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New on the Open Europe Blog Finally a deal on the EU's long-term budget? Open Europe Blog When the lights go off who will be to blame the UK or EU? Open Europe Blog Is the video of MEPs slapping a reporter being censored? Open Europe Blog
Daily Press Summary EU leaders seal long-term budget deal to cut spending; Commission proposes increases for EU bureaucracy despite budget cut Last night, EU leaders unanimously agreed the EU’s 2014-2020 long-term budget at €960bn, which cuts real spending for the first time. EU leaders and the European Parliament also reached a political deal yesterday morning. David Cameron secured last-minute assurances that the UK’s rebate would not be reduced. France had suggested it would not accept that the rebate would apply to agricultural spending in new EU member states such as Bulgaria, Romania and Poland, despite a deal reached by EU leaders in February which maintained this part of the rebate. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said of EU budget measures to tackle youth unemployment, “We can pump money into this but it will only work if the countries are ready to reform their labour market.” Meanwhile, the European Commission tabled its proposal for the EU’s 2014 annual budget this week. Spending will fall by almost 6% in 2014 but spending on the EU’s 'civil service’ will rise by 1.5% next year, with MEPs getting a 1.7% increase in their budget and a 3.8% rise in spending on the EU’s 54 quangos. Open Europe’s Pawel Swidlicki is quoted by the Telegraph as saying, “The EU budget cut adds further credibility to Cameron’s claim that he can get a better deal for the UK in Europe, but it’s still symptomatic that on the same day Whitehall departments were subject to a series of cuts, the cost of the EU’s bureaucracy continued to rise.” Open Europe blog: UK rebate EU summit conclusions AP Express EUobserver BBC Reuters TelegraphTelegraph 2 European Voice Euractiv FT City AM Reuters Deutschland FAZ FAZ 2 FAZ: FrankenbergerSüddeutsche Bild FAZ: Kafsack WSJ NOS NOS 2 Bank bail-ins likely to be the norm from now on despite the rules not entering force until 2018 Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan said yesterday that, despite the new bank bail-in rules only coming into force in 2018, the broad principles will be “hard to breach” and stressed that “bail-in is now the rule”. Open Europe’s Raoul Ruparel is quoted by City AM arguing that, even with the deal, “Europe is well short of where it needs to be to break the bank-sovereign link.” Separately, ECB Executive Board Member Yves Mersch said yesterday that he does not see the ECB starting its role as eurozone single supervisor until autumn 2014, rather than early 2014 as originally planned. FT FT Lex CityAM WSJ Telegraph Reuters Reuters2 Reuters 3 ORF Irish economy contracts sharply as Merkel expresses her “contempt” for Anglo Irish The Irish economy contracted by 0.6% in the first quarter of this year compared to the last quarter of 2012, with declines in household spending, investment and exports driving the contraction. Revisions to last year’s figures also show that the Irish economy grew by only 0.2% in 2012 compared to the previous estimate of 0.9%. Separately, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has weighed into the Anglo Irish bailout scandal labelling it a “real damage to democracy [and] social market economy”, adding that she only has "contempt" left for such behaviour. WSJ Irish Times FAZ Handeslblatt Spiegel Following newspaper reports on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s lobbying on behalf of German car manufactures Open Europe’s Mats Persson comments on his Telegraph blog that “even for 'good Europeans' like Angela Merkel, defending national interests is king”. Telegraph: Persson Süddeutsche FT Euractiv  French Trade Minister Nicole Bricq said this morning that European Commission President José Manuel Barroso “has done nothing with his mandate”, AFP reports. La Tribune: Lamassoure AFP A new ZDF Politbarometer poll puts Angela Merkel’s CDU/CSU Union on 43% with the opposition party SPD on 26%. 54% thinks the CDU/CSU Union is united on major policy issues, while 63% see the SPD as divided. Merkel’s junior coalition partners, the FDP, poll at 4%; the Greens at 13%; Die Linke at 6% and Alternative Für Deuschland at 3%. ZDF Politbarometer  Greece faces more privatisation woes The FT reports that Greece is facing the prospect of having a second major privatisation project collapse in a matter of months. According to documents seen by the paper, the €700m sale of OPAP, the state gaming monopoly, is under threat with the buyers looking to remove certain elements from the deal. Failure to secure a deal could see Greece miss its €2.6bn privatisation target for this year by €1.6bn. Separately, PASOK, the junior party in the Greek governing coalition, suffered another blow yesterday when a left-wing faction announced it was splitting off from the party, although no MPs will be leaving. FT Kathimerini Kathimerini 2 Cypriot government looks to reschedule a small amount of debt The Cypriot government yesterday launched a voluntary swap of up to €1bn in Cypriot government bonds, which would see the government exchange bonds maturing in the next three years for ones which expire in five to ten years. Cypriot Finance Ministry La Tribune Cyprus Mail Cyprus Mail 2 FAZ’s Brussels correspondent Hendrick Kafsack argues that the agreed reform package for the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) “is not a paradigm change” towards the 21st century but rather “a step back to the eighties”. FAZ: Kafsack  Croatia’s President Ivo Josipovic writes in the WSJ, “Although corruption has been curbed irreversibly, it is still present, and efforts to combat it must continue with the same zeal after our EU accession”. WSJ: Josipovic FT Economist: Leader Economist: Charlemagne  The ECB has dismissed reports from Sueddeutsche Zeitung that it is considering a quantitative easing programme. Reuters Süddeutsche FAZ