Category Archives: European Union

Getting good trade deal from EU could be ‘much easier’ after no deal Brexit, Raab claims – live news

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Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including Boris Johnson’s first visit to Scotland as prime minister

Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon says that she will press Boris Johnson on the damage that a no deal Brexit will do to the Scottish economy, when she meets the prime minister later this afternoon.

Speaking ahead of the first face-to-face meeting between the first minister and the new prime minister, Sturgeon said:

The people of Scotland did not vote for this Tory government, they didn’t vote for this new prime minister, they didn’t vote for Brexit and they certainly didn’t vote for a catastrophic no-deal Brexit which Boris Johnson is now planning for.

Boris Johnson has formed a hard-line Tory government with one aim – to take Scotland and the UK out of the EU without a deal.

I’m just back from the Number 10 lobby briefing. Mostly it was a routine affair, that did not shed a lot of new light on what the administration is up to, but the prime minister’s spokeswoman did have at least one mini story for the hacks.

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Brexit: key strands of British policing ‘in jeopardy’ because of no-deal risk

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NCA harvesting EU crime databases in attempt to mitigate loss of access to data, leaked report suggests

Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) is harvesting information from EU databases, including 54,000 files covering criminals, terrorists and missing persons, in an attempt to mitigate the heightened risks of a no-deal Brexit, according to a leaked document.

The report, seen by the Guardian, suggests EU alerts have been transferred to the Police National Computer (PNC) to give UK forces access after 31 October but that key strands of British policing remain “in jeopardy” because of the growing danger of a no-deal exit since Theresa May’s resigned as prime minister.

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UK on course for no-deal Brexit as Johnson rejects EU agreement

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Crashing out could make a united Ireland more likely, Irish PM says

Boris Johnson has set the UK on an apparent course towards a no-deal Brexit by playing down the likelihood of any talks with the EU unless Brussels agrees to scrap the existing withdrawal agreement and Irish backstop, both of which it has ruled out.

The seemingly intransigent tone prompted Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, to warn that a no-deal departure could lead more people in Northern Ireland to seek a united Ireland.

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Unsavoury truths about fair trade | Letters

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Tim Gossling and Bob Caldwell advise checking the smallprint and question how trustworthy the movement is

The death of fair trade (Journal, 23 July) can partly be laid at the door of the EU. Its treatment of former colonies, restricting tariff-free trade to “primary produce” so that the profitable part of the businesses, manufacture, is protected, means that they may be independent in terms of politics, but are economically still the same colonies.

Take Ghana, which Samanth Subramanian mentions. Go and buy your bar of “Fairtrade” Divine chocolate. On the back it waxes lyrical about Kuapa Kokoo, the cocoa farmers’ organisation that tries to guarantee fair and stable prices for cocoa beans, with a bit extra for the social premium. Read to the end of the small print where it says: “Made in Germany”. Ghana has a perfectly good chocolate factory, at the port town of Tema, but workers only make chocolate for the local market, because that is all they are allowed to do. Ghana would be a lot richer if it could sell the manufactured product over here, but that would be in direct competition with the German manufacturer, which the EU is formed to protect. That is why I voted leave in the referendum – though I probably would not do so again, as Brexit is unlikely to improve the situation.
Tim Gossling
Cambridge

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Brussels repels Boris Johnson’s quest for new Brexit deal

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Juncker said to have told new PM current agreement is the best and only one possible

Brussels has roundly rebuffed Boris Johnson after he laid down tough conditions for the new Brexit deal he hopes to strike over the summer.

Speaking to the House of Commons for the first time as prime minister on Thursday, Johnson reiterated his campaign pledge of ditching the Irish backstop and promised to ramp up preparations for a no-deal Brexit immediately.

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Investors await signal on fresh ECB economic stimulus – business live

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Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news as Mario Draghi expected to prepare central bank for interest rate cuts

It will be too late for the ECB’s interest rates decision, but the latest measure of German business confidence from the influential Ifo Institute shows that morale has sagged more than expected in July.

