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New on the Open Europe Blog Is Sikorski in with a chance of being the next EU foreign minister?  Open Europe Blog Cyprus bailout: What are individual EU member states on the hook for?  Open Europe Blog Where will Cypriot growth come from? Open Europe Blog
Daily Press Summary Portuguese government scrambles to find new savings as Constitutional Court rules against austerity plans; Commission warns that Portugal must meet its targets to gain more time for adjustmentThe Portuguese Constitutional Court ruled on Friday that four out of nine austerity measures included in the latest budget were unconstitutional, partly since they fell disproportionately on public sector workers and pensions. Following an emergency cabinet meeting on Saturday, the Portuguese government stressed that it will find new savings worth up to €1.3bn to fill the gap, with cuts likely to hit welfare and education spending. The European Commission issued a statement yesterday, warning that meeting this year’s deficit target is “a precondition” for the extension of the Portuguese bailout programme agreed last month. Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho warned the ruling could have “very serious consequences for the whole country”, but rejected calls from the opposition socialist party to resign. Open Europe’s Raoul Ruparel is quoted by the Telegraph and the Irish Independent discussing the court ruling. Diário Económico El Mundo Expansión Sueddeutsche Guardian FT FT 2 FT 3 CityAM WSJ TelegraphWeekend FT Times Irish Times BBC Euractiv FAZ Sunday Times Guardian Le Figaro EUobserver Il Sole 24 Ore  Cameron begins tour of Europe to make case for “flexible” EU; Politicians cannot ignore “wafer-thin” support for EU in Britain David Cameron will this week begin his attempt to win over European leaders to his reform agenda for the EU, which will involve meetings with Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish Prime Minister, Francois Hollande, the French President, and finally Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor. In joint interviews with five European newspapers, Mr Cameron today argued the EU has “overreached itself with directives and interventions and interferences”. Asked whether there will be treaty change, Mr Cameron said he is “absolutely convinced that there will be the need to reopen at some stage these treaties, not least to solve the problem of the eurozone”. He said, “I don't want to give you a shopping list. I think this should be a discussion across Europe about how we make the EU more flexible, and how we make clear that powers can flow back to nation states as well as flow forward to the EU.” He added, “We need to recognise that consent for Britain's membership of the EU and all the ways that it's changed has become wafer-thin in Britain. Politicians, if they do their job properly have to recognise this fact rather than try and brush it under the carpet.” Il Sole 24 Ore: Cameron Le Monde: Cameron Sueddeutsche Le Monde BBC Euractiv Telegraph Times MailExpress Observer Independent Guardian EUobserver Telegraph: Hope WSJ FT City AM Sunday Telegraph  London could act as “collection agent” for FTT despite not being a participantCity AM reports on a study into the EU’s FTT by inter-bank broker ICAP quoting its chief executive Michael Spencer, as saying that “It is particularly ironic that London, as one of world’s leading financial centres, will generate the lion’s share of this revenue and act as collection agent despite the UK being outside the financial transaction tax zone and our government being vehemently opposed to the introduction of this tax.” Separately the Sunday Telegraph reports on a study by Barclays that finds that the EU’s Financial Transactions tax could cut EU GDP by up to 0.3%.  Sunday Telegraph CityAM Telegraph Bloomberg  Rehn: Big bank depositors could bear cost of bank failure  European Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn warned on Saturday that while Cyprus was a special case, under the upcoming EU Directive on bank safety, “investor and depositor liability will be carried out in case of a bank restructuring or a wind-down.” Open Europe Director Mats Persson was quoted in the Telegraph as saying “Rehn was only re-stating what's in an EU proposal tabled in 2012… However, there's so much uncertainty around the precedent set by the Cyprus bail-out that his comments may still cause some jitters.”  Telegraph Reuters DWN Deutschlandfunk  Leader of German Anti-Euro party: “The euro is not a currency under which the European project can prosper”  In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Bernd Lucke, the head of Germany’s new anti-euro Alternative für Deutschland party, argues that “The euro is not a currency under which the European project can prosper… There is a division of Europe now and this is going to become bigger in the future.” Lucke added that while some areas like competition policy and banking regulation should remain at the EU level, most other decisions should be returned to national governments. Looking ahead to September’s federal elections, he argued that “Many of Angela Merkel’s supporters will vote for us.”  