Category Archives: European Union

Northern Ireland ‘dirty corner of Europe’ due to lack of governance, say experts

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Campaigners say keeping higher EU standards post-Brexit will have little impact as existing rules are already being flouted

Northern Ireland’s environment is unlikely to benefit from higher EU standards because the country already flouts the existing rules, leaving it in a “grossly degraded” state, experts have said.

The region may escape a post-Brexit erosion of UK environmental law but still suffer grave environmental damage because of governance failures, they warned.

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Home Office U-turns on rights of EU citizens who were in UK pre-Brexit

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‘Lack of awareness’ of EU settled status scheme restored as reasonable grounds for late applications by permanent residence card holders

The Home Office has made a significant U-turn on the rights of EU citizens who were in the UK before Brexit.

It is going to reverse a rule it made in August that barred those who mistakenly applied for permanent residency cards after the referendum to make a late application for EU settled status if they were unaware of the specially created immigration scheme.

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Jetsetting Orbán is speed-dating global strongmen – but at what cost?

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Hungarian PM met a who’s who of rightwing leaders on his travels in 2023, as critics point to failures at home

Europe’s pariah prime minister, Viktor Orbán, is jetting across the globe in search of friends.

Hungary, an EU and Nato member that has been backsliding on democratic norms for more than a decade, has become even more isolated in the western club over the past months. Orbán has irritated allies by blocking a much-needed EU financial aid package for Ukraine, while Hungary’s parliament has dragged its feet on ratifying Sweden’s bid to join Nato.

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Zelenskiy tells Davos chiefs: ‘Strengthen our economy, we will strengthen your security’

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Standing ovation greets Ukrainian president’s speech amid strong support from EU and business leaders

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has made an impassioned plea for international support for his country’s war against Russia, insisting that Vladimir Putin must live to regret starting the conflict almost two years ago.

In a speech that received a standing ovation from the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Ukrainian president said the Putin had stolen 13 years of peace and would only respond to military defeat.

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‘Given my life back’: Home Office restores rights to French woman after Brexit mix-up

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Paula Serre lost her job after being stripped of the right to live and work in the UK after confusion over immigration process

A French woman who lost her job in the UK after a mix-up over the Brexit immigration process has had her residency and work rights restored by the Home Office after publicising her story.

Paula Serre had been waiting for two years for a final decision on her application when her life was turned upside down.

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French woman ‘heartbroken’ after losing job in UK after Brexit speaks out

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‘I’ve been in love with the UK since I was a little girl’ says woman dismissed after missing official deadline

A French woman has spoken about how she lost her job in Shropshire and was left “heartbroken” about life in the UK because of a mix-up over the immigration process for EU citizens launched after Brexit.

Sophie, who is married to a British man, was in the UK for five years before Brexit but went back to France in 2020 for 18 months after a family tragedy.

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Human rights in decline globally as leaders fail to uphold laws, report warns

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Human Rights Watch’s annual report highlights politicians’ double standards and ‘transactional diplomacy’ amid escalating crises

Human rights across the world are in a parlous state as leaders shun their obligations to uphold international law, according to the annual report of Human Rights Watch (HRW).

In its 2024 world report, HRW warns grimly of escalating human rights crises around the globe, with wartime atrocities increasing, suppression of human rights defenders on the rise, and universal human rights principles and laws being attacked and undermined by governments.

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Gabriel Attal’s real challenge will be to break French parliament’s political deadlock

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The new PM was chosen to boost Emmanuel Macron’s agenda but, as his predecessor found out, pushing through legislation won’t be easy

As Gabriel Attal, France’s new prime minister, hastily made his first trip to the northern Pas‐de‐Calais to assess flood damage and reassure struggling residents and local politicians on Tuesday, it symbolised the challenges that await him.

A popular former government spokesperson and master political communicator, Attal was chosen to boost government by the centrist Emmanuel Macron who is approaching the two-year mark of his difficult second term with dipping approval ratings and facing voters’ growing distrust of politics in general.

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Michel sparks scramble to stop Orbán taking control of European Council

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President under fire after announcing he will run for election as MEP in June and will stand down if he wins

The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, has said he is running as an MEP in June’s European elections and will stand down if elected, sparking a race to replace him or risk the role reverting to Hungary’s nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orbán.

“I have decided to run in the European elections in 2024,” Michel told Belgian media late on Saturday. The former Belgian prime minister has served as chief of the EU Council, the group of government leaders of the 27 EU member states, since 2019.

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Eurozone inflation rises to 2.9% after increase in energy costs

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December data comes amid speculation over when European Central Bank will cut interest rates

Inflation across the eurozone rose in December after an increase in energy costs, reversing six months of consecutive falls and easing the pressure on the European Central Bank (ECB) to cut interest rates.

Figures from the EU statistical agency Eurostat showed consumer prices across the 20-country bloc rose at an annual rate of 2.9% last month, up from 2.4% in November. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a slightly higher reading of 3% for December.

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Students find Erasmus replacement scheme inadequate, analysis finds

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Some UK applicants forced to quit Turing scheme when places not confirmed or they failed to receive funds in time

Students taking part in the government’s post-Brexit replacement for the EU’s Erasmus+ student exchange scheme were forced to drop out because places were confirmed too late, while others failed to receive funding until after their return, according to analysis.

