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Daily Press Summary Thousands of Greeks protest against austerity as Merkel visits Athens; Bild Chief Editor: “The Greece that showed itself in the centre of Athens yesterday does not belong in the euro” During her visit to Athens yesterday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras that Greece would get the next tranche of its bailout funds in November providing the coalition finalises its latest austerity package and pushes ahead with structural reforms, reports Kathimerini. At a press conference, Merkel said that she had not come as a “taskmaster” but as a “friend and partner”, and praised the country’s efforts in tackling the crisis so far, although she warned that the austerity and reform package “should be seen through”, comparing it with the struggle undertaken by East Germany after re-unification. Open Europe Director Mats Persson is cited in the Telegraph as saying that eurozone leaders are keen to keep Greece in the euro to prevent further contagion spreading to Spain. Thousands of people demonstrated against the visit and the austerity programme yesterday – which included the burning of Nazi flags - in protests that were mostly peaceful but with some outbreaks of violence. The visit was broadly considered a success by the Greek government and media, although reporting the protests on its front page, Bild commented that “Germany does not deserve this”, with chief editor Nikolas Blome arguing that “The Greece that showed itself in the centre of Athens yesterday does not belong in the euro”. Meanwhile Die Welt reports that German coalition MPs have strongly criticised Die Linke co-chairman Bernd Riexinger for “going against German interests” by joining the protests. Kathimerini Kathimerini 2 EUobserver Guardian Independent Times Mail Bild Welt Welt 2 Welt: SchmidtFAZ Süddeutsche Zeit Kathimerini 3 WSJ Irish Independent IHT Telegraph Le Figaro WSJ 2 David Lidington: Government audit will see reports on EU’s impact on UK published every six monthsOpen Europe yesterday held a panel discussion at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, entitled, “Europe: From crisis to growth”. Speaking at the event, jointly organised with BNE and CER, and kindly sponsored by JP Morgan, UK Europe Minister David Lidington said that it was not for the UK to tell the eurozone how to solve the crisis, arguing that the UK should instead set out ways the EU could improve its competitiveness via structural reforms. Lidington also said that the Government would soon set out in more detail how its “balance of [EU] competencies” review would work, revealing that it intended to publish a “parliamentary Select Committee-type report” every six months on a specific EU policy area. Harriett Baldwin MP and CER Director Charles Grant also spoke at the event. Open Europe events Germany wants greater voting weight in eurozone banking supervisorThe FT reports that Germany is demanding more power on the board of the new single eurozone banking supervisor, by altering the ECB’s one-country one-vote governance system and matching voting weights on ECB banking supervision to the size of countries’ financial sectors. Anders Borg, Sweden’s Finance Minister, said “severe problems” remained with the proposals for banking union, particularly over non-euro states’ voting rights. Meanwhile, Elke Koenig, head of Germany's markets regulator BaFin, suggested that ECB supervision of the eurozone banking sector would start in 2014, a year later than the date proposed by the European Commission. FT Reuters Les Echos Reuters 2 Cinco Días: Spanish government expects that 2012 deficit target will be missedAccording to internal sources quoted by Cinco Días, the Spanish government expects Spain’s public deficit to be as high as 6.8% of GDP at the end of the year – up to 0.5% higher than the target agreed with the European Commission. However, the sources are confident that Spain would not face sanctions for the slight deviation. Separately, the Spanish parliament yesterday rejected by a large majority a non-binding motion from the Catalan Republican Left party, which proposed granting Catalonia the power to call referenda – currently an exclusive competence of the central government. El Mundo Expansión El Economista Cinco Días El Economista 2 La Vanguardia El País El País 2 The latest version of the draft conclusions of the 18-19 October EU summit urges member states to “explore” the possibility of a separate budget for the eurozone, but makes clear that “such mechanisms would…not be covered by the Multiannual Financial Framework [the EU’s long-term budget].” Open Europe’s Pawel Swidlicki is quoted by Polish daily Rzeczpospolitadiscussing the UK’s perspective on the issue.EUobserver Draft EU summit conclusions FT: Brussels blog Rzeczpospolita In a new report, the IMF has warned that Europe faces a new ‘credit crunch’ as faltering investor confidence has led to capital flight from struggling eurozone countries, which threatens to shrink bank assets by $2.8tn, leading to a 9% reduction in credit.Guardian Süddeutsche FAZ Zeit Le Monde Times: King A Telegraph leader argues that “A manifesto promise on Europe is not enough. Any historic shift in the UK's relationship with the EU must require the separate endorsement of the British people.”Telegraph: Leader Telegraph The Mail reports that that senior ministers are demanding a full Cabinet discussion of the BAE-EADS merger. The FT suggests that the deadline to secure a deal might be extended but that Germany is ready to walk away from the deal.Mail FT City AM Le Figaro FAZ The lower house of the French parliament yesterday endorsed the ratification of the fiscal treaty – with 477 votes in favour, 70 against and 21 abstentions. French President François Hollande’s Socialist party failed to secure an absolute majority on its own, but received enough ‘yes’ votes from other left-wing parliamentary groups. The draft bill has now passed to the French Senate.Assemblée Nationale Le Figaro La Tribune Irish Times An independent report conducted by Fair Trials International and Clifford Chance on behalf of European judicial authorities found that human rights violations in the European courts have increased by over 100% since 2007, with Greece, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania the worst offenders.Guardian Open Europe research: EU crime and policing The Italian government yesterday unveiled a new “stability law” worth €10bn, which includes an increase of 1% in VAT as well as a decrease of 1% in income tax on earnings of up to €28,000 a year. Separately, Open Europe’s blog post commenting on former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s remarks on the possibility of a second mandate for Mario Monti featured on the Guardian’s live blog.La Stampa Corriere della Sera Repubblica Il Sole 24 Ore Open Europe blog Guardian: Live blog Eleven EU member states agreed to push ahead with a Financial Transactions Tax – under the principle of enhanced co-operation – at yesterday’s ECOFIN meeting.EUobserver WSJ IHT Le Figaro Welt Stern Traders who try to rig the Libor benchmark interest rate, stock indexes or oil prices would be sent to prison for a minimum of five years under rules backed overwhelmingly by the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee yesterday.Reuters EUobserver FAZ reports that EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Füle has identified ten shortcomings Croatia has to address before it can join the EU in July 2013 as planned.FAZ