Instances of alleged beatings and sexual assaults against asylum seekers continue to blight special units
Croatia has dismissed allegations of violence by its border patrol after new reports emerged this week of border police allegedly beating, robbing and sexually abusing migrants.
On Wednesday the head of home affairs for the European Commission, Ylva Johansson, said that she was taking the allegations “very seriously”.
Continue reading...Sector calls for compromise to ensure UK researchers stay in Horizon Europe
The UK’s post-Brexit collaboration with European scientists hangs in the balance after it emerged that the EU offer of staying in the Horizon research programme could leave London with a £3bn deficit.
“The financial negotiations are not in a good position and the offer that the [European] commission has made to the UK is not appealing,” Vivienne Stern, the director of Universities UK International, told a Lords Brexit committee on Thursday.
Continue reading...Policy is ‘huge step backwards’ that will prevent vulnerable people from seeking help, charities say
Foreign rough sleepers face being deported from Britain under draconian immigration laws to be introduced when the Brexit transition period ends.
Under the immigration rules to be laid before parliament and due to come into force on 1 January, rough sleeping will become grounds for refusal of, or cancellation of, permission to be in the UK.
Continue reading...EU’s chief negotiator meets Downing Street’s threshold for resumption of troubled talks
The Brexit talks will resume on Thursday, with negotiators tasked with working through weekends in pursuit of a deal in the remaining few weeks, after Michel Barnier met the prime minister’s demands for re-engagement.
The impasse was broken after the EU’s chief negotiator made public his intention to “seek the necessary compromises on both sides”, telling the European parliament that he believed an agreement was “within reach” and that he was willing to work “day and night”.
Continue reading...European parliament votes to continue payments to farmers with no green conditions attached
Greta Thunberg, the Swedish school strike pioneer and environmental activist, has accused MEPs of surrendering on the climate and environment by voting in favour of a watered-down reform of the EU’s common agricultural policy.
The European parliament voted late on Wednesday in favour of proposals put forward by the main political groups that will continue 60% of the current direct payments to farmers with weak or non-existent green conditions attached.
Continue reading...European aerospace giant and two Israeli arms firms win EU contracts totalling €100m
Airbus and two Israeli arms companies will be paid €100m (£91m) to operate unmanned drones to spot refugees and migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean sea to Europe, according to EU contracts.
Drone operations over the Mediterranean will start next year, after testing carried out on the Greek island of Crete.
Continue reading...Brazilian president’s stance on deforestation remains stumbling block for South America agreement
Brussels is in talks with Brazil’s far-right nationalist president, Jair Bolsonaro, over commitments on the future of the Amazon as it seeks to persuade Emmanuel Macron and other EU leaders and parliaments to ratify the trade deal the bloc has negotiated with South America.
The ratification of the draft trade agreement between the EU and the “Mercosur” or Southern Common Market free-trade zone – which spans Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina – has been in doubt almost since it was announced last June.
Continue reading...Brussels says schemes selling citizenship to wealthy investors are illegal
Brussels has launched legal action against Cyprus and Malta over their “golden passport” schemes for wealthy investors, saying they were illegal and undermined EU citizenship.
The European commission has written to the two countries, which both joined the EU in 2004, to demand explanations, warning that the schemes increased the risks of money laundering, tax evasion and corruption.
Continue reading...No 10 unmoved even after Barnier’s offer prompts Gove to make U-turn at dispatch box
Downing Street has refused to restart Brexit deal negotiations despite Michael Gove performing a U-turn at the dispatch box in which he praised a “constructive move” by the EU minutes after declaring the talks “effectively ended”.
The EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, seemingly agreed to all the government’s demands for the resumption of Brexit talks in pursuit of a deal – sending a tweet just as Gove was making a statement in the Commons castigating the bloc.
Continue reading...Michael Gove confirms British government’s door to re-engagement with Brussels is ‘ajar’
Brussels expects the Brexit negotiations to resume within days, as Michael Gove confirmed that despite Downing Street’s tough rhetoric the door remained “ajar” on re-engagement.
The EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, will hold a video conference call with his British counterpart, David Frost, on Monday afternoon to discuss the structure of future talks.
Continue reading...Immediate shopping spree is unlikely after end to military sanctions despite US protests
Iranian officials have hailed the lifting of a 13-year UN arms embargo on their military as a momentous day, claiming they were once again free to buy and sell conventional weapons in an effort to strengthen their country’s security.
The embargo was lifted on Sunday morning despite US protests and was in line with the five-year timetable set out in the Iran nuclear deal, which was signed in 2015.
Continue reading...PM says there will be no deal with EU unless there is ‘fundamental change’ in Brussels
From my colleagues Pamela Duncan and Niamh McIntyre
From tonight over half the population of England will be living in areas classed as “high risk” or “very high risk” under the government’s three-tier system, equivalent to 28.4m people.
All of Lancashire county (Lancashire, Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool council areas) are to move from tier 2 to the higher tier 3 category from midnight, meaning more than 3m people are now living in the highest-risk areas.
