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Daily Press Summary Open Europe’s partner organisation, Open Europe Berlin, is holding a conference today looking at the future of European integration. The event will feature two panel debates moderated by Open Europe Berlin Director Prof. Dr. Michael Wohlgemuth and Dr. Karen Horn. Participants will include members of Open Europe Berlin’s advisory board such as former Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Prof. Dr. Leszek Balcerowicz, and Claus Tigges, President of the Deutsche Bundesbank's Regional Office in Berlin and Brandenburg, and Open Europe Chairman Lord Leach of Fairford. For more information, contact the Open Europe Berlin office. Cameron intended to warn Britain “will drift towards the exit” if EU’s economic and democratic problems aren’t addressedExtracts from David Cameron’s EU speech, circulated in advance by Downing Street before it was postponed due to the Algerian hostage crisis, show that he intended to say that if the three key challenges of the eurozone crisis, economic competitiveness and dramatically declining public support are not addressed, “the danger is that Europe will fail and the British people will drift towards the exit… I do not want that to happen. I want to keep the European Union a success and I want a relationship between Britain and the EU that keeps us in it.” He was to add that he has “a positive vision for the future of the EU” in which Britain wants to play a “committed and active part”. In a riposte to supporters of the status quo, Mr Cameron was planning to warn: “More of the same will not secure a long-term future for the eurozone. More of the same will not see the EU keeping pace with the new powerhouse economies. More of the same will not bring the EU any closer to its citizens. More of the same will just produce more of the same – less competitiveness, less growth, fewer jobs”. He also intended to argue that “There is a growing frustration that the EU is seen as something that is done to people rather than acting on their behalf. And this is being intensified by the very solutions required to resolve the economic problems”. Open Europe Director Mats Persson is interviewed by Le Figaro in a feature on UK-EU relations, where he argues that, “An improved single market would be the ideal relationship [with the EU] for the UK. Europe has to envisage a space for countries like the UK – which do not want to join the euro.” He added, “The British public…might vote to leave [the EU] if it is unsatisfied when the referendum takes place. It is in everyone’s interest to strike a new deal.” According to the FT, a senior official in French President François Hollande’s administration said, “France wants the UK to stay in the EU. It gains much from UK membership in many areas, including defense and energy. But what is clear is that nobody in Europe can accept that a state can pick and choose [which rules it accepts]”. Reuters reports that US President Barack Obama telephoned Cameron yesterday to say that the US “values a strong UK in a strong EU”. A new YouGov poll for the Sun has found Labour’s lead over the Conservatives has narrowed to 10%, with the parties on 44% and 34% respectively, while UKIP have fallen to 8% behind the Liberal Democrats on 9%. The paper attributes this to Mr Cameron’s intention to announce an EU referendum. The British Chambers of Commerce has said a referendum would be essential to strengthen the UK's hand in EU negotiations. “We have to be prepared to walk away from the table…otherwise you're lost,” said John Longworth, the chambers' director-general. Independent Reuters Times Reuters 2 FT WSJ City AM FT 2 FT 3 FT 4 Times: Collins Times: LettersTelegraph Irish Times Irish Times 2 European Voice European Voice 2 Euractiv BBC Mail: Comment SunExpress Mirror IHT Guardian BBC Guardian 2 Economist Reuters blogs: Kaletsky Guardian: Toynbee FAZORF EurActiv FAZ Le Figaro: Persson The Guardian’s live blog cited Open Europe’s blog post noting that Labour leader Ed Miliband’s remarks that Britain needed some powers back from Brussels, such as regional policy, were similar to what David Cameron has been calling for. Guardian: Live blog Greek Finance Minister: “It is too early to declare victory”Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said in an interview with Reuters, “What scares me is the big pressure from society, media and parliamentary deputies from all parties to ease the program. We must resist...it’s too early to declare victory.” He added that Greece had not left the “hot zone of bankruptcy”. Meanwhile, Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung reports that in a letter to the Bundestag, the German Government has criticised Greece’s “disappointing” privatisation efforts, as revenues up to the end of 2012 had only reached €100m, compared with the expected €15bn. Separately, Greek MPs yesterday voted in favour of Former Greek Finance Minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou facing an official inquiry into his alleged tampering of the ‘Lagarde List’, a list of high profile Greeks with bank accounts in Switzerland. FT WSJ BBC IHT Kathimerini EUobserver La Tribune Kathimerini 2 WAZ A new SWG poll published this morning has found that Silvio Berlusconi’s PdL party has narrowed the gap with the centre-left Democratic Party by 3% over the last week. The centre-left coalition led by Pier Luigi Bersani is still ahead on 33%, with Berlusconi’s centre-right coalition second on 27.2%, comedian Beppe Grillo’s Five-Star Movement third on 16.8%, and Mario Monti’s centrist bloc fourth on 13.7%.SWG poll Il Sole 24 Ore Repubblica La Stampa FT: Bini-Smaghi EU foreign ministers agree to speed up deployment of military trainers to MaliEuropean Voice reports that EU foreign ministers have decided to speed up the deployment of military trainers to Mali and finance for a UN African military force to recapture northern Mali from Islamist rebels.Catherine Ashton, the EU's foreign policy chief, is reported as saying “France has reacted in exactly the right way… The EU's role is to come and support France in its operations”. In an interview on Channel 4 News, former French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner is reported as saying "The British people for such a mission are our closest friend. We need them. For the time being we are alone. I beg you don't leave the French alone.” European Voice Economist: Charlemagne Channel 4 News Le Monde In a letter to the FT, British Airways Chairman Sir Martin Broughton and others argue that negotiations on a US-EU free trade deal should get underway as soon as possible. Meanwhile,India’s ambassador to the EU has told EurActiv that negotiations for a free-trade agreement between India and the EU have entered their final stage could possibly be concluded by the spring.FT Letters: Broughton et al. Euractiv The loans in arrears of the Spanish banking sector reached 11.5% of total loans in November, reports Expansión.Expansión The FT reports that the Cypriot Finance Ministry gave a presentation to EU ambassadors last week which highlighted that Cyprus has fully or partially adhered to the OECD recommendations on money laundering, while countries such as Germany and Finland had not.FT In an interview with five European dailies, EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn has urged France “to relentlessly pursue its budgetary adjustment, given that its public debt is already high at 90% [of GDP].”El País: Rehn Le Figaro: Rehn EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy has confirmed that the EU leaders’ summit on the 7-8 February will focus on trying to secure an agreement on the EU’s long-term budget for 2014 – 2020 which failed in November.EUobserver European Voice Open Europe research: Reforming the EU budget Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem has officially put forward his candidacy for Head of the Eurogroup and will outline his vision for the eurozone on Monday.WSJ CityAM EUobserver La Tribune AFP Elsevier David McAllister, who has a Scottish father and seen as a rising star in German politics with Angela Merkel’s CDU party, has made fiscal discipline the central message of his campaign to retain control of Lower Saxony in a state election this Sunday, seen as a dress rehearsal ahead of federal elections in September.Times IHT Guardian Economist The Irish Independent reports that MEPs are planning to standardise flying rules across the EU, meaning that budget airlines such as Ryanair would be stopped from prohibiting passengers from bringing more than one piece of hand baggage onto a flight.Irish Independent