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New on the Open Europe Blog Cypriot parliament narrowly approves bailout deal but plenty of hurdles yet to overcome  Open Europe Blog Italian PM launches opening salvo against austerity - but where will the cash come from?  Open Europe Blog Criticise it all you want, Germany is not going to drop austerity Open Europe Blog
Daily Press Summary UK faces EU demands for £9bn pre-funded bank resolution schemeThe FT reports that the EU is considering a proposal which will force member states to create pre-funded national bank resolution funds to backstop banks in a financial crisis. The funds would be required to total 1% of covered deposits within ten years – equal to €9bn in the UK’s case. The UK Treasury objects to pre-funding resolution schemes because they would act as a drag on growth and create moral hazard for banks. Ambassadors will discuss the proposals on Thursday. FT Berlusconi already threatening to withdraw his support for the new governmentSilvio Berlusconi is already threatening to withdraw support for the new Italian government unless the announced property tax on first homes is scrapped. Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta has so far only announced that the tax will be temporarily frozen. Letta will today meet French President François Hollande in Paris and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy in Brussels. At a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday, Letta said, “How and where we will find the resources [to stick to our budget commitments] is a domestic matter. I don’t owe explanations to anyone.” He insisted that “Europe needs to implement growth policies.” Open Europe blog Il Sole 24 Ore La Stampa La Stampa 2 Repubblica Repubblica 2 Reuters DeutschlandEUobserver WSJ FT Mats Persson: Germany’s European policy unlikely to fundamentally change after September electionOn his Telegraph blog, Open Europe Director Mats Persson looks at the upcoming German elections and argues, “Even under a grand coalition between Merkel’s CDU/CSU and SPD, the basic course in Germany’s Europe policy will remain fairly steady. Crucially, the complicated sequencing for any further eurozone integration – such as a resolution fund for banks or public debt pooling – will likely stay broadly the same: constitutionally-anchored eurozone-wide supervision first, cash later.” Mats’s blog post is cited by Italian daily Il Foglio. Telegraph blogs: Persson Il Foglio Andrea Leadsom MP: EU needs to be globally engaged and free-trade orientated Andrea Leadsom, co-chair of the Fresh Start group of Conservative MPs, is cited in a feature piece in German political magazine Cicero as saying that a British exit from the EU “would be a catastrophe for our economy”, but at the same time “the status quo is not an option”. Instead she argues in favour of an EU that is “globally engaged and free trade stimulated”, and that many of the undesired impacts of existing EU regulations need to be re-examined. The write-up also describes Open Europe as having “significant influence” on David Cameron’s EU policy, with Open Europe Director Mats Persson quoted as saying that “we want to think creatively about Europe and put forward constructive criticism, but also point out its advantages”. Cicero Bailout deal scrapes through Cypriot parliamentThe Cypriot parliament yesterday approved the country’s eurozone bailout deal by a narrow margin of 29 votes to 27. The first €2bn tranche is expected to be paid out in mid-May. Separately, the money laundering audits have been completed, and although the results will not be published, Finance Minister Harris Georgiades said the results did not “corroborate” the accusations of Cyprus being a haven for money laundering. Cyprus Mail Kathimerini FT WSJ Famagusta Gazette Guardian Le Monde FAZ Süddeutsche Cyprus Mail 2 Hungarian parliament condemns EU Justice Commissioner for violating EU lawThe Hungarian Parliament approved a resolution by 277 votes to 53 condemning EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding for taking a position that is contrary to EU law. The move follows Reding’s comment that she was “not surprised” that Irish Courts have refused to approve the extradition of Francis Tobin – an Irish national found responsible for a fatal road accident in Hungary in 2000 – despite Hungary having issued an European Arrest Warrant, due to legitimate questions about the independence of Hungary's judiciary. Open Europe research Welt Sabine Lautenschläger, Vice-President of the Bundesbank, has said that the central bank wants to have an equal role to that of the financial regulator BaFin under the new eurozone single financial supervisor led by the ECB, which will oversee 130 large banks in the eurozone. Meanwhile, she also announced that the ECB will conduct its own assessment of bank balance sheets alongside the European Banking Authority stress tests.Reuters Reuters Deutschland A ComRes poll limited to areas where local elections are being held tomorrow has the Conservatives on 31%, Labour on 24%, UKIP on 22%, and the Lib Dems on 12%.ComRes Telegraph blogs: Tebbit Mail Times Telegraph The number of migrants to the UK from Bulgaria and Romania will be “nothing like” the levels seen when Poland joined the EU, Prime Minister David Cameron said yesterday. “This time because the transitional controls have been put in, we are not lifting the restrictions on Romania and Bulgaria alone, it’s happening right across Europe,” he said.Open Europe research Mail Signs are increasing that the ECB is ready to cut interest rates by 0.25% at its monthly meeting tomorrow.FT FT 2 WSJ The EU said on Tuesday that it is considering trade action to encourage the improvement of safety standards in Bangladesh following a factory collapse that killed hundreds.Süddeutsche Reuters The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee has concluded that “There may be pragmatic reasons for supporting some form of fast track process for Scotland’s [EU] accession but this does not mean that it would be straightforward or indeed automatically conducted from within the EU, and Scotland may have to make trade-offs to secure the unanimous support that it would require.”EUobserver BBC House of Commons: FAC Committee Slovenia yesterday halted a sale of government bonds as it learned the rating agency Moody’s was about to downgrade the bonds to junk status (it did so an hour later). The bond sale will now proceed but Slovenia will likely face higher borrowing costs.WSJ Le Figaro Expansión In an interview with Saarbrücker Zeitung, Oskar Lafontaine, former German finance minister and former head of Die Linke, has argued that eurozone member states should re-introduce national currencies alongside the euro.Saarbrücker Zeitung Zeit The Irish Times reports that, according to the latest Stability Pact Update prepared by the Irish Finance Ministry for the European Commission, austerity could end in 2016 in Ireland – although this assumes a successful implementation of current plans and no further costs for dealing with the bank crisis.Irish Times The Portuguese government has announced a further €6bn (3.6% of GDP) in cuts up to 2016, meaning the austerity approach will extend beyond the end of its eurozone bailout programme in 2014.FT