Bank stress tests were greeted with a mixture of cynicism and relief this weekend. Amid market doubts over their toughness, German banks stand accused of hiding their exposure to sovereign debt. 

 Six of the 14 German banks tested did not disclose their exposure to sovereign debt, one of a few key benchmarks in an exercise designed to test banks' resilience to future economic shocks.

The US, the International Monetary Fund and markets had heaped pressure on regulators to fully disclose banks' exposure in the tests.

Officials from Germany's BaFin regulatory authority said the banks were not obliged to fully disclose their exposure under German law, the Financial Times reported.

Turkey's main opposition CHP party said it was deeply disappointed by the "wrong advice" it said it had received from within the European socialist ranks to which it is affiliated, EurActiv has learned.

 Turkish politicians from the Republican People's Party (CHP) rebuked the European socialists over the weekend for pressuring them to back a proposed constitutional reform package.

The reform package, tabled by the ruling AK Party, a moderate Islamic party, is to be put to a crucial referendum on 12 September. The CHP, the country's oldest political party, is a member of Socialist International, the worldwide association of social democratic, socialist and labour parties.

A leading socialist lawmaker in the European Parliament, Austrian Socialist MEP Hannes Swoboda, recently called on the party to back the constitutional amendment package, saying the referendum would test whether the CHP "wants to be considered a true social democratic party".

Two education goals and two differing situations: France is currently lagging behind in its 'Europe 2020' aim of reducing the number of early school leavers, but is exceeding its target of increasing the proportion of people who complete higher education. EurActiv.fr reports.

 French education has been undergoing major change lately. Reforms were instigated under the presidency of Jacques Chirac and have continued under Nicolas Sarkozy. They were largely based on the EU's Lisbon Strategy objectives.

France is currently behind in its 'Europe 2020' goal of cutting the share of early school leavers to below 10%. In 2008, 82% of pupils completed secondary school, while 18% of them left school without obtaining all their qualifications. Within this 18% figure, 8% obtained the brevet des collèges (gained at 15 years old) but did not get any further.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A member of a German quintet of professors that is currently challenging the legality of Europe's recently-devised support measures has said they threaten to create enormous tensions between EU citizens if allowed to stand.

In a telephone interview with EUobserver on Thursday (22 July), Wilhelm Nolling, professor of economics at the University of Hamburg, said the idea that Greece would be able to pay back its loans to EU states was simply "ridiculous," given the country's level of indebtedness and lack of competitiveness.

As a result, EU citizens in lender countries would increasingly begin to question the merits of this implicit system of wealth redistribution, he predicted.

"A transfer union will destroy the social peace in Europe," he said. "Do you think the Germans will be able to keep quiet?"

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - MEPs and defence experts are calling on the EU commission to go after market-distorting, corrupt side-deals to big weapon deals between member states, such as the ones greasing Germany's submarine sales to Portugal and Greece.

As EU officials are packing their holiday suitcases in Brussels, prosecutors in Germany, Portugal and Greece are on to a hot summer, tracing the complex trails of bribes and side-contracts to the German submarines each of the southern countries signed up for at a price of over €1billion.

The EU hypocrisy of allowing Greek and Portuguese governments allocate huge parts of their budget for questionable defence purchases, while they are being pressed for austerity measures to cap their deficit, already made headlines such as

"The submarine deals that helped sink Greece" in the Wall Street Journal earlier this month.

(Reuters) - A World Trade Organisation panel has ruled that the European Union was wrong to impose duties on three types of electronics products from the United States and other countries, trade sources said on Monday.

The WTO panel backed the United States as well as Japan and Taiwan in their complaint that EU duties on flat-panel displays, multifunction printers and television set-top boxes violated the WTO's Information Technology Agreement (ITA).

That 1996 agreement eliminated duties among a group of 72 participating countries on goods like computer screens and printers to promote trade in high-tech products.

REUTERS - EU foreign ministers approved tighter sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear programme on Monday, with steps to block oil and gas investment and curtail
Tehran's refining and natural gas capability.
 
The measures go well beyond sanctions imposed by the United Nations last month and mirror steps taken by the United States in recent weeks to apply extra pressure on Tehran to return to negotiations over its uranium enrichment programme.
 
As well as adopting harsher sanctions, including targeting Iranian banks and insurance companies, the foreign ministers called on Iran to resume talks over its enrichment work, which Western powers see as a veiled quest to develop nuclear weapons.

European Union foreign ministers have formally given a green light for negotiations to begin over Iceland's bid for membership of the 27-country bloc.

The ministers agreed to start the talks on Tuesday this week but acknowledged that a lack of domestic support for the move could be a potential obstacle that would have to be overcome.

"Popular opinions have to be taken on board, and you have to communicate the value (of joining)," said Steven Vanackere, Belgium's foreign minister. According to one poll this month, public opposition to joining the EU has risen to about 60 per cent from about 54 per cent in November last year.

Another key issue will be financial services, and there will be pressure on Iceland to compensate the UK and the Netherlands for losses suffered by investors in Icesave, the failed online bank.

Ahead of tonight's Newsnight special on the Coalition (at 2230 on BBC Two) it is worth asking a big question:

Were Conservative MPs railroaded into accepting the coalition on the basis of a lie, or at best an unfortunate misunderstanding?

That's the allegation which has been swirling round among Tories at Westminster for several weeks now.

One Conservative MP - far from a right-winger - reckons David Cameron lied to the shadow Cabinet and his backbench MPs at least four times in the hours leading up to the coalition agreement with the Lib Dems on 11 May.

A fast-track process for deporting failed asylum-seekers, which gives them little or no notice of their immediate removal, is unlawful, the high court ruled today.

The decision will have an impact on Home Office deportation practices and could lead to more last minute, legal challenges on behalf of those fighting to remain in the UK.

The case was brought by Medical Justice, an organisation that provides independent medical and legal advice to detainees in immigration removal centres.

Britain must answer in court claims that it is turning a blind eye to UK firms that trade in lucrative Congolese "conflict minerals", a campaign group announced today.

The group, Global Witness, said the firms continued to buy minerals from rebel militias, prolonging a 12-year conflict. It planned to sue the government for failing to refer the firms for UN sanctions.

The move comes amid global efforts to halt the trade in rebel-controlled minerals such as tin, gold, and coltan, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where millions have died since civil war erupted in 1998.

Four in 10 people who say they voted Lib Dem would not have done had they known the party would enter a coalition with the Tories, a poll suggests.

But 86% of Conservative voters would have voted the same way had they known their party would join forces with the Lib Dems, the ComRes survey found.

The poll of 1,009 adults for Newsnight also showed 37% of Lib Dem voters felt their party was dishonest about cuts.

Lord Ashdown said the coalition was the only option for a stable government.

Last month unison members in Southampton went on strike over the city council's plans sack employees and replace them with unpaid volunteers. The council plans to get rid of 6 librarians. According to unison this will lead to one library being run exclusively by volunteers.

This, I am afraid, is a sign of things to come. As Richard noted last week, Cameron's Big Society is set to involve replacing public service professionals with unpaid labour. And this is a big problem for both public sector workers and public service users. The most immediate problem for Southampton's Librarians is that they face losing their jobs at a time when jobseekers outnumber vacancies by a ratio of 5 to 1. In other words they the real possibility of long term unemployment. More generally, the use of volunteer labour raises a damocles axe above the heads of all public sector workers. How easy will it be to push for decent wages, when your employer has an army of unpaid Gill Archer types at its disposal.