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Europe

German liberal MP launches anti-euro campaign;

German Economy Minister rebuffs French calls for eurozone economic government

Der Spiegel reports that the German FDP party’s finance expert, Frank Schäffler MP, is launching an anti-euro campaign. Schäffler, whose party is in coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU party, said, “FDP supporters are very sensitive when it comes to currency matters.” He added that party leader and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle is “not doing enough to address their concerns” and criticised the FDP’s support for the Greek bailout and the euro rescue package, saying it has put the EU on the road to transfer union. He urged the development of “a grassroots movement”, which the paper notes is gaining traction as a result of the eurozone crisis.

Chief of the German Union of Family Entrepreneurs Patrick Adenauer, the grandson of former Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, is also quoted saying, “the days of the euro as a common currency for both Ireland and Greece are numbered”. He added that his grandfather “would have looked at whether the euro is really good for all or whether the pressure to adapt will in the end become so big that a big bang would politically damage the Union.”

Reuters reports that Germany's FDP Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle yesterday rejected new calls by French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde for all 16 eurozone governments to align their economic and financial policies, such as tax legislation, more closely. “An economic governance for Europe is not the right project. Whoever thinks in the direction of European economic governance, is working on the wrong construction site,” Bruederle said.

In an interview with NRC Handelsblad, EU President Herman Van Rompuy has stated that “the eurozone will become a political union”.

FAZ notes that, despite French Finance Minster Christine Lagarde’s admission that that the EU violated the Lisbon Treaty to rescue the euro, both the German government and the European Commission have always denied this, arguing that eurozone bailouts are legally covered by Article 122.

Meanwhile, the FT reports that Fitch has lowered Portugal’s debt rating and the Greek parliament yesterday approved an austerity budget that aims to cut the country’s deficit to 7.4% in 2011 from a projected 9.6% in 2010.

Spiegel FT FT 2 FT 3 WSJ: Roth WSJ: Fidler FAZ NRC Standaard: Goossens

Lib Dem Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne was secretly recorded by the Telegraph saying “[we are] punching above our weight” in the Coalition, claiming that the Lib Dems have transformed the Government's approach to the EU. He described the Conservative party’s allies in the ECR group in the European Parliament as “quite nutty” and “an embarrassment to them”.

BBC Telegraph FT: Lloyd

Fitch Ratings downgraded Hungary's sovereign credit rating by one notch to just above junk status yesterday.

WSJ

A ComRes poll of UK voters has found that 87% of voters feel the average £81,300 MEP salary is too high.

Express

The Telegraph reports, that according to new Eurostat data, living standards in the UK are higher than in any other EU country, with the exception of Luxembourg. The UK is rated as having a standard of living 25% above the European average. Germany is rated at 16% above the EU average.

No link

The Irish Times reports that German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has telephoned his Hungarian counterpart Janos Martonyi to discuss the “possibilities of a change” to the recent Hungarian media law, a German statement said.

Mail Irish Times

Italy has demanded that the European Commission recall millions of diaries that are being distributed to schoolchildren throughout the EU because they do not mention Christmas but they do give the dates of other religions' festivals, such as Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, and Sikh, Hindu and Chinese feast days.

Guardian