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Ashton: EU to consider imminent sanctions on Libya;
Italy denies calling sanctions on Gaddafi “useless”
Bloomberg reports that German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has called sanctions against Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s regime “unavoidable” in light of the escalating violence in the country, while EU Foreign Minister Catherine Ashton has said that the EU is preparing to impose sanctions “within days”. Meanwhile, FT Deutschland claims that Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini labelled sanctions against Gaddafi “useless” and “symbolic measures”. However, Italian news agency AGI quotes Frattini saying, after a meeting with his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle in Berlin, “Italy would agree with the option of targeted personal and financial sanctions, if they were to be proposed at the European level.” Frattini said that his comment made to FT Deutschland had been translated incorrectly.
Ashton today dismissed talk of “military action”, however it is widely reported that the EU could draw up a contingency plan for an armed humanitarian intervention in Libya. Euractiv quotes a senior EU official saying, "We are in contact with EU member states to see whether their facilities, civilian and military, can be deployed for this [evacuation of EU citizens]".
In an opinion piece in El País, UNED Professor José Ignacio Torreblanca, argues, “This crisis could have been the opportunity for Ashton to invent herself, but the Baroness has accepted, with total submission, to be the mere spokesperson for what the 27 agree unanimously, when they can”. A leader in Frankfurter Rundschau argues, “Europe's common foreign policy remains a farce.”
Euractiv BBC El País Independent WSJ Euractiv 2 El País: Torreblanca AFP Evening Standard: Rifkind Economist: Charlemagne Le Monde AFP 2 Irish Times IHT Irish Times EurActiv European Voice FR Leader Presseurop.eu Los Angeles Times FT Deutschland AGI AGI 2
Italy leads calls for a common EU asylum policy in wake of Libyan protests
Italy, Spain, France, Cyprus, Malta and Greece have presented a joint proposal calling for a special solidarity fund to be set up, to help them deal with a potential wave of migrants, and to speed up moves towards a common EU asylum policy. Euractiv quotes Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni saying, “We ask for solidarity of other member states [...] We cannot be left alone". In an op-ed in Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Home Cecilia Malmström argues, “The need for a common EU policy on asylum and immigration is urgent”. Noting that member states have committed to agree on a common asylum policy in 2012, she says “I hope that the current situation also contributes to the EU taking several steps forward towards a common asylum and immigration policy.”
However, calls for a common fund and asylum policy have faced resistance from other EU member states. Germany's Interior Minister, Thomas de Maiziere, is quoted by the BBC saying there is "no refugee influx right now" and states should not "provoke one by talking about it". Austrian Interior Minister Maria Fekter said, "We are against reallocating asylum seekers from Italy to the rest of Europe".
Euractiv BBC Irish Times IHT Irish Times FT
Welsh regions fall behind EU average despite billions in EU funding
The BBC reports that despite receiving billions in EU funding in recent years the economic performance of west Wales and the Valleys has fallen further behind the European average, according to the latest EU figures. The figures show that GDP fell by 2% in 2008. Mike Theodoulou, chairman of the Mid and West Wales Business Chamber said in an interview on Radio Wales: “Not enough direct support went to business… too much went to the public sector to administer initiatives and schemes”.
BBC Eurostat data WSJ
Commission promises "sea change" in European Neighbourhood Policy
The Commission yesterday promised a "sea change" in European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), with proposals for attaching stricter "conditionality" to EU funds and greater "differentiation" between how much target states receive. The Commission will release an official proposal on 20 April. The Economist’s Charlemagne criticises the ENP arguing that “the EU has little to show for the billions of euros it has spent. Belarus remains Europe’s last dictatorship, Ukraine is moving backwards, the Arab-Israeli conflict is unresolved and punctuated by violence, and north Africa has languished, until this year, under the rule of autocrats”.
EUobserver Economist: Charlemagne
Fine Gael could see first-ever outright majority in Irish elections
As Irish citizens head to the polls today, the FT notes that the opposition Fine Gael party is set to win its first-ever outright majority, in what would be the first defeat for a eurozone government since the beginning of the debt crisis. The new government is expected to try to re-negotiate the terms of the €85bn EU/IMF bail-out. However, the Irish Times quotes a spokesperson for EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn saying, “This agreement, it’s an agreement between the EU and the Republic of Ireland. It’s not an agreement between an institution and a particular government. It’s on the basis of a negotiated programme which was approved with the government of Ireland and which in its main outline has to be applied.”
