| Open Europe |
Europe
Britain locked out of French talks on "battle plan" to defend CAP
The Sunday Telegraph reported that the French government has summoned a meeting of what it calls the 'G22' in Paris this week - senior ministers from 22 EU member states - in an attempt to influence a rethink of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). However, it has not invited Britain or other member states in favour of reform of the policy - the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Malta.
At the European Council in December 2005 Tony Blair agreed to give up around 20 percent - or £7.2 billion - of the British rebate from the EU budget over the period 2007 to 2013, in exchange for a 'health check' of the CAP, which resulted in no real reform of the policy. The French government is now preparing for negotiations next year on the next EU Financial Framework, due to run from 2014-2020. Senior Government sources reportedly expressed surprise and concern over the meeting - which is outside the formal umbrella of the EU and is being billed as a "reflection" on the future of the CAP. Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said: "It's important that the Commission does not allow itself to be nobbled by countries with vested interests. The EU needs a modern budget for the 21st century, not one stuck with the spending priorities of the 1960s."
Bruno Le Maire, the French Agriculture Minister, was quoted by the paper saying: "It is time to produce a battle plan to defend a strong common agriculture policy, to support a renewed CAP. Work on this has to start as quickly as possible. The whole point of this meeting in Paris is to show our attachment to the CAP, our attachment to the tools of European regulation that are the only thing capable of guaranteeing the future of European agriculture, and to show that we are capable of imagination and daring." A leader in the paper argued, "It has happened again: British politicians have been thoroughly outmanoeuvred by their French counterparts in the formulation of EU policy... France's grip on the key European jobs, together with its relentless lobbying of the EU's less developed members, ensures that its interests will prevail not just on the CAP, but in other vital areas of EU regulation."
Express Sunday Telegraph: Leader Sunday Telegraph OE blog
Osborne vows to take tougher stance on EU financial regulation
In an interview with the FT, Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said that a Conservative government would base a minister in Brussels "for the next year or two" to ensure a "much more aggressive Treasury presence" as EU financial legislation is drafted. He also insisted that the Conservatives' Europe policy would be "deliverable". He said, "We have to be realistic at how we play the European game...We're prepared to trade some other things in order to secure Britain's vital national interests on financial services."
Meanwhile, Michel Barnier, the incoming Internal Market Commissioner, has made another attempt to calm fears in the City of London about his independence from the French government, the FT reports. He's quoted as saying, "I want to be the commissioner for more internal market, not less. We are lucky in the EU to have a multitude of large companies as well as SMEs [small and medium enterprises]. We need to create the right framework so they can all prosper. And that framework is a well-functioning and deeper internal market." Asked what he meant when he said he wanted a "capitalism for entrepreneurs, not a capitalism of speculators", Barnier said "my framework will be the G20 recommendations".
Eric Woerth, France's Budget Minister, also tried to play down claims that the nomination had caused a rift between London and Paris. Barnier "will not be the representative of France or the French position", Woerth said in a radio interview. "When he is commissioner, he will represent European countries as a whole."
A separate article in the FT quotes a former Commission colleague of Barnier, saying "I don't think he has the political stature or intellectual clout either to get his head entirely round the brief or to see off Paris. If an issue concerning a French company came up at the Commission, he'd automatically be batting for l'Héxagone."
Meanwhile, in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, ICAP Chief Executive Michael Spencer said the company would "presumably have to reconsider moving domicile", if Labour is voted back to power in the General Election. He said he is wary of financial regulation in Europe under Michel Barnier, and the three new EU agencies created to oversee banking, insurance and pensions and securities which have the power to impose rules on Britain by majority vote.
He said: "A lot of people in the City are understandably nervous. They're fearful that the regulation of markets is going to be taken over in a very different and very politicised fashion, and that this could potentially be quite damaging to the City. The free market capitalist approach to economic development is very much superior to a centrist mandated approach. That, I feel passionately about. We need to build a framework where the level of excesses, the level of leverage that was allowed to build up in the system, the risk of that happening again is materially reduced."
