20/02 – Today’s headlines from across the EU

EUROPEAN HEADLINES

BBC Europe – Post-Brexit UK won’t be like Mad Max, says David Davis. Britain will not be “plunged into a Mad Max-style world borrowed from dystopian fiction” after it leaves the EU, the Brexit secretary has said. David Davis said the UK wanted to lead a “global race to the top” in rights and standards not, as some feared, a “competitive race to the bottom”. British business could “never be cheaper than China” and must focus instead on product and service quality.

FRANCE

Le Figaro

Merkel’s fate depends on SPD activists’ vote

The SPD party’s base has been voting since Tuesday on a government deal to keep intact the grand coalition with the conservative

GERMANY

Frankfurter Allgemeine

Kramp-Karrenbauer nominated as CDU General Secretary

“No preliminary decision on Merkel’s succession” / Strong approval within the board.

ITALY

Corriere Della Sera

497 labourers fired, Calenda’s anger

Embraco confirms layoffs. Minister: irresponsible, enough is enough. Government’s redundancy payment option rejected. The matter reaches Brussels.

SPAIN

El Mundo

Europe trusts again in Spain with Luis de Guindos appointment

Minister de Guindos gets ECB vice-presidency thanks to the support of France and Germany.

BELGIUM

De Tijd

Brussels works on the privatisation of the Heysel Exhibition Park

Mayor Philippe Close is searching money to renovate the exhibition halls.

BULGARIA

Sega

Orbán kickstarted the elections campaign in his country with a call for global unity against migration and then arrived on visit to Sofia

Prime Minister Borisov with a fatherly hug for his counterpart Viktor Orbán.

HUNGARY

Magyar Nemzet

Evictions might come after the elections

The governing party voted against the possibility of extending the moratorium.

LATVIA

Latvijas Avizes

Pressuring Rimšēvičs to step down

KNAB launched a process against the Bank of Latvia Governor; the amount of bribe could be at least €100,000.

PORTUGAL

Negocios

Left wing reopens the file of old house rents

The Communist party proposed to repeal the law. The Socialists and Bloco also admit putting forward new legislation.

SLOVENIA

Delo

Slovenia-Croatia border dispute made worse by foreign currency deposit issue

While the implementation of the arbitration award in the Slovenian-Croatian border dispute has come to a standstill, the relations between the two countries are becoming more complicated because of the new judgments against NLB regarding the transferred foreign currency deposits in Croatia.