An article in the Independent notes, “Worries abound that [Fine Gael leader Enda] Kenny lacks the charisma, economic savvy and plain old guts to dig the nation out from under a mountain of debt and renegotiate the IMF and European Union bail-out.” In the Times, Julian Gough argues, “Fine Gael also mistook the bubble for prosperity, also voted for the disastrous bank guarantee and doesn’t seem to have any idea how to renegotiate the terms of the IMF/EU bailout in any meaningful way.” A leader in the Telegraph argues that a change of government would not be a sufficient solution to Ireland’s problems, noting: “The Irish have preferred to vent their anger at the polls rather than on the streets. But while they remain in the euro, a new government will make little difference to their predicament.”
FT Guardian Times: Gough Telegraph: editorial Irish Times: editorial Irish Times Independent Independent 2 EUobserver BBC: Today
Top 200 German economists warn against extending eurozone bailout
FAZ reports that more than 200 German economics professors have signed a petition calling for the plans to extend the current bailout fund and to establish a permanent bailout mechanism to be scrapped. The group warned that there could be "fatal long term consequences for the whole project of European integration".
A leader in FAZ argues against an EU economic government, noting that "it's better to have a debt haircut". Andreas Schmitz, President of the German Banking Federation, is quoted saying that "restructuring in Greece would not topple the German banking sector no an individual bank." He also argues that the labelling of critics of the current policy as “anti-European” shows that those advocating EU economic governance are really looking for closer European integration.
German President Christian Wulff yesterday called for the permanent bailout mechanism to “prohibit the repurchase of government debt by the ECB”. He also argued that private creditors should take more liability for unpaid debts. FT Alphaville argues that if the permanent fund did buy up bonds from private investors it would cause more strain since there would be a smaller pool of investors on which to impose write downs.
FAZ FAZ 2 Handelsblatt WSJ WSJ Brussels Beat FT Alphaville WSJ 2 FT Deutschland FAZ: Stelzner
The Irish Times reports that the FDP, part of the German governing coalition, opposes German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s plans to introduce common rules on corporate tax for eurozone countries. “Differences in tax rates are part of the competition between states,” said Dr Volker Wissing, FDP finance market spokesman.
Irish Times
The FT reports that Michael Diekmann, the Chief Executive of Allianz – Europe’s biggest insurance company – has warned that the cost of individuals’ life insurance could “increase drastically” as a consequence of the EU’s Solvency II Directive.
FT Standaard
Euractiv reports that, in its draft White Paper on Transport, the European Commission is considering a wider application of the “user pays” and “polluter pays” principles as one of the possible means to raise the €1.8 trillion which the EU says is needed for infrastructure investment over the next 20 years as well as the €500bn needed to complete the Trans-European Transport Network.
Euractiv
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin yesterday criticised the EU’s energy policy, saying new EU energy-market rules are leading to "property confiscation" and will ultimately prompt prices to rise, reports the WSJ.
Irish Times WSJ EurActiv EUobserver EurActiv Deutsche Welle Handelsblatt
Wirtualna Polska reports that the Polish government is struggling to meet targets on landfill waste reduction and recycling laid down by the EU’s 2004 directive on packaging and packaging waste, and is facing the prospect of a “mega-fine”. Since July 2010 the EU has charged Poland €40,000 per day for non-compliance, this is due to be increased to €250,000 per day from 2013.
Wirtualna Polska
Wikileaks' Julian Assange will be extradited to Sweden, under the European Arrest Warrant, a judge ruled yesterday.
BBC Mirror El País
An article in the FT notes that the number of eastern Europeans coming to work in the UK has risen for the first time in four years, primarily due to an increase in arrivals from Latvia and Lithuania.
FT
Euractiv reports that EU Sport Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou has announced that the Commission will look into taking action over recent multi-million transfer fees paid for professional football players, including a possible capping of fees.
Euractiv
In an interview with Gazeta Wyborcza, EU Budget Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski said that it is important that member states show proof that EU funds for Central and Eastern Europe are successful for the economic development of these regions, which is of benefit to Western Europe.
Wyborcza: Lewandowski
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