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New on the Open Europe Blog Is the IMF turning bearish on Spain?  Open Europe Blog Public support for the EU drops by 16% in one month: is popular support for the euro in Greece finally about to wane? Open Europe Blog The election of the new Italian President: Has Berlusconi just scored another one?  Open Europe Blog
Daily Press Summary Trade bodies urge G20 ministers to oppose EU financial transaction taxThe Telegraph reports that five global markets associations have written to G20 finance ministers urging them to intervene in EU plans to impose a financial transactions tax. “Now is not the time to experiment with policies that will fragment markets, increase market volatility, harm savings and impede growth,” the letter warns, adding it would have “unprecedented extraterritorial impacts, contrary to G20 principles”. It is signed by the London-based Global Financial Markets Association as well as bodies from Australia, Canada, Japan and Korea. City AM Telegraph In an op-ed in Belgian magazine Trends, Open Europe’s Pieter Cleppe argues that the approval by MEPs this week of stricter rules on bankers’ bonuses is a “convenient political smokescreen, so politicians can get away with not restructuring the banking sector despite the €1.6 trillion in bank bailouts in the EU”.Trends: Cleppe Commission proposes new powers for Europol to access police filesUnder a new proposal from the European Commission, the EU’s police and criminal intelligence agency, Europol, would have access to all information held by the police, including evidence files on children, victims, witnesses and other people never even suspected of a crime. National authorities would be obliged to “supply Europol with the information necessary for it to fulfil its objectives”, removing previous safeguards that allow them to decide what records are handed over. Open Europe Research Director Stephen Booth is quoted by the Telegraph as saying, “The UK should seek alternative means of continuing important police cooperation with its European partners but with full and proper accountability to MPs in Westminster, rather than Brussels.” The Government has until the end of June to inform the Commission whether it will take part in the new Europol agency. Open Europe research Open Europe research 2 Mail Telegraph Italy’s centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani has proposed former European Commission President Romano Prodi as his party’s new candidate for Italian President. The decision has provoked angry reactions from Silvio Berlusconi’s party, and is likely to have a negative impact on negotiations between Bersani and Berlusconi over the formation of the new Italian government.Corriere della Sera Corriere della Sera 2 La Stampa La Stampa 2 Repubblica FT: Dinmore FT WSJ BBCSpiegel Guardian Guardian 2 FAZ Süddeutsche DWN Spiegel Cypriot Parliament approves tax hikes as implementation of bailout plan begins; 40 Coalition and SPD MPs rebel in Bundestag vote on Cypriot bailoutThe Cypriot Parliament yesterday approved a series of laws as part of its bailout deal, including the increase of the corporate tax rate and other taxes. The votes had the backing of the main opposition party AKEL, however, it is still unsure whether the party will back the entire bailout agreement in a vote later this month. The Cyprus Mail reports that Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades could today announce plans to push ahead with the creation of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Cyprus, although it is not clear how the government would fund this. Following German Chancellor Angela Merkel failure to secure the so-called Chancellor’s majority in yesterday’s Bundestag vote on the Cyprus bailout, FAZ editor Reinhard Müller argues not everyone in the coalition government agrees with the assertion that there is no ‘alternative’ to the German Government approach to the eurozone crisis. The voting breakdown shows that 11 MPs from the CDU/CSU voted no or abstained as did 9 FDP MPs and 20 SPD MPs. WSJ Cyprus Mail Famagusta Gazette Cyprus Mail 2 Telegraph Euractiv FAZ: Müller FAZ SüddeutscheWelt Spiegel FT Irish Times Bloomberg Guardian Rehn: We can construct a successful banking union “without a treaty change”; Moscovici: “If necessary we can have one… We want a full banking union and we want it fast”In an interview with Reuters, EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn says that "we can construct the elements of a successful banking union, including the single resolution mechanism and rules for direct recapitalisation of banks, without a treaty change. I see that discussion - on treaty change - is part and parcel of a long-term reconstruction of the economic and monetary union.” Reuters quotes French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici as saying "We must go as far as possible without treaty change and consider whether ... that is necessary. The idea of a treaty change, which is never popular in Europe, must not be used as a pretext to stop banking union. If necessary we can have one. But it has to be necessary and technical because it's clear people are not very fond of huge treaty changes; we've had a lot in the last years. We want a full banking union and we want it fast." Reuters EUobserver Open Europe’s video interview with leading German economist Hans-Werner Sinn was covered in detail by the Guardian’s live blog, along with Open Europe’s twitter coverage of the IMF’s revision of Spain’s deficit figures and the Bundestag vote on Cyprus bailout. The interview was also cited by Greek magazine Protothema.Open Europe Video Guardian live blog Protothema According to a new OpinionWay poll for Le Figaro, only 26% of French voters are satisfied with President François Hollande. The poll also shows that, if the presidential election were to take place this Sunday, Nicolas Sarkozy would get 28% of votes, followed by Hollande on 23% and far-right leader Marine Le Pen on 21%. Sarkozy would win the final run-off against Hollande with 53% of votes.Le Figaro Europe 1 According to the Dutch statistics office, unemployment in the Netherlands jumped from 7.8% in February to 8.1% in March.FT WSJ Angela Merkel reiterated her guarantee to protect German savers and called the euro “a symbol of European political unity” in an interview with Bild. The Chancellor added that in order for Europe to “lead in the world”, its states “must become more competitive – but that there is a lot more to do”.Bild Welt Wolfgang Schäuble pressured leaders attending the IMF-World Bank and G20 meetings in Washington for tougher financial reform, arguing that “no financial transaction, and no player on a financial market, should be without regulation."Spiegel Reuters Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt wants only permanent British residents to qualify for anything other than emergency healthcare free of charge. He believes non-UK residents are granted NHS numbers – which entitle them to free care – far too easily, the Mail reports.Mail The Times reports on its front page that Labour leader Ed Miliband is facing fierce internal dissent amid claims that top positions on the party’s list of candidates for the European Parliament are being “stitched up” for union-backed candidates.Times The Irish Independent reports that, at an informal meeting in Dublin yesterday, EU trade ministers moved closer to agreeing a mandate for EU negotiations with the US on a free trade agreement. Reuters reports that France has again warned that it will block the negotiations unless “cultural sectors” were excluded.Irish Independent Irish Times Reuters EUobserver Germany's constitutional court announced a two-day hearing for June 11-12 dealing with the ECB’s OMT and SMP bond-buying programmes as well as with the constitutionality of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the ECB's Emergency Liquidity Assistance program and the debt restructuring program for Ireland.Reuters  A survey of German SMEs conducted by Commerzbank shows that 81% of the German ‘Mittelstand’ expect the eurozone's economy to remain weak in the medium term, while 50% anticipate that there will be national bankruptcies among eurozone countries and 18% fear a breakup of the eurozone.Spiegel EurActiv reports that due to prolonged negotiations over CAP reform, the introduction of proposed changes such as greater environmental conditionality is likely to be delayed by another year.Euractiv Open Europe research: CAP reform The EU’s border agency FRONTEX yesterday announced that the number of people trying to enter the EU illegally dropped by around half, from 114,000 in 2011 to 73,000 in 2012 following the strengthening of the Greek-Turkish border.EUobserver Reuters The IHT reports that EU has reached a preliminary agreement to ease its Syrian oil embargo in order to allow opposition held areas to export.IHT The European Commission has told Austria to pay back €64m in regional funding, due to errors made in measuring Austrian agricultural areas between 2006 and 2008, reports Der Kurier.Kurier