Open Europe press summary: 12 February 2009

Europe

European economic crisis summit called by Prague for 1 March
Le Monde reports that the Czech Presidency of the EU has called for a European summit to be held in Brussels to "coordinate" stimulus packages introduced across the continent. With reference to protectionist ambitions in certain EU states, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek underlined the importance that "all measures taken in member states need to respect common rules." Libération blogger Jean Quatremer notes that Topolanek called this conference "because he had little choice," under pressure from French President Nicolas Sarkozy and despite Germany's reluctance to attend a new summit.

The summit has been called amid an increasingly tense relationship between Prague and Paris, with Le Figaro noting that Vaclav Klaus had aired his views on Wednesday that Sarkozy wants to become EU President. Klaus also criticised the EU's supranational objective and excess of regulation before declaring "I know he wants to remain in the post of EU President, it's very human." He then went on to say that he will "do everything possible" to prevent the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty in the Czech Parliament. He also said that to have a good European Presidency "It's not necessary to be hyper-active and to organise a European summit every weekend."

Jean-Pierre Jouyet, former French Europe Minister, has criticised the EU Commission's laxity in dealing with the financial crash in an interview reported in Le Monde. He stated his belief that "the Commission should have reacted faster. In the US, the Citigroup case was handled within three days whereas the EU Commissioners were unable to sort out the problems of giving banks credit in three months." He also revealed that he was in favour of Europe's presidency only being held by eurozone members. "I think it is difficult to have any other arrangement once a leader emerges from the eurozone who brings together political will and direction," Jouyet said. Asked about the tense relations between Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he stated that he thought "this irritation was both real and reciprocated."

Meanwhile, on his BBC blog, Mark Mardell reports that the Czech EU Presidency has called a second emergency EU summit in Prague in May to examine jobs and unemployment.
Le Monde Coulisses blog Figaro Standaard EU Business FT IHT BBC: Mardell blog European Voice EurActiv Coulisses de Bruxelles EUobserver Deutsche Welle Open Europe blog

German Court rapportuer on Lisbon Treaty: "What competences are left with the Bundestag?";
On the second day of hearings in the German Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe the Lisbon Treaty continued to be subject to criticism, according to the Wiener Zeitung. Dietrich Murswiek, the spokesman of MP Peter Gauweiler (CSU) argued that not only is it necessary to scrutinise the Lisbon Treaty but the integration process as a whole. FAZ quotes Gauweiler saying, "There are not many steps left to be taken, if you stand close to the abyss."

Euractiv and the Irish Times report that the Karlsruhe judges see the Treaty as a clear extension of the EU's competencies, which possibly endangers Germany's Constitution. The Court's rapporteur Udo di Fabio said: "One has to ask soberly: What competences are left with the Bundestag [the German parliament] in the end?"

The Court could still decide to call a referendum, according to the Wiener Zeitung. A referendum would also be advocated by Gesine Schwan, presidential candidate of the Social Democrats (SPD). The paper notes that a German referendum would put the whole Lisbon Treaty into question. The Court is expected to deliver a decision by early summer.

In Focus, German MEP Silvana Koch-Mehrin looks at the Karlsruhe trial, arguing "It is to be supported that we demand from our federal government to explain why so many competencies switch from the national to the EU level without noteworthy public debate".
Wiener Zeitung FAZ Focus Euractiv Irish Times Deutsche Welle

Former Minister for Deregulation: UK has more red tape than ever
In the Spectator, David Young, the first Minister for Deregulation under Margaret Thatcher, argues that "we have more red tape clogging our economy than ever before. We have piled regulation upon regulation where it is not needed and relaxed our controls just where it was required." He argues that it has proven particularly difficult to deregulate in the area of 'Health and safety'. "Every time we tried a reform" he notes, "a powerful lobby would arise...What we had not foreseen was the arrival of EU regulation, the first successful invasion of our country since 1066. We should have known that if you create a European parliament with no responsibilities and little to do, it would end up devising regulation after regulation."
Spectator Open Europe research

EU officials warn interns over "trading sex for secrets"
The Telegraph reports that EU officials have been warned to beware of Mata-Hari type interns who could be trading sex for EU secrets. Stephen Hutchins, the Commission's Director of Security, warned that "the threat of espionage is increasing day by day", with particular fear over the "pretty trainee with the long legs and the blonde hair". The Coulisses de Bruxelles blog reports that the Director also warned of a "growing threat against the Commission from spies, certain countries, pressure groups, journalists and private agencies [that] are looking to obtain sensitive and protected information."
Times Telegraph Elsevier Coulisses de Bruxelles

New strikes over foreign workers in Nottinghamshire;
ONS accused of seeking to embarrass Brown over foreign workers figures
The Guardian reports that construction workers in Newark, Nottinghamshire yesterday mounted brief blockades of two power stations to renew the pressure on the Government over foreign labour contracts. Local people say they have lost out to Spanish and Polish workers on 850 jobs, demanding a similar deal like that agreed with Total - which gave local workers half of 220 jobs once earmarked for Italians.

