Europe Commission's proposals for bank supervision equate to "pan-European regulator", critics warn There's continued coverage of the proposal tabled yesterday by the European Commission to create three new EU bodies to oversee national banks, insurances and securities. The three bodies - a European Banking Authority in London; a European Insurance Authority in Frankfurt; and a European Securities Authority in Paris - each will be composed of chief regulators from the 27 member states and, controversially, will have binding powers to impose decisions on member states and over-rule national regulators. In the Telegraph, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard notes that the proposal will be effectively "stripping Britain and other countries of the national veto." He also notes that while the proposals do not technically create a pan-European regulator, they may have a similar effect - crucially, the European Court of Justice is to have the final say over any appeal. According to the FT, the Commission hopes it will win broad political support for the reforms when EU leaders meet next month, and then bring forward detailed legislation in the "early autumn". The article quotes Jose Manuel Barroso, European Commission President, saying, "It will be now or never. If we cannot reform the financial sector and financial supervision when we have a real crisis, when will we reform it?" The UK is said to oppose the introduction of the three new bodies, and the proposal has come under heavy criticism in the UK. The Telegraph quotes Antonio Borges, Chair of the Hedge Funds Standards Board, saying that the blizzard of EU proposals had been hijacked by political forces and were "out of control", adding "There is little intellectual foundation to what they are doing...the reality is that a great deal of regulatory power is going to Brussels." The proposal also included the creation of a European Systemic Risk Council, to assess and warn about threats to financial stability in the region. However, the ESRC's warning would only be indicative and not binding. Meanwhile, writing for European Voice, outgoing Conservative MEP Caroline Jackson suggests the Conservatives' decision to leave the largest bloc in the EP, the EPP-ED, could reduce the Conservatives' ability to block EU regulation damaging to the City of London. European Voice FT Irish Independent Telegraph EurActiv WSJ Irish Times: Leader Irish Times Irish Times: Jamie Smyth blog El Mundo Le Figaro El Pais Le Monde Junior doctors pressed to lie about hours to comply with EU working time rules The Mail reports that a survey of 31,360 junior doctors who were compliant with the 48-hour per week limit on working hours has found that one in ten had been asked to submit data showing they were compliant, even when they went over the limit. Of a further 3,938 junior doctors who were not compliant with the working time rules 'on paper', 17 percent said they had been asked to submit false hours which showed that they were. The EU's Working Time Directive limits the number of hours that junior doctors can work to 48 hours a week from 1 August. PA quotes a Department of Health spokesperson saying, "Two thirds of all junior doctors are already working 48-hour compliant rotas and we expect almost all junior doctors to be compliant by August 1." Liberal Democrats health spokesman Norman Lamb is also quoted saying, "This demonstrates just how ludicrous the imposition of these rules are on the NHS." Paul Waugh's Evening Standard blog reports that Joanna Lumley has backed the Green party in next week's European elections, and cites Open Europe's ranking of MEPs, in which Green leader Caroline Lucas came top of UK MEPs. Open Europe's Mats Persson also appeared on Irish radio station RTE yesterday, discussing the ranking. The ranking is also cited in the Limerick Leader. Evening Standard Independent Open Europe research Open Europe blog Limerick Leader German Constitutional Court's pending ruling on the Lisbon Treaty is casting a shadow on the European election campaign A feature in the Irish Times looking at the European elections in Germany notes that "There is a shadow of uncertainty hanging over the campaign thanks to the constitutional court judges in Karlsruhe, who are still deliberating on legal challenges to the Lisbon Treaty." It quotes an unnamed senior CDU member who complained in the Die Welt newspaper that it was "impossible" for politicians to run an effective election campaign with the Karlsruhe "sword of Damocles" hanging over their heads saying, "How can we be expected to...say to voters: we don't know whether (the treaty) conforms to the constitution, but trust us anyway?" The article notes that some politicians have expressed relief that the judges' verdict is not expected until after the European elections, keeping the Treaty out of the campaign. Meanwhile, the Irish Times' Europe Correspondent Jamie Smyth looks at the European elections in Ireland and quotes Professor Michael Marsh from Trinity College Dublin saying, "It is very difficult to tell the difference between a European issue or a national issue. People vote on social economic issues and climate change in general elections, but the European Parliament legislates in many of these areas too...even with the Lisbon Treaty, it is member states that decide on that issue." Irish Times: Smyth Irish Times Hague: Under Gordon Brown Britain has sat on the sidelines in Europe Writing in the Spectator, Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague responds to David Miliband's claim that Conservative EU policy is 'suicidal', arguing that "For more than a decade we have had a British government whose idea of being in Europe's mainstream meant following in others' slipstream. The results have been meagre." With reference to the upcoming