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Daily Press Summary German Constitutional Court raises concerns over conditions on ECB bond-buying; Bundesbank backs limiting ECB mandate Speaking at the German Constitutional Court hearing into the ECB’s crisis policies, President of the Court Andreas Vosskuhle raised the issue of conditionality, suggesting that the current conditions attached to the OMT, the ECB’s bond-buying programme, are on a “very abstract level” but if correctly applied “could be a good middle way…of distinguishing between monetary and fiscal policy”. Open Europe’s Raoul Ruparel is quoted by the WSJ highlighting that, since there is no legal documentation and the OMT has never been tapped, it is very challenging for the court to judge how strictly the conditions will be applied. Meanwhile, Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann suggested that he would welcome clarification and limits to the ECB’s mandate. Head of the Ifo Institute Hans-Werner Sinn also gave evidence and suggested the OMT could eventually total €3.5trn. He also argued that the ECB engages in “regional fiscal policy” and that the Central Bank’s OMT programme is basically “a free insurance for investors when a state goes bankrupt”. FAZ FAZ 2 Handelsblatt Irish times BBC FAZ 3 Süddeutsche Süddeutsche: Prantl Bild: Blome FT WSJ Cameron: Green light for EU-US free trade deal is “hanging in the balance”; French PM threatens veto unless audio-visual industry is excludedDavid Cameron has admitted that one of his central objectives for next week's G8 summit – launching formal negotiations on the planned deal EU-US free trade deal on Monday – is “hanging in the balance”, and will depend on breaking the deadlock in talks in Brussels on Friday. French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told parliament yesterday that France will block the launch of EU-US negotiations over a free trade deal unless the audio-visual industry is excluded from the talks. WSJ Standard Euractiv Le Figaro EUobserver Süddeutsche Süddeutsche 2 De Morgen WSJ Handelsblat: Polleit FT Greek coalition strained over decision to shut down public broadcaster The fallout of the Greek government’s decision to close Greek public broadcaster ERT continues with Democratic Left leader Fotis Kouvelis labelling the move “unacceptable”, although he insisted the governing coalition could find some common ground. Pasok leader Evangelos Venizelos took a tougher line saying that he does not want elections “but does not fear them either”. Both have called for emergency coalition talks. Meanwhile, ERT employees continued to broadcast programmes and occupy ERT buildings. Greece’s two main labour unions will hold a general strike today in support of ERT. Open Europe’s blog post discussing the potential impact of ERT’s closure on the Greek ruling coalition was cited by the Telegraph live blog. Separately, eurozone officials will meet today to discuss disbursing the next €3.3bn tranche of Greek bailout funds, although fear over splits in the government could delay the move. The Greek Central Bank said yesterday that there could be up to €7bn left over in the country’s bank bailout fund once the bank recapitalisation is complete this summer. Open Europe blog Kathimerini Le Monde El País Kathimerini 2 Independent Guardian IHT Le Figaro La Tribune Coulisses de Bruxelles BBC FT FT 2 Süddeutsche Bloomberg Kathimerini 3 Kathimerini 4Kathimerini 5 Telegraph: Live blog Theresa May says Parliament will be informed of proposed EU crime and police opt-ins before vote on ‘block opt-out’  Labour’s Opposition Day motion calling on the Government not to drop its support for EU crime and justice measures that fall under the UK’s 2014 ‘block opt-out’, such as the European Arrest Warrant, was defeated last night. Home Secretary Theresa May said Parliament would have a list of the measures the Government planned to opt back into before a vote was held on whether to exercise the block opt-out of around 130 EU crime and police laws agreed before the Lisbon Treaty. She added, “The UK is a sovereign nation and we must not carelessly hand over more and more powers to the European Commission or the European Court of Justice.” Open Europe research: Crime and policing Open Europe research: Crime and policing 2 Open Europe’s Raoul Ruparel is quoted by Money Marketing discussing the source and size of funding for European financial regulators, arguing a clearer division of powers is needed with national regulators before any funding issues can be sorted. Money Marketing Sikorski: Free movement does not mean member states should not be able to regulate social provisions Gazeta Wyborcza reports that at a meeting with his Polish counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski, Dutch Foreign Minister Frank Timmermans said that the Dutch government “is not talking about restricting this freedom [of movement] but we believe that a discussion is necessary on whether this freedom should entail full access to the social security systems of member states”. In a subsequent speech, Sikorski said that Poland “will veto any attempt to compromise on one of these four freedoms of the single market. But this not to say that the member states should not be able to regulate their social provisions.” Open Europe research: Free Movement Gazeta Wyborcza Polonia.nl A new YouGov poll on the 2014 European elections puts France’s centre-right opposition UMP in the lead on 19%, far-right Front National on 18% and President François Hollande’s Socialist Party on 15%. Huffington Post YouGov poll Le Monde Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and opposition leader Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba have agreed to adopt a common position ahead of the 27-28 June EU summit. El País reports that the deal would involve, among other issues, calling for a credit line for SMEs via the European Investment Bank and pushing for further deepening of the EU’s single market. Open Europe research El País Expansión The Portuguese government has delayed the summer extra month’s pay for public sector workers due in June, arguing that its payment would make Portugal miss the quarterly deficit target agreed with the European Commission. The government had previously scrapped the summer extra month’s pay altogether, but it was reinstated by the Portuguese Constitutional Court. Jornal de Negócios Expansión Writing in the WSJ, UKIP leader Nigel Farage argues that “Britain needs to be free to set its own trade relationships. In the past two months, Iceland and Switzerland, both non-EU members, have set up free-trade deals with China. The EU hasn't.” WSJ: Farage Writing in the Spectator, James Forsyth argues that David Cameron’s EU referendum will “break” the Conservative Party but that “The good news for Cameron is that Tory unity on Europe will probably hold until 2015; there are only a handful of his MPs who can’t sign up to his strategy of renegotiation followed by a referendum.” Spectator: Forsyth The Irish Times reports that veteran Lisbon Treaty campaigner Declan Ganley has proposed a new political movement called ‘Alternative for Ireland’ saying that the EU is “too big, too unwieldy and structurally undemocratic”.Irish Times Speaking on Polish radio, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski would be “an obvious candidate” to replace Baroness Ashton as the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs when she steps down next year, although he is likely to face competition from Sweden’s Carl Bild and Finland’s Alexander Stubb.  Times The FT reports that the US successfully lobbied the European Commission to remove a measure from its legislation on data privacy that would have limited the ability of US intelligence agencies to obtain information on EU citizens.FT The WSJ reports that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned that spiralling energy costs that threaten the country’s competitiveness could necessitate a scaling back of the country’s push to develop renewable energy sources.WSJ Croatia’s Neven Mimica has received MEPs’ backing to take up the post of EU Consumer Protection Commissioner when the country joins the EU on 1 July.  Euractiv