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Irish voters go to the polls today at the end of a hard-fought referendum campaign to decide if Ireland can ratify the fiscal treaty. Calling for a big turnout, campaigners for both Yes and No agreed that the outcome would have a vital bearing on the country’s prospects in the years ahead.
Yes and No sides in final pleas as referendum vote gets under way – The Irish Times
European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Olli Rehn handed out his annual scorecard on the economic performance of the EU member states. To avoid sanctions, countries had better obey the Finnish “super commissioner”, suggests the Dutch daily.
European “budget tsar” has to prove himself now – NRC Handelsblad
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The EU has agreed to relax Spain's 3% deficit target for 2013, while Germany has vetoed a direct EU bailout for banks using the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). This was the most recent proposal by the Spanish government to solve the banking crisis after the rescue of Spain’s 4th largest bank Bankia.
One year deferral in exchange for more sacrifices – ABC
Presenting its annual EU 27 economic scorecard, the European Commission recommended that Portugal lower wages, cut unemployment benefit and accelerate structural reforms. It also suggested cutting labour costs.
Brussels wants to lower wages – Jornal de Notícias
The European Commission has proposed to lift the suspension of a portion of the half a billion euros in aid previously granted to Hungary. The Commission suspended this aid in March due to an alleged lack of sufficient fiscal discipline, but will relent provided Budapest takes remedial action by mid-June.
Barroso’s heart softens – Magyar Hírlap
The Supreme Court in London upheld the decision of the British courts to extradite Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange to Sweden, where he is accused of rape. He has 14 days to appeal, and will base his plea on the fact that although the judgement was based on the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties - it was never brought up during the hearing.
The error that gives Assange new hope – Dagens Nyheter
According to the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook, the Czech Republic ranks 33rd out of 59 countries. This is 3 places behind Kazakhstan, the Prague daily laments, remarking that the reasons for such a bad score are a poor environment for entrepreneurship, corruption and a non-efficient state administration. The same conclusions can be drawn from yesterday’s European Commission economic scorecard for the Czech Republic.
Czech Republic drifts away from the successful countries club – Hospodářské Noviny
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