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Daily Press Summary Greece to face further demands before it can get its second bailout; ECB swaps Greek bonds to protect itself from a forced Greek default Eurozone leaders are scrambling to finalise the second Greek bailout package in time for eurozone finance ministers meeting on Monday. The package is likely to include increased oversight and monitoring on the ground in Greece, along with a proposal for bailout funds to be paid into an escrow account focused on funding Greek debt repayments. Plans to delay some or all of the bailout funds until after elections have been dropped, while the eurozone may also reduce the interest rate charged on loans to Greece. However, a deal is far from assured since the package will also contain a list of 24 demands which Greece must meet in the next month. This comes despite New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras claiming yesterday that “Greece has done what it had to do.” Additionally under the plan Greek debt will only reach 128% of GDP in 2020, above the target of 120%, meaning the IMF may still not sign off on the proposal. FTD reports that this may also lead to calls for an increase in the size of the second bailout. Meanwhile, some members of eurozone governments are preparing for the possibility of a Greek default. Finnish Europe Minister Alexander Stubb said yesterday, “I am not advocating a Greek default, hard or soft, but I’m not excluding the possibility of it if the Greeks don’t get their acts together.” Open Europe’s briefing on the ten unanswered questions surrounding the Greek bailout was featured in the Telegraph,Business Insider, National Review Online and on the Telegraph live blog. Open Europe Director Mats Persson blog on the Greek default was published by the Irish Independent. Open Europe’s Raoul Ruparel appeared on RTE Drive Time discussing the prospects of a Greek exit from the eurozone. Die Welt reported yesterday that the ECB is planning to swap its holdings of Greek debt for new bonds, which would allow Greece to introduce collective action clauses into its bonds, while protecting the ECB from potential losses. The FT reports that the Bundesbank objected to the move, wary of the precedent it would set for special treatment of ECB bond holdings. Greek Development Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis, of the PASOK party controversially proposed delaying elections and extending the mandate of Luca Papademos’ technocratic government until 2013. A new poll published by Epikaira magazine highlights the rise of the extreme parties in Greece, as three far-left parties gain 43.5% of the vote combined. The poll puts New Democracy on 27.5% and PASOK on just 11%. There was an unexpectedly large jump in unemployment in Portugal from 12.4% to 14% in the last quarter of 2011. The ECB yesterday forecast that the eurozone economy would contract by 0.1% this year, and grow by just 1.1% in 2013 – both worse than previous predictions. FT CityAM WSJ Times Monde Guardian EUobserver El País Kathimerini Irish Independent Telegraph Irish Times FT 2 WSJ 2 Irish Times 2 WSJ 3 Les Echos Les Echos 2 Irish Independent 2 Mail Les Echos La Tribune Coulisses de Bruxelles: Liberation Kathimerini 2 Kathimerini 3 Epikaira Jornal de Negocios WeltWSJ 4 La Tribune FT 4 CityAM 2 BBC FTD FAZ Handelsblatt Reuters Irish Independent: Persson IHT: Papahelas Economist: Leader Economist Economist BBC: Flanders FT: Tett FT Editorial FT: Bini SmaghiFT: Peel CityAM: Kelly WSJ: Fidler WSJ Heard on the Street Times: King Telegraph: Reece Telegraph: Evans-Pritchard Telegraph Handelsblatt: Brüderle Merkel and Schäuble at odds over Greek rescue; Bild calls for Greece to finally be thrown out the euro as German-Greek relations plummet Süddeutsche leads with the story that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is at odds with Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, who believes that Greece should declare itself bankrupt and restructure a much larger share of its debt. Merkel fears this would lead to contagion in Spain and Italy, breaking the euro apart. Finland and Austria are said to support Schäuble’s strategy, although Luxembourg’s Finance Minister, Luc Frieden, said yesterday that he could “not accept” a country staying in the euro but not complying with its rules, while the Netherlands is reportedly lobbying behind the scenes for a Greek exit. In an interview with Die Welt yesterday CDU MP Christian von Stetten described the intervention as "unthinkable" and "absurd", and said that it would "certainly impact" on the Bundestag vote on whether to approve the second Greek bailout, due on 27 February. Meanwhile Bild has demanded that following Papoulias' and other Greek politician’s hostile comments towards Germany, it was “finally time to throw the Greeks out of the euro!”, arguing that the only things Greece can export are “scorn, abuse and insulting rants”. The article cites a number of MPs from the ruling CDU/CSU and FDP coalition who agree that Greece’s continued