The paper clip. 3 November

Belgium's De Standaard devotes its front page to describing Herman Van Rompuy, Belgium's prime minister, as the front-runner to become the first permanent president of the European Council. It says that no one is against him and he has the support of Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and France's President Nicolas Sarkozy. The Spanish daily El País also says there are indications that Sarkozy and Merkel have reached an agreement to back Van Rompuy.

France's' Le Figaro also says Van Rompuy has emerged as a clear front-runner to become the first permanent president of the European Council, saying that he is the one name acceptable to all 27 member states. It quotes a diplomat as saying that “no one is opposed to him and many are asking him to accept [the job]”. Belgian daily Le Soir says there is “consensus” around the idea of Van Rompuy getting the post.

De Standaard goes on to consider who might replace him as prime minister and considers that all routes lead to Yves Leterme, the former prime minister, like Van Rompuy a Flemish Christian Democrat, who is currently the foreign minister. Le Soir says Van Rompuy's departure could cause problems for Belgium's governance, as he has brought stability to a fractious political scene and there is no obvious replacement for him. “For him and for Belgium, it's a problem of timing,” one minister said. La Libre Belgique writes in its editorial that Van Rompuiy is “indispensable” to Belgian politics.

De Standaard also surveys the history of British opposition to Belgian candidates for EU top jobs, recalling that John Major blocked Jean-Luc Dehaene and Tony Blair blocked Guy Verhofstadt for the presidency of the European Commission. It says that this time the British are not opposed to Van Rompuy, though Gordon Brown is nominally bound to support Tony Blair's candidacy. It also points out that the presidency of the European Council will be decided by a weighted majority of the member states, not by unanimity, so no one country holds a veto.

David Cameron, the leader of the opposition Conservative party, is to tell UK voters that he will not hold a referendum on the Lisbon treaty, the Daily Telegraph writes. Cameron gave voters an “iron-clad” promise in 2007 that a Conservative government would hold a vote on the treaty.

The Irish Times says the nomination of Ireland's next European commissioner is close. It contains further speculation about possible candidates, including Catherine Day, the European Commission's secretary-general, but still thinks Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, currently Ireland's member of the European Court of Auditors, is the front-runner.

Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor, is to address a joint session of Congress in Washington today, writes the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. She is only the second chancellor – after Konrad Adenauer in 1957 – to do so.

Croatia's parliament has approved an arbitration agreement with Slovenia, a major step towards resolving a border dispute between the two countries, Vjesnik writes.

The Times of Malta reports on the country's plans to site a wind farm off the north of the island. It says that Resources Minister George Pullicino, speaking at the launch of a wind monitoring mast, said if the site chosen for a wind farm is inadequate, Malta will be "stuck" and may have to ask the EU to reconsider its expectations that 20% of the energy Malta generates must come from renewable sources.

Germany's new defence minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, has broken with the practice of his three predecessors and referred to the events in Afghanistan as a “war”, the Süddeutsche Zeitung writes.

Britain's government “overreacted” to the 7 July 2005 bombings in London, UK Home Secretary Alan Johnson said in a speech yesterday, as reported by the Times. The home secretary (interior minister) also said that the government had been maladroit in its handling of immigration.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague (ICTY) is to decide today on how to proceed with the trial of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžic, Die Presse writes. Karadžic refused to attend the opening of his trial last week but is expected to appear before the court today to argue that he needs more time to prepare his defence. The court could decide today to assign a defence counsel.

Le Monde reports that Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister, has said that he will not resign even if found guilty of corruption. Italian prosecutors are pursuing Berlusconi for allegedly paying his former lawyer, David Mills, to lie for him in court. Mills, the former husband of the UK Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell, has been given a four-and-a-half year prison sentence for perjury.

Le Monde reports that the French government's decision to demolish a makeshift migrant camp in Calais has led many asylum-seekers to move to Paris. The paper says that the Paris mayoralty has appealed to the French government for funds to house the new arrivals.

An 11-year old girl is Austria's first fatality from the H1N1 virus, Der Standard reports. The country has had 493 known cases of infection.

Le Monde reports that French job centres are to start making applicants' CVs anonymous in an effort to prevent racism or other forms of discrimination in recruitment practices. The paper says that the government wants businesses to follow suit. So far only a handful of companies in France recruit using anonymous CVs.

The British papers report on a major shake-up in the banking industry, following demands from the European Commission that Lloyds Bank and the Royal Bank of Scotland sell off some of their high-street branches. See reports in the Guardian, the Financial Times and the Daily Telegraph.