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Eurozone finance ministers delay next tranche of Greek bailout funds;
Belgian Finance Minister: We knew Greece used false statistics from the start
Eurozone finance ministers decided yesterday to delay the payment of the next tranche of funds from the Greek bailout until the Greek parliament has approved the new austerity package, with a vote due on 28 June. However, Evangelos Venizelos, the new Greek Finance Minister warned that there was “complete disagreement on the methods” for achieving the austerity aims between the government and the opposition, suggesting a bipartisan approach is unlikely. Venizelos also suggested he would make the privatisation plan and tax reform his top priorities.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel faces a backlash from the German parliament over her apparent U-turn over private sector involvement in a second Greek bailout. Following a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday, Merkel looked to have backtracked on her insistence of a bond swap rather than a bond rollover, as favoured by France and the ECB. Frank Schäffler, an FDP MP and leading critic of the bailouts, said: “What has been agreed is not a real participation of [private] creditors…It does not correspond to what the German Bundestag has agreed”.

In an interview with German radio Deutschlandfunk this morning, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said: “Private sector participation…must be voluntary, because if it’s not voluntary then it will be, according to all the rules of credit insurance, a credit event and that would trigger an immediate downgrade of Greece’s sovereign rating.” Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reyders admits in an interview in La Tribune that "from the moment Greece entered the eurozone in 2001, we knew it used false statistics… Europeans are therefore partly responsible for this situation.”

This morning, the UK Government said that it will not participate in a second Greek bailout. "There is no proposal on the table which would involve us. The arrangements in place for Greece are arrangements that involved eurozone countries, and we weren't involved in those arrangements", said David Cameron's official spokesman. Meanwhile, Moody’s has warned that it may downgrade Italy’s credit rating.

Open Europe’s Raoul Ruparel was quoted in the Independent on Friday saying, “Another bailout will only increase the cost of an inevitable Greek default, transferring more of the ultimate risk from private investors to taxpayers…Better then to plan for a full, orderly restructuring which would deal with Greece's massive debt burden. This is what the UK should be pushing for." Open Europe’s estimates, from a forthcoming briefing, that a new bailout could include upwards of €80bn in new loans was cited in the Sunday Times, while the Mail cites Open Europe saying that the UK’s share of these new loans could be £1bn, under its IMF commitments. Open Europe Director Mats Persson appeared on CNN.

Ireland’s Sunday Times quoted an ECB official saying that “it doesn’t really make sense for the ECB to keep putting €100 billion into Irish banks. What we are doing is actually illegal, but we have being doing it because we want to help Ireland”. Open Europe’s research into the risk presented by the ECB’s exposure to Greece was quoted by El Mundo, Les Echosand Business Insider. De Standaard and Belgian press agency Belga cite Open Europe’s figures revealing the total exposure of the Belgium state to eurozone bailout funds.
Open Europe research Open Europe press summary Nieuwsblad FTD ORF Der Spiegel Bild Bild: Müller-VoggSueddeutsche Zeitung Les Echos MA RP Handelsblatt NOS Ta Nea Naftemporiki Vima Kathimerini Eleftherotypia EthnosIrish Economy Tijd Trends: Van Overtveldt Standaard Belga Business Insider FT Spiegel FT 2 EurActiv FT 3 FT 4 FT 5European Voice FT 6 EurActiv 2 Saturday’s Express Saturday’s Times Saturday’s Times 2 Saturday’s Times 3 Saturday's Mail Saturday’s Mail 2 Saturday’s Guardian Saturday’s Guardian 2 Saturday’s Guardian FT Weekend FT Weekend 2 FT Weekend 3 FT Weekend 4 FT Weekend 5 FT Weekend 6 Les Echos Les Echos 2 La Repubblica BBC BBC 2Independent Economist blogs: Charlemagne EUobserver Le Figaro Independent 2 Süddeutsche Zeitung: Juncker Jornal de negócios Expresso La Libre Belgique: Juncker La Tribune: Reynders City AM Sveriges Radio City AM 2 City AM 3 City AM 4 City AM 5 Sveriges Television City AM 6 Telegraph Telegraph 2 El Pais El Pais 2 Scotsman IHT IHT 2 Mail Express La Tribune Sunday Telegraph Sunday Telegraph 2 Sunday Telegraph 3 Sunday Times Observer WSJ WSJ 2 WSJ 3 WSJ 4Handelsblatt FTD Zeit Handelsblatt Irish Times Guardian Independent Irish Independent Irish Independent 2 Euractiv FAZNieuwsblad FTD ORF Der Spiegel Bild Bild: Müller-Vogg Sueddeutsche Zeitung Les Echos

Peers on the EU payroll help defeat EU “referendum lock” in the House of Lords
The Mail on Sunday noted that a cross-party alliance of peers formerly employed by the EU institutions has helped to inflict a series of defeats to the Government’s proposed EU “referendum lock” in the House of Lords. The Government has suffered a series of defeats, by a handful of votes, which have significantly weakened the Bill that is designed to prevent the future transfer of significant powers to Brussels without the consent of voters in a referendum.

