Europe
Warning of new "Iron Curtain" in Europe over financial crisis;
EU summit rejects bailout plan for eastern Europe
EU leaders met yesterday for an emergency summit to try and find a consensus on the global financial crisis before April's G20 summit. However, the Times notes that the summit was "marked by suspicion and self-interest, with the economic crisis exposing deep faultlines on how best to respond to the downturn."
On his BBC blog, Mark Mardell writes "make no mistake, the world's economic crisis is putting this unique institution, the European Union, under very serious strain." He notes that the summit was preceded by a gathering of nine eastern European countries and that, "some regarded it as a worrying trend if the EU is breaking into semi-formal groupings based on both politics and geography...The fracture could become permanent." Writing in the Times, David Charter argues that the "lack of EU leadership and direction...threatens to wrench apart both the euro and the EU itself."
Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany tabled a proposal calling on the EU to set up a 190 billion euro fund to bail out eastern Europe and warned, "We should not allow a new Iron Curtain to be set up and divide Europe in two parts", according to the Times. He also said that "A significant crisis in Eastern Europe would trigger political tensions and immigration pressures...a 10 per cent increase in unemployment would lead to at least five million unemployed people within the EU."
However, the Irish Times reports that EU leaders rejected the proposal and a 'one-size-fits-all' bailout and quotes German Chancellor Angela Merkel; "Saying that the situation is the same for all central and eastern European states, I don't see that".
According to the DPA press agency Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, when asked whether Europe's answer to the crisis was better coordinated after the EU summit, said, "I don't think so". In the FT, Wolfgang Munchau argues, "This is no longer a banking crisis. It is a policy crisis of the first order."
European Voice reports that EU leaders also rejected the idea of easing criteria for entry into the eurozone, but that Jean Claude Juncker indicated that the criteria for the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II), a preliminary step toward admission, could be applied more flexibly.
WSJ WSJ 2 Guardian Guardian 2 Irish Times Irish Times 2 Times Times 2 Times:Charter EUobserver EUobserver2 Deutsche Welle Deutsche Welle2 FT Irish Times 3 Mail Telegraph Independent Telegraph: Waterfield blog BBC BBC: Mardell blog European Voice EurActiv European Voice 2 FT: Munchau Le Figaro La Tribune FTD Die Zeit DPA Independent on Sunday Independent 2 Independent: Leader Independent: McRae Times 4 FT 2 FT 3 FT: Wagstyl
The Weekend FT reported that Sweden will table a proposal under their presidency of the EU in the latter part of this year to make the European Court of Justice the final arbiter of asylum claims, which could see governments lose the final say on which asylum seekers they accept.
Weekend FT
Sarkozy: No new Commission president before re-run Irish referendum on Lisbon
At a press conference at the emergency EU summit yesterday, Nicolas Sarkozy said that the decision on who should become the next President of the European Commission should be delayed until after the second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland, as opposed to at the EU's June summit as originally envisioned. EUobserver quotes Sarkozy saying, "As regards the different candidacies, as you know, we are subject to the decision of our Irish friends on the ratification of the Lisbon treaty ...Depending on that, we will ask ourselves questions."
On who he supports for the position, Sarkozy said "I love Mr Barroso very much, I loved working with him [during the French EU presidency in the second half of 2008], I trust him and I trust the commission." Sarkozy has previously backed the current Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, and has now told journalists "I do not change [my mind] like that." However, the Coulisses de Bruxelles blog notes that Sarkozy refused for the first time to "explicitly endorse the candidacy of Barroso."
EUobserver IHT Guardian: Merritt European Voice Coulisses
Commission spends 24 million pounds on former Conservative HQ
The News of the World reported that the European Parliament and the Commission have spent 24 million pounds purchasing the Conservatives' former headquarters in central London. Fewer than 70 staff will work on eight floors, and the paper reports that Commission documents reveal planned renovations will cost at least 5.2 million pounds. Open Europe Research Director Mats Persson is quoted saying "In the middle of a recession, taxpayers will not be pleased to hear that they are forking out for more lavish office space for EU bureaucrats."
News of the World
Swedish Justice Minister: Commission wants to restrict public's access to EU documents
The Swedish Justice Minister Beatrice Ask has criticised Commission plans to revise a law on public access to EU documents, news site Europaportalen reports. According to the Commission, the new proposal will improve access to documents, but Ask said that the revision would give the Commission the right to keep entire categories of documents secret. In addition, the revised proposal would only allow citizens to apply for access to a document if it appears in a register, which would make it difficult for citizens to gain access in practice since it usually takes a very long time for the documents to become registered. "The Commission wants to restrict the number of documents it is obliged to make available, that's how we interpret [the proposal]", Ask is quoted as saying.
Europaportalen
EU environment ministers meet to agree common position for Copenhagen climate talks
European Voice reports that environment ministers from the EU's member states will meet today in Brussels to prepare a common negotiating position for international talks in Copenhagen in December aimed at curbing climate change. The ministers are expected to re-confirm the EU's pledge to cut its carbon emissions by 30% by 2020 compared to 1990 levels provided that other rich countries make similar commitments.
Euractiv notes that the proposed recasting of the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive will also be up for discussion. As the proposal stands, it will require some 52,000 industrial operators to obtain permits from national authorities to release pollutants into the air, soil or water. Ministers will debate broadening the scope of the Directive to new industrial sectors, such as large industrial farms or waste incinerators.
