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Finland agrees to support Portuguese bailout but with some conditions
The Grand Committee of the Finnish Parliament has reached a deal on the Portuguese rescue package after the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the second largest party, agreed to support Finnish participation in the bailout. It is thought that the deal struck includes provisions meaning that Finland would push for a greater burden to be placed on investors under any future eurozone bailouts. Jyrki Katainen, likely to be the next Finnish Prime Minister, admitted that there would also be some conditions attached to Finnish support to take account of the anti-bailout sentiment expressed by many voters in the recent election. How stringent these conditions will be is not yet known, but they may include a plan for large scale privatisation in Portugal, according to Helsingin Sanomat. Süddeutsche Zeitung reports that the German Bundestag will support the Portuguese rescue package, with the sole exception of the far left. Meanwhile, the Irish Times reports that the junior coalition party, the FDP, will present a proposal to halt the ratification of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the eurozone’s post-2013 permanent rescue fund, in the Bundestag at the party conference in Rostock tomorrow.
Writing in Handelsblatt, Ruth Berschens argues that not having a Greek debt restructuring "serves as an invitation to speculators: they can make big profits within the eurozone, without having to face up to risks. The costs of the debt crisis are being entirely shifted to taxpayers…this strategy risks ending up with the greatest of all systemic risks: the revolt of citizens against the European Monetary Union."
Helsingin Sanomat FT European Voice WSJ Dow Jones FT 2 WSJ 2 CityAM EUobserver Irish Times Irish Times 2 Irish Independent Telegraph WSJ 3 BBC: Flanders Telegraph: Warner Irish Independent: Kennan WSJ Agenda WSJ: Forelle Sueddeutsche Handelsblatt Handelsblatt: Berschens Handelsblatt 2
Denmark set to re-introduce border checks
EU interior ministers will meet in Brussels today to discuss the temporary re-introduction of border controls within the Schengen area. Ahead of the meeting, Danish Finance Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen announced that Denmark will re-instate border checks at its ports and airports as well as along its land border with Germany and its bridge to Sweden. Meanwhile, EUobserver quotes German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich saying that he is opposed to the Commission being directly involved in future decisions on the temporary re-introduction of border checks. “The European Commission always wants to have a say in a lot of matters. That is not new…But subsidiarity means that Brussels doesn't need to be involved in everything, just there where it's really needed,” he argued.
Les Echos reports that yesterday German Europe Minister Werner Hoyer told reporters that Germany will try to reduce its net contribution to the next long-term EU budget, due to run from 2014 to 2020, or at least to avoid it increasing.
UK joins Germany in opposition to EU common corporate tax base
PA reports that UK Treasury Economic Secretary Justine Greening said last night that the Government does not support the European Commission’s proposal for an EU-wide common consolidated corporate tax base. “I would also stress that the Government has made it clear that it will not agree to a proposal that might threaten or limit its ability to shape the UK’s own tax policy,” she said. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble had also rejected the proposals yesterday.
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EU finance ministers expected to reach compromise on EU-wide short-selling ban
The FT reports that EU finance ministers are likely to agree a compromise on EU proposals to ban short selling of government debt at a meeting next week. Under the deal, naked short-selling of cash government bonds would be banned but EU countries would be able to ask for this bar to be lifted temporarily if liquidity in sovereign debt markets were threatened. There would be no general ban on uncovered sovereign credit default swaps. However, MEPs, which will co-decide the legislation, are calling for a ban on uncovered sovereign Credit Default Swaps.
Open Europe’s Stephen Booth appeared on LBC Radio this morning arguing that the Government’s decision to opt in to a new EU law on sharing air passengers’ personal details is a threat to civil liberties and that the decision should have been approved by Parliament.
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Open Europe's Pieter Cleppe appeared on Russia Today commenting on a European Parliament resolution calling for the EU to be assigned a permanent seat at the UN Security Council. “For the EU to basically try to have a common stance, when they agree, is probably a good idea. The problem is that on many issues member states just don’t agree. Italy and the UK have different interests and different opinions on, for example, how to deal with Libya,” he noted.
MEPs endorse joint lobbyist register for EU institutions
MEPs yesterday gave the green light to the introduction of a common register of lobbyists for both the European Parliament and the Commission, and urged the Council of Ministers to join the register “as soon as possible”. EurActiv notes that the European Parliament also backed plans to introduce a list of all the lobbyists with whom MEPs in charge of drafting a report on proposed EU legislation meet. On French local radio Euradionantes, Open Europe’s Vincenzo Scarpetta argued that the European Parliament’s proposals “are a step in the right direction, but don’t go far enough”, suggesting that all MEPs should be requested to present a list of the lobbyists they meet throughout the year and provide more detailed information in their ‘declaration of financial interests.’
The Guardian reports that French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde is to be the subject of a full judicial inquiry into whether she abused her position to favour a controversial tycoon, Bernard Tapie.
European Voice reports that the Commission and national governments have presented proposals for the mutual recognition of protection orders, designed to protect victims from violence, issued by member states' authorities.
Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith has secured a debate in the House of Commons today asking MPs to vote for a motion calling on the Government to vote against a reformed EU Common Fisheries Policy unless it ends the practice of discarding fish.
EUobserver reports that China has joined the US in opposing the EU’s upcoming CO2 cap-and-trade regime for foreign airlines flying in and out of the EU, estimating that the scheme will cost its airlines some €85m in 2012 and €320m a year by 2020.
In the Independent, Rhodri Marsden writes that upcoming EU rules on electronic communications networks and services, specifically the provisions regarding cookies, have the potential to disrupt “our previously seamless internet browsing experience”, since they could mean internet users “having to click through endless pop-up windows granting permission to accept cookie after cookie.”
EurActiv reports that the European Commission will try to replicate a draft Spanish law requesting Internet Service Providers to crack down on illegal downloads of copyright-protected material. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is currently reviewing the measure at the request of the European Parliament.
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