Mairead McGuinness
This morning.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced that Mairead McGuinness is to be Ireland’s new European Commissioner.
She will take over the Financial Services, Financial Stability and Capital Markets Union portfolio.
Former Latvian prime minister Valdis Dombrovskis has been given the Trade portfolio, left vacant following the resignation of Phil Hogan….
EC President names McGuinness as Ireland’s commissioner (RTÉ)
Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe
Last night.
Government Buildings. Dublin 2.
Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe announced that tax revenues were down 18.6% – or €983 million – compared to July last year. ..
Meanwhile…
The Dept of Finance has confirmed to me that Ireland’s net annual contribution to the new EU budget will be around €1.5 billion. That is five times what it was in 2018.
— David Quinn (@DavQuinn) August 6, 2020
An economist told me it works out at about €650 per working person per annum.
— David Quinn (@DavQuinn) August 6, 2020
This morning.
Anyone?
Gülpen.
Further to yesterday’s EU €750 billion coronavirus bailout….
[pro-Brexit] Euro Guido writes:
Ireland, with 1% of the EU’s population, is going to be the fifth biggest contributor to the EU bailout…
Seems fair.
For Leprechauns.
Yesterday: Make Out Like Bandits
Multinational companies (MNCs), running their income through Ireland (for tax AVOIDENCE purposes) inflates Irish GDP firgures. Ergo, Irish citizen on the hook for €15.7 billion. Thanks #FFG
— Gemma (@wickedfairysad) July 22, 2020
Meanwhile…
Private Eye reporting that there are no checks on where the £18bn in cheap government lending to Covid-hit companies goes once it's with the recipients.
And no strings attached – meaning BA, JCB, Ryanair and more are making huge jobs cuts while being publicly subsidised pic.twitter.com/qJADWsh7va
— Josiah Mortimer (@josiahmortimer) July 22, 2020
There you go now.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, center with French President Emmanuel Macron, right, and Taoiseach Micheal Martin, left, during a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Belgium yesterday
This morning.
Brussels, Belgium.
The €750 billion deal was sealed after intense negotiation that saw a threats of a French walkout and a Hungarian veto – and fierce opposition from the Netherlands and Austria to too generous a package.
Summit chairman Charles Michel tweeted “Deal” shortly after the 27 leaders finally reached agreement at a plenary session.
“This agreement sends a concrete signal that Europe is a force for action,” Mr Michel said at a dawn news conference.
Was the miniature defiant tricolour really necessary?
EU reaches deal on post-pandemic recovery package (RTÉ)
Pic: AP
Meanwhile…
🇭🇺🇵🇱 PM Orbán: HUN and PL didn't simply secure substantial funds at the #EUsummit, we have also protected our national pride. We have successfully refused all attempts that would have tied access to EU funds to "rule of law criteria". Stay tuned for more! @MorawieckiM pic.twitter.com/uZRuuBwtSl
— Zoltan Kovacs (@zoltanspox) July 21, 2020
Stop packing!
This afternoon.
Via RTÉ
The 27-member bloc is expected to give outline approval to leisure or business travel from tomorrow to 14 countries beyond its borders when they vote on the list, the diplomats said.
The countries are Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay, they said.
Russia and Brazil, along with the United States, are among countries that do not make the initial “safe list”.
The vote is aimed at supporting the EU travel industry and tourist destinations, particularly countries in southern Europe hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Russia, Brazil and USA.
Not political at all.
US reported not on EU ‘safe’ travel list (RTÉ)
Reuters
Ireland’s EU Commissioner Phil Hogan has confirmed his candidacy to be the next head of the World Trade Organisation.
And finally, monsieur, a wafer-thin mint…
This afternoon.
Via RTÉ:
Speaking in Brussels Mr Hogan said: “I’m exploring the option of being a candidate for the director general of the WTO [World Trade Organisation]
“I think there’s an important amount of work to be done to reform the organisation, to make it more effective and efficient, but also to deal with many of the important trade issues that are bedevilling the international community now arising from Covid-19,” he said.