Trade negotiations often involve threats to walk away, and dire forecasts, before both side agree to compromise, and Brexit-watchers have been waiting for the UK-EU trade talks to this moment. It came this morning, when Boris Johnson used a TV statement (see 12.29pm) to say that there would no deal without a “fundamental change” in the EU’s approach.
But threats only work if people take them seriously and Johnson’s comments do not seem to have been taken as a sincere statement of intent to talk away. It was telling that, despite being asked twice if he was saying the talks were over, he would not use those words. (See 12.41pm.) If the foreign exchange markets thought Johnson was abandoning hopes of a deal, the pound would have fallen (as it has repeatedly in key moments in the Brexit drama since 2016). But it didn’t. “Market participants see comments from Boris Johnson as mainly political posturing at this stage,” an analyst told Bloomberg.
The pound fluctuates between gains and losses after Boris Johnson says the nation is preparing for a thin, Australia-style trade deal with the EU https://t.co/lzBTCqlY8F pic.twitter.com/YbntZLyFca
There’s no point in trade talks if the EU doesn’t change its position. The EU effectively ended the trade talks yesterday.
Only if the EU fundamentally changes its position will it be worth talking.
What I would say to that is there is only any point in Michel Barnier coming to London next week if he’s prepared to discuss all of the issues on the basis of legal text in an accelerated way without the UK being required to make all of the moves, or if he’s willing to discuss practicalities of areas such as travel and haulage which the PM mentioned in his statement.
Our position is a clear one. Only if the EU fundamentally changes position will it be worthwhile talking.
Continue reading...Prime minister says EU must change its approach to talks if deal to be reached
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Boris Johnson has told Britons to prepare for a no-deal Brexit unless the EU makes a fundamental change in its approach to the deadlocked trade and security talks.
In a televised statement, the prime minister stopped short of walking away from the talks, despite his self-imposed deadline for a deal having passed on Thursday.
Continue reading...Farmers and meat lobbyists accuse plant-based food producers of ‘cultural hijacking’
The terms “veggie burger” and “veggie sausage” could be banned under proposals being voted on by the European parliament next week. Also banned would be terms such as “yoghurt-style” and “cheese-like” for plant-based alternatives to dairy products.
Sales of these products are growing fast but farming and meat lobbyists say the terms mislead people and amount to a “cultural hijacking” of the meat industry. Opponents, backed by major food companies including Unilever and Nestle, say the claims of consumer confusion are ridiculous. They say a ban would also contradict the EU’s drive to help consumers choose more sustainable food and cut climate-heating emissions.
Continue reading...Bloc’s stance apparently taken as challenge to Boris Johnson’s threat to walk out on talks
Downing Street reacted in dismay as Emmanuel Macron led EU leaders in warning Boris Johnson that he must swallow the bloc’s conditions, in what appeared to be taken as a direct challenge to the British prime minister’s threat to walk out on the talks.
At a summit in Brussels, the EU proposed a further “two to three weeks” of negotiations but Europe’s heads of state and government offered Johnson little succour, demanding that he alone needed to “make the necessary moves to make an agreement possible”.
Continue reading...Bloc targeting six Russians, including FSB chief, over ‘assassination attempt’ on opposition figure
The EU has announced sanctions against members of Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, including the head of Russia’s domestic spy agency, over the poisoning of opposition figure Alexei Navalny.
The EU said it had agreed sanctions against six people believed to have been involved in the “assassination attempt” against Putin’s most vocal critic.
Continue reading...Those with ‘reasonable excuse’, such as children in care, will face no time limit, says Home Office
The government is to fast-track legislation that it believes will stop vulnerable EU citizens becoming Windrush-type victims of Brexit, it has emerged.
Under the secondary legislation, vulnerable citizens already lawfully living in the country, such as children in care and homeless people, may be able to apply for settled status years after the 30 June 2021 deadline.
Continue reading...UK negotiator to tell Boris Johnson that two more weeks of talks could lead to breakthrough
Boris Johnson will be advised by his chief negotiator that a trade deal with the EU is still possible should the prime minister ditch his deadline and continue to negotiate with Brussels as tentative signs of a compromise on fisheries emerged.
David Frost, who has been in talks with the EU team led by Michel Barnier this week, will inform the prime minister that a further two weeks, at least, of daily talks could result in the remaining gaps being bridged.
Continue reading...Chief negotiator says little prospect yet of EU and UK entering ‘tunnel’ negotiations
Michel Barnier has mocked Boris Johnson for issuing a “third unilateral deadline” during a meeting with EU ministers, warning that the Brexit talks remain difficult with little prospect yet of the two sides entering a decisive “tunnel” negotiation.
With 48 hours remaining before an EU leaders’ summit in Brussels, by which time the British prime minister has demanded a breakthrough moment, the bloc’s chief negotiator suggested a deal was “very difficult but still possible”, according to diplomatic sources.
Continue reading...UK and French leaders spoke as British and EU negotiating teams engage in eleventh-hour trade deal meetings
Boris Johnson has held Brexit telephone talks with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, as the clock ticks down to the deadline for a deal.
The two leaders spoke on Saturday with seemingly just days remaining for an agreement on a future trade deal to be reached, after UK and EU negotiating teams met on Friday for what sources said was a positive meeting.
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