The closely followed measure fell to a reading of 95.7 – well below the consensus expectations of 97.1.

Boris Johnson is planning to set out his “priorities for government” in his first appearance as prime minister in the house of commons – at about 10:30am BST.

Perhaps he can shed some more light on what will be happening by 31 October, the Brexit deadline.

Following Business Qs, there will be one government oral statement in the @HouseofCommons today:

The Prime Minister - Priorities for Government

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EU moves to tackle deforestation caused by chocolate and other products

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Campaigners hail scheme to protect and restore forests around the world as ‘pivotal step’ towards ensuring goods remain untainted

The EU has taken a “pivotal step” towards addressing the deforestation caused by its consumption of soy, chocolate, meat and other products, environmental campaigners have said.

The EU said this week it had set out a new plan to protect and restore the world’s forests, which involves working with governments to promote better use of land and resources, managing supply chains, and carrying out research. A possible new regulation to “minimise the impact of EU consumption on deforestation and forest degradation” will also be assessed under the plan.

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We have been forgotten by Boris Johnson, say Britons in Europe

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New PM has pledged to help EU citizens in the UK after Brexit – but not the 1.3 million British folk in the EU

Campaigners for British citizens in Europe say they are being treated as nonentities by Boris Johnson in his race to get Brexit over the line.

They say they have been completely forgotten by the new prime minister, who instead went out of his way to pledge that he would look after EU citizens in the UK in his maiden speech in Downing Street.

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Europe’s patchwork of abortion laws is absurd. Rights must be made universal | Prune Antoine

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I was stunned to discover that abortions, strictly speaking, are still not legal in Germany

When I was 30, in 2011, I had an abortion. I was living in Berlin, a city known, since the fall of the Wall, for championing freedom. Or at least it was until attention turned to my womb. Born in France in the 1980s, and brought up on the internet, the Erasmus European studies programme and love without borders, I was under the happy illusion that everything relating to women’s bodies – from abortion to assisted reproduction – was covered by rights secured after long, hard struggles.

Related: Brexit effect forces women to go to Netherlands for abortions

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‘We are watching you’: the 500-day protest against corruption in Romania

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Protesters in Sibiu have been staging a daily demonstration outside the ruling PSD party’s HQ

Every day when the Lutheran church bell strikes noon, people fall silent in a leafy street in the Transylvanian city of Sibiu. For more than 500 days, in snow, drizzle and scorching sun, a group of residents has staged a silent protest in the centre of the picturesque city. Always at the same time, and always at the same place: outside the headquarters of Romania’s ruling Social Democrat party (PSD), which is embroiled in corruption scandals and accused by Brussels of flouting democratic values.

The message to the PSD is simple, says Ciprian Ciocan: “We know what you are doing and we are watching every move that you do, and we are here to defend the rule of law.” He says he never knows how many people will show up to protest.

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Boris Johnson’s Brexit plans under threat from ministers’ resignations

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Likely new PM could find no-deal option thwarted by senior Tories such as Philip Hammond

Boris Johnson’s hoped-for triumphant march into Downing Street this week is set to be dampened by a carefully timed series of resignations by senior ministers, who will retreat to the backbenches with a vow to thwart any moves towards a no-deal Brexit.

The announcements by Philip Hammond and David Gauke that they will step down on Wednesday, immediately before Johnson is likely to head to Buckingham Palace, highlight the perilous political climate for Theresa May’s expected successor.

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Margrethe Vestager scares the tech giants. If we leave the EU, we’ll miss her

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Trump says the competition commissioner hates the US, but what she really hates is tax avoidance

The greatest economic threat facing Europe is of falling hopelessly behind the US and China in adopting the next generation of technology. That is the view of many across Europe’s industrial and financial sectors who watch with wonder the proxy battle between the US and Chinese administrations on behalf of their tech giants.

Business leaders from Dublin to Warsaw are open-mouthed – not so much at the often-bizarre tug of war between the two sides as at the fact that these economic blocs can lay claim to almost all the world’s tech giants.

