Category Archives: European Union

Government considers sale of Brexit border checkpoint in Kent – reports

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New trade deal with EU could make 41 border control posts built after Brexit redundant

The UK government is reportedly considering selling a post-Brexit border check facility in Kent that could fall out of use as a result of this week’s trade pact with the EU.

The site, based in Sevington, Ashford, was erected in 2021 with capacity for 1,300 lorries that were expected to face extra checks on plants and animal goods, including dairy and meat, entering and leaving Britain after Brexit.

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European unity against Putin in peril if Trump moves to ease sanctions

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EU’s hopes of US increasing pressure on Kremlin have been dashed, and Hungary could yet make situation worse

European leaders – who have promised to impose “massive” new sanctions on Russia after Vladimir Putin’s rejection of a ceasefire in Ukraine – face the prospect of having to introduce their planned expansion of economic restrictions on the Russian war economy without the United States.

European hopes that Donald Trump might increase the pressure on the Kremlin were dashed after the US president’s two-hour inconclusive phone call with Putin on Monday. Trump did not follow through on previous threats to introduce “large-scale” sanctions on Russia if there was no ceasefire, but instead extolled the prospect of restarting trade with Moscow.

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European unity against Putin in peril if Trump moves to ease sanctions

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EU’s hopes of US increasing pressure on Kremlin have been dashed, and Hungary could yet make situation worse

European leaders – who have promised to impose “massive” new sanctions on Russia after Vladimir Putin’s rejection of a ceasefire in Ukraine – face the prospect of having to introduce their planned expansion of economic restrictions on the Russian war economy without the United States.

European hopes that Donald Trump might increase the pressure on the Kremlin were dashed after the US president’s two-hour inconclusive phone call with Putin on Monday. Trump did not follow through on previous threats to introduce “large-scale” sanctions on Russia if there was no ceasefire, but instead extolled the prospect of restarting trade with Moscow.

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EU’s ‘chocolate crisis’ worsened by climate breakdown, researchers warn

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Cocoa one of six commodities vulnerable to environmental threats in ‘extremely worrying picture’ for food resilience

Climate breakdown and wildlife loss are deepening the EU’s “chocolate crisis”, a report has argued, with cocoa one of six key commodities to come mostly from countries vulnerable to environmental threats.

More than two-thirds of the cocoa, coffee, soy, rice, wheat and maize brought into the EU in 2023 came from countries that are not well prepared for climate change, according to the UK consultants Foresight Transitions.

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EU to lift economic sanctions on Syria to aid recovery of war-torn country

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Move comes one week after Trump announced all US sanctions on Syria would be lifted

The EU has agreed to lift economic sanctions on Syria in an effort to help the war-torn country recover after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime.

After the decision by EU foreign ministers on Tuesday, the EU’s chief diplomat, Kaja Kallas, wrote on X: “We want to help the Syrian people rebuild a new, inclusive and peaceful Syria.”

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UK suspends trade talks with Israel as Lammy calls Gaza blockade ‘morally wrong’ and ‘unjustifiable’ – as it happened

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Foreign secretary tells parliament that the Israeli government’s ‘egregious actions and rhetoric’ are isolating the country from its friends and partners. This live blog is closed

The Scottish secretary has said the new UK-EU trade deal provides “12 years of certainty and stability” for the fishing industry, amid criticism from the industry that the government has made too large a concession to the EU on fishing rights.

The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation (SFF) has described the deal as a “horror show”, but Ian Murray said: “I don’t agree with that.”

It gives 12 years of certainty and stability for the industry, it doesn’t change any of the deal that was put in place in 2019, which is 25% more quotas for UK and Scottish trawlers and it gives wide access, of course to the new markets of the EU, in terms of pushing away all that red tape that was there before.

Not one more fish will be taken out of Scottish waters by an EU trawler as part of this deal and that provides that stability and certainty.

We should never trust Keir Starmer. You know, he’s screwing things up domestically, so he gets on the international bandwagon.

