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Daily Press Summary German Finance Minister warns Athens against discussing further debt relief before late 2014 During his visit to Athens yesterday, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble expressed his “deep respect” for the reforms made in Greece but called on the efforts to continue and warned the country to “stop the discussion about a new debt haircut,” adding, “it is not to your benefit.” Schäuble did concede that the idea could be revisited in late 2014 if Greece were to implement the necessary reforms and reach a primary surplus. Separately, PASOK leader and Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos yesterday decided not to take action against two of his MPs who failed to fully back the government in the passage of the new reform package. Kathimerini WSJ CityAM IHT EUobserver Handelsblatt Süddeutsche Bild FAZ Welt Le Monde Irish TimesTelegraph BBC Kathimerini 2 Kathimerini 3 Open Europe’s partner organisation Open Europe Berlin is today hosting a debate together with the EU Commission’s office in Germany entitled “Growth engine or waste of money? What does the EU’s regional policy deliver?” The debate will feature Open Europe Berlin Director Prof. Dr. Michael Wohlgemuth and EU Regional Policy Commissioner Johannes Hahn. Open Europe Berlin events Open Europe Berlin research: Regional Policy Ireland seeks precautionary credit line to help smooth bailout exit Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan said yesterday, “What I would like to see is a backstop arrangement which would give additional confidence to the market… Preferably [one] that we would never actually use,” suggesting that Ireland will seek a precautionary credit line from the eurozone after its exit from its current bailout later this year. Such a credit line could also allow access to the ECB’s OMT bond buying programme. Noonan said he was hopeful any deal would not include new conditions. FT Irish Times Irish Independent Open Europe’s Director Mats Persson was interviewed by Swedish business magazine Veckans Affärer on the British debate over EU free movement and immigration. “Here in the UK, Europe is a controversial issue in itself – and so is immigration. The combination is explosive”, Mats noted. Open Europe research Veckans Affärer: Persson The International Business Times cites Foreign Secretary William Hague’s speech at an Open Europe dinner earlier this week in which he argued that “Change in the EU is worth fighting for… We need to decentralise powers better dealt with by national parliaments and governments back to national parliaments and governments." Open Europe events IBT Following Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier’s comments that the UK cannot “repatriate” powers over financial services, Money Marketing quotes Open Europe’s Stephen Booth as saying that it seems like an attempt to call into question “legitimate discussions” about how you organise EU financial regulation in the context of greater eurozone integration. Open Europe blog Open Europe research Money Marketing El País reports that some 2,000 people took to the streets in Madrid yesterday, in protest against Spain’s ruling Partido Popular – which is currently facing slush fund allegations. There were clashes with the police. Separately, housing prices in Spain went down by 7.8% in the second quarter of 2013, compared with the same period of 2012. El Mundo notes that housing prices have now returned to their 2004 level. El País El Mundo Portugal’s coalition government yesterday survived its fifth no-confidence motion in two years. The motion was rejected by the Portuguese parliament by 131 votes to 87. RTP Diário Económico Jornal de Negócios The Cypriot government yesterday announced a six-month tax amnesty on funds repatriated from abroad, as long as they are invested or used to pay off obligations to Cypriot banks or the state. Cyprus Mail The ECB yesterday loosened collateral rules on Asset-Backed Securities (ABS), saying it would accept lower rated ABS with a lower haircut to the value, in an attempt to encourage lending. However, it also announced a tightening of the rules on covered bonds and some lower rated sovereign debt, which will face higher haircuts to their value. ECB press release FT IHT Süddeutsche Welt Welt 2 Reuters reports that the EU’s Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia told German business weekly VDI that EU banks which fail the next round of stress tests and need to secure more funding will have no further recourse to public money, but that he subsequently claimed to have been misquoted. Reuters German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that calls for a uniform European data-protection framework – following the US NSA spying-scandal – should be modelled on German privacy laws. Reuters Deutschland Süddeutsche FAZ Welt Economist: Charlemagne Rainer Brüderele, Chairman of FDP’s parliamentary faction told German daily Handelsblatt that there will have to be a“crystal-clear rejection” of higher taxes and higher state debt, if the FDP is to continue in coalition with Merkel’s CDU/CSU after the elections. Handlesblatt Slovakia may have to return over €50m in payments from EU’s structural funds because of their alleged misuse, particularly in infrastructure projects, reports Slovakian daily Sme. SME Dutch unemployment has increased again, topping 8.5% in June according to the Dutch statistics agency. ANP Dagelijkse Standaard Telegraaf Die Welt reports that the EU Commission plans to provide subsidies to make nuclear power stations easier to build and operate. The German government is unlikely to support the proposals due to environmental concerns; however it has no power to veto plans. Süddetusche Handelsblatt Welt Biotechnology giant Monsanto is scrapping plans to win approval to grow new types of genetically modified crops in the EU. It said the move is due to the lack of prospects for cultivation in the EU. Reuters FIFA and UEFA have lost their appeal against a ruling by the European Court of Justice that World Cup and European Championship football matches should be shown on free-to-air TV in the UK, meaning that the two tournaments cannot be sold exclusively to pay-TV firms. BBC

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