 2010. However, the Irish Independent and the Irish Times quote Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin saying that a second referendum is "still uncertain", and will depend on what assurances other EU leaders are willing to give the Irish, on issues such as the country keeping its Commissioner. "Member states have different perspectives on issues, particularly in terms of the composition of the Commission. Hopefully, we will be in a position to resolve this by Thursday or Friday [at the EU summit] but it's not certain at this stage. I think it will go to the wire. That is my assessment at this stage," Martin said.

He also said that a timetable for a re-run vote "obviously will feature" in the discussion. October 2009 is still considered the most likely date for such a referendum. Swedish European Affairs Minister Cecilia Malmström told the Irish Times that Sweden was preparing to conduct the first half of its upcoming Presidency of the EU, which runs from July to December 2009, under the Nice Treaty.

The Irish Times also notes that some member states are unwilling to concede to the Irish government's demand that every EU state should retain the right to appoint a Commissioner permanently. France has suggested a temporary reprieve on the reduction in size of the Commission until 2017 or 2019, but both proposals, notes the article, are unlikely to satisfy Irish PM Brian Cowen.

Moreover, EU member states are unwilling to attach any new legally-binding protocol to Lisbon that would force them to re-ratify the Treaty. This may be overcome by having legally-binding concessions attached to the Croatian Accession Treaty when that country joins in 2010/11.

It is also reported that at a private lunch for EU ambassadors in Brussels over the weekend, representatives from other EU member states continued to put pressure on Ireland over a second vote. One diplomat told the Irish representatives: "This is quite something you are asking for and we are asking in return for a perspective on when you will hold another referendum." At the same meeting, representatives of several member states expressed concern that the Irish government may be "too weak" to win a second vote.

The Mail quotes Open Europe's Mats Persson saying: "Ever since the Irish voted No to the Lisbon Treaty in June, politicians in Ireland and across Europe have tried to find ways to force this unwanted document through - against the clear will of the people. It's a sad day for democracy when Europe's politicians gang up on their citizens, rather than trying to win over their trust". He added that should the Irish reverse their decision, "Britain will be forced to accept a Treaty that will weaken the power of ordinary voters in this country and across Europe."

Declan Ganley will be speaking tonight in Brussels at an event cohosted by Open Europe and the Manifesto Club which will look at the EU leaders' proposed 'solution' to Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon Treaty. Click here for more information.
Irish Independent Irish Times Mail Telegraph-Waterfield blog Irish Times Irish Times 2 Irish Times 3 Irish Times Smyth Irish Times Collins Irish Times Opinion Irish Independent Irish Independent Sheahan

Merkel: I will not let EU climate plan damage German industry
EUobserver reports that French President Nicolas Sarkozy has returned from a Gdansk meeting with eastern European leaders without a compromise deal on the EU's climate change package. France reportedly offered to lift the threat of legal penalties for countries which do not meet their emissions reduction targets by 2020 in order to meet the overall 20 percent EU reduction goal. It also proposed a phase-in period whereby power generators in coal dependent countries would be given a number of free permits to pollute after 2013. Paris also suggested holding a 2016 climate change summit to introduce corrections to any package agreed at the EU summit this week, if the initiative is shown to be damaging the post-Communist economies.

Italy is also resisting the package in its current form. "Some people claim environmental measures are a way to relaunch industry, but let's be realistic," said Stefania Prestigiacomo, Italy's Environment Minister, according to the IHT. "Resources are limited, and they will be even more so because of the economic crisis." She added, "We have to set priorities. It's useless to lay down objectives that won't be respected."

According to Der Spiegel, Angela Merkel feels under pressure to save German jobs as the economy goes into downturn. She is quoted as saying: "the EU summit will not take decisions on climate protection that will endanger jobs or investments in Germany. I will provide for that".

The IHT notes that Germany is concerned that the provision requiring steel, paper, cement, glass and chemical makers to buy their pollution permits at auction will put local industry at a disadvantage and cause them to move their factories overseas. Berlin is proposing that heavy industry continue to get 80% of its permits for free. "It would be a miracle if we got an agreement at this point," a French diplomat told the paper.

According to the FT, RWE's chief executive has complained that making power companies pay for the carbon dioxide that they emit would mark "the end of fair competition in the energy sector in Europe". The German power giant is concerned that nuclear groups such as EDF will be given a huge competitive advantage.