He’s selling us out, not just on Brexit, but on Chagos and … we’re hearing all sorts of things about Gibraltar. We’ll hold them to account on this. Where Labour negotiates, Britain always seem to lose.

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Reeves hopes hat-trick of deals shows Britain is open for business

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Impact of agreements on food, energy and defence may not be huge but chancellor believes it will draw investors to UK

Rachel Reeves joked to journalists after Monday’s EU-UK reset that trade deals were coming along “like buses”, given the agreements with India and the US that had also been sealed in the past fortnight alone.

The chancellor described the EU deal as the best that had been secured by any non-member country, but she was also keen to talk about the three successful negotiations as a package.

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EU reset deal puts Britain back on the world stage, says Keir Starmer

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UK prime minister heralds a ‘win-win’ but faces criticism for concessions on fishing rights

Keir Starmer has vowed his EU reset deal will deliver cheaper food and energy for British people, heralding a “win-win” as he sealed the high-stakes agreement with concessions on youth visas and fishing.

“Britain is back on the world stage,” the prime minister said after shaking hands on the deal with the EU’s Ursula von der Leyen in London. “It gives us unprecedented access to the EU market, the best of any country … all while sticking to the red lines in our manifesto.”

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Starmer’s post-Brexit reset offers clear benefits – but there is political risk too

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While getting UK-EU deal through parliament should be easy enough, cries of ‘betrayal’ may chime with some voters

There were two moments at the UK-EU summit where it felt as if a corner had truly been turned. It was not on agrifoods, nor youth mobility, defence or fishing.

When Keir Starmer said the UK had changed, the most symbolic evidence of that came in a press release from No 10 that set out the terms of the agreement brokered at Lancaster House.

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Campaigners seek help amid search for victims of Argentina’s military dictatorship

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Families of the ‘disappeared’ say kidnapped children may be living across Europe

Women whose relatives were murdered and disappeared under Argentina’s military dictatorship will meet EU officials in Brussels on Monday to seek support for expanded DNA testing to identify missing children.

A delegation from the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, a campaigning group, will denounce efforts by the far-right president, Javier Milei, to dismantle the search for missing persons. They will seek support for continuing their efforts to find the children of the disappeared who were illegally adopted, many of whom may be in Europe.

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EU ministers call for coordinated action on Russian ‘shadow fleet’ in Baltic Sea

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Fleet of tankers sailing under flags of convenience estimated to carry up to 85% of Russia’s oil exports

Calls to step up and coordinate the interdiction of the unflagged Russian “shadow fleet” of oil tankers in the Baltic Sea were made this weekend before the EU foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, which is expected to impose sanctions on 180 ships, taking the total number of ships sanctioned by the EU to 350.

The efforts to stop the fleet, estimated to be carrying as much as 85% of Russia’s oil exports and so funding roughly a third of Russia’s budget, is seen as a critical proof of the EU’s determination to keep the economic pressure on Russia.

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‘It feels like we never left’: resentment builds in one of UK’s firmest Brexit-backing areas

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Keir Starmer says Britons have moved on but many in Thurrock think they were lied to in debate about leaving EU

When Keir Starmer was asked last week whether he thought Britons had finally moved on from the issue of Brexit, his answer was a definitive yes.

It’s not difficult to see why the prime minister would hope to settle the question, before a week in which he hopes to reset the UK’s relationship with the EU, clearing a way for easier access to a marketplace that could help increase the economic growth he badly needs.

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Von der Leyen’s texts with Pfizer boss can be shared, says EU’s highest court

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European court of justice says no ‘plausible explanation’ given for denying New York Times access to texts from pandemic

The EU’s highest court has cancelled a decision to withhold Ursula von der Leyen’s text messages with a pharmaceutical executive during the pandemic, in a significant defeat for the commission president.

The European court of justice on Wednesday annulled a decision taken by the European Commission in November 2022 to deny the New York Times access to the messages, after a freedom of information request by the paper.

