10/03 – Today’s headlines from across the EU

EUROPEAN HEADLINES

FT Europe – Senior bankers warn ECB over perils of negative interest rates. Alert sounded ahead of expected further cut. Lenders fear crippling effect on profits.

WSJE – China crimps businesses. Yuan crackdown hurts firms that need to trade the currency for dollar.

INYT – Labour reform stirs French and divides Socialists. Even modest changes generate a big backlash, not least in government.

BBC Europe – Merkel condemns closure of Balkan route. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has blamed European nations for “unilaterally” shutting the Balkan route for migrants.
She said this had put Greece in a “very difficult situation” and such decisions should be taken by the whole of the EU.

FRANCE

Le Monde – Sarkozy wants to cut 300,000 public jobs. In an interview with “Le Monde”, the former President calls for a reduction of the number of civil servants. About Hollande: “it feels like his reign is coming to an end”. About the refugee crisis: “Schengen is dead”.

Les Echos – The government is prepared to make concessions. 224.000 protesters demonstrated on Wednesday in France against the Labour Law. In view of the dangers of an even bigger protest, the government is about to introduce major concessions. The price scale proposed for the Labour Court is to be reviewed.

GERMANY

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) – President Tusk welcomes the closure of the Balkan route for refugees. “A decision taken by the 28 EU states”. Only a few asylum seekers left at the German border.

Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) – Severe political crises in Poland. The Constitutional Court in Poland rules legislative amendments, which may significantly limit its power.

ITALY

La Repubblica – The “tangentopoli” of the IRS. Thirteen people have been arrested in Rome and several are under investigation from Milan to Catania. The scandal is worth €50 billion.

Il Sole 24 Ore – Stock exchanges bet on the BCE’s “bazooka”. Oil soars: the Brent reaches $41 per barrel (+3.6%).

POLAND

Gazeta Wyborcza – Constitutional Court does not give up. According to the Constitutional Court’s current verdict, the law fixing the Court’s operation is against the Constitution of Poland. And the Court will not wait for the judgement’s publication in the Journal of Laws. It will keep issuing its verdicts, ignoring unconstitutional clauses of the law.

SPAIN

El País – Rajoy refuses to explain the European Summit to the Congress. The President ignores the request to appear before the Congress after the deal reached on refugees with Turkey..

The Times – Thousands of secret Isis recruitment files leaked. A massive leak of top-secret Islamic State documents has exposed details of the terrorist network’s global recruitment programme.

The Guardian – Tory rebels kill off PM plan for Sunday trading. No 10 concedes Sunday trading defeat after Commons rebellion.