The Telegraph notes that the ETS has been responsible for around half of the price hike announced by npower, which is expected to be followed by British Gas. npower's price rise will raise its average annual electricity bill by £64. The paper notes that the levy imposed on each customer as a result of the ETS is doubling to £30 a year.
Telegraph FT EUobserver

A leader in Swedish union paper Transportarbetaren argues that the Vaxholm case - which could allow for foreign companies in the country to set pay levels according to their own, rather than Swedish, collective agreements - undercuts the preconditions on which Swedish membership of the EU rests.
Transport

French Socialists call for boycott of Versailles
Les Echos reports that the leader of the French Socialist Party, François Hollande, and Jean-Marc Ayrault, the head of the party in the National Assembly, have called for a boycott of the Congress of Versailles on 4 February, at which MPs will vote for an amendment to the French Constitution to allow for ratification of the revised EU Constitution. Hollande said, "We would have had a referendum. We will not go to Versailles." Ayrault said, "It seems impossible to me that we should participate in the revision of the Constitution while defending a referendum." However, opponents of the revised Constitution have criticised the boycott, preferring MPs to turn up and vote, as a boycott will do nothing to help prevent Sarkozy getting the three fifths majority he needs at Congress, since only those votes expressed will count.
Les Echos

David Miliband is hiring a new £115,000 a year spin doctor, after having to "fend off whispers that No 10 had been briefing against him", reports the Pandora column in the Independent.

PA reports that the UK Government has paid the EU over £63 million in fines for the late payment of farmers' subsidies under the Common Agricultural Policy.
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