The group includes former Commissioners Lord Brittan, Lord Mandelson and Lord Kinnock who are all entitled to an annual EU pension of up to £100,000 a year. Open Europe was quoted saying, “It is no surprise that many of the Lords most opposed to giving the British people a say on the future of the EU have close links to the EU institutions and in some cases get EU pensions. It is the EU elite, not the people, who got it wrong on the euro.”
Open Europe blog Mail on Sunday

Boris Johnson: Greece should leave the euro
Writing in the Telegraph, Mayor of London Boris Johnson calls for Greece to leave the euro and argues that Britain should not contribute to further bailouts. “If Greece defaults or leaves the euro, then we will not see that UK cash again,” he writes. In the Times, Charles Grant of the Centre for European Reform agrees that Greece should leave and argues that, “The sooner the eurozone shrinks, the sooner it will stabilise.”

In the WSJ, Greek author Takis Michas argues that, “No Greek political party or public-sector union has any incentive to agree to the terms of any European Union and International Monetary Fund rescue package because they believe the terms can be improved as long as they keep protesting.”

The FT Weekend argued that the EU is “on the road to irrelevance.” In the Sunday Express, Conservative MP John Redwood argued, “This Government should say we will let Euroland take the powers it needs to run the economies in trouble if the EU accepts we want no part of that, will not pay any of the bills and want some powers back which previous UK governments have foolishly given up.”
Telegraph: Johnson Telegraph FT: Munchau FT: Dizard FT Weekend: Editorial FT Weekend: Lex BBC: Hewitt City A.M: Heath Spectator: Coffee House Sunday Times: Leader Sunday Telegraph: Conway Independent on Sunday Observer: Hutton Independent on Sunday: McRae Independent on Sunday: Beattie WSJ: Stelzer WSJ: Editorial WSJ: MichasGuardian: Elliot

The NOTW reported that that EU is spending almost £3m annually to run an office with 33 staff in Fiji. Open Europe’s Stephen Booth was quoted saying, "It makes absolutely no sense to spend millions sending EU bureaucrats off to far-flung exotic locations."
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El País reports that massive anti-austerity protests kicked off again in Spain yesterday, with tens of thousands of people taking to the streets in all the main cities. The paper notes that many of the placards waved by protesters were against the “Pact for the euro” put forward by France and Germany.
El Pais El Pais 2 El Pais 3 El Pais 4 KurierEl Mundo

Implementation of Solvency II could be delayed by up to 12 months
The FT reports that the European Commission looks set to further delay the implementation of the Solvency II capital rules for the insurance sector by up to 12 months, due to concerns over the preparedness of national regulators and part of the insurance industry itself. The paper notes that, according to a poll conducted by the Association of British Insurers and KPMG, 98% of UK insurance executives are worried about the impact of EU regulation on the UK market. However, a separate article quotes Sean McGovern, general counsel at Lloyd’s, saying: “A delay will only drive up costs and leave the industry with a continuing cloud of uncertainty hanging over it.”
FT FT 2 FT 3

The Sunday Express reported that, over the last few years, the European Parliament spent more than £100m on properties across the EU. Open Europe’s Pieter Cleppe was quoted saying: “Instead of building up a real estate portfolio across Europe, the European Parliament should genuinely think about how it can respond to citizens’ and taxpayers’ concerns.”
Sunday Express

A 2009 Foreign Office memo, released under a Freedom of Information request, has revealed the Government’s criteria for the appointment of the EU's first High Representative for Foreign Affairs. The memo argues that only a former foreign minister, prime minister or head of state would have "enough authority" to take the position.
Express

The Mail on Sunday suggested that David Cameron’s most senior aide, Steve Hilton, could support calls to pull out of the EU and the European Court of Human Rights.
Mail on Sunday

British Student Andrew Symeou, extradited under the controversial European Arrest Warrant, has returned home after spending two years in Greece, with 10 months in jail, while awaiting trial. The court judged Symeou ‘not guilty’ after two and a half hours.
Sunday Telegraph Evening Standard

Finland has after eight weeks of negotiations decided on a six-party government. The new Foreign Minister of the National Coalition Party was quoted in Helsingin Sanomat saying that Finland must return to its reputation as a constructive EU country, promising a very pro-European policy. Euro-sceptic True Finns party, who got 19.1% of the votes in the last election and considered the big winners, will stay in opposition.
Helsingin Sanomat

EurActiv reports that the European Banking Federation (EBF) will this week test a new price benchmark to set the cost of interbank and corporate lending, challenging the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) pricing scheme.
EurActiv

Foreign Secretary William Hague will press the EU today to impose a full arms embargo against Belarus as well as a ban on visas and the freezing of assets of some of President Lukashenko’s close associates.
Independent

Saturday’s Express reported that, in a private letter to one of his constituents, Ed Milliband expressed his belief “that a referendum on UK membership of the EU is [not] appropriate at this time”.
Saturday’s Express