Phil Hogan confirms candidacy to be next head of WTO (RTE)
EU trade commissioner Phil Hogan confirms he is considering putting his name forward as Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, meaning the incoming Irish government could find itself with a key European vacancy to fill just as the cabinet jobs are being handed out
— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) June 9, 2020
Meanwhile….
The European Commission has been urged not to soften its stance on EU rules that would outlaw the export of cyber surveillance tools to despotic regimes worldwide, amid ongoing negotiations between the European Council and Parliament on the new measures.
A coalition of EU human rights organisations have penned a letter to European Commissioner for Trade Phil Hogan, imploring him not to backtrack on the Commission’s original position on the regulation on dual-use goods, which aims to clamp down on exports that can be used in the surveillance of citizens in countries with less than democratic regimes.
Commission urged not to backtrack on EU spyware rules (Euractiv.com)
Pic via Politik
#CONFINAMIENTO
¿Un eurodiputado del @parlamentoUE interviene ¡¡desde la cama y ¿¿¿ en paños menores???😱 para analizar el impacto del Marco Financiero Plurianual #MFP en la #PAC ?💆♂️ Esfuerzos en la comisión parlamentaria #COMAGRI por contener la risa.#coronavirus#COVIDー19 pic.twitter.com/R6SOIS7ZDY
— Jorge Jaramillo (@jorjaramil) June 2, 2020
Oh.
Anon writes:
Ming attended a European Parliament Agriculture committee meeting this morning with no trousers and possibly someone in the bed behind him…
And why not?
FIGHT!
Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe
This morning.
The Irish Times reports:
Euro zone finance ministers reached a compromise on Thursday to break days of stalemate over how to respond to an economic downturn that threatens to be the worst since the Great Depression in the 1930s.
Under the deal, which amounts to €500 billion in a range of tools, states can borrow from the European Stability Mechanism bailout fund to finance spending needed to overcome the crisis.
…But it dashed the hopes of Italy, Ireland, Spain and six other member states that had called for eurobonds to bring down borrowing costs and send a signal of unity as the continent confronts a health crisis that threatens to become an economic disaster.
Meanwhile, RTÉ reports:
He said it is very possible that Ireland will need to access funds from the European Investment Bank to help fund companies and will consider whether to access the programme to help fund wage subsidy schemes.
It is hoped that it will not need to use the fund from the European Stability Mechanism, he [Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe] added.
He said a new Government in Ireland must have a stable majority but must reflect the hopes and fears of the electorate when they voted.
Ireland may need limited access to new EU Covid-19 rescue package, minister says (RTÉ)
This afternoon.
Purchased in Donnybrook, Dublin 4.
Six of one half and half a dozen of the other?
We may never know.
Pic by Nick
President of the European Council Charles Michel and EU Secretary General of the EU Council Jeppe Tranholm-Mikkelsen during a video conference with EU leaders yesterday
This morning.
Via BBC:
For ordinary people, frightened for their health, the safety of their loved ones, worrying about their rent and feeding their family after businesses shut down, the idea that Europe’s leaders spent six hours on Thursday night, squabbling over the wording of their summit conclusions in order to defer a key decision over coronavirus funds, will be incomprehensible.
Spain and Italy – ravaged by the effects of the virus on their populations and their limited public finances – were deeply disappointed. Italy was already one of the EU’s most Eurosceptic member states before Covid-19 hit.
Italian Twitter was littered with expletives on Thursday – and those were just the posts from politicians.
Coronavirus: Can EU get a grip on crisis? (BBC)
Meanwhile…
Now, its economy is at an enforced standstill in an effort to break the back of the epidemic. But its troubles won’t end when the virus has run its course. Given the prominence of tourism in the Italian economy (13 percent of Italy’s GDP versus 8.6 percent of Germany’s), the country faces a much harder long-term headwind to return to prosperity than many other EU states.
These would be daunting problems for a country with sovereign control of its currency. But Italy, as a Eurozone member, does not have any such control.
The Italian state cannot print money to sustain its citizenry while the economy is in lockdown. It has to beg Brussels for permission to spend — and Europe’s finance ministers are bickering about the terms under which such spending would be permitted in much the same manner that America’s senators have been.
Will the EU survive coronavirus? (The Week)
Pic via EU
