Reminder: Open Europe is holding an evening discussion entitled "EU proposals for financial regulation and supervision: Is the UK behind the ball game?" on Wednesday 15 July in London. Speakers include Mark Hoban MP, Shadow City Minister; David Green, Advisor on International Affairs to the Financial Reporting Council; Dr David Doyle, Senior Policy Advisor, Brunswick Group; and Mats Persson, Research Director, Open Europe. Places are limited. If you would like to attend, please contact Sarah Gaskell at sarah@openeurope.org.uk or Tel: 020 7197 2333. Europe Charlemagne: Was London behind the ball on the EU hedge fund directive? The Economist's Charlemagne blog looks at the EU's proposed directive on alternative investment funds and reports that senior EU officials felt under "intense pressure from the French and Germans to impose the strictest possible regulation on hedge funds", and were expecting to come under balancing pressure from the British, who did not show "strong lobbying", according to one insider. The blog suggests that the Commission would not have been hostile to British arguments against strong regulation for hedge funds, saying Internal Markets Commissioner Charlie McCreevy was "deeply sceptical" about heavy regulation of financial services, but that the "right phone calls were not made." The blog suggests the reasons for this failure are that hedge funds have never been good at lobbying Brussels; British officials have lost some confidence and been distracted by political crises in London; and Britain agreed at the G20 that hedge funds would be regulated, and "It is simply too late to complain now that the European Commission should leave such funds alone." The column quotes one 'player' saying "London was behind the ball on this". The Telegraph reports that, speaking at a conference yesterday about the EU's proposed alternative investment fund directive, London Mayor Boris Johnson said, "It's utterly crazy that we should allow the EU to launch an attack on the City's alternative investment funds. I believe this EU directive is a mistake and against the interests of Europe." He went on, "My greatest worry is that this is just the start of a flood of draft directives that will start to filter out of Brussels". Meanwhile, writing in the Times, Olivier Kamm argued, "The EU proposals would place limits on leverage and require hedge funds to use European banks as custodians. There is scant economic justification for these measures." City AM Times: Kamm Telegraph Economist: Charlemagne's notebook Guardian OE blog Sweden to re-open negotiations over the EU's Working Time Directive? Swedish Employment Minister Sven-Otto Littorin will on Wednesday travel to Strasbourg to meet with the new Chairman of the European Parliament's employment and social affairs committee - most likely to be a socialist MEP - in the European Parliament to discuss the possibility of re-opening negotiations over the Working Time Directive, Swedish Radio reports. The negotiations broke down in April, after the European Parliament failed to pass an amendment through the Council of Ministers, which would have ended the possibility for member states to opt out of the maximum 48 hour working week entailed in the Directive - a derogation used by 3 million workers in the UK. "The first thing we'll do on Wednesday is to go to Strasbourg and try to meet the newly elected Chairman of the European Parliament's employment committee in order to at least engage in a discussion, " Littorin said following a meeting of EU employment ministers in Jonkoping. Sweden is primarily seeking changes to the provisions in the Directive which define all time spent on call as active working time, even when a doctor or another worker is sleeping - a provision which has caused massive problems for health sectors around Europe. Swedish Radio Open Europe research Open Europe blog Lamfalussy: EU financial supervision committees now have a mandate to supervise banks At a conference in Brussels organised by the Madariaga Foundation, Nicolas Veron of Bruegel commented that the EU's proposed Systemic Risk Board "will be controlled by the ECB, although that hasn't been decided yet." European economist Alexandre Lamfalussy said that the level 3 banking, insurance and securities committees, which are to be upgraded to authorities with binding mediation powers over national supervisions, "didn't really have a mandate (before) to supervise the banks. Now they have it". He also added that he thought the financial crisis was due to "excessive liquidity", pointing at the lax policies of the US Federal Reserve, and accused the ECB of "not having respected certain reference values it has". Madariaga Foundation Times: Letters Developing countries resist pressure for firm climate change targets The FT reports that developing countries including India and China resisted pressure from the G8 nations yesterday to set a target of reducing emissions by an overall average of 50 percent by 2050, instead, they promised to discuss firm emissions reduction targets in the run-up to the Copenhagen climate change conference in December. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon criticised G8 leaders for not going further by setting interim targets for 2020 and to finance efforts by developing nations to embrace low carbon technology. An article in the WSJ writes, "The politics of climate change have always been long on apocalyptic rhetoric but short on policy realism... Concerns about high costs and lost jobs have already threatened or killed carbon-emissions control schemes in enviro-conscious Australia and New Zealand." The article cites Open Europe's research findings that the EU's climate package would cost European economies over a trillion dollars in the coming decade. Meanwhile the G8 agreed to try and conclude the stalled Doha trade round in 2010 WSJ Open Europe research OE blog Independent FT Telegraph FT 2 El Pais ABC EU anti-fraud agency annual report shows mismanagement of funds to fight against AIDS AP reports that EU anti-fraud agency OLAF has published its annual reports, with the UK's Serious Fraud Office being singled out for praise, as it had joined forces with OLAF inspectors in a series of investigations in Uganda into the "mismanagement" of EU funds destined to bolster work against HIV/Aids and TB. The report claims that in 2008 a sum of 460 million euros (nearly £400 million) was recorded as recovered during crackdowns on abuses of EU funding. Die Zeitquotes German MEP Inge Grassle