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New on the Open Europe Blog Every little helps: The reintroduction of EU civil servants' "special levy" is good news Open Europe Blog The French Court of Auditors publishes its annual report: Little good news for Hollande  Open Europe Blog European press on the EU budget deal: Behold the birth of the Anglo-German axis Open Europe Blog
Open Europe and the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) are hosting an event today on, “Turkey and the UK: Towards a Reformed EU”, with a keynote speech from the Turkish Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator of Turkey’s EU accession talks, Mr Egemen Bagis. For further information, please call the office on +44 (0)207 197 2333.  Open Europe Event Daily Press Summary France willing to give “new impetus” to Turkey’s EU accession talks French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has said that Turkish EU accession talks should restart with discussions over EU regional policy, one of the 35 EU negotiating chapters. Turkey’s Europe Minister Egemen Bagis – who will speak at today’s Open Europe-RUSI joint event – told the FT he was hopeful that the EU would now formally open negotiations, but added that, when it comes to visa liberalisation talks, “It takes two to tango. We are on the dance floor waiting for the Commission to join us.” Open Europe events: Egemen Bagis FT EUobserver Le Point Kathimerini Commission plans for ‘country of origin’ labelling likely to divide EU member states The FT reports that manufacturers will be forced to apply a “made in” label on goods imported into the EU from countries such as China and India or face sanctions, under a proposal due to be unveiled by the European Commission today. Past attempts to introduce similar requirements for some categories of manufactured goods were supported by the EU’s Southern member states but have been blocked by more pro-free trade Northern members, including the UK and Germany, which see them as a tax on imports. EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht was forced to withdraw an earlier proposal for a “made in” rule last year following a WTO warning that the legislation could breach its rules. FT New scandals emerge in Italy ahead of 24-25 February elections Raffaele Fitto, a former Italian minister and MP candidate for Silvio Berlusconi’s PdL party in the upcoming general elections, has this morning been sentenced to four years in prison for corruption and illegal financing of political parties. Separately, the CEO of Italian defence firm Finmeccanica, Giuseppe Orsi, was arrested yesterday over bribery allegations. The Italian government holds around 30% of Finmeccanica’s shares.  Repubblica Corriere della Sera Il Sole 24 Ore IHT  US President Barack Obama announced in his State of the Union speech last night that the US and the EU would launch negotiations on a bilateral free trade deal. FT EUobserver Spiegel Handelsblatt Guardian Slovakian news agency SITA reports that, on a visit to London yesterday, Slovakian Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcák met with UK Foreign Secretary William Hague and separately with the heads of three think tanks, including Open Europe Director Mats Persson, in order to discuss the UK’s future role in the EU. SITA MEPs’ amendments to EU legislation “copied word-for-word” from lobby papers The Telegraph reports that research compiled by campaigners for tighter privacy laws covering social media and online retailers has found “striking similarities” between amendments put forward by MEPs concerning the EU’s new data protection rules and lobby papers written by representatives of Amazon, eBay, the American Chamber of Commerce and the European Banking Federation. The campaigners allege that “dozens of amendments are being copied word-for-word from corporate lobby papers.” Telegraph Welt Welt: Mülherr European Commission to unveil new FTT proposal tomorrow Süddeutsche Zeitung reports that the European Commission will present its proposal for enhanced cooperation on the Financial Transactions Tax (FTT) tomorrow – which is expected to raise €31bn-35bn a year. The article notes that the tax will apply based on where a financial instrument is issued. For example, Germany would levy a tax if a British bank in London trades stock on behalf of Volkswagen. Süddeutsche FAZ Following the publication of the French Court of Auditors’ annual report, French President François Hollande has confirmed that his government will revise growth forecasts for 2013 “within the next days”, reports Le Figaro. Open Europe blog Le Figaro WSJ The Sun reports that Housing Minister Nick Boles has said he is “nervous” about the impact of an influx of Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants. Open Europe research: Free movement Sun EUobserver Cyprus unhappy with investigation into its banks Cyprus President Dimitris Christofias yesterday voiced his discontent with the eurozone’s investigation into money laundering in Cypriot banks, suggesting the eurozone was “pestering” rather than aiding his country. Meanwhile, Nikos Anastasiadis, the front-runner in Cyprus’s presidential election, said yesterday that he would not sign any bailout deal that involved forcing depositors to take losses. Kathimerini FT German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has said that any bank recapitalisations through the eurozone’s bailout fund, the ESM, “Must be significantly below the €80bn paid in capital” of the fund. Schäuble also stressed there would be no increase in commitments or guarantees for the ESM to aid banks. FAZ Reuters WSJ Spiegel Volkskrant Handelsblatt Kathimerini reports that Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras has said that he will seek clarification from the IMF on what impact its error in calculating fiscal multipliers may have had on Greece. The Greek government may use the miscalculation to seek concessions on the level of fiscal consolidation in its bailout programme. Kathimerini Kathimerini 2 Kathimerini 3 Kathimerini 4 Kathimerini 5 El País reports that several handwriting analyses have confirmed that the secret accounting books allegedly showing that Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and other senior members of his party were handed out illegal cash bonuses were written by the party’s former treasurer, Luis Bárcenas.  El País PP communiqué El Mundo El País 4 El País 2 El País 3 City AM Catalonia has threatened to take the Spanish government to court unless the overall deficit target for Spanish regions for 2013 is relaxed, reports Expansión. The target is currently fixed at 0.7% of GDP. Expansión Expansión 2 In last week’s EU budget talks, EU member states agreed to reintroduce the “special levy” that EU civil servants pay on their salaries at the rate of 6%. The levy, originally introduced to bring the tax EU civil servants pay closer to the EU average, had lapsed at the end of 2012. Open Europe blog EU Council Statement EurActiv reports that the EU’s anti-fraud office, OLAF, has launched an investigation into “possible irregularities” concerning the awarding of a €50,000 grant from the EU’s rural development fund to set-up and operate a Facebook page and Twitter account in order to spread awareness of the Bulgarian Agriculture Ministry’s Programme for Development of Rural Regions. Euractiv

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