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German Constitutional Court live blog: One of the most important cases in the Court's history?
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Foreign Affairs Select Committee welcomes "Double Majority" voting at the EBA as concrete example of UK influence in Europe
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Great speeches, Prime Minister, but now make EU reform happen 
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Daily Press Summary

ECB admits that bond-buying programme is practically limited;
German government backs ECB in German Constitutional Court case
The German Constitutional Court yesterday held the first of the two day hearing looking into claims that ECB policies overstep their mandate and potentially infringe on German Constitutional law. Defending the ECB’s policies Jörg Asmussen, ECB Executive Board Member, said that the ECB’s bond-buying programme, OMT, was necessary to ease the eurozone crisis and well within the bank’s mandate. However, in a hat-tip to German concerns, he did accept that the programme would have a de-facto limit, since it would only purchase short term bonds. Putting forward the counter argument, Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann argued that the OMT overstepped the bank’s primary mandate of limiting inflation and had the potential to create large financial liabilities for the states backing the ECB, without any democratic approval. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble also gave evidence, in which he supported the ECB and suggested that the Court has no jurisdiction over ECB policies.

German Economy Minister and Vice-Chancellor Philip Rösler warned, “We must not allow this course toward stability to be broken up through the attempt to exert influence on the [ECB],” despite coming under pressure from some members of his FDP party to support the claims against the OMT. In response to Schäuble’s claim that the GCC has no jurisdiction over ECB’s OMT programme, Vice-chairman of the German left party Sarah Wagenknecht said that she is “very optimistic that Karlsruhe will build democratic barriers against the euro crash pilots”.

Open Europe’s coverage of the hearing was cited extensively by the Guardian, Telegraph andHandelsblatt live blogs. Open Europe Berlin Director Michael Wohlgemuth was quoted by the Washington Post and Global Post discussing the implications of the case. Open Europe’s flash analysis ahead of the hearing is cited by Italian financial news site Forexinfo.
Open Europe blog Open Europe flash analysis Welt FAZ FAZ 2 FAZ 3 FAZ: Jahn FAZ: MuellerSüddeutsche Süddeutsche 2 Süddeutsche 3 Süddeutsche 4 DWN DWN 2 DWN 3 FT FT 2 WSJ TelegraphIHT Reuters Deutschland Handelsblatt Guardian Live Blog Telegraph Handelsblatt 2 Global PostWashington Post Handelsblatt 3 Handelsblatt 4 Forexinfo

Guardian: UK set to opt back in to 30-40 EU crime and poling lawsThe Guardian reports that following internal negotiations over the UK’s participation in around 130 EU crime and policing laws, the coalition is expected to opt back into between 30 and 40 measures considered important to UK security.  Labour will seek to put pressure on the coalition by tabling a parliamentary motion this afternoon calling for the UK to definitely opt back into a number of selected laws including the European Arrest Warrant. Andrea Leadsom, co-chair of the Conservative Fresh Start group told the paper that rather than opting back into the laws – which would come under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice – the UK ought to maintain European co-operation in this area on the basis of side agreements with the EU.

Separately, in his Telegraph column, Philip Johnston notes that the debate over prisoners’ voting rights has now also drawn in the EU following the lodging of an appeal by two convicted murderers at the European Court of Justice arguing that the UK’s blanket ban infringes not only their human rights, but also EU law, which grants all citizens the right to vote in European and municipal elections. While the UK is not legally bound to accept the rulings of the Strasbourg based European Court of Human Rights, EU law is supreme.
Open Europe research: An unavoidable choice Open Europe research: Co-operation not control GuardianTelegraph Telegraph: Johnston

UK takes EU to the ECJ over power to ban short-sellingThe UK has launched a legal challenge at the ECJ which seeks to overturn the power given to the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA) to ban short-selling. The UK argues that the move amounts to a significant transfer of “wide” and “unpredictable” powers to ESMA, beyond the usual acceptable technical oversight which the body is charged with. In particular, the UK is concerned that ESMA that any decision to ban short-selling will be “highly uncertain and subjective”.
Open Europe research: Shifting powers Bloomberg Telegraph