European Voice EurActiv
Jacques Delors: "What we are searching for today is a Europe of common interests rather than a united Europe"
In an interview with Le Figaro, Jacques Delors, former head of the European Commission, and Alain Minc, who is a former adviser to various French governments, point to a number of important challenges that the EU will face in the future. In particular, they refer to Europe's future demographic weakness with an ageing population, the EU's weakness in the field of research and defence and the growing number of smaller states in Europe. Minc referred to an "unidentified political object" when speaking of the EU, with Delors arguing that "what we are searching for today is a Europe of common interests rather than a united Europe."
Minc reiterated his belief that Europe is not an important partner for America: "For Obama, Europe is roughly what Switzerland is to France. A peripheral zone, rich and developed, but an indifferent one." On the lack of a common energy policy, Delors said that he was irritated by European leaders "going to Putin and Medvedev and belly dancing before them." He went on to say: "a test for European coherence is energy...we are ridiculous: we talk about a common foreign policy, but here is a basis for a common foreign policy!"
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Commission and France reach agreement over auto bailout
The FT reports that France and the EU Commission have "declared a truce in their simmering dispute over aid from the French government to the automotive industry." The Commission said over the weekend that French authorities had undertaken not to implement measures that would breach the principles of the single market.
Meanwhile, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reports that the German government wants to proof the proposed bail-out plan for car manufacturer Opel. Minister for Economics Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg is quoted saying, "Simple solutions do not lie on the table".
Le Figaro Les Echos FT
Times: "The three great European projects of the past 30 years are all in danger"
On Saturday, a leader in the Times argued that the single market, the Euro, and the EU's policy of enlargement "are all in danger at the same time." It argued that, "The biggest missing feature of European politics is not institutional reform. It is strong leadership."
In Saturday's Telegraph, Gordon Rayner looked at the effects of the economic crisis and Euro membership in Ireland. He argued that, "If the Irish economy, and that of other struggling EU states, continues to nosedive, the cohesion of the eurozone is likely to be tested to breaking point."
In the Independent Roland Rudd suggests that, "If Europe wants to be relevant, it needs an elected president". He goes on to argue that, "While the absence of the [Lisbon] Treaty has not hampered the EU, in the longer term the institutional reforms it contains would help ensure the smooth and more efficient functioning of the Union."
Times: Leader Independent: Rudd
The Irish edition of the Sunday Mirror reported that for the second time in less than a fortnight a poll has suggested there is now a majority who would vote Yes for the Lisbon Treaty in a second poll. A Millward Brown IMS poll published on Saturday showed 63 percent of decided voters would vote "Yes", and 37 percent would vote "No".
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On Saturday the Independent reported that the unemployment rate in the eurozone is 8.2 percent, the highest for two years.
Independent
A leader in the FT argues that France's reintegration into Nato ought to pave the way for "much better definition of the roles played by Nato and the European Union in the defence sphere" and that "Both organisations must now work hard to complement each other."
FT: Leader
In the Sunday Express Jason Groves argued that "Brussels is losing the argument", not just in Britain, but across many parts of Europe - citing the latest Eurobarometer poll which showed that just 35% of people in Europe now think the EU is "going in the right direction". The article noted Open Europe's recent calculation that EU regulation has cost the UK more than £100bn over the past decade.
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Commission and FIFA to discuss player quotas for football
European Voice reports that officials from FIFA are to meet European Commissioners in the next month to discuss the possible introduction of player quotas in European football. Despite a new report saying such a move would not contravene EU law, the Commission has argued that such a ruling would be incompatible with EU regulation by discriminating on the basis of nationality and putting a restriction on the free movement of workers within the single European market.
European Voice
German CSU and CDU fight over referenda on EU issues
DPA reports that three months before the European elections, the German CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU, are fighting about the introduction of referenda for EU issues, particularly for possible Turkish accession. Alexander Dobrindt, General Secretary of the CSU, is quoted saying, "It is not about populism but a process of increased democratisation in Europe".
DPA
In the Telegraph, Robin Page explains why he has left the UK Independence Party. He writes, "The party created to fight centralised government, sleaze and corruption has become a mirror image of the body it professes to loathe."
Telegraph: Page EU Referendum blog Conservative Home
The Sunday Express reported that the Government is advising Councils to cut the size of wheelie bins and to move to fortnightly collections. According to the paper Ministers claim cuts in the service are needed to meet EU recycling targets.
Sunday Express
Irish Taoiseach Brian Cowen has said that his party Fianna Fail intend to join the liberal group in the European Parliament after the upcoming EU elections, leaving the Union for European of the Nations (UEN).
EUobserver
Over the weekend there was wide coverage of the Government's plans to privatise much of Royal Mail. In the Sunday Telegraph Christopher Booker pointed to a BERR report from last year which showed that the main cause of Royal Mail's huge losses was compliance with three EU postal services directives, designed to end national postal monopolies by 2010 and to promote "cross-border" integration of the EU's postal services.
Sunday Telegraph
On Saturday the Times featured a profile of EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, noting that "under her leadership, the investigators of DG Competition, the European Union's trust-busting division, have raided at dawn and fined as never before".
Times
In the Sunday Telegraph Christopher Booker looked at the problems caused by the MoD's "Europe first" policy in buying defence equipment. He argued, for example, that the problems faced by Birmingham van-maker LDV are down to the MoD's 2004 decision to give a £1.6 billion contract to build a fleet of trucks to a German-owned firm in Austria.
Sunday Telegraph
World
The leaders of ten Southeast Asian countries have signed a declaration to integrate their economies and construct an economic and political union modelled on that of the European Union by 2015.
EUobserver
Open Europe is an independent think tank campaigning for radical reform of the EU. For information on our research, events and other activities, please visit our website: openeurope.org.uk or call us on 0207 197 2333.
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