Britannia Radio

Follow us on:	Home   About Us   €uro-Zone   Research   Media Centre   Make a Donation
New on the Open Europe Blog Is Germany curbing the flow of capital across its borders? Open Europe Blog The UK and Germany: Friends in high places Open Europe Blog Who said EU federalists don't get headlines in UK media (but 'associate membership' for Britain is hardly a revolutionary thought) Open Europe Blog
Daily Press Summary Cameron: Voters will be given “a real choice” on Britain’s EU futureDavid Cameron has promised to give voters "a real choice" over Britain's future relations with Europe, but said voters will have to wait until his speech later this month to see whether he will offer an in-or-out referendum on UK membership of the EU. He told BBC Radio 5 Live it was perfectly reasonable that as the EU had asked for treaty changes to make the single currency work effectively, so it was right that the UK could ask for changes in its relationship with the EU. Guardian Commission investigating whether German regulators are restricting free flow of capitalAFP reports that the European Commission is concerned that Germany's banking supervisor, BaFin, could be restricting the free flow of capital to lenders abroad. The Commission and the European Banking Authority (EBA) are looking into whether Germany's BaFin banking regulator is curbing the amount of money that can be transferred from bank subsidiaries in Germany to their foreign-based parent bank. Banca d'Italia raised the issue within the EBA. Open Europe blog France 24 FAZ A new IP/Forsa poll for the German Council on Foreign Relations on German attitudes to Britain's membership of the EU has found that 64% of Germans said they were in favour of Britain staying in the EU. 22% said that the EU would be a better place without Britain.Open Europe blog The Local.de German Council on Foreign Relations The Guardian cites Open Europe’s Raoul Ruparel as saying that "The fundamental flaws in the structure of the eurozone remain, and progress towards solving them is likely to continue to be slow. [In 2013] Italy, Spain and France face funding costs of €332bn, €195bn and €243bn respectively, which will keep markets on edge."Guardian Open Europe research: What to expect from the EU in 2013 According to information available to Rheinische Post, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble plans to further reduce the federal budget for 2014 by €5bn to €6bn through cuts in expenditure in order to achieve a balance budget, reports FAZ.FAZ The WSJ reports that the Spanish government has been quietly tapping the country’s Social Security Reserve Fund - used to guarantee the future payments of pensions - as a buyer of last resort for government bonds.WSJ Die Welt reports that ECB’s commitment to buy unlimited government bonds led to extraordinary high returns in 2012, with Portuguese bonds yields increasing by 57%, Irish bonds by 29%, and Italian bonds returns rising by 12%.Welt DWN In an interview with Handelsblatt, Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann argues that central banks “are not here to clean up when politicians fail to act".Handelsblatt In an interview with Die Welt, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said that “Europe is not out of the woods yet”, adding that “budget consolidation, growth policy, and solidarity has to be balanced…the awareness that a debt crisis cannot be tackled through further debts has to spread to all corners of Europe”.Welt In the Telegraph, Amrbose Evans-Pritchard notes that “The share of euros in the world’s rising powers’ reserve holdings has fallen to its lowest level since 2002, dashing hopes that the single currency will soon challenge the US dollar for global primacy.”Telegraph An Economist leader argues that Ireland deserves a “helping hand” from its eurozone partners in the form of relief from banking debt.Economist: Leader The FT reports that, in an interview on state television yesterday, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, who will lead a coalition of centrist parties in next month’s elections, sharply criticised “extremist” figures on both the left and right who hindered his reform efforts during his time in office, including Stefano Fassina, the economics spokesman of the front running, centre-left Democratic party.FT The Telegraph’s US Business Editor Richard Blackden notes that EU and US officials are next month due to publish their report on a potential free trade deal between the two.Telegraph: Blackden Owen Paterson, the Secretary of State for Food and Rural Affairs, has called for a speeding up of the EU’s process for approving genetically modified crops, reports EurActiv.Euractiv