Europe midday: Stocks slip as euro gains amid calls for new euro area arquitecture

European equities are dipping lower as the euro pushes higher, amid fresh calls for a revamp of the euro area's economic architecture.

As of 1147 BST the benchmark Stoxx 600 was up by 0.05% to 396.49 and just above its year-to-date highs, alongside a rise of 0.27% for the Dax to 12,804.4 and gains of 0.38% for the FTSE Mibtel to 21,662.43.

Stocks going ex-div on the Dax, such as BASF, ProsiebenSat1 and Fresenius added to the drag from the strength in the single currency, pulling the equity benchmark down from the fresh record highs of 12,832.29 printed earlier in the day.

Euro/dollar was advancing 0.32% at 1.0965, offsetting gains of 1.07% in the Stoxx 600 sub-index for shares of Basic Resources companies as oil and metals futures advanced.

Echoing calls from France's newly-elected president Emmanuele Macron, officials in Spain proposed a complete overhaul of the Eurozone's system of economic governance, Spanish daily El Pais reported referencing a document it had seen.

Among the measures sought by Madrid were an anti-crisis budget, a common unemployment insurance system, euro bonds and completing the banking union, including the pooling of risks.

Acting as a backdrop, at the weekend Merkel's CDU came away with 33% of the ballots - 6.7 points more than in the prior elections - versus 31.2% for the centre-left SPD in regional elections in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

"After a horrible 2016 in which a tide of political anger led to the UK's Brexit vote and swept Donald Trump to power in the US, the newsflow so far this year has been rather different. Anti-European populism seems to have peaked in the Eurozone," said Holger Schmieding at Berenberg.

The results of the vote pointed to a possibly even wider margin of victory for the CDU in September's elections to the country's parliament, the Bundestag, he said.

Acting as a backdrop, front month Brent crude futures were up by 2.57% to $52.18 per barrel on the ICE following news that Saudi Arabia and Russia had agreed to do "whatever it takes" to put a floor under prices. Metals prices were also higher, lifted by plans by Beijing to invest $78.0bn in international development projects.

Italian CPI inflation was confirmed by ISTAT at up by 0.8% on the month and 2.0% on the year.

Greek GDP shrank unexpectedly during the first three months of 2017, with activity down by 0.1% on the quarter (consensus: 0.2%).

Portuguese GDP on the other hand rocketed by 1.0% quarter-on-quarter - its best showing since the last quarter of 2007 - pushing the annual rate up to 2.8%.

Still on the economic calendar for Monday, the Federal Reserve bank of New York's manufacturing gauge was set for release at 1330 BST, followed by the NAHB's survey of homebuilder confidence at 1500 BST.

German power group RWE guided towards full-year adjusted net income of between €1.0bn and €1.3bn, as efficiency gains and energy trading offset weak power prices.

France's Bollore announced first-quarter revenue rose by 7.2% on the year.

Analysts at Barclays downgraded Telefonica to 'underweight' while their peers at Deutsche Bank bumped up their target on AstraZeneca from 5,350p to 5,700p.

Oil major Total was also in the news after signing a deal to search for oil and gas offshore Mauritania.