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UK diplomats fight to block French bid for EU internal market and financial services portfolio
The Times reports that British diplomats are fighting to prevent France from taking the European Commission portfolio overseeing the internal market and financial services, following the appointment of the UK's Catherine Ashton as EU Foreign Minister and Vice-President of the Commission. The article quotes former Conservative minister Michael Fallon asking Foreign Secretary David Miliband in the Commons yesterday: "Why did the Prime Minister allow himself to be outwitted by the French into conceding the key internal market and financial services job with a result that we will have a French Commissioner regulating the City of London whilst Baroness Ashton hands out the Ferrero Rocher?"
Miliband replied: "It says everything about the modern Conservative Party that they can see the appointment of a British person to the No 2 job in the European Commission...as somehow a defeat or a concession."
Meanwhile, a headline in Les Echos reads "Commission: Paris has every chance for the internal market portfolio," and several headlines in Le Monde over the weekend were clear that Michel Barnier "will" get the Internal Market and financial services job. Les Echos notes that the nomination of Catherine Ashton as EU Foreign Minister means the UK "should no longer interfere in the distribution of the other Commission portfolios". It notes that "Those member states which facilitated Barroso's reappointment, led by France, expect to be paid back well." The paper reports that the sharing out of Commission portfolios could begin this week and take just a few days.
PA reports that William Hague asked David Miliband whether assurances are being sought from the Commission and Paris that "the single market will continue to go forward" if the job goes to a French politician and whether the financial services sector would be included in the portfolio. He added, "Although we wish Lady Ashton well in her appointment, it would be a very serious matter if the price of the third choice of the Government being adopted as the High Representative was that policy on the internal market, and on financial services in particular, was going to be taken in a direction that was not in keeping with the interests of Britain."
In a letter in the Evening Standard, Open Europe's Lorraine Mullally and Pieter Cleppe argue that, given the likelihood that France's Michel Barnier will clinch the EU Internal Market portfolio, "It could be argued that our powers of influence in Europe have taken a step backwards with our Commission representative swapping her trade brief for a foreign affairs one." The letter quotes Barnier saying: "all problems are local and yet all the solutions are found in Brussels."
The FT notes that with other countries such as Poland and Hungary both nominating Commissioners with economic backgrounds "there could be a repeat of the surprises of five years ago, when smaller countries such as Ireland emerged with big portfolios." The Times notes that Germany is keen to obtain the industry or energy jobs along with the presidency of the European Central Bank. EUobserver reports that the Austrian EU External Relations Commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, is likely to become the new Trade Commissioner, while Denmark has nominated Climate Minister Connie Hedegaard to become its next European Commissioner, according to Danish Radio.
Writing in the FT, Lord Mandelson argues "The new commissioners will have to be much more than quiet consensus-builders, because there is little to recommend European consensus for its own sake. Most European consensuses gravitate towards the lowest common denominator. Europe needs to set its sights a lot higher than that."
Times FT FT: Letters Irish Times Le Monde EUobserver European Voice Independent: Lawson IHT: Leader FT: Mandelson Open Europe blog Sydsvenskan Danish Radio Les Echos Le Monde 2 Le Monde 3
Brown accused of ducking out of MPs' questions on EU's top jobs
The Telegraph reports that instead of appearing in front of MPs to issue a statement on last week's EU summit, as he normally would, Gordon Brown instead issued a written statement about the meeting and its outcome. William Hague accused Brown of dodging questions about the jobs given to Cathy Ashton and Herman Van Rompuy by making a written statement. He said: "If the Prime Minister were proud of the outcome of his campaign to make Tony Blair president he'd no doubt be making a full statement to the Commons. He clearly does not want to answer questions about whether a powerful economic portfolio in the European Commission will now be taken by France."
Open Europe's Lorraine Mullally is quoted saying, "This is a total cop-out. There are all sorts of important question marks hanging over these appointments - such as why Gordon Brown agreed to give up the influential EU trade portfolio for external relations, and why he has allowed a clear runway for the French and Germans to take the most important economic portfolios in the Commission? Gordon Brown has got an awful lot to answer for after this shoddy backroom stitch-up - he must appear in the Commons and face the music."
Meanwhile, speaking in the Commons yesterday former Labour minister Gisela Stuart, a Foreign Affairs Select Committee member, said the appointments had not been a "particularly edifying spectacle". She added: "whether that appointment of those two people, given that this was supposed to be a really significant step about how the European Union establishes itself in a global world, was a good way of going about it - I doubt very much."
