Reaction to the “Cafeisinho de Brusselas…”:

Reaction to the “Cafeisinho de Brusselas…”: Brussels condemns use of 'golden share' in PT. 30/06/10 16:00. The European Commission has reacted to the decision of the Portuguese state to make use of 'golden share' in the PT to block the sale of Vivo."The Commission believes that the 'golden share' is incompatible with European law because it constitutes an unjustified restriction on free movement of capital", reads a 'statement' of the European Commission. "By not giving up 'golden share' in Portugal Telecom, the Portuguese government failed to fulfill their obligations in terms of free movement of capital," he adds. In that document, Brussels, points 'sued' Lisbon on this subject in 2005 and in 2008 handed the matter to the European Court of Justice, which shall take a position as early as next week, July 8.

Lisbon blocks Telefónica’s Vivo bid. June 30 2010 15:18. The Lisbon government on Wednesday used special veto rights to override shareholders and block Telefónica’s €7.15bn offer to buyPortugal Telecom out of Vivo, their Brazilian mobile phone joint venture. Portugal’s controversial use of its “golden share” to overrule 74 per cent of shareholders who voted in favour of the offer gave a new twist to the acrimonious bid battle between the two Iberian operators. People close to the meeting said the government intervention had caused widespread surprise among investors. Lisbon-based analysts said the veto was also likely to lead to intense legal wrangling. The government’s intervention is expected to be challenged by the European Commission and by Telefónica, which had raised its bid by 10 per cent to €7.15bn only hours before the Portugal Telecom shareholders met to vote on the offer. According to shareholders attending the closed meeting, members of the Portugal Telecom board had called on the government not to intervene. The board called an emergency meeting on Wednesday. Some core Portuguese shareholders, including Banco Espírito Santo and Ongoing, who had rejected Telefónica’s previous bids of €5.17bn and €6.5bn voted in favour of the sweetened offer. However, José Socrates, Portugal’s centre-left prime minister, said Telefónica’s offer did not reflect the value of Vivo to Portugal Telecom. The government was “acting in the interest of the country”, he said. The “golden share” was there to be used. Pedro Passos Coelho, leader of Portugal’s main centre-right opposition party, also said the sale of Portugal Telecom’s stake in Vivo would be a “bad deal” for Portugal. The government owns 500 “golden shares” in Portugal Telecom, which give the state special veto rights over important company decisions. However, the legality of the state’s rights in the company is being challenged in the European Court of Justice, which is expected to issue a ruling on July 8. The court is widely expected to find the “golden share” invalid. Zeinal Bava, Portugal Telecom’s chief executive, had previously said the bid for Vivo was not a case where the “golden share” could be used. However, he said on Wednesday that the decision of the chairman of the meeting to accept the use of the government veto had precedence over “whatever the board may or may not think”. Relations between the two companies have soured over Telefónica’s bid to gain control of Vivo, Latin America’s largest mobile operator, and merge it with Telesp, its underperforming fixed-line operator in Brazil. After launching an initial €5.7bn offer for the Vivo stake in May, the Spanish group said it was keeping open an option to launch a hostiletakeover bid for Portugal Telecom itself – a move that would arouse fervent political opposition in Portugal. Mr Sócrates had told parliament last week it was in the “strategic interest” of Portugal to ensure the country had a telecommunications company with an international dimension on the existing scale of Portugal Telecom.
This would enable Portugal to advance in the areas of research and development, innovation and engineering, he said in an answer to a question in parliament. Telefónica is seeking exclusive control of Vivo, Brazil’s largest mobile operator, as part of efforts to improve its faltering position in Brazil. But the Portugal Telecom board and core Portuguese shareholders said the previous Telefónica offers of €5.7bn and €6.5bn failed to reflect the “strategic value” of Vivo to the Spanish operator. Telefónica’s latest offer is almost three times the market value of Vivo in May when it the Spanish group announced its first bid and 98 per cent of the market value of Portugal Telecom.

Tories and Labour at war over unemployment figures. Normally one side briefs and then the other counter-briefs, but this time they interrupted each other's spin, contradicting one another and hurling statistics and comparisons at one another at a rate of knots. There was a fantastic spat today over Larry Elliott's exclusive piece in the Guardian claiming the Treasury had not published a forecast prepared for the emergency budget showing it would increase unemployment by 1.3m.

Number of unemployed is approaching 3 million mark. Wednesday 30 June 2010, 15:30 clock. Nuremberg / Berlin (Reuters) - The robust economic recovery, unemployment in Germany pushes closer and closer to the mark of three million. Registered in June, the Federal Employment Agency (BA) - as expected by experts - only 3.15 million people without jobs, and thus so few not seen since December 2008. "We are back to the level before the crisis", Federal Labour Minister Ursula von der Leyen said in Berlin on Wednesday. "The labor market shows to be stable, but he still is not dynamic, limited the CDU politician.The positive trend was not as strong as in May have been. BA chief Frank-Juergen Weise believes it, despite the skepticism of many experts, the possibility that the unemployment figure drops below three million by year-end: "The opportunity is there. The Nuremberg authorities counted 257 000 Erwerblose less than a year ago and 88,000 fewer than in May. That was in each case, the fourth decline in a row. In a June 1992 modified so few people have been registered without a job. The unemployment rate fell slightly by 0.2 points to 7.5 percent. Adjusted for seasonal factors, unemployment has increased compared to May fell by 21,000. Bright spots were also in East Germany: between Elbe and Oder, the unemployment rate fell for the first time this year under the one-million mark. "The demand for employees is increasing," explained manner. In open places to sit on the positive side, now would exceed the previous year's figures. In social insurance jobs and that there was an increase. Relief has the effect remains the short-time working. Last we counted 613 000 short-time workers - in the middle of the recession of the violent post-war history were it 2009 times more than twice as many. Decreases there is here, especially in the automotive, engineering and logistics industry. During the year reckoned with even less short-time workers.