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New on the Open Europe Blog The China-EU trade war begins, China adopts divide and conquer approach  Open Europe Blog More of the same expected from the ECB despite eurozone economic malaise  Open Europe Blog Steinbrück envisages a Europe led by a Franco-German-Polish axis  Open Europe Blog
Daily Press Summary France moves to find common EU position as trade dispute with China escalatesIn response to the Chinese decision to investigate alleged subsidies for EU exports of wine to China, French President François Hollande called on the European Commission to convene a meeting of all EU member states to “reach a common point of view”. However, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso said, “I don't think it makes sense to have a European Council related to a specific issue of trade.” Open Europe’s Nina Schick appeared on BBC World News discussing the issue. Open Europe’s Raoul Ruparel is quoted by the BBC noting that the investigation into wine exports could be specifically targeted to those EU countries which were most supportive of the solar panel tariffs. Raoul also appeared on BBC Five Live’s Wake up to Money this morning. In a joint op-ed in the Telegraph, UK Energy Minister Greg Barker and his Swedish counterpart Anna-Karin Hatt warn that EU tariffs on Chinese solar panels “will cause heavy job losses in the wider solar photovoltaic sector across the EU; they will raise the cost to consumers of installing household solar panels by up to 25%; and they will have a devastating impact on the viability of solar projects across the EU. They could jeopardise the EU’s efforts to meet its own target to produce 20% of energy from renewables by 2020.” Open Europe blog Telegraph: Barker & Hatt FT WSJ BBC EUobserver FAZ Euractiv Telegraph GuardianTelegraph 2  IMF admits it made serious mistakes in dealing with the Greek crisis  The IMF has released a previously internal document which admits that the fund made serious mistakes in its approach to the Greek crisis. The report notes that the debt sustainability analyses and forecasts carried out at the time were wrong “by a large margin” and given the uncertainties the fund could not say for sure if Greek debt was sustainable. The report was also critical of the European Commission’s role, suggesting it was more interested in reaching a consensus and conforming to EU norms than producing economic growth. Furthermore, the fund also said that “a more front-loaded approach to debt relief” may still be needed in Greece. Open Europe’s Raoul Ruparel is quoted by Euromoney magazine discussing the IMF’s new plans for handling sovereign debt crises and restructurings.  IMF WSJ WSJ 2 CityAM Kathimerini Euromoney FAZ DWN BBC Telegraph Guardian Times Le Figaro Le Monde Commission to push for supervision of Libor and other rates to be moved to ESMA  According to a leaked draft proposal seen by the FT, the European Commission will propose stepping up the supervision of hundreds of benchmark rates used in financial and commodity markets – including Libor. Under the proposal some of the rates will be regulated at the EU level but supervised nationally, however, the most high profile rates such as Libor and Euribor will be overseen by the Paris based European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). Libor is currently undergoing a restructuring and review in the UK. City AM quotes an unnamed treasury source saying that the government is “quite relaxed” about the proposal.  FT FT: Guthrie WSJ CityAM Times  Reuters reports that, according to a leaked eurozone document, the ESM, the eurozone’s bailout fund, will be able to use between €50bn and €70bn of its resources to directly recapitalise eurozone banks. The criteria for such loans are still unclear but they are likely to be done through a subsidiary of the ESM.  Reuters  Euractiv reports that the EU institutions are set to be exempted from having to comply with a new EU data protection law according to a draft proposal to be discussed by EU justice ministerstoday.Euractiv  As expected, both the European Commission and the ECB yesterday issued reports approving Latvia for eurozone entry in January 2014. The ECB did, however, warn over the prospect for long term stable convergence with the rest of the eurozone as well as the set-up of the financial sector, which remains reliant on large foreign deposits.  FT WSJ CityAM Times A new Gallup poll shows that 55% of Britons would vote to leave the EU in a simple in-out referendum, followed by 39% of Danes and Dutch respectively, 34% of French, 31% of Germans, and 21% of Poles.Reuters Telegraaf Euractiv  The Finnish economy has entered a triple-dip recession after shrinking by 0.1% in the first quarter of this year.  FT  Writing in the FT, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder notes that there are two schools of thought in Europe, “There are those who imagine Europe as a political union and those who think of Europe only as a single market, while the political process should remain largely national. Europe must decide between these two positions.”  FT: Schröder  In an interview with Handelsblatt, the head of the Polish Central Bank Marek Belka says that Poland “is not in a hurry” to adopt the euro while pointing out that it is our strategic goal to be a part of “Europe’s inner circle”. At the same time, he notes that Poland “is against a two-speed Europe”.  No link Silvio Berlusconi said in a TV interview, “We now have a strong government…also vis-à-vis Europe. We need this government to go to Brussels and say ‘I’ll do it this way’. We can no longer accept certain diktats. It’s for us to decide what needs to be done to put our economy back on its feet.”  RAI News 24 AGI Il Fatto Quotidiano  The Economy and Employment Ministers of Germany, France, Italy and Spain will meet in Rome next Thursday to try and find a common position on how to tackle youth unemployment in the eurozone ahead of the June summit of EU leaders in Brussels.  Corriere della Sera  An IFOP poll on the 2014 European elections puts French President François Hollande’s Socialist party, centre-right opposition UMP and far-right Front National all on 21%.  Europe 1  European Voice reports that MEPs are likely to vote today on their proposals to increase the European Parliament's influence over the European External Action Service.  European Voice