I Kathimerini, Athens – On the eve of the British PM’s much-anticipated speech on Britain’s EU membership, the Brussels correspondent of Greek daily I Kathimerini says that, no matter what David Cameron may say in Amsterdam, Britain has already cut itself loose. See more.
Former Austrian interior minister and MEP Ernst Strasser’s jailing for four years for corruption should be “proclaimed the length and breadth of the European Union” as a deterrent against graft, trumpeted the European Voice. The politician was caught by Sunday Times journalists posing as lobbyists, who offered him money in return for his political support. “Ernst Strasser’s sentence highlights the EU’s need for its own public prosecutor,” continues the weekly, praising the Austrian authorities for “swiftly and energetically” pursuing the case. The weekly adds –
It is hard to think of a similar instance of a national authority cracking down so heavily against corrupt behaviour in the corridors of the EU. Notwithstanding the Strasser conviction, which sadly is an exception rather than the norm, the EU still needs its own public prosecutor, with the authority to pursue cases anywhere in the EU, in defence of the EU’s financial interests. The Lisbon Treaty gave the EU the possibility to establish such a European public prosecutor. It is high time that potential was realised.
The government has announced its intention to impose a 35 per cent tax on Hungarian owned bank accounts in other countries. The accounts, which are estimated to contain between 1trn and 2trn forints (€ 3.3bn to €6.6bn), are mainly held in Switzerland, but also in Austria and Cyprus. Budapest aims to follow the example of Germany and the United Kingdom, which have negotiated tax accords with the countries concerned.
A number of employees from the Norwegian firm Statoil were taken hostage by an Islamist group following an attack on a gas plant close to the Libyan border. The exact number and nationality of people kidnapped was unclear. Oslo has yet to confirm a report from Algerian press agency APS, which said that one Norwegian was killed during the attack.
France has not confirmed the presence of French nationals or the death of one of its citizens at the Ain Amenas natural gas facility in eastern Algeria close to the border with Libya, which came under attack from an armed group calling themselves the Katibat Moulathamine (Masked Brigade) on January 16. The attackers who claim association with al-Qaeda are demanding an end to French military intervention in Mali.
The European Parliament has published a report, warning member states to avoid an „unfair share of austerity efforts“ being divided between regional and national level authorities and urging governments to be more flexible with regions on deficit control goals. The report comes after the Spanish Constitutional Court vetoed some measures taken by Catalan regional government to gain additional resources, such as imposing a €1 charge for pharmacy prescriptions — a free service in Spain.
EU countries will send troops to Mali, following a meeting today of the foreign ministers of the 27 EU member states where they are expected to support the French intervention in the country, the daily reports. Poland will ultimately send a dozen or so instructors as part of the EU mission aimed at training the Malian army to fight Islamic terrorists that are destabilising the situation in the country’s north.
One Briton and a Frenchman were killed by Islamist militants who raided a remote gas engineering site operated by BP, Statoil and Sonatrach in Algeria and took up to 41 Western and Asian personnel hostage. The action, an apparent revenge attack following the French intervention against Islamists in neighbouring Mali, sparked fears of an anti-Western war across the deserts of northern Africa.
The Times, London – Cartoon. See more.
The Irish Times, Dublin – Cartoon. See more.