Open Europe press summary: 21 July 2009

Europe

Irish Foreign Minister: "would a dictatorship not be delightfully simple?"
German daily FAZ looks ahead to the second referendum in Ireland on the Lisbon Treaty, and quotes Foreign Minister Micheál Martin saying that "democracies are complex", adding, sarcastically, "would a dictatorship not be delightfully simple?" He adds that "it was easier with the introduction of the common market and the euro."

The article quotes French President Nicolas Sarkozy telling Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen during a visit to Ireland last year: "Brian, I cannot imagine an EU without Ireland", which was regarded as a warning. Brian Cowen is quoted saying: "We don't lie to people. Everybody knows that it isn't about EU membership".
FAZ

MEPs take unprecedented secret vote to block whistleblower from top EP Committee job
The Telegraph reports that Marta Andreasen, the EU's former Chief Accountant and whistleblower, sacked by Neil Kinnock and now a UKIP MEP, was yesterday blocked by the centre-right and socialist MEPs from becoming vice-chairman of the European Parliament's budgetary committee. The European People's Party - which the UK Conservatives have now left - and the Socialists broke parliamentary convention on the allocation of committee posts by demanding a vote by secret ballot to block Mrs Andreasen, who was fired in 2004 after she publicly claimed there was a £172 million discrepancy between two sets of Brussels accounts. According to PA, the secret ballot was unprecedented.

Chris Davies, a Liberal Democrat, attacked the "shameful decision" to hold a secret ballot so the MEPs could not be "held accountable for their actions". He said: "The message it sends to the public is that anyone who speaks out against malpractice in Europe risks being excluded from office."

Ms Andreasen, who will still be a member of the Committee is quoted by PA saying: "What are they scared of? If they have nothing to hide then they would have supported my candidacy. This underhand and childish reaction just shows us how scared they are of the truth. I will not be going away. I intend to use my position to act as a particularly sharp thorn in the side of the EU accounts. It can be no surprise that the accounts are never signed off when they act like this".
Telegraph Parliament

City insiders fear Conservative plans to scrap FSA could undermine EU negotiations on regulation
The Telegraph reports that City of London insiders are concerned that the Conservatives' plan to abolish the Financial Services Authority (FSA) may undermine the FSA in current sensitive discussions in Europe, where Lord Turner, FSA Chairman, is negotiating on behalf of the UK.

Meanwhile, the article notes that Angela Knight, Chief Executive of the British Bankers' Association, has welcomed Conservative proposals for a full-time Treasury minister dedicated to Europe as "a positive step".

The Conservatives have also said they would fight any attempt to set up a pan-European regulator while also pushing for "constructive solutions to transatlantic disagreements on accounting standards, transparency and hedge funds".
Telegraph Telegraph 2 Telegraph 3 WSJ FT City AM

Tony Barber: Blair would never turn down the chance to be EU president
In the FT, Tony Barber argues that it seems unlikely that Tony Blair "would ever turn down the opportunity to be the European Union's first permanent president". Barber insists that French President Nicolas Sarkozy's opinions will be crucial and that Felipe Gonzalez and Tony Blair seem to be the frontrunners should Jose Manuel Barroso be re-elected as Commission President. However, he concludes that "it is almost an iron EU law that the people first mentioned in connection with big jobs are seldom the ones that get them

The New Statesman's Best of the Politics Blogs quotes from Open Europe's blog on the idea of Tony Blair as EU President: "Tony Blair may well be well respected around the world, and a weighty character for meetings with Putin and Obama. But he is also yesterday's news - he has no democratic mandate at all - and neither will any of the other contenders for the post."
FT Pierre Rousselin in Le Figaro New Statesman Open Europe blog

The Swedish government has opposed a new transport tax proposed by the EU which it says will unfairly hurt geographically vast countries such as Sweden. The new tax proposal would increase taxation for road transportation in order to combat climate change.
SR

70% of German voters against bailout of IrelandA comment in the Irish Daily Mail by Mary Ellen Synon reports on Open Europe's new survey of German voters, which found that 70 percent are against bailing out other struggling EU economies, such as Ireland. Describing how the Irish government spends "60 million euro a day half of which goes on public sector pay", she notes that "that kind of economic recklessness is the reason we have to pay a premium rate for our 10-year debt of about two and a half percent over what the Germans pay for theirs".

