1. The Commission adopted a communication on the free movement of EU citizens and their families. This communication comes as a response to a letter sent by four EU Member States Home Affairs Ministers (Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK), claiming that there is widespread abuse of the free movement of people in the EU and ‘benefits tourism’. The communication confirms that most EU citizens move to another Member State to work and are more likely to be economically active than nationals of the host member state. The communication also confirms that they are less likely to claim social benefits and argues that, according to figures provided by the UK and other member states, there is no evidence of ‘benefit tourism’. The communication is expected to be discussed at Ministerial level next week.
2. The Commission adopted a package of measures aimed at improving cooperation in data flows between the EU and the US in the aftermath of the revelations about large-scale US intelligence collection programmes. These measures include a strategy paper on transatlantic data flows, an analysis of the functioning of "safe harbour" regulating data transfers for commercial purposes and a report on the findings of the joint EU-US working group as well as the review of the existing agreements on Passenger Name Records (PNR) and the Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme (TFTP).
3. David Cameron, the UK Prime Minister, has announced measure to limit access to social benefits to EU citizens who live in the UK. He also questioned the principle of free movement of people across the EU, saying this right could not be "unqualified". European Employment Commissioner Laszlo Andor reacted by saying that EU laws applied equally to all 28 member states and rules governing the free movement of people in the EU had been agreed to by the UK. The Bulgarian Ambassador to the UK, Konstantin Dimitrov, said that "politicians and media are whipping up a campaign to manipulate public opinion".
4. Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s leader, has decided not to sign an association pact with the EU, yielding to pressure from Russia, which sees such an agreement as a threat to its geopolitical dominance in the region. Yanukovych’s move has caused disappointment among EU leaders and led to mass demonstrations in Ukraine, with people taking to the streets in their thousands, carrying EU flags and calling for closer integration with the rest of Europe.
5. According to the EU statistical agency Eurostat, the unemployment rate in the eurozone fell to 12.1% in October 2013, down from 12.2% in September. The unemployment rate across the entire EU was unchanged at 10.9%. Greece and Spain had the highest number of jobless people at 27.3% and 26.7% respectively, more than five times higher than Austria and Germany, who had the lowest.
6. The Scottish government published its plans for independence in a document entitled "Scotland’s Future". Central to its plans is its wish to ensure that Scotland remains a member of the EU. The document argues that Scotland would be able to renegotiate its status from within the EU.
7. A vote in favour of secession from the UK in a September 2014 referendum, will be followed by an 18 months period until independence in 2016, which will be used to re-establish Scotland’s EU membership. But Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, told the press: "I know for sure that a region that would separate from a member state of the EU would remain outside the EU and that should be known by the Scots." His statement was also directed at Catalonian separatists who have similar aspirations to those of the Scottish government.
8. The CDU and the SPD reached an agreement to form a coalition government. The agreement features the adoption of a minimum wage of €8.50 an hour from 2015 but no new public borrowing and no new tax increases. The retirement age will be cut from 67 to 63 for people who have worked for 45 years. The agreement also includes a target of 55-60% of energy production to be from renewables by 2035.
The coalition agreement does not include any substantial changes to EU policy. It explicitly rejects a bank deposit insurance system on an EU level. It endorses a European banking union with a common supervisory authority and a common resolution mechanism, as well as backing a "bail-in" regime for troubled banks. It does not feature any signs that the focus on austerity and fiscal consolidation in the eurozone will be relaxed and it states that every member state should be liable for its own debt.
The two coalition partners call for the speedy introduction of a financial transaction tax that would cover shares, bonds, investment funds, currency trades and derivatives.
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