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Boris blimp to join 9ft Nigel Farage on anti-Brexit march in London

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Pro-Europe grassroots groups to voice opposition to a Johnson premiership

Protesters will take to London’s streets on Saturday for a “No to Boris. Yes to Europe” march days ahead of Boris Johnson’s widely anticipated move into No 10.

A Boris toddler blimp was launched in Parliament Square at 10am, featuring salmon-pink skin, the politician’s trademark “faux-dishevelled hairstyle”, mismatched running gear and a Brexit-bus T-shirt, according to March for Change.

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Brussels to offer Boris Johnson extension on no-deal Brexit

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Exclusive: extra time could be used for renegotiation but will be billed as chance for no-deal planning

Brussels is preparing to offer Boris Johnson a no-deal Brexit extension beyond 31 October in an attempt to help him keep the Conservative party together and provide one more chance to strike an agreement deal.

The extra period of EU membership would be used for renegotiation but could be billed to Conservative Brexiters as an opportunity to prepare further for leaving without a deal.

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Ursula von der Leyen: hard Brexit would be massive blow for both sides

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Exclusive: newly elected EU chief suggests there could be emergency help for Ireland

The European commission’s new president has said a hard Brexit would have “massively negative consequences” for both Britain and the EU, and said Brussels could provide emergency help for nations such as Ireland that bear the brunt of such an outcome.

In her first interview since narrowly being approved for the post by the European parliament on Tuesday, Ursula von der Leyen said the withdrawal deal concluded between Theresa May and the commission’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michael Barnier, would remain the basis of any future talks.

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Boris Johnson’s no-deal Brexit threat risks being ignored by the EU

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Michel Barnier says the UK will ‘have to face the consequences’ of crashing out

Boris Johnson’s suggestion he could use the threat of no deal to win an improved Brexit deal for the UK risks falling on deaf ears in Brussels, the EU’s top negotiator has suggested.

Michel Barnier suggested, in an interview carried out in May for the BBC Panorama programme, that Theresa May’s negotiating team never tried to use the spectre of a no-deal Brexit despite calls from Tory hardliners to do so.

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Northern Irish unionists fear post-Brexit land grabs

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Report identifies Zimbabwe-style seizures as key concern in the event of a united Ireland

Some unionists in Northern Ireland fear Zimbabwe-style land seizures by Irish nationalists if the region joins a united Ireland, according to a report that lays bare anxieties about any Brexit-fuelled breakup of the UK.

Farmers and others with Protestant and unionist backgrounds worry that Catholic and nationalist neighbours would claim their land in a cultural, economic and political takeover by Dublin – “the mother of all fears”, the report found.

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EU nations to be vetted on their adherence to the rule of law

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Policy comes as incoming president seeks to tackle claims she would be beholden to Poland and Hungary

EU nations are to be vetted annually on their adherence to the rule of law, in a renewed attempt from Brussels to stop governments from firing independent judges and packing courts with pliable supporters.

In an effort to stop democratic backsliding, all EU countries will be subject to annual monitoring on the rule of law, the European commission announced on Wednesday, one day after its incoming president, Ursula von der Leyen, sought to assuage critics of her appointment with a pledge to uphold democratic values.

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Boris Johnson’s support for EU revealed in Leon Brittan letter

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No 10 frontrunner wrote ‘pro-European letter’ to Tory peer’s widow a year before campaigning for leave

Boris Johnson revealed his support for the European Union’s single market in “a pro-European” letter written the year before he decided to campaign for leave, it has emerged.

The likely prime minister’s pro-EU market sympathies were said to be revealed in a letter of condolence to the wife of the late Tory politician Sir Leon Brittan, who died in January 2015.

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Ursula von der Leyen elected first female European commission president

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German minister wins narrow backing of MEPs to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker

Ursula von der Leyen has been confirmed as the European commission’s first female president and the first German in the job for more than 50 years.

In a secret ballot, MEPs voted narrowly to support the German defence minister as a replacement for Jean-Claude Juncker when he steps down on 31 October.

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