Today's front pages

Published on 31 October 2012 at 10:25

The EU's budget for 2014 to 2020 will see a 10% reduction in structural funds allocated to its poorer regions. For Portugal, the cut is worth at least of 2.5 billion euros. The EU27 is currently discussing a reduction of 50 billion euros to the total budget of 1 trillion euros proposed by the European Commission. Wealthier countries - Germany, UK, The Netherlands, Finland, Austria, Sweden and Denmark - are arguing for a cut of between 100 and 200 billion euros instead.

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Portugal will not escape cuts in European funds after 2014 – Público

On a visit to Belgrade, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and High the EU's Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton urged the Serbian government to establish relations with Kosovo. For their part, the president Tomislav Nikolić and Prime Minister Ivica Dačić still refuse to recognize the independence of the former Serbian province, but affirmed that they would find a solution by the end of their term in 2016.

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Serbia, America and EU hitched to same task – Politika

Spain's national "bad bank", set up to manage the toxic real estate assets of the country's struggling nationalised banks, will be active in early 2013. The Bank of Spain says that Company Asset Management, officially known as Sareb, will buy these assets at a discount and then resell them, and will become profitable by 2017. It forsees a fall in the price of real estate assets of 8 to 10% until 2018. The government is seeking buyers among the largest Spanish and foreign banks.

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A “good bank” in 5 years – Cinco Días

300 MPs (out of 335) from Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right People of Liberty (PdL) party have expressed their support for Mario Monti, Prime Minister at the head of Italy’s technocratic government. Last week, Berlusconi threatened to withdraw his party’s support after being sentenced to 4 years for tax evasion. His exit from the PdL, the party he founded, and the creation of a new movement ahead of the 2013 election, now looks increasingly likely.

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PdL dumps Berlusconi – La Repubblica

British energy minister John Hayes has declared that wind farms were “peppered” across Britain without enough consideration for the countryside and people’s homes, and that “enough is enough”. He indicated that only a minority of the thousands of wind turbines currently put forward for planning permission are likely to be given the go-ahead.

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Death knell for wind farms – The Daily Telegraph

Luxembourg Prime Minister and Eurogroup President Jean-Claude Juncker has maintained that Yves Mersch will sit on the Executive Board of the European Central Bank in November. The nomination of the Central Bank of Luxembourg chief was recently rejected by the European Parliament, which is insisting that a woman be appointed to the post.

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Support for ECB seat – Luxemburger Wort

To avoid bankruptcy, Franco-Belgian bank Dexia will need a new injection of some 5 billion euros by November 5. As with its first recapitalisation in 2008, Belgium wants the bill to be shared between the two countries, but the French government is demanding that Belgium "make the bigger effort."

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Conflict with French over Dexia’s billions – De Morgen

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