Wednesday Morning Papers Summary
LA REPUBBLICA
-Under the weight of disputes and vetoes, the Italian government coalition is faltering. The M5S Movement, one of the government’s pillars, demands a so-called ‘superbonus’, the name of an income subsidy for all Italians: "Without the superbonus we will leave the government majority," said the M5S. Today the m5S leader, Giuseppe Conte, will meet Prime Minister Draghi. This is the latest episode of a broken majority, which has indeed already broken.
-The Italian Prime Minister Draghi met Turkish President Erdogan in an effort to strengthen Italo-Turkish bilateral relations with Washington’s blessing – in view of building diplomatic strength to tackle the Ukrainian crisis. Draghi and Erdogan have reportedly also made an attempt to overcome the disputes over Libya: both Rome and Ankara now see Libya’s stabilization as the priority.
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG
-Ukraine wants to join the industrialized countries organization OECD. Prime Minister Denys Schmyhal announced on Tuesday that he had submitted a corresponding application on behalf of the country. Ukraine's membership in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is "one of the cornerstones of successful reconstruction and development" of Ukraine, he said. Even before the war, Ukraine was considered one of the poorest countries in Europe in terms of per-capita income.
-The EU Parliament will decide whether investments in certain gas and nuclear power plants should be considered sustainable in the EU energy taxonomy. An absolute majority of 353 of the 705 MPs is needed to stop the regulation. The majority of the Greens, Social Democrats and Left Party announced that they would vote against the taxonomy. Europe still gets most of its gas from Russia. German Green MEP Michael Bloss warned: "Putin would be the big winner." The EPP group is divided. Should MEPs reject the plans, the EU Commission would either have to withdraw or amend the regulation.
HANDELSBLATT
-Western products continue to enter Russia, even as many companies have formally withdrawn from the country. Russia has legalized so-called parallel imports of more than 50 product groups. This is what is called imports without the consent of the manufacturer, which are usually processed via third countries that have not imposed any sanctions. A corresponding law of the State Duma from the end of June is valid until the end of the year. Russia had already created the legal basis in March with a regulation. Many German manufacturers are also on the list of products approved in this way: cars and spare parts from Mercedes Benz, VW, Tesla, ZF or Continental, household appliances from Miele and Philips, smartphones from Apple and Samsung, adhesives from Henkel or products used for the operation of production systems or trains are required, such as those produced by Siemens or Bosch.
-According to financial circles, the federal government is preparing to buy into Germany’s main gas trading company Uniper, which has fallen into crisis due to high energy prices. It has been suggested that the German federal government could subscribe to a package of new shares of up to 25% at a nominal value of EUR 1.70 per share certificate in a capital increase. That would correspond to some EUR150M.
In addition, according to circles, a silent participation by the federal government is under discussion, an equity instrument without voting rights. This could have a volume of between three and five billion euros.
IL SOLE 24 ORE
Grain diplomacy, with the aim of unlocking ports on the Black Sea to avert a dramatic food crisis. Together with the search for a new thrust of bilateral relations, to be achieved by balancing the common interests in the reconciliation process in Libya and building a more coordinated management of migrant flows. Ten years after the last summit in Rome, in 2012, Mario Draghi reached Ankara together with half the government to relaunch bilateral relations between Italy and Turkey, while the Russian invasion of Ukraine upset the geopolitical scenario and rewrote the international balance . At the opening of the joint press conference organized at the end of the meeting, the Turkish president offered the Prime Minister his condolences for the deceased from the Marmolada. The intergornative summit between Italy and Turkey "indicates the common will to strengthen collaboration: Italy and Turkey are partners, allied friends", underlined Draghi.
-The market is increasingly convinced that both Europe and the United States will go into recession. But they will do so at different times and probably with different intensities: Europe will get there sooner and perhaps harder, due to the gas crisis that is hitting in the short term. The United States later, given the Federal Reserve's aggressive policy to defeat inflation.
-Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks said last night that the Baltic state will restore compulsory military service, following mounting tension with neighboring Russia over Moscow's war in Ukraine. “Latvia's current military system has reached its limit. In the meantime, we have no reason to think that Russia will change its behavior,” Pabriks told reporters. Latvia had revoked its compulsory military service a few years after joining the NATO defense alliance. Since 2007, the EU member army has been made up of career soldiers, along with National Guard volunteers who serve part-time in the infantry on weekends. The country of less than two million people, which borders both Belarus and Russia, currently has only 7. 500 active duty soldiers and members of the National Guard, supported by 1,500 NATO soldiers. Pabriks said compulsory military service will apply to men and take effect next year, with several options available to meet the requirements.
LES ECHOS
-Panic over oil prices. This July 5 is a black day for black gold. The American WTI closed the session down more than 8%, falling below the threshold of $100/bbl, its lowest since May 11. Brent, which serves as a benchmark in Europe, fell 9.45% to $102.77/bbl. “Obviously, the trajectory of oil has completely reversed, explained to Agence France Presse Phil Flynn, senior account manager at Price Futures Group. There are a lot of concerns about a possible recession and also about the fact that China has imposed tests for Covid-19, en masse, ”underlines the analyst.
-Had the Minister of the Economy had intentionally tried to alienate farmers, he could not have gone about it any other way. The announcements made by Bruno Le Maire on Monday about his intention to relaunch the policy of promotions and slashed prices in supermarket stalls to address the problem of French purchasing power have had an effect on farmers equivalent to that of acid on open wounds. The FNSEA and the Young Farmers saw in it the return to a recent past of prices which do not cover their production costs - the inflation of energy, fertilizers and plastics having considerably weighed them down.
ABC
-The Bay of Palma de Mallorca, one of Spain’s most important tourist destinations in the summer, has lost 37% of its Posidonia meadows because for three decades all governments dumped wastewater into the sea while failing to invest sufficient resources in treatment plants.
The complaint of an individual in 2018 reopened this case and will put the person most responsible for the discharges in the previous legislature, the ultra-left environmentalist Neus Truyol, on the bench. She could face a conviction of four years in prison for alleged environmental crimes.
-Drugs designed to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) could also successfully treat key aspects of Alzheimer's disease, according to an analysis published in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry. These preliminary data, the study authors say, appear to warrant clinical trials of noradrenergic drugs, which include antidepressants and drugs to treat high blood pressure and ADHD. Researchers at Imperial College London explain that noradrenergic drugs target the neurotransmitter norepinephrine, also called norepinephrine, which is released by a network of specialized noradrenergic neurons. This network is critical for arousal and many cognitive processes, including attention, learning, memory, preparing for action, and suppressing inappropriate behavior.