European elections he writes, "Labour's alignment with the Party of European Socialists must be an embarrassment for modernisers such as Mr Miliband...the joint manifesto for the European elections Labour has signed up to belongs to the 1970s: it demands legal caps on business pay and calls for collective bargaining at an EU level. Perhaps such company explains why Labour MEPs voted to scrap the opt-out from the working time directive, vital for our public services and businesses." Hague also notes that "Most significant provisions in the Lisbon Treaty were originally opposed by the government, but ministers were too weak to stand their ground. The Treaty is almost identical to its predecessor, the EU constitution, to whose text the government sought 275 amendments, of which only 27 were accepted." Commission expected to put controversial divorce law on hold until after Irish Lisbon Treaty referendum European Voice reports that the European Commission is expected to prevent ten member states adopting a controversial law that would make divorce easier for couples who live abroad or are of different nationalities. Instead it will present a revised proposal, but only after Ireland has voted again on the Lisbon Treaty. Sweden argued that the proposal, first tabled in 2007, could lead to its courts being forced to apply divorces under Sharia law, because divorcing couples would have been permitted to choose the law to be applied to their case, based on nationality or residence. The article notes that the Commission is sensitive to any proposals which may have a negative influence on the Treaty debate in Ireland, especially as Dublin is currently drafting 'guarantees' to be agreed by EU leaders next month, including one on 'ethical issues', in return for holding the second referendum. The Sun reports that 30 of 78 UK MEPs are employing family members, paying them between £500,000 and £750,000 in salaries last year alone. Former German Foreign Minister: Germany now sees the EU as a means to an end In a comment piece in Süddeutsche, former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer argues that, since the beginning of the global financial crisis, Germany has almost exclusively invested into national crisis management and rejected European solutions. He concludes that Germany sees the EU not as end anymore but solely as the means to accomplish its own interests. No link Economist's Charlemagne: "even as electoral rhetoric, it strikes me as strong stuff" Commenting on David Cameron's speech on Monday, in which he said "the EU and the judges -- neither of them accountable to British citizens -- have taken too much power over issues that are contested aspects of public policy and which should therefore be settled in the realm of democratic politics", the Economist's Charlemagne blog writes that "even as electoral rhetoric, it strikes me as strong stuff...what are voters supposed to think listening to the speech? They are entitled to come away thinking that the EU is anti-democratic and wholly unaccountable, in the eyes of the Tory leader. But unless I have badly misjudged him, Mr Cameron is not preparing to leave the EU, so what happens if he is elected, and stays inside the allegedly evil empire? The answer is: the British public will become that little bit more Eurosceptic." German government ignored regulator's warnings over Hypo Real Estate The WSJ reports that documents seen by the paper indicate that Germany's financial regulator Bafin warned of serious problems at Hypo Real Estate six months before the lender was rescued in a massive bailout, but the regulator lacked powers to act and the German government ignored its warnings. The European Commission is proposing a temporary easing of the rules that member states must follow to obtain regional aid for 2009-10, ending the requirement that national governments provide co-financing alongside EU funding. The BBC reports that all-night talks in Berlin about the future of Opel and Vauxhall have broken down without reaching a decision about who should buy General Motors' European arm. GM faces a June 1 deadline to restructure itself or file for bankruptcy, according to the Telegraph. The Government's attempt to reduce the red tape burden on business has made "significant progress", according to a report by the OECD. However, the report warned that there was "a risk of significant regulation overload" if the total stock of regulations was not reduced in a "systematic" way. German inflation has turned negative for the first time in 20 years, according to the FT. EurActiv reports that EU research ministers meeting today are expected to take a significant step towards introducing a common EU patent system. An article in the Times looking at UK MEPs' attendance records and notes that Conservative MEP John Purvis topped the list, followed by fellow Conservative Struan Stevenson and Labour's David Martin. Le Figaro reports on the fact that Italian MEPs are the highest paid of all MEPs and yet have the poorest attendance record. No link The EU's Ambassador to Washington John Bruton has described the EU's energy policy as one of its "big failures" over the past 50 years but suggests that growing dependence on Russia for energy needs could increase pressure for a common energy policy, reports EUobserver. The leader of Germany's Social Democrats Franz Müntefering has said there is little point in Europe's socialist bloc naming a candidate to try to stop European Commission President José Manuel Barroso winning a second term. An article in the Guardian looks at possible far-right gains in the European elections next week and describes falling voter turnout as inverse, compared to the growing power of the European Parliament.Open Europe
Thursday, 28 May 2009
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