Weekend FT Weekend FT-Barnier profile Times FT: Munchau FT FT2 FT3 Sunday Telegraph
Airlines could see profits double under third phase of EU Emissions Trading Scheme;
Britain's richest man gets £1 billion from ETS carbon permits
Saturday's Telegraph reported that airlines could almost double their profits on the back of carbon trading if they succeed in passing on the full price of emissions permits to their customers, according to new research from the Carbon Trust.
The research has highlighted a huge variation in predicted airline profitability, with the worst performing airlines likely to see profits up to 80% lower than the best performing airlines, after emissions trading is extended to the industry in Europe under the third phase of the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), beginning in 2013.
Based on an estimated carbon unit price of €25, passengers flying to and from Europe will pay an extra €23bn (£21bn) to €35bn on the price of their tickets from 2013-2020, under the third phase. This would compensate the aviation companies for the amount of permits they will have to buy if the heavy emitters do not switch to greener fuels. However, the article reports that the sector is given 82% of its permits for free - and could see huge windfall profits if it adds the value of these free allowances on to ticket prices.
Meanwhile, the Sunday Times reported that Lakshmi Mittal, Britain's richest man, stands to benefit from a £1 billion windfall from the ETS. His company ArcelorMittal, the steel business where he is Chairman and Chief Executive, will make the gain on 'carbon credits'. An investigation by the Corporate Europe Observatory has also shown that ArcelorMittal and Eurofer, which represents European steel makers at European level, have lobbied intensively in Brussels. This has included threatening to move plants out of Europe at a cost of 90,000 jobs, and asking European commissioners to meet Mittal.
The Telegraph reports that the CBI is proposing that the ETS should be rolled out internationally and London should position itself at the centre of any future global carbon market. PA reports that demonstrators are staging a protest today outside the European Climate Exchange building in the City of London, to protest against carbon trading as a "false solution" to climate change.
Sunday Times Telegraph Telegraph 2 Open Europe research
German press agency DPA looks at the new so-called 'Citizens Initiative' in the Lisbon Treaty, and quotes Open Europe's Lorraine Mullally saying, "I don't see the citizen's initiative even scratching the surface of the EU's problems." Describing the initiative as "scant compensation for the loss of powers given up with the Lisbon Treaty", she says, "In that sense, it's worse than meaningless, because it gives the impression that they are doing something."
Swedish Presidency fails to reach compromise proposal on AIFM Directive
The Swedish EU Presidency has failed to reach an agreement on a revised version of the AIFM Directive, due to opposition from some member states on a draft text proposed by the Swedes. This means that the Council of Ministers will not publish a compromise text on the AIFM Directive and negotiations will instead be taken up by the incoming Spanish Presidency in the New Year. The Swedes will publish "a progress report" on the proposed Directive on 17 December.
Le Figaro reports that French Europe Minister Pierre Lelloche has sent a 'euro-kit' guide to French Ministers, MPs and MEPs with information on the changes brought in by the Lisbon Treaty and explaining what they should do to have more impact on EU policymaking. Lellouche said the aim was to "maximise France's influence" in the EU.
No link
EU ministers reach political agreement on common EU patent system
Industry ministers meeting in Brussels on Friday reached a political agreement on setting up a single EU patent to replace multiple national patents. The ministers also reached a deal on the establishment of an EU patent court system that would see the setting up of a single European appeals courts for patent infringement disputes, although the ECJ is currently determining the feasibility of this. EU studies predict that companies paying for patents stand to save a combined figure of at least €150 million per year through a more efficient and cost effective patent system. However, the agreement did not resolve the issue of the high cost of translating patents into all European languages.