In a feature on the party in Die Welt, Thorsten Jungholt argues that if the election will be tight, even a modest electoral result for the party could be enough to deprive the CDU/CSU and FDP coalition of an outright victory. An Infratest Dimap poll for the paper shows that the party can potentially count on support from across the political spectrum with 29% of Die Linke’s voters, 21% of SPD voters, 19% of CDU/CSU voters and 14% of Green voters saying they could see themselves voting for the party “in principle”.  Sunday Telegraph Welt  Cyprus extends capital controls for another weekThe Central Bank of Cyprus announced on Friday that the Cypriot capital controls will be extended by seven days. Kathimerini reports that the Cypriot government is considering removing the controls completely for foreign banks operating in Cyprus to help facilitate imports and exports. The Cypriot press reports that a figure is expected today on the final level of losses which uninsured depositors in the Bank of Cyprus will face – potentially as high as 60%. Separately, Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann toldDeutschlandfunk radio that Cyprus has sent a “positive signal” that banks “can be wound up”. Central Bank of Cyprus decree Famagusta Gazette Cyprus Mail Famagusta Gazette 2 CityAM KathimeriniKathimerini 2 The Sunday Telegraph reported that the NHS has spent over £2bn over three years on locum staff – with some trainee doctors being paid over £2,000 a day – as hospitals have fallen back on agencies due to restrictions on working hours imposed by the EU’s Working Time Directive.  Sunday Telegraph Open Europe Researsh: Social Policy  Eurozone and Greece still struggling to find agreement for release of bailout fundsThe EU/IMF/ECB Troika and Greece are still struggling to find an agreement on the release of the next two tranches of bailout funds, despite a weekend of intense negotiation. To Vima reported yesterday on a ‘top secret’ report by a Greek Finance Ministry committee detailing compensation which Germany owes to Greece in WWII reparations. Spiegel picks up on the report, suggesting the previous estimates have put the amount at €162bn. Kathimerini Kathimerini 2 Kathimerini 3 WSJ Kathimerini 4 Kathimerini 5 Kathimerini 6 Spiegel Euronews To Vima Police chiefs warn Theresa May against EU crime opt-outThe Times reports that Police chief constables have warned Home Secretary Theresa May that opting out of EU crime and policing laws will turn the UK into a “safe haven” for Europe’s criminals. Last October Mrs May said the Government “was minded” to exercise the UK’s block opt-out of 135 laws, but added that the UK could opt back in on vital measures. The Home Office said, “Operational experience shows that some are useful, some less so; and some are now entirely defunct.” Times Open Europe research Open Europe research 2 Negotiators from the EU and the Council of Europe have finalised a draft agreement that, if approved, would lead to the EU joining the European Convention on Human Rights. The text requires the unanimous approval of the EU's member states, the support of MEPs, and would then need to be ratified by parliaments in the Council of Europe's 47 member states.European Voice Saturday’s Telegraph reported that Mr Justice Blake, Britain’s most senior immigration judge, has ruled the Home Office was not entitled to deport Theresa Rafacz, a Polish national jailed for manslaughter, because her crime did not cross a seriousness threshold set out in EU law.Saturday's Telegraph The French government has revised its growth prospects downwards to +0.1% in 2013 and +1.2% in 2014 – in line with the latest European Commission forecasts. Separately, a new OpinionWay poll published by Le Figaro shows that 77% of French think the political class in their country is “rather corrupt”.La Tribune Libération Le Monde WSJ Beppe Grillo’s Five-Star Movement is considering “occupying” the two chambers of the Italian parliament as early as tomorrow in protest against the fact that parliamentary committees have not been set up yet and parliament cannot start work as a consequence of the stalemate on the formation of the new government.Il Sole 24 Ore La Stampa Repubblica Corriere della Sera Repubblica: Bersani  The Telegraph reports that Baroness Ashton, the EU High Representative of Foreign Affairs, will be paid a “transitional allowance” of £400,000 until 2017, when she leaves her job next year.  Saturday's Independent Saturday's Telegraph

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