eurozone membership is unsustainable. Speaking in Brussels at an event held by the Brueghel think-tank, Hans-Olaf Henkel, the former head of German employers’ federation DBI said: “to see the EU flag in protests in Athens in the form of a swastika would not have happened without the euro. Why don’t we just admit this? The euro has become a threat to European integration”. FT Süddeutsche FAZ Bild Welt Welt 2 Welt: Wergin FTD German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been forced to postpone her meeting with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti due to the resignation this morning of the German President, Christain Wulff, following a long-running scandal involving a low interest euro loan from the wife of a wealthy businessman, which he tried to conceal. BBC Times Welt FAZ FTD Les Echos Le Point Corriere della Sera Il Sole 24 Ore Liberation Swedish MP: Please, leave us out of “costly” EU financial transactions tax In an op-ed in the Telegraph, Karl Sigfrid – Swedish MP from the Moderaterna party, who sits on the Swedish Riksdag’s EU Committee – responds to EU Taxation Commissioner Algirdas Semeta’s attempts to “bust three myths” about the Commission’s proposal for an EU-wide financial transactions tax. He stated ‘I advise that the Commission, rather than promise simple solutions, emphasise the importance of work ethics and budgetary discipline. If France, Germany and other European countries on a voluntary basis introduce a financial transaction tax at home, they have every right to do so. But please leave the rest of us out of this costly experiment.” Telegraph:Sigfrid David Cameron to sign defence and nuclear agreements with Nicholas Sarkozy David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy will sign agreements on defence and civilian nuclear technology during their summit in Paris today. British company BAE Systems and French business Dassault Aviation, will jointly build military drones to be ready by 2020. The Telegraph reports that David Cameron’s enthusiasm for an Anglo-French drone has worried some British defence chiefs, who would prefer British resources to be focussed on American UAVs, which they regard as superior. Telegraph Les Echos Independent Le Figaro BBC Times Times: Coates Express Reuters EUobserver reports that the European Court of Auditors has found problems in the 31 EU agencies’ budgets. In 2010, eleven out of 22 agencies surveyed could not properly account for half the expenses they filed. The Office of Harmonisation for the Internal Market (Ohim), which is financed by EU trademark charges, had kept hold of a €495 surplus million. EUobserver El Mundo reports that a majority of 329 MEPs yesterday voted in favour of an amendment to the guidelines for the European Parliament’s 2013 budget, which notes that “enormous and real savings” could be made by scrapping the Parliament’s second seat in Strasbourg. El Mundo FAZ reports that the European Investment Bank is resisting political pressure to invest more money in Greek projects, which it has not been doing on a large scale due to the lack of good projects. FAZ The gap between candidates for the French presidency narrows, as Socialist frontrunner Francois Hollande falls by three percentage points since January, in the latest BVA poll. He leads with 31%, followed by Nicolas Sarkozy on 26%, up on point, as far-right Front National leader Marine Le Pen’s poll rankings slip by three percentage points, to 15%. Le Figaro Le Monde Monde Le Point Irish Times Marianne Monde Monde 2 Liberation Monde Les Echos Les Echos 2 Le Point Le Point 2 La Repubblica reports that the European Commission has welcomed as “progress” Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti’s proposal to make the Catholic Church pay a local council property tax on all the buildings it uses for commercial purposes across Italy – with an estimated revenue of around €600m a year. Repubblica Independent EU foreign policy chief, Baroness Ashton, will meet with US secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to discuss Iran’s most recent offer to restart talks regarding its nuclear programme. The EU oil embargo on Iran is set to come into force in July. Irish Times The Times reports that ambassadors from ten countries, including Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, are to protest at a meeting with the Dutch Government today about a hotline set up by an anti-immigrant politician Geer t Wilders to record the “degeneration” of central and eastern Europeans. Times Critics of the EU-Morocco trade deal, which was approved by MEPs yesterday, claim that the deal flouts international laws prohibiting commercial exploitation in the Western Sahara. EUobserver El Mundo The ECJ ruled yesterday that online social networking sites cannot enforce anti-piracy systems aimed at preventing users from illegally downloading songs. The ECJ said that installing filters would infringe users’ rights to data privacy, freedom of information, and their ability to conduct business online. EUobserver BBC Irish Times