Liberation's Coulisses de Bruxelles blog reports that Sarkozy will try to reach a new agreement at a summit on 30 December, if current negotiations fail.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Telegraph reported that the UK Committee on Climate Change's assertion that Britain can source one third of its electricity from wind power - which will be driven by EU targets for minimum renewable energy use - has been dismissed by energy experts as "wildly optimistic". Ian Fells, emeritus professor of energy conversion at the University of Newcastle, who spoke at an Open Europe event on the subject two weeks ago, said the CCC analysis lacked a basis in sound engineering, and argued "To say it's ambitious is to put it mildly, I just don't see how it can be achieved."

According to the Times on Saturday, UK power industry bosses have said that Ed Miliband, the head of the new Department of Energy and Climate Change, "doesn't understand" the way the energy sector works, or the severe challenges ahead over the next decade. "He has rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way and has been frustrating to deal with" one energy firm head said.

The FT reports that carbon prices in the current phase of the EU ETS (2008 - 2013) have fallen so low that there is no incentive for companies to cut pollution.
Coulisses de Bruxelles Der Spiegel FT EUobserver AFP Swedish Television WSJ Times Times Brewer BBC Today BBC AFP Reuters Trouw Irish Times Guardian European Voice BBC Sunday Telegraph Open Europe events

Brown to call for EU to scrap red tape and save jobs at financial crisis summit;
Merkel's absence highlights tensions over EU's responseThe Observer reported that Gordon Brown will today call on the EU to scrap red tape and concentrate on jobs and businesses. The article noted that the Prime Minister believes some new directives should be ditched or delayed to ease the pressure on businesses.

Brown is today hosting a summit with European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and French President Nicolas Sarkozy on the financial crisis. A Downing Street official said, "There may be some focus on European red tape and how we could cut or put it off for a while, putting on hold some of the things that businesses complain about and looking at whether these are absolutely necessary or should be scrapped."

The article also noted that Downing Street will press for the rules of the EU's stability and growth pact, which prevents member states running too far into deficit, to be relaxed during the crisis - allowing countries in the eurozone to spend more by offering tax cuts or new public spending programmes.

German daily, Tagesspiegel, notes that German Chancellor Angela Merkel will not be present at the meeting. On his BBC blog Mark Mardell writes that Merkel's conspicuous absence from the meeting is punishment for her government's dismissal of the European Commission's financial rescue plan. He notes that "When we ask Mrs Merkel's office why she is not going, the indignant reply is 'Ask Gordon Brown why she hasn't been invited'".
Observer Irish Times: Leader BBC: Mardell blog Tagesspiegel

Conservatives pledge never to join the euro;
Doubt cast on trade benefits of eurozone
A new report published by a leading US economist has dealt a blow to the case for joining the euro, suggesting that membership of currency unions such as the eurozone do not boost trade as much as has previously been suggested, reports the Telegraph. There was an "absence" of evidence that bilateral trade was affected by the euro during the second half of the eight-year history of the currency zone.

George Osbourne, the Shadow Chancellor, has attacked "euro-fanatics" in the Labour party and pledged that the Conservatives will never take Britain into the single currency, stating that "We will not join the euro - in the present or the future", reports the Mail. The Shadow Chancellor went on to brand the euro a political project, rather than an economic one. Peter Oborne, writing in Saturday's Mail, argued that "The truth is that the euro has failed as a currency."

Laurence Norman, in the WSJ, reports that economists remain sceptical about the euro's potential benefits for Britain, whose separate monetary policy has allowed it to remain "nimble" in its response to the financial crisis.
Telegraph Figaro Mail Mail Oborne FT WSJ Norman Evening Standard

European Parliament and Council remain at odds over working time
European Voice reports that MEPs and member states are heading for a showdown over revising the EU's rules on working time, as hopes fade for a deal before 17 December, when MEPs will vote on the proposal. The European Parliament is demanding that national opt-outs from the EU's maximum 48-hour working week should be scrapped, a position rejected by national governments. British Liberal MEP Liz Lynne said that she could not see that there would be "any movement whatsoever" from either side prior to the vote.