Cracks in EU foreign policy beginning to show
A headline in the FT reads, "Lisbon Treaty fails to bring accord on EU foreign policy", and the article reports that a dispute over control of EU foreign policy is breaking out less than a week after the adoption of the Treaty, with some countries wanting to promote the authority of the new Foreign Minister Lady Ashton, and others, such as France and Spain, determined to defend the role of national governments in external relations. EU foreign ministers meeting today and tomorrow will debate the issue, ahead of a leaders summit on Thursday and Friday.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: "Europe finally tramples Magna Carta into the dust"
Writing in the Telegraph Ambrose Evans-Pritchard argues: "the Charter of Fundamental Rights - legally binding in the UK as of Tuesday, when Lisbon came into force - asserts that the EU has the authority to circumscribe all rights and freedoms...Article 52 now reads: 'Subject to the principle of proportionality, limitations may be made only if they are necessary and genuinely meet objectives of general interest recognised by the Union.' Don't be misled by this inverted wording. What it states is that the EU may indeed limit rights in the 'general interest'."
He goes on: "in other words, our Magna Carta has been superseded. It is the European Court (ECJ) that decides what is 'proportional' or 'necessary', and it cannot be trusted. The ECJ behaves like the Star Chamber of Charles I, as I learned following three cases where it rubber-stamped the abuse of state power against whistleblowers Bernard Connolly and Marta Andreasen, and German journalist Hans-Martin Tillack."
Telegraph: Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Belgium condemned 16 times in 2009 for failing to correctly implement EU laws
Belgian daily De Tijd reports that Belgium will be condemned for the 16th time this year by the European Court of Justice for failing to properly implement EU directives. On only four occasions has an EU member state incurred more condemnations in one year - and they were Italy, France and Greece in various years. The article concludes: "the southern pro-EU countries are most of the time the bad pupils when it comes to actually sticking to agreements. The Northern, more eurosceptic countries are scoring better traditionally."
EUobserver reports that incumbent Romanian President Traian Basescu seems to have narrowly defeated centre-left leader Mircea Geoana by 50.37% to 49.63% in yesterday's Presidential elections. Irregularities and fraud claims could lead to a re-count or to legal challenges of the end result, dragging out the official outcome for days yet.
EUobserver European Voice EurActiv Die Welt
The Sunday Telegraph reported that the Professor at the centre of the 'Climategate' affair was awarded £13 million in research grants, including grants from the EU, such as one for a project entitled: "Assessing the impact of future climatic change on the water resources and the hydrology of the Rio de la Plata Basin."
The Weekend FT reported that anger has been sparked by a decision by the EU Council to overrule plans by the European Commission to offer an exemption from the Prospectus Directive requirements for companies running employee share schemes, which would have cut the burden of red tape.
EUobserver reports that Ljubljana has been selected to house the EU's Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER), designed to boost the idea of a single European market in electricity and gas.
A leader in the Telegraph argues that Turkey's recent rapprochement with Iran "is a warning that it should not be taken for granted. Washington realises that. Much of the EU doesn't."
The Observer reported that international drug cartels have switched from dollars to high denomination euros to launder illegal profits, according to Europol, because the €500 note takes up less room.
World
UN climate change talks begin in Copenhagen today
The UN Copenhagen climate change summit is due to begin today and will last two weeks, with 15,000 delegates alone travelling to Denmark for the meeting. The FT reports that new analysis from Lord Stern shows that the world is "within closing distance" of agreeing cuts in greenhouse gases that would satisfy scientific demands to limit a rise in global temperatures. The pledges tabled by governments, both developed and developing, would reduce annual emissions to about 46bn tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2020, just shy of the 44bn tonne limit that would hold temperature rises to 2 degrees.
According to the FT Deutschland, the EU is prepared to provide between €1 and €3 billion 'start-up' funding in climate financing for developing countries between 2010 and 2012. Die Zeit that Achim Steiner, the Head of the UN environmental program, is so far disappointed with EU offers on climate financing, saying that the amount offered so far is "inadequate" and that it would: "fall short of the minimum necessitated by the consequences of climate change".
Meanwhile the Sunday Telegraph reported that the summit will produce as much carbon dioxide as a town the size of Middlesbrough, with limousines having to be driven in hundreds of miles from Germany and Sweden, private jets, and the presence of 15,000 delegates and officials, 5,000 journalists, 98 world leaders, as well as several celebrities and film starts.
Knack FTD EUobserver EurActiv FT Die Zeit Sunday Telegraph
Posts