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Starmer ‘completely rejects’ suggestion he echoed Enoch Powell in immigration speech, No 10 says – as it happened

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This blog is now closed, you can read more on this story here

David Lammy, the foreign secretary, has just started taking questions in the Commons. In response to the first question, Hamish Falconer, minister for the Middle East, said the UK has joined calls for an urgent meeting of the UN security council this afternoon to discuss the situation in Gaza.

After Foreign Office questions, Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, is asking an urgent question about the Mansion House accord – a deal with pension companies intended to get them to invest more in UK firms.

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Israel committing genocide in Gaza, says EU’s former top diplomat

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Josep Borrell also criticises EU response to what he calls largest ethnic cleansing operation since second world war

The former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has launched a blistering attack on Israel, accusing its government of committing genocide in Gaza and “carrying out the largest ethnic-cleansing operation since the end of the second world war in order to create a splendid holiday destination”.

Borrell, a former Spanish foreign minister who served as the EU’s top diplomat from 2019 to 2024, and president of the European parliament from 2004 to 2007, also criticised the bloc’s failure to use all the means at its disposal to influence Israel, saying expressions of regret were simply not enough.

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Slovakian and Serbian leaders defy EU to attend Russian military parade

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Robert Fico and Aleksandar Vučić accept Vladimir Putin’s invitation to attend Victory Day celebrations

Despite warnings from European Union officials, Slovakia’s Moscow-friendly prime minister, Robert Fico, shook hands with Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin before becoming the only EU leader to attend Russia’s 9 May parade of military forces waging war on Ukraine.

The Serbian president, Aleksandar Vučić, whose country aspires to join the 27-nation union, also accepted the Russian president’s invitation to attend the annual Victory Day celebrations marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in the second world war.

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EU targets US aircraft and car exports in new list of potential tariffs

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Move would hit Boeing, as Brussels also starts consultation on possible litigation over Trump’s blanket 20% tariffs

The EU is considering imposing tariffs on US aircraft and car exports in a fresh attempt to persuade Donald Trump to drop his current and proposed tariffs against the EU.

If acted on they will hit Boeing hard but also include further categories of US exports including chemicals, electrical equipment including cameras, health-related products and some foods such as sweet potato and nuts.

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Romania’s pro-EU prime minister resigns as Trump ally eyes presidency

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Marcel Ciolacu quits after coalition candidate fails to make it to run-off against nationalist George Simion

Romania’s pro-EU prime minister, Marcel Ciolacu, has resigned after his ruling coalition’s candidate crashed out of a presidential election rerun decisively won by a far-right Trump admirer, dramatically deepening the country’s political turmoil.

“Rather than let the future president replace me, I decided to resign myself,” Ciolacu, told reporters after a meeting at the headquarters of his Social Democratic party (PSD). “The ruling coalition has no legitimacy, at least in this formula.”

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UK access to EU crime and illegal migration data reportedly denied

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Blow to Starmer’s hopes of post-Brexit reset and efforts to clear asylum claims amid rise of populist right

A UK request for access to shared European Union crime and illegal migration data has reportedly been rejected in a blow to Keir Starmer’s hopes of a post-Brexit relations “reset”.

British negotiators have been hoping to reach a deal on gaining access to the Schengen Information System (SIS), a vital tool for sharing police alerts across borders within the area where 29 countries have abolished passport controls.

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Far-right Trump ally secures decisive win in first round of Romania’s presidential election rerun

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George Simion will face centrist Bucharest mayor Nicușor Dan in runoff vote

An ultranationalist who opposes military aid to Ukraine, has vilified the EU’s leaders, and calls himself Donald Trump’s “natural ally” has won the first round of Romania’s rerun presidential vote and will face a centrist in the runoff, as vote counting nears its end.

With 99% of votes counted late on Sunday, George Simion, whose far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) began as an anti-vax movement during the pandemic, was comfortably in the lead on a projected 40.5% of the vote.

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