Meanwhile, the ONS has released new figures which show that the number of non-UK born workers increased by 214,000 in the year up to December while the number of British workers fell by 278,000 over the same period. According to the Telegraph, Whitehall is "fizzing" with anger over the release of the figures. A senior Government source is quoted by the Times saying, "The fact that they highlighted this in this way, in a press release, looks like they are trying to embarrass the Government over the slogan 'British Jobs for British workers'."

A leader in the Times argues, "It is also worth noting that, even using the spurious category the ONS has chosen to highlight, the employment rate among people not born in this country is exactly the same - 69 per cent - as it was a year ago... The case for economic nationalism has too many advocates as it is, without the Office for National Statistics joining in."
Times Times 2 Times: Leader Guardian FT Telegraph BBC

European Commission memo: "toxic debts of European banks risk overwhelming a number of EU governments"
The Telegraph reports that the toxic debts of European banks risk overwhelming a number of EU governments and may pose a "systemic" danger to the broader EU banking system, according to a confidential memo prepared by the European Commission. Reportedly, the EU document highlighted the "real danger of a subsidy race between member states" if countries start to undercut each other in the way they value toxic debts in their 'bad bank' rescue programmes. This could be used as a means of covert state aid, undermining the unity of the EU single market.

Meanwhile, Le Monde reports that the European Commission is set to open an excessive deficit procedure for France, Ireland, Portugal and Spain.
Telegraph European Voice Le Monde

Declan Ganley: Germany has "enormous potential" for Libertas
In an interview with Euractiv, Declan Ganley, Chairman of anti-Lisbon Treaty party Libertas, has said that "Germany has enormous potential" for the party in this June's European elections. "Here is a place which doesn't have one single party that raises serious questions about the anti-democratic disposition of the current EU institutions," he claimed.

In the interview Ganley argued that Libertas is not a one-issue movement. Libertas will publish its policy manifesto in March which will focus not only on the "pivotal" issue of Lisbon, but also the "economic hurricane" facing Europe. Ganley said that the party's economic platform will call for an environment where small and medium-sized businesses are encouraged to take risks and become the engine of job creation and growth in the EU. "That's where Europe's economic recovery is going to come from," he said.

Meanwhile, leader of the ALDE group in the European Parliament, Graham Watson, has hit out at Libertas. Speaking in Brussels on Tuesday, the MEP said that Declan Ganley "should return to the political hinterland from whence he came," and said that one of the challenges facing the EP in the upcoming elections was to "stymie" critics of the institution.
EurActiv The Parliament Open Europe blog

Government bars entry for Dutch MP
The Government has banned Dutch MP Geert Wilders, leader of the leader of the Freedom Party, from entering the UK. He was due to attend a screening of his controversial film, which attacks Islam, in the House of Lords, at the invitation of UKIP peer Lord Pearson of Rannoch. The Government said his visit "would threaten community harmony and therefore public security in the UK." Dutch Foreign minister Maxime Verhagen telephoned Foreign Secretary David Miliband to protest. The Mail notes that Mr Wilders is thought to be the first elected EU politician to be excluded since 1973, when Britain joined what was the EEC.

According to De Volkskrant, Dutch socialist MEP Thijs Berman has demanded that the European Commission asks the UK to remember the necessity to guarantee free movement of MPs around the EU, saying "What if Belgium and France would do the same as the British? Then it could occur that European politicians could not come to Brussels or Strasbourg any more", however adding that "every member state has the sovereign right to refuse someone. But I think that this British measure is exaggerated, certainly now it involves an MP". Meanwhile the leader of the Greens in the European Parliament Daniel Cohn Bendit has said: "the British standpoint is unacceptable. (...) The European Commission is reacting softly, because it lacks political courage."
Mail Volkskrant Trouw

Britain to benefit most from Commission plans to incorporate airlines into carbon trading scheme
The IHT reports that the UK is set to benefit the most from Commission plans to incorporate the aviation sector into the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Aviation has previously been exempt from the scheme but the new plans will require airlines to buy permits to cover their carbon emissions.

