25/01 – Today’s headlines from across the EU

EUROPEAN HEADLINES

FT Europe – Iran set to order 114 Airbus jets in European business bonanza. First big contract since nuclear pact. Companies eye €17bn in deals during Rouhani trip.

WSJE – Athens pressed on migrants. EU ministers to weigh move to seal off Greece from border-free Schengen area.

INYT – A European holdout on gay marriage. Italians set to weigh law to legalise civil unions, but wide divide remains.

BBC Europe – EU seeks to boost Schengen border controls. Under the EU’s current Schengen rules, Germany’s temporary border controls are set to end in May.
But reports say Germany and some other countries want to extend those controls – possibly until the end of 2017.

FRANCE

Le Monde – Macron wants to bury the 35-hour workweek. The Labour law reform will “de facto” put an end to the 35-hour workweek, said Emmanuel Macron during the Davos summit.

Les Echos – Labour Law: a reform which divides the government. The Badinter Commission submits its proposals for a new Labour Code. Macron’s statements on the 35-hour week raise new controversy.

GERMANY

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) – The controversy continues on the participants at the Geneva conference on Syria. Steinmeier wants Islamists to participate. America ready for a purely military solution.

Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) – Peace talks at risk. Negotiations aimed at ending civil war in Syria delayed. The parties disagree as to which opposition groups must be invited at the table.

ITALY

La Repubblica – EU: divisions on borders, Schengen summit, banks: everything looks up. Today, EU Interior Ministers gather in Amsterdam. Berlin is switching course on migrants.

Il Sole 24 Ore – Here is how pensions have changed in Italy. According to regional rankings, the number of old-age pensions is decreasing while the number of support programmes for disabled individuals keeps increasing.

POLAND

Gazeta Wyborcza – The party takes public offices. With the Civil Service Act rushed through, PM Beata Szydło’s Government takes full control over 120,000 civil service workers in Poland. Under the new law, PiS is now able to start reshuffling the offices and appointing them with PiS heads to supervise the execution of the party’s strategy.

SPAIN

El Pais – The EU warns Spain of imminent risk on its economy. “Difficulties to form a government may slow down reform and trigger a loss of confidence,” states a report by the EC.

Expansión – Funds Blackrock and TCI want to control Abengoa. The representatives of bondholders try to control the majority in order to lead the rescue.

The Times – Osborne in £3bn vow to beat malaria. British taxpayers are to fund the bulk of a £3 billion pledge delivered today by George Osborne and Bill Gates to wipe out malaria within decades.

The Guardian – The mark of an asylum seeker: wristbands for food hand-outs. Asylum seekers in Cardiff are being issued with coloured wristbands that they must wear at all times, in a move that echoes the “red door” controversy in Middlesbrough.