German Finance Ministry draws up plan for €25bn Greek bailout; Fresh speculation that UK will contribute to bailout
22 February 2010
Spiegel magazine reported over the weekend that the German Finance Ministry has drafted a plan for eurozone countries to provide
In a briefing for Open Europe, Swedish political consultant Jesper Katz notes that if the money from the bailout were to come from only the eurozone states, Germany’s proportionate share would be between €5.7 and €7 billion – not €4-5 billion. This discrepancy could be explained by non-Eurozone countries also being asked to take part in a bailout, since these countries hold a 30-percent share in the ECB. In that case, since
According to German financial supervisor BaFin, a Greek default could trigger a massive banking crisis in
Meanwhile, when asked yesterday on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show yesterday what would happen if
The FT reports that the Greek government is considering fresh tax increases and public sector pay cuts, including increases in value added tax, fuel tax and further cuts in civil servants’ pay. A general strike of public and private sector workers is planned for Wednesday.
Writing in the FT George Soros argues: “makeshift assistance should be enough for
In an interview with Les Echos, Jean-Michel Charpin, a member of the European Statistical Governance Advisory Board, says that he “cannot rule out” the possibility that other eurozone countries provided falsified statistics, as
BBC EUobserver Les Echos Telegraph: Hannan blog Guardian Bloomberg FT: Soros
Bloomberg 2 FT AFP WSJ: Stelzer Telegraph: Evans-Pritchard FT: Brussels blog Irish Times: Pine Irish Times Weekend FT Les Echos Le Figaro Le Point Euronews Coulisses de Bruxelles Les Echos Deutsche Welle AP OE research
Takeover Panel: New EU authority would be catastrophic
In an interview with the Independent on Sunday, outgoing director-general of the Takeover Panel, Robert Hingley, comments on the proposed European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) warning: "There is a political impetus for harmonisation across the market, and perhaps [a consensus] that the Brits screwed up during the crisis and should pay the price. ESMA would be allowed to make rules binding on the takeover code so they could alter our code and they would also have the right to interfere in specific transactions and that, we think, would be wrong. If [the panel] is included in ESMA, it wouldn't bring the world as we know it to a catastrophic close, but it would mean there is the right at the EU level to alter the way takeovers are conducted in the UK fundamentally."
The EU’s Internal Market Commissioner, Michel Barnier, will visit
Independent on Sunday Sunday Telegraph OE research: AIFM Directive
Barroso accused of ‘power grab’ over EU appointment of ambassador to US
EUobserver reports that Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt has sent a letter complaining about the way the European Commission recently appointed its top ambassador to the
The European Commission used this ‘transition period’ to nominate Joao Vale de Almeida, EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso's former chief of staff and a fellow Portuguese official, to become its new head of mission in
EUobserver Economist: Charlemagne notebook Spectator: Coffee House blog
EU Foreign Minister to establish new central intelligence-sharing department
EUobserver notes that the EU is planning to pull together three intelligence-sharing bodies based in
The article notes that the mandate for the new department remains undecided. Some European diplomats would like it to make policy recommendations as well as analytical reports. However, the quality of the existing bodies’ reports is in dispute: “I sometimes get faster alerts from my national newswire,” one EU diplomat said. Meanwhile, the best classified information is often shared through informal channels between smaller groups of EU countries with a history of intelligence co-operation.
Conservatives send Ken Clarke on mission to reassure the EU
The Telegraph reports that Ken Clarke, the Shadow Business Secretary, is to hold talks in
German Foreign Office role in EU policy reduced under
Handelsblatt reports that the Office of the German Chancellor has taken over the power to make central decisions on EU policy from the German Foreign Affairs Office. The newspaper notes that this is a “tricky development” because of the year-long struggle between the Chancellery and the Foreign Office, each headed by different parties within the ruling coalition government. The article notes that the Lisbon Treaty has limited the role of German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle in German EU policy, with foreign ministers now excluded from meetings of the European Council.
The FT reports that the Dutch Prime Minister confirmed yesterday that troops from the
FT FT 2 Le Point Le Figaro Times WSJ Telegraph EUobserver Independent Irish Times EurActiv
Fortnightly bin collections for all
The front page of Saturday’s Telegraph reported that fortnightly bin collections are to be extended across the country. Guidance signalling the end of weekly bin collections has been sent to councils by the Audit Commission, and the Government has ordered councils to find £550 million in savings from waste disposal budgets. Councils hope that the move will encourage residents to recycle more and reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill. Under the EU’s Landfill Directive, the
£200,000 EU comic book to promote EU bureaucrats to children
The Sunday Telegraph and the Daily Mail both report that the European Commission has produced a comic book depicting the humanitarian work of two fictional EU bureaucrats. More than 300,000 copies of the comic, Hidden Disaster, are to be distributed to homes and schools across
EU Referendum blog Mail Sunday Telegraph
£60m taxpayer bill for politicians’ CO2 emissions
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Christopher Booker argues that, according to the EU’s Official Journal, the UK Government has allocated £60 million worth of public funds to be used to buy carbon credits from developing countries for government buildings and official business. Booker argues that this move illustrates the Government’s unwillingness to make the sacrifices expected of the population and instead “they have quietly arranged for the rest of us to shell out £60 million to allow them to carry on much as before.”
Handelsblatt reports that the new Volkswagen manager Wolfgang Schreiber has described the EU’s long term climate goal, to reduce CO2 emission for cars to 135 grams per kilometre by 2020, as “unrealistic”.
Handelsblatt OE research: Climate Action and Renewable Energy
The Wintersport blog reports that the EU is subsidising an indoor Ski complex in
Euractiv reports that EU foreign ministers meeting today will discuss “what to offer” the
The European Commission is set to give the
Open
The Turkish daily Hurriyet cites Open
The WSJ reports that unions representing
Spain is determined to raise its retirement age from 65 to 67 years despite probable strike action this week, reports Le Figaro.
No link
A new YouGov poll for the Sunday Times put the Conservatives on 39%, down one point on January’s figure, and Labour on 33%, up two. The Liberal Democrats drop one point to 17%. The six-point gap is the narrowest since December 2008.
Sunday Times