Britannia Radio

Follow us on:	Home   About Us   €uro-Zone   Research   Media Centre   Make a Donation
New on the Open Europe Blog Cameron's EU budget veto is a powerful tool for change Open Europe Blog About that Spanish 'bad bank'... Open Europe Blog Revising the Greek bailout: Two more years of 'extend and pretend'? Open Europe Blog
Daily Press Summary Open Europe's partner organisation, Open Europe Berlin gGmbH, to launch today; ECB’s former Chief Economist Otmar Issing to speak at launch eventOpen Europe's new partner organisation Open Europe Berlin gGmbH, a new independent think tank with a cross-party advisory board of prominent figures in the German and European business, academic and policymaking communities, will host a launch event in Berlin at 12pm today. The event will feature a keynote speech by Otmar Issing, former Chief Economist of the European Central Bank. For more information on the event or the new organisation, please contact the Open Europe Berlin team on +49 (0)30 27581365, or info@openeuropeberlin.de. Open Europe will be live-tweeting the event (@openeurope). The Open Europe Berlin website will go live at 12pm at www.openeuropeberlin.de, while the full list of the advisory board members will be announced at the same time. In an interview with Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten trailing the launch, the Director of Open Europe Berlin, Prof. Dr. Michael Wohlgemuth, notes that “Open Europe Berlin will serve as a platform to develop ideas for a Europe of citizens, not of creditors and bureaucrats.” DWN: Wohlgemuth New Open Europe Flash Analysis: UK’s net contribution to EU budget could still increase under a ‘real terms freeze’; Mats Persson: Cameron’s EU budget veto is a powerful tool for changeAhead of today’s House of Commons debate on the next long-term EU budget, Open Europe has published new research estimating that, even under the ‘real terms freeze’ based on 2011 payments advocated by the Government, the UK’s net contribution to the EU budget could still go up by between €1bn (2.2%) and €2.4bn (5.4%) over seven years – due to a quirk involving the UK rebate. Open Europe recommends that the UK ought to continue pushing for the repatriation of the EU structural funds from richer member states, which would reduce the UK’s net contribution and help Europe’s poorest member states. Open Europe’s Raoul Ruparel is quoted discussing the budget negotiations by the BBC, IHT and Estonian financial paper Delfi Majandus, while Open Europe’s figures are cited by the Times and Peter Hoskin on his Conservative Home blog. On his Telegraph blog, Open Europe Director Mats Persson looks at the different scenarios that could materialise if member states were unable to agree a deal on the long-term budget, concluding that David Cameron’s veto may not be completely watertight, but is nonetheless “a powerful tool for change”. Open Europe’s senior analyst Christopher Howarth discusses the issue in a piece on the Spectator’s Coffee House blog. Meanwhile, Swedish Europe Minister Birgitta Ohlsson yesterday warned that “no deal will be possible” on the compromise proposal for the 2014-2020 EU budget put forward by the Cypriot EU Presidency, which she dismissed as “a budget for the 1950s”.  Open Europe Flash Analysis Open Europe Research: EU Regional Policy BBC IHT Delfi MajandusConservative Home: Hoskin Spectator Coffee House: Howarth Times Telegraph blogs: PerssonConservative Home: Goodman FT EUobserver Independent Guardian Guardian: Jenkins ExpressConservative Home: Leadsom Telegraph: Hannan Mail Mail: Davis Telegraph Labour MP Gisela Stuart writes in the Times, “The position adopted by many politicians, both Left and Right, of favouring a soft EU membership [for the UK], simply will not exist. The status quo cannot hold for long. We can either join the euro project, with all that entails, or we must start to think about life outside the EU.”Times: Stuart Greek PM angers coalition partners by announcing austerity deal with TroikaGreek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras yesterday announced in a statement that the Greek government had reached an agreement with the EU/IMF/ECB Troika over the €13.5bn austerity package for 2013-14 and the draft budget for next year. The leader of junior coalition partner PASOK, Evangelos Venizelos, criticised the statement as “unfortunate, to say the least”. The other coalition partner, Democratic Left, confirmed its opposition to the labour market reforms demanded by the Troika. Meanwhile, Greece’s draft budget for 2013 has been presented to the Greek parliament this morning. Kathimerini Kathimerini 2 WSJ El País Expansión La Tribune Il Sole 24 Ore La Stampa Les Echos European Voice Spanish central government’s deficit decreased slightly to 4.4% of GDP in September – with the EU-mandated target for 2012 fixed at 4.5% of GDP. Separately, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel García-Margallo said yesterday that, according to him, “many other EU member states” would veto Catalonia’s EU entry after independence.El País El País 2 El Mundo Expansión Expansión 2 Cinco Días La Vanguardia Asked during a panel discussion in Berlin if Turkey would be a member of the EU by 2023, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, “They probably won’t string us along that long. But if they do string us along until then, the EU will lose out, and at the very least they will lose Turkey.”EurActiv