criticising the fact that "only 7% of all cases are being prosecuted by the member states". EU Council officially nominate Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso for second mandate El País reports that the Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt yesterday confirmed at the G8 summit in L'Aquila that the 27 member states have officially nominated Jose Manuel Barroso for a second mandate. Handelsblatt writes that Barroso is seen by many as a compromise solution rather than an enthusiastically expected candidate. Barroso said "I am not a liberal, but a reformist of the middle" amid criticism for being a "chameleon - a politician without his own beliefs who is being steered by the big member states". Handelsblatt El Mundo El Pais La Tribune Express AFP IHT Zeit Spiegel Tagesspiegel Focus DN Swedish EU PresidencyABC Telegraph European Voice Spanish MEPs must reduce their salary by €4000 if they want national social security benefits La Razón reports on the conclusion reached by a Spanish parliamentary commitee concerning Spanish MEPs' demands to receive the same social security and pension benefits as a national MP and the higher salary of an MEP. The report concludes that MEPs have two options: they can either pay for an individual agreement with the Spanish Treasury or revert to the salary of a national MP (which is €4000 less per month than an MEP) if they want to continue to receive the national social security benefits. The Lower House have still not declared their verdict on Spanish MEPs' entitlements. The FT reports that EU governments will set a proposal on Friday to reduce the 2010 EU budget by more than €600m. The Parliament reports that Conservative MEPs Timothy Kirkhope and Geoffrey van Orden are going head-to-head next Tuesday to obtain the leadership of the new European Conservatives and Reformists group (ECR) in the European Parliament. Kirkhope is the group's interim leader and Van Orden is a former deputy chairman of the foreign affairs committee. German Bundesländer Hessen and Bavaria have called for more say on EU affairs following the German constitutional court decision on the Lisbon Treaty, FAZ reports. The Länder demand more say for the 'Bundesrat' (Upper House of the 16 Länder). FAZ quotes MEP Elmar Brok saying the demands could lead to not meeting the goal to pass Lisbon ratification before the elections in September. No Link The Parliament reports that a European Parliament spokesman has said there is "no truth whatsoever" in claims that the President of the EP is set to gain an extra €130,000 per year to rent a home plus €49,000 for entertaining on top of the current €41,000 living allowance, as reported by the News of the World last week. The FT Brussels blog looks at the composition of the new European Parliament and reports that British MEPs are poorly represented in the three biggest groupings, writing "Britain appears to be sleepwalking into a serious crisis in its relationship with the rest of the EU. Does anyone in London know - or care?" The Telegraph covers a report by the Adam Smith Institute and the London Business School, which says that the EU's plans for new financial regulation is an "opportunistic" attempt to extend EU power. The report said, "The proposals seem opportunistic, using the financial crisis to provide an opening for the long-held political objectives". The co-author of the report, Keith Boyfield said "The raft of proposals coming from Brussels together amount to an extremely serious assault on the City". The Bavarian government has agreed to place the names of CAP recipients on the internet in August, following threats of infringement proceedings from Brussels. Sueddeutsche Euractiv Zeit FAZ BR Writing in the FT, Lib Dem MEP Andrew Duff argues that a delay in the European Parliament vote for the re-election of Jose Manuel Barroso as Commission President to 15 September "is not a scandal. Rather, it maximises the chance of emerging with a more powerful Barroso II Commission." Libération reports that "saving" the Airbus A400M aircraft carrier project will cost taxpayers between 7 and 8 billion euros. The FT writes that global investors have been dumping euro assets as concerns about the European banking sector had risen to their highest level since March - Simon Derrick, Head of Currency Research at BoNY Mellonbank, is saying that the euro area has lost its safe haven status, and is increasingly seen as a high-risk region among international investors. The Irish Times reports that German Economics Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has made the cover of this week's Stern magazine, and that in five months, he has "come from nowhere to become the most popular politician in Germany after chancellor Angela Merkel." European Voice reports that the Swedish government is currently looking to develop an 'exit strategy' from economic stimulus measures and hopes that the details of the strategy will be approved by EU leaders in December. El Mundo reports that the ECJ has condemned Spain for not implementing a directive on asylum seekers and refugees in time. In a separate case, the ECJ has also condemned Spain for not complying with EU regulations concerning indirect taxes on the raising of capital. El Mundo El Mundo 2 ECJ ruling The Economist investigates the reasons for the resignation of Ivp Sanader, ex-PM of Croatia. He has been criticised for leaving as the country faced "its worse economic crisis in years". The opposition leader has posited that blackmail could have been involved. Le Figaro reports that a new Nabucco pipeline deal is to be signed on Monday in Turkey. However, key deals with suppliers such as Uzbekistan have yet to be agreed. El Mundo reports on Telecommunications Commissioner Viviane Reding's speech at the Lisbon Council think-tank, in which she focussed on reforms to legislation on internet downloading and creating a Digital Europe. Reding referred to the growth in internet piracy as a "wake-up call" and "a vote of no-confidence in existing business models and legal solutions". El Mundo Speech El Mundo 2 PCPro RTN Le Monde reports that citizens from Montenegro, Serbia and Macedonia will no longer need visas to enter the EU from the 1st January 2010. EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot said "We hope to receive firm support from all member states" Open Europe
Euractiv Zeit OLAF press release OLAF Annual Activity Report OE research
Friday, 10 July 2009
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