Spanish news agency EFE credits Open Europe for publishing on its blog a leaked draft European Commission proposal to move the supervision of Libor and other key benchmarks to the Paris-based EU financial market watchdog ESMA.
Open Europe blog EFE

Greek government temporarily shuts down public broadcasterThe Greek government has temporarily shut down public broadcaster ERT as part of its effort to cut the number of public sector workers under the EU-IMF bailout deal – with a revamped and slimmed-down broadcaster due to be opened by the end of August. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has reportedly taken the decision despite opposition from his coalition partners, PASOK and Democratic Left. Protests were staged outside ERT’s headquarters yesterday, and are continuing today. Separately, US-based equity index provider MSCI yesterday downgraded Greece from ‘developed market’ to ‘emerging market’ status.
Kathimerini Kathimerini 2 Kathimerini 3 Kathimerini 4 WSJ WSJ 2 FT City AM Handelsblatt IHT Le Monde La Tribune Reuters WSJ

The WSJ reports that European clearing houses are increasingly concerned over the latest bail-in proposals which would see the standard exemption for derivatives from the bail-in procedure removed. The European Association of CCP Clearing Houses (EACH) further warned that such proposals may be incompatible with other EU regulations aimed at stabilising derivative markets.WSJ

In a letter to the EU-IMF-ECB Troika, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades complained about the bailout terms imposed on his country and said the support lenders displayed to Greece was absent in the case of Cyprus, Reuters reports.
Cyprus Mail Kathimerini

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy told parliament this morning that he has “no intention of raising VAT”, despite the European Commission’s recommendation.
Expansión Cinco Días El Mundo La Vanguardia

Tensions are mounting within the Five-Star Movement after its poor show in Italy’s recent mayoral elections. Beppe Grillo yesterday asked Senator Adele Gambaro to quit the Movement “as soon as possible” after she explicitly blamed him for the election flop in a TV interview.
Corriere della Sera La Stampa FT: Leader

Conservative Party Chairman Grant Shapps will today launch a campaign for an EU referendum entitled “Let Britain Decide” which aims to rally public support for James Wharton MP’s Private Member’s Bill which seeks to embed the party’s promise of a referendum by the end of 2017 in legislation.Let Britain Decide

A new Guardian/ICM poll shows that support for UKIP has gone down by 6% from last month’s record-high and now stands at 12%. The poll puts Labour in the lead on 36%, the Conservatives on 29% and the Lib Dems on 12%.Guardian

A new INSA poll for Bild has Angela Merkel’s CDU/CSU in the lead on 39% followed by the SPD on 26%, the Greens on 14%, Die Linke on 7%, the FDP on 5% and Alternative für Deutschland on 3%.No link

Reuters reports that ECB Executive Board member Peter Praet indicated yesterday that that the bank was prepared to further cut interest rates should economic conditions requires more stimulus, although he added that the ECB is also paying "great attention" to inflation in the eurozone.Reuters

The EU Commission will today propose a directive for an EU-wide exchange of income data as part of the fight against tax evasion. The proposal extends the scope of the current agreement to “dividends, capital gains, other financial incomes and account balances” and thus would effectively put an end to bank secrecy in Europe, reports Die Welt.
Welt

The EU plans to lodge a complaint with the World Trade Organisation against Chinese duties on steel tubes. A formal filing is expected as early as this week and would allow the EU to join a related complaint filed by Japan against Chinese duties in December, reports Reuters.CityAM Reuters FAZ Le Figaro

Dutch magazine Elsevier reports that proposed EU data protection rules could cost up to €1.1bn to companies in the Netherlands, and that Dutch Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten is sceptical of the plans.Elsevier

MEPs and EU member states’ negotiators failed to strike a deal on the 2014-2020 EU budget at a meeting yesterday. Talks will resume next Tuesday. Hannes Swoboda, the leader of socialist MEPs, told reporters, “I don't think we can find an agreement in June, by the end of the Irish [EU] Presidency.”European Voice 

The European Parliament has adopted new rules banning pictures of infants from baby milk formula packaging. Under the new rules, labelling of such formula cannot “include pictures of infants, or other pictures or text which may idealise” its use in order “not to discourage breast-feeding”.Irish Times TNN NOS