The paper clip, 26 November

The Guardian reports that banks will be forced to reveal how many of their employees earn more than £1m (€1.09m) a year. New laws are expected to show that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of City bankers are made millionaires each year. The Daily Telegraph also has the story.

The Bank of Ireland does not expect to seek further financial support from the state, according to a five-year restructuring plan, the Irish Times reports. However, it expects the Irish government to remain a substantial shareholder after the reorganisation is completed.

The Financial Times writes that a clutch of companies say that they are looking to use the so-called IFRS 9 rules as ‘proforma' accounts for 2010 and may begin to prepare the numbers for internal use for this year end. In doing so, they would be defying EU national governments, who have delayed adoption of rules revised by the International Accounting Standards Board.

Die Welt reports that the German Free Democratic Party (FDP), the junior party in the governing coalition, wants Germany to block an agreement to share bank transfer data with the US. The Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the largest party in government, wants to abstain in a decision due to be taken by EU interior ministers on Monday. That would allow the other EU countries to go ahead with the agreement while a ‘No' would block the deal, which has to be approved by unanimity. The article says that the issue is a major strain on the coalition. The liberal FDP campaigned for civil liberties protection in the recent elections

Greece's Kathimerini writes (in English) that “cracks began to appear yesterday” in the Greek government's positions on the role of the Greek central bank and a key environmental issue, the diversion of the Acheloos River, after several conflicting statements by senior officials.

La Libre Belgique reports that Yves Leterme yesterday took office as Belgium's prime minister, replacing Herman Van Rompuy, who has been appointed president of the European Council. Leterme said that he had “above all a feeling of responsibility” at taking over the post. Le Monde reports that the Leterme's appointment has been greeted in Belgium with “a good dose of scepticism, not to mention clear anxiety”, notably on the part of the country's francophone community. Le Soir also has a report.

Yves Leterme's return as prime minister of Belgium yesterday is unlikely to thrust the country into political crisis of the sort that accompanied his first term in office, writes the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. However, the status of francophone suburbs of Brussels which are on Flemish territory needs to be resolved before the next general election, scheduled for 2011.

Le Soir reports that General Motors yesterday presented its restructuring plan for car-maker Opel. The plan envisages drastic job cuts at Opel's plant in Antwerp, where 2,321 people out of a total workforce of 2,600 will lose their jobs. The company will cut a total of 8,684 jobs in Europe. Union leaders in Belgium have judged the plan “unacceptable”.

Spain is to support Malta's bid to host the European Asylum Support Office, the Times of Malta reports. Miguel Ángel Moratinos, Spain's foreign minister, gave his support during a visit to Malta along with Spanish King Juan Carlos. Spain will take up the presidency of the Council of Ministers in the first half of 2010. 

Gazeta Wyborcza considers the options that José Manuel Barroso has in forming the European Commission. The Financial Times expects members of the European Parliament to give commissioners-designate a rough time in their hearings.

China's prime minister, Wen Jiabao, will attend the UN climate-change summit in Copenhagen, the Guardian reports.

Sophisticated listening devices were discovered in a sweep conducted in 2006 and 2007 of the Palais des Nations, the seat of the United Nations in Geneva, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung reports. The devices would have cost around €200,000 and were mounted in a way that suggested that whoever installed them had inside assistance. The UN is denying the incident ever took place.

A former head of the UK's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) has attacked the British government for underfunding and mismanaging the war in Afghanistan. Sir Richard Dearlove, head of the service when the operation was launched in 2001, said that the finance ministry had squeezed the defence budget. For more, see reports in the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian.
 
The Times reports on a bitter row between the UK's two main political parties over whether government money has funded two schools set up by a radical Muslim group. This claim, made by the Conservative leader David Cameron, was rubbished by Labour ministers last night. They accused Cameron of splitting communities on the basis on false allegations. But the Conservatives maintain that their story is correct.

The controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders, known for his strong views on Islam, has cancelled a trip to the Czech Republic after organisers failed, for the third time, to find a venue in which he could give a lecture. He was invited by Jirí Oberfalzer, the senator who led parliamentary opposition to the Lisbon treaty. Lidové noviny has the story.

The head of the Russian NGO Memorial describes Russian President Dmitry Medvedev as a “dreamer” in an interview with the Czech paper Lidové noviny. He is a “president who says good things, but nothing changes and the country moves in the opposite direction”.

Roman Polanski, the director of iconic motion pictures such as Chinatown and Rosemary's Baby, could be released on bail from a Swiss prison in the coming days, writes Le Temps. Polanski is wanted by the United States on rape charges involving an underage girl, dating back to the 1970s. He was arrested in Zurich on 26 September.