The Parliament's Employment and Social Affairs Committee has taken a position very different from that agreed by national ministers. The Committee is calling for a phasing out of national opt-outs from the 48-hour week and for all on-call time to be counted as working time. If the Parliament votes by an absolute majority (393 out of the Parliament's 785 MEPs) to support the Committee's position, then the Council of Ministers would have four months to complete its second reading, followed if needed by further conciliation talks.

Open Europe is holding a debate on the Working Time Directive on Wednesday. Please see above for details.
European Voice

Czech President on MEPs' visit to Prague: "I have not experienced anything like this for the past 19 years"
The EU referendum blog has a transcript of a meeting between Czech President Vaclav Klaus and members of the Conference of the Presidents of the European Parliament at Prague Castle on Friday.

Before questioning Klaus on his relationship with anti-Lisbon campaigner Declan Ganley, Green MEP Daniel Cohn-Bendit told the President: "Lisbon Treaty: I don't care about your opinions on it." Klaus replied, "I must say that nobody has talked to me in such a style and tone for the past 6 years. You are not on the barricades in Paris here."

Irish MEP Brian Crowley told Klaus "All his life my father fought against the British domination. Many of my relatives lost their lives. That is why I dare to say that the Irish wish for the Lisbon Treaty. It was an insult, Mr. President, to me and to the Irish people what you said during your state visit to Ireland."

In his closing remarks, Klaus said "Thank you for this experience which I gained from this meeting. I did not think anything like this is possible and have not experienced anything like this for the past 19 years. I thought it was a matter of the past that we live in democracy, but it is post-democracy, really, which rules the EU. You mentioned the European values. The most important value is freedom and democracy. The citizens of the EU member states are concerned about freedom and democracy, above all. But democracy and freedom are losing ground in the EU today."
EU Referendum blog

Labour signs up to new European Socialist manifesto
The Sunday Express reported that the Labour party signed up to a manifesto by the Party of European Socialists in Madrid last week, forming the basis for the policies on which next year's European elections will be held. The document calls for new trade union rights and social policies, including extended maternity leave up to 18 months. It also seeks to strengthen EU defence policy and talks of a "European charter for the integration of migrants".
Express

EU to spend £27m on fighting apathy over European elections
Saturday's Telegraph reported on high level fears of low voter turnout for 2009's European elections, with concern expressed in a letter by Margot Wallstrom, EU Communications Commissioner. Wallstrom pledged a further £14.5 million, in addition to previous £13 million of funding to promote the elections and to "mobilise our European and local networks" and also target "journalists of women's magazines."
Telegraph

Topolanek wins party votes - Klaus gives up honorary chairmanship
Deutsche Welle notes that Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek on Sunday successfully defended his leadership of the Civic Democratic Party. Topolanek's rival for the party leadership, Mayor Pavel Bem of Prague, wanted the party to reject the Lisbon Treaty. Topolanek's anticipated victory prompted the Civic Democrat founder, the nation's President, Vaclav Klaus, to give up an honorary party chairmanship.
IHT DW Irish Times

Van Buitenen: EU's anti-corruption watchdog a failure
In an interview with Belgian daily De Morgen, MEP Paul Van Buitenen comments on his new allegations of corruption at EU anti-corruption services OLAF, saying: "Because I cannot investigate everything, I have looked at the cause and that is that OLAF fails", adding that "procedures of appointment at OLAF are fake" and that Director-General Franz-Herman Brüner shouldn't have been reappointed.
No link

China has reacted angrily at French President Nicolas Sarkozy's meeting with Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, on Saturday, warning of consequences for Beijing's relations not only with Paris, but with the EU as well.
EUobserver AFP DW

EU foreign ministers will meet today and tommorrow with the resumption of World Trade Organisation talks and the Middle East top of the agenda.
European Voice

The EU's first naval mission begins today as warships and surveillance aircraft from at least eight EU countries are due to start anti-piracy patrols off the Somali coast.
BBC

The European Commission has released 1.7bn euros for 11 big rail projects with the bulk going to the 63-kilometre Brenner tunnel linking Austria and Italy.
AFP

In a comment piece in Sunday's Irish Independent, Colum Kenny writes that politicians should not blame the media for the failure of the first referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, but accept their own culpability, especially when the Taoiseach and Irish EU Commissioner admitted they had not even read the Treaty.
Irish Independent