The first official analysis of the Turing scheme, which was announced by the then prime minister Boris Johnson and launched in 2021, found that four out of five universities (79%) had difficulties with the application process, which was overly complex, repetitive and “tedious”.

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Make or break for the EU? Europeans vote in June with far right on the rise

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Ever more of the continent’s 400 million voters feel the bloc is important enough to warrant casting their ballot

They are elections whose purpose many do not see, for an institution whose role few fully understand; an international ballot still viewed primarily in national terms, by voters who see it chiefly as a low-risk way to vent national frustrations.

“They’re not really about the EU and they don’t really matter” was long the popular take on elections to the European parliament, whose latest edition, from 6 to 9 June, will once more fill the 705 seats of the only directly elected EU body.

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‘Ramen noodles budget’: EU moves to end exploitation of unpaid internships

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Unless from a wealthy family, internships for many mean chipping away at savings and cutting back on essentials

By day, he was mostly an unpaid intern, getting a glimpse of day-to-day life in university research as he networked with potential employers.

Nightfall would often send him rushing to his second shift; this time, at a library in the suburbs of Paris as he strives to pay his bills.

What we see is that, many times, they [internships] are actually replacing entry-level jobs

Tea Jarc, of the European Trade Union Confederation

Unpaid internships have really become a barrier for the social mobility of young people

María Rodríguez Alcázar, of the European Youth Forum

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Brexit has completely failed for UK, say clear majority of Britons – poll

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Only one in 10 feel leaving the EU has helped their finances, while just 9% say it has benefited the NHS, despite £350m a week pledge according to new poll

A clear majority of the British public now believes Brexit has been bad for the UK economy, has driven up prices in shops, and has hampered government attempts to control immigration, according to a poll by Opinium to mark the third anniversary of the UK leaving the EU single market and customs union.

The survey of more than 2,000 UK voters also finds strikingly low numbers of people who believe that Brexit has benefited them or the country.

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Retailers to pay for consumers’ e-waste recycling from 2026 under UK plans

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Households will be able to drop off cables and other electrical waste in-store or have home collections, says Defra

British households will benefit from improved routes for recycling electronic goods from 2026, under government plans to have producers and retailers pay for household and in-store collections.

Consumers would be able to have electrical waste (e-waste) – from cables to toasters and power tools – collected from their homes or drop items off during a weekly shop, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said in a consultation published on Thursday. The ambition is for retailers, rather than the taxpayer, to pick up the tab for these new ways of disposing of defunct, often toxic products safely. The measures are due to come into force in two years’ time.

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Pint of wine anyone? UK looks to bring back ‘silly measure’

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Winemakers question plan as government champions Brexit ‘freedom’ to allow old-fashioned size

The poet Robert Burns imagined a man toasting his lover with a “pint o’ wine”, and Winston Churchill was perhaps the most famous proponent of the pint bottle for champagne. Now, Rishi Sunak’s government has spied a “Brexit opportunity” to legalise the sale of wine by the pint once more – if it can persuade anyone to make the bottles.

Still and sparkling wine will be sold in 200ml, 500ml and 568ml (pint) sizes in 2024, alongside existing measures, under new rules, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) announced on Wednesday. It said the change was made possible by Brexit.

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Italian woman facing removal from UK despite ‘permanent residency’ card

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Silvana one of potentially thousands who were unaware of need to apply for post-Brexit EU settlement scheme

An Italian environmental technology investor who has lived in the UK for 14 years has discovered she could be removed despite getting a “permanent residency” card after Brexit.

She is one of potentially tens of thousands of EU citizens who were unaware the Home Office changed the rules in 2019 requiring them to apply for a different scheme, called EU settlement.

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EU foreign policy chief fears rightwing surge in June elections

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Josep Borrell is concerned voters will be scared into choosing populist parties for European parliament because of nearby wars

European parliamentary elections in June could be as fateful as the US presidential race, the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has warned, saying he believes voters’ fear of the unknown may lead them to back rightwing populist parties.

“I am afraid of fear, I am afraid Europeans vote because they are afraid. It’s scientifically proven that fear in the face of the unknown and uncertainty generates a hormone that calls for a security response. This is a fact,” Borrell told the Guardian.

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Hard cheese: Canada rejects British attempt to secure tariff-free exports

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Many UK cheese makers could face 245% duty from 1 January, making exporting unaffordable

A priceless opportunity to sell “more affordable high-quality cheese to Canada” was one of those many Brexit boons that Boris Johnson championed with his customary blather as prime minister.

A bespoke UK-Canada trade deal was going to open up the Canadian market to cheddar, stilton and wensleydale in a way that had never been possible under a trading agreement struck between the EU and Canada.

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Italian citizen’s bank accounts frozen owing to ‘shameful’ post-Brexit rules

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Massimo and his British wife Dee say settlement scheme designed to frighten immigrants into leaving the UK

An Italian restaurant owner and his British wife have had their bank accounts frozen overnight after 15 years of custom in a “catastrophic” post-Brexit tactic they say is designed by the government to frighten immigrants into leaving the UK.

Massimo and Dee are two of thousands of EU citizens who are discovering the permanent residence (PR) cards they obtained were invalidated by Brexit and even after 21 years of paying tax in the UK it does not entitle them to remain.

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