Looking ahead on a possible Irish default on its debt, she notes: "Problem is, the Government have been putting out the line that, if no one will buy our bonds, for sure the other, stronger member states of the eurozone will bail us out. For other, stronger member states, read 'Germany.' But here's the secret, and it is something the Government do not want you to know, not this side of the next Lisbon referendum: Germany may not bail us out."

Writing that the Irish government is calculating that "the Germans will come to our rescue", she says that this "may be our Government's deadly mistake" as it is "confusing the German government' with 'the German people'". She concludes: "Mrs Merkel and her government will face parliamentary elections in September. They may get a sharp reminder that they are in office to look after the Germans, not the Irish."

Open Europe's poll has also been published in German magazine EF-online. Irish Daily Mail Ef-magazin Open Europe press release Open Europe press release in German

Shriti Vadera favourite for new EU Commissioner?
An article in the Guardian notes that while Geoff Hoon has been mooted as the frontrunner for the job of the UK's next EU Commissioner, The Times has recently said that Shriti Vadera, a business minister, is the most likely choice. José Manuel Barroso, the Commission's President, has apparently asked Brown to nominate a female candidate for the job. The Guardian also says that the new British Commissioner has to have a good rapport with Peter Mandelson.
Guardian Times

Milk producers can turn to governments for further funding
European Commissioner for Agriculture Mariann Fischer Boel will not lower milk quotas as a remedy to the fall in dairy prices, the EUobserver reports. The Commission says a drop in quotas would have an "adverse effect on the reform of the agricultural sector and would not render service to the many dairy producers". The Telegraph points out that farmers can ask national authorities for further funding in a time of crisis, which has been set at a maximum €15,000 per farm in order to avoid distortion in competition.
EUobserver Focus Telegraph

Henrik Brors: Sweden among losers as new EP emerges
Henrik Bors, writing in Swedish newspaper DN, says that Sweden, along with Denmark and Finland emerged as the greatest losers as the new European Parliament power structures became clear. Swedish MEPs were unable to land any of the more important chairmanships in the new parliament as they all went to larger countries.
DN

In a letter to the Telegraph, Major General Julian Thompson has said that the "government obsession with a European defense identity has wasted money on Euro-projects, instead of buying cheaper, better equipment off the shelf.
Telegraph

In a letter to the FT, Lord Stern argues that a delay in formally appointing the new President of the European Commission could "seriously damage the prospects of securing a strong international agreement at the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen in December."
FT: Letters

El Mundo reports that the European Commission has announced that it will cancel €65.5 million of financial assistance to Honduras as a result of the failure to resolve the crisis following the coup d'état.
El Mundo Mtv3 RFI

Le Monde reports that the 'last European dictator', Alexander Lukashenko, President of Belarus, has been making moves to secure legitimacy within the EU by recently visiting Italy to see the Pope and Prime Minister Berlusconi.
No link

The Latvian government has been told by the EU that it can take no major financial decision without first seeking approval from the EU and the IMF. In practice this means that Latvia will be governed from Brussels. The small Baltic country is suffering from immense debt in the aftermath of the financial crisis that hit Latvia especially hard.
SvD

Iceland hands over stakes in nationalised banks to international creditors
The Telegraph reports that the Icelandic government announced yesterday that it is making preparations to hand over large stakes in its 3 nationalised banks to their international creditors as well as a 270bn Krona or £1.3bn injection in an attempt to revive the broken financial system. This move unwinds a previous decision which was taken last year to separate the old banks' domestic operations into three new banks.
Telegraph Monde Figaro

Le Figaro reports that 'Hadopi 2' (an amended version of the illegal internet downloading law) is being debated in the French National Assembly today.
Les Echos Le Figaro Le Figaro 2

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