European Headlines
FT – Investors line up for early bites as China bank eyes IPO.
Postal Savings Bank in state-sale talks ahead of flotation to raise up to $25bn

WSJE – HSBC takes darker view of its future.
Investors punished HSBC Holdings PLC after the bank posted underwhelming earnings and scaled back financial targets.

INYT – Nursing the middle class back to health.
Paths for advancement, particularly for women, open in medical care field.

France
Le Monde – The new face of censorship.
Violence, pressure, self-censoring: the courts are not the only resource to limit freedom of expression.

Les Echos – State of emergency for the French nuclear industry.
Areva posted a net loss of 4.9 billion euros. “Every solution is being considered”, said Ségolène Royal yesterday.

Germany
Frankfurter Algemeiner – Dispute over compulsory vaccination after infant death in Berlin. Baby boy died of measles. Federal Health Minister Hermann Gröhe accuses vaccination opponents of using scare tactics.

SudDeutsche Zeitung – EU to break Moscow energy power. In order to reduce its dependence on Russian gas, Brussels wants to pool demand of all EU states. Even German companies would have to submit their future Gazprom contracts to the European Commission.

Italy

La Republica – No more hidden Swiss bank accounts. Greece-EU clash: the plan is postponed. The list of new measures drafted by the Greek government still hasn’t been presented to the troika.

IlSole 24Hora Italy and Switzerland signed a landmark agreement against bank secrecy.
Italy and Switzerland put an end to banking secrecy.
The two countries signed a tax-information deal aimed at ending the Swiss bank secrecy. The agreement includes immediate banking data exchange upon request.

Poland
Gazeta – Russia is fiddling with the tap. Gazprom has cut gas supplies to Ukraine by half and might discontinue them today or tomorrow. Moscow is exacerbating the conflict ahead of EU’s announcement of a plan of lessening energy dependence on Russia.

Spain
El Pais – The General Council of the Judiciary will investigate Madrid judges’ bonus payments.
The President of the Superior Court of Madrid (TSJM) admits that he did not ask permission to get this money. According to the PSOE, these bonuses run counter to the separation of powers.

Expansion – CNMV: The new governance code.
Half of boards must be independent.

UK
The Times  – Party grandees’ careers in tatters over lobbying sting. Rifkind fights for Commons future while Straw misses out on peerage.

The Guardian – Secret cables reveal Israel’s spies at odds with Netanyahu on Iran. Documents cast doubt on claim of nuclear capability. Leaked dossier comes in run-up to key US speech.
South Africa’s intelligence role also in spotlight.

©EuropeanUnion2015