1. The Confederation of British Industry produced a report which concludes that the UK’s global interests are best served by remaining inside the EU. The report examined alternatives to EU membership and rules them out as inappropriate for Britain. It also highlights research showing that membership of the EU is worth approximately 4-5% of UK GDP every year, or £62-78 billion, and argues that EU benefits each UK household by up to £3,000 per year.
2. The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) presented the first comparable figures on Jewish people’s experiences of anti-Semitic harassment, discrimination and hate crime in the EU. This report covers responses from 5,847 Jewish people in the eight countries in which some 90% of the estimated Jewish population in the EU live (Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Sweden, and the UK). Key findings show that anti-Semitism is on the rise, including via online means. 66% of respondents consider anti-Semitism to be a major problem in their countries, while 76% said the situation had become more acute over the last five years. 21% of all respondents have experienced an anti-Semitic incident or incidents involving verbal insult, harassment or a physical attack in the 12 months preceding the survey. 76% of victims of anti-Semitic harassment did not report the most serious incident to the police or any other organisation. In addition, limited data-collection mechanisms in many EU Member States mean that anti-Semitic attacks remain under-recorded.
3. The European Commission has made proposals to reduce the use of thin plastic bags by 80%. The Commission is proposing that member states either set national reduction targets, use a levy or ban such bags altogether, but leaves it up them to decide how exactly and to what extent they will tackle the problem.
4. A study by the UCL’s migration research unit found that migrants have made a net contribution of £25bn to the UK’s public finances. People from European Economic Area countries (EU plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) have paid about 34% more in taxes than they received in benefits over the 10 years from 2001 to 2011. According to the report, recent immigrants were 45% less likely to receive state benefits or tax credits than people native to the UK. Professor Christian Dustmann, one of the report’s authors, said "Given this evidence, claims about ‘benefit tourism’ by EEA immigrants seem to be disconnected from reality."
5. The European Court of Auditors has signed off the 2012 accounts of the European Union, as it has done each year since the 2007 financial year. The ECA’s estimate of the error rate for spending is 4.8 % for the 2012 financial year. The estimate of the error rate is not a measure of fraud or waste. It is an estimate of the money that should not have been paid out because it was not used in accordance with the legislation concerned. In 2012, the Commission corrected or recovered €4.4 billion, in the framework of the multiannual correction process. But the Court of Auditors argues that Member States are still not doing enough to protect the 80% of EU funds that they manage.
6. The European Commission published its Autumn European Economic Forecast, which showed that, after contracting up to the first quarter of this year, the European economy started to grow again in the second quarter and real GDP is set to continue growing in the remainder of this year. It shows modest growth in the second half of 2013 at 0.5 % compared to the same period in 2012 in the EU. On an annual basis, real GDP growth this year is estimated at 0.0 % in the EU and -0.4 % in the euro area. Looking ahead, economic growth is forecast to gradually gather pace over the forecast horizon, to 1.4 % in the EU and 1.1 % the euro area in 2014, reaching 1.9 % and 1.7 % in 2015, respectively.
7. The European Central Bank cut the bank’s headline interest rate to 0.25% and its emergency borrowing rate to 0.75%. The move was a response to fears of deflation, after inflation across the Eurozone fell to 0.7% in October, far below the ECB’s target of 2%. The rate cuts are also an attempt to make European exports more attractive by weakening the value of the euro. After the announcement of the move the euro quickly fell to its lowest level against the US dollar for two months.
The Bank of England kept its interest rates to 0.5%.
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