In an interview with Aujourd'hui en France yesterday, French Europe Minister Pierre Lellouche said in reply to a question about who will speak on behalf of Europe on the world stage, "President Van Rompuy and the new EU Foreign Minister Catherine Ashton will share the work. The President will have a very small team of around 20 people, while the Minister will on the other hand have a new administration of considerable size. It will be the biggest diplomatic service in the world, with several thousand officials. We will have European ambassadors across the world." Lellouche added that the reason why Tony Blair was not chosen for EU President was the fact that Britain is not in the eurozone or the Schengen area.
On the letters page in the Standard, Conservative Councillor JP Floru argues that Van Rompuy "is an economist, associated with entrepreneurs rather than the trade unions and attacks on Anglo-Saxon capitalism would not be his style." He says: "When David Cameron marches into Brussels and asks for concessions, Herman van Rompuy will not throw his toys out of the pram."
French Foreign Office Telegraph
European Council budget to increase by €25 million to cover cost of EU President
Belgian magazine Le Vif reports that €25 million will be added to the €615 million budget of the European Council, in order to cover the cost of the EU President. In addition to the €6 million for the EU President himself and his staff, the European Council budget will allocate another €19 million in 2010, to be spent on international meetings and summits involving Herman Van Rompuy. The article also notes that €5 million of this amount still hasn't been appropriated to any specific budget item, as it is still unclear exactly what the President will do and how the new institution will function.
Meanwhile, Belgian daily La Dernière Heure notes that "there are many prestigious buildings in [Brussels]" which could be turned into a "White House of Europe" for Van Rompuy.
Court of Auditors criticises outsourced Commission projects
A report by the European Court of Auditors has criticised the EU Commission's six so-called special executive agencies, which consist of technical experts managing outsourced EU projects in the areas of research, education, innovation, transport and health. The agencies have a budget of around €32 billion. The Commission outsourced some of its research programme in the wake of the Santer Commission corruption scandal, but the Auditors noted that the process has "mainly been driven by the need to compensate for staff shortages at the commission rather than being part of a general reform", while also criticising the Commission's the lack of scrutiny of the six bodies as well as the lack of "results-driven objectives" for the agencies.
Brown uses CBI speech to launch "thinly veiled" criticism of Cameron's policy on Europe
PA reports that, in his speech to the CBI conference yesterday, Gordon Brown launched a "thinly-veiled" attack on the Conservatives' approach to Europe by saying that retreating to the sidelines of the EU would deal a "devastating blow" to UK business. He said, "It is by putting Britain not on the fringes of Europe, but at its heart, that Britain can protect its interests within Europe, and shape the future of Europe from a position of strength that can deliver growth and jobs for the British people."
The FT notes that David Cameron's speech to the conference stressed the need to address the budget deficit, saying that it posed the "greatest single risk to sustained economic recovery". The article notes that IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn backed Brown's warning that fiscal stimulus should not be withdrawn too quickly, while the ECB's President Jean-Claude Trichet gave tacit backing to Cameron's approach, stressing that delays in unwinding measures taken to combat the economic crisis could backfire.
New EVCA Chairman urges private equity-backed companies to speak out against EU's AIFM Directive
Richard Wilson, a partner at Apax Partners, due to be unveiled as the European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association's new Chairman today, says in the FT that private equity-backed companies should speak out to defend the industry against the EU's "misguided" AIFM Directive. "For politicians it is all about the real economy...There are about 10m employees [in Europe] of companies that have received some kind of private equity backing and who will all be affected if this regulation is introduced. That carries real weight with politicians," he said. He also urged investors to speak out.
Commission warns against "subsidy race" in GM bail-out
The European Commission has warned General Motors against engaging in a "subsidy race" between European Union member states competing to offer the carmaker state aid in return for keeping open its factories in their territories, the Times reports. GM is seeking €3.3 billion in state aid to help it to restructure its European operations. Yesterday, GM met with ministers from Britain, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Sweden and Poland, all of which have GM plants, in an effort to convince the governments to give aid.
Climate campaigners call on EU to up targets on emissions cuts
EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas has once again urged the EU to pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30% from 1990 levels ahead of the Copenhagen climate change summit to be held in December. PA notes that Greenpeace, WWF, Oxfam and the RSPB said today scientists were backing calls for developed countries to cut their emissions by 40% below 1990 levels by 2020
Meanwhile, UN climate chief Yvo de Boer has called on the EU to "provide clarity" on its negotiating position for the summit.
PA reports that the European Commission has said that the Government has 10 weeks to apply for assistance from the EU budget to help pay for storm and flood damage repairs in Cumbria.
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In the Times, Brownen Maddox notes that Romania has become a test of whether the EU, IMF and EBRD can keep up pressure for economic reform. She notes that critical reports from the European Commission over corruption have had little effect.
The BBC reports that the EU anti-piracy taskforce is struggling to defeat pirates operating off the coast of Somalia.
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