TUC warns holiday entitlements at risk under Brexit as over 50 healthcare workers argue leaving would benefit NHS

Officials from Greece and its creditors have adjourned discussions over the current bailout review until after the IMF Spring meetings. This comes despite many officials aiming for a conclusion before the meetings. European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said yesterday of IMF and Commission differences over Greece, “We know there are some differences on assessments, how much effort is needed to reach the fiscal targets…this is bridgeable.” Economics Commissioner Pierre Moscovici reiterated that IMF involvement in the Greek bailout is “indispensable”.

Meanwhile, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras once again hit out at the IMF’s “mistaken policies”. However, IMF Chief Christine Lagarde said, “Greece cannot just continuously tag along and expect that things will be sorted out. The Greek leaders will need to take more ownership of re-establishing their country.” Lagarde added, “We overestimated the ability of Greece to actually endorse and take ownership of measures that were needed,” due to changes in government.

Furthermore, in a joint statement, Tsipras and the Prime Minister of Portugal, António Costa, both strongly criticised the EU’s response to the Eurozone crisis as “wrong and insufficient to overcome the existing challenges.” They also called for deeper economic integration to address the Eurozone’s problems, saying, “Europe has to change course. Instead of merely adjusting to self-defeating competitiveness and austerity measures, our two countries take the decision to closely co-operate at all levels, bilateral and European”.

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) yesterday urged the European Commission to intervene and block the £10.5bn merger of mobile operators O2 and Three. Alex Chisholm, chief executive of the CMA, argued in a letter to the EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, “The CMA urges the [European] Commission to act to prevent the long-term damage to the UK mobile telecoms market, and therefore to the interests of UK consumers that both of our authorities have predicted will result from this merger.” Similar concerns over the potential impact of the deal have also been raised by UK telecoms regulator Ofcom. Open Europe co-Director Raoul Ruparel is quoted by Bloomberg as saying that, if the Commission decides to go against the CMA, pro-Brexit campaigners could argue this is another reason “to leave the EU and take back control.”

Speaking at an event in the City of London yesterday, Rhydian Lewis, founder and chief executive of lending platform RateSetter, said “Brexit might discombobulate the incumbents for a number of years, allowing fintech to move into that space.” His comments were supported by other speakers, though most noted any gain would be temporary as in the long term Brexit could limit fintech’s access to the large European market.

The European Commission will still put forward proposals this month granting visa-free travel to Ukrainians, despite a Dutch referendum vote against the EU-Ukraine agreement. A senior EU source has said “It may look as if we’re ignoring the Dutch voters, but we have to keep our word to Ukraine, which has met the conditions”. The proposal would still need to be approved by a qualified majority of EU member states and by the European Parliament, while it is reported that the Commission would include some form of safeguard mechanism enabling EU countries to reinstate visas temporarily in case of a surge of migration.

Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau said yesterday, “The most urgently needed part of EMU [Economic and Monetary Union] reform is to set up a strong institution, led by a euro area finance minister.” Such a finance minister would chair the Eurogroup and represent the Eurozone on the international stage, though he admitted all these reforms would need treaty change.

An Insa poll for Bild puts the centre-left SPD, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition partners, at below 20% for the first time at 19.5% (-0.5). Merkel’s CDU/CSU is on 31.5% (-0.5); the Greens are on 13.5% (+1.0), the AfD on 12.5% (0.5); Die Linke on 9.5%(+0.5) and the FDP remains on 7.5%.

Spanish MP Antonio Hernando, who leads the Socialist Party’s negotiating team in the current government formation talks, yesterday gave the clearest indication yet that Spain will have to go to re-run elections in the summer. He told reporters, “The time of offers is over, and what we have established is that [Podemos leader] Pablo Iglesias is not reliable. There will be no more offers or counter-offers with Iglesias and Podemos.” Hernando also insisted that the Socialist Party is not going to enter negotiations with the centre-right Partido Popular of caretaker Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. Spanish MPs have until May 2 to elect a new Prime Minister, or snap elections will have to be called.

Italian MPs are this week expected to give final approval to the constitutional reform tabled by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s government. The reform will reduce the powers of the Senate, the upper chamber of the Italian parliament, meaning that most future laws will no longer need to be adopted by both chambers – a change that is expected to speed up the legislative process. Once approved, the reform will be put to a referendum in October. Addressing MPs yesterday, Renzi suggested that he would resign if Italian voters were to reject the reform.