The article notes that the Commission plans to allocate each airline serving Europe to a single country that will be responsible for collecting payments. The Commission says that national oversight should simplify administration, but the paper notes that the method also means that countries with the busiest airports are likely to prosper the most. Britain, home to Europe's busiest airport, would oversee about 780 carriers while France would oversee about 515 and Germany 290.
IHT

Denmark: support for the euro is dropping
Danish daily Berlingske notes that the number of Danes in favour of joining the euro is dropping. According to a Gallup poll for the paper, 42% are in favour, and 42% are against. In November last year, 51% of the Danes were in favour of joining the euro.
Berlingske

In an interview with the Mail, Single Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy says that he is backing the idea for a creation of a single European regulator for the region's top 45 cross-border banks.
Mail

Waterfield: "Strange standards" of ethical behaviour in the European Parliament
On his Telegraph blog, Bruno Waterfield looks at the "strange standards" of ethical behaviour in the European Parliament. He writes that MEP Den Dover, who has been expelled from the Conservative Party and asked to pay back over £500,000 in staff allowances, is still a member of the European People's Party, yet MEP Dan Hannan was expelled from the EPP for kicking up a fuss over "despotic" rule changes to make debate more difficult in the European Parliament. Waterfield writes that "This is the topsy turvy world of the EPP: dissent means expulsion but unaccountable expenses worth over £500,000 does not."
Telegraph: Waterfield blog

Additional road tolls could push up prices for peripheral countries
EUobserver reports that lorries could see additional tolls for the air and noise pollution as well as the congestion they create following backing in an EU Parliament committee yesterday for a revision of the so-called Eurovignette Directive. Currently the rules allow road charging only for infrastructure costs on main roads, with environmental costs explicitly excluded, but that is in the process of being revised to allow member states to charge for other 'externalities'.
EUobserver Irish Times European Voice

Revisions to EU Directive on pollution could push up food prices
The National Farmers' Union has warned that tighter pollution controls on small family farms could push up the price of staple foods such as chicken, turkey, tomatoes and cucumbers according to PA. Currently the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive is targeted largely at heavy industries to control emissions in soil, air and water.

The Union's President Peter Kendall is quoted saying "The Commission's proposals will basically expand the scope of the IPPC Directive to cover more pig and poultry farms, including seasonal turkeys and free range producers, as well as glasshouse growers, and will bring with it a plethora of additional bureaucracy."
No link

MEPs call for change to 'land-grab' planning law
PA reports that the European Parliament's Petition Committee has called on the Spanish government to revise a regional planning law that allows developers to seize and demolish private property, which to date has mostly affected expatriates. About 15,000 mostly British, Belgian, German and French property owners lodged a formal petition with MEPs three years ago in desperation over a 1994 Valencia land and town planning law which triggered 20,000 compulsory purchases of land or property for "urban" development.

The European Court of Justice has already ruled that the so-called "land-grab" law is illegal, but the European Commission says a replacement law still breaches EU public procurement regulations. Now the Petitions Committee - which has no direct power - has made a new call on the Madrid government to force revision of the regional law.
Telegraph

Netherlands only country to have voted against EU 2007 Budget
The Netherlands has voted against the approval of the annual financial statement of the European Union for 2007, according to De Financiële Telegraaf, the only country to do so. However, the vote is not binding and will not directly affect the EU budget.
Financiële Telegraaf Radio Netherlands Open Europe blog

According to PA, yesterday was designated "European 112 Day" - in an effort to publicise the EU-wide emergency phone number.
Commission press release

French President Sarkozy has defended the French bailout of the car industry saying it had had "nothing to do with protectionism", while Le Monde reports that EU Commissioner for Competition Nellie Kroes believes that Paris is not taking EU complaints about the bailout seriously and has given a one week deadline to France to clarify its intentions.
EUobserver Le Monde

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso has repeated his view that Ireland would be in the same position as Iceland if it were not a member of the euro zone, saying: "The situation in the euro area countries would be much worse and much more difficult if we didn't have the euro." Reportedly, the comments are likely to anger Taoiseach Brian Cowen, who earlier declared he would not accept "badmouthing of Ireland".
Irish Times FT: Brussels blog

In the FT, Giuliano Amato, former Prime Minster of Italy and Emma Bonino, former EU Commissioner, argue for the creation of two "task-forces", chaired by the Commission, with a mandate to coordinate member states' state aid to the car and banking industries.
FT

The European Commission has approved 1.7m euros in aid, from the European Globalisation Fund, for unemployed Spanish car workers.
BBC

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