Category Archives: European Union

Lechyd Da! Welsh whisky to gain UK’s special protected origin label

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Coles, Da Mhile, In the Welsh Wind and Penderyn distilleries awarded label in scheme brought in to replace EU version

Welsh whisky is to join its Scottish and Irish counterparts in being officially awarded protected origin status under the UK’s post-Brexit regime.

Single malt from four distilleries in south and west Wales – Coles, Da Mhile, In the Welsh Wind and Penderyn – has been awarded protected geographical indication (UK GI) status, the scheme brought in to replace the EU’s protected designation of origin label.

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Post-Brexit fall in English ownership of European second homes, figures show

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Government survey finds that fewer than 30% of holiday homes are on continent – compared with 40% a decade ago

They used to go wild for villas by the Med and ski chalets in the Alps; now they are forking out for views of the Channel and hilly walks in Shropshire.

According to figures released this week by the English Housing Survey, the proportion of English owners of second homes who have properties in Europe has fallen again, with 60% of holiday homes located in the UK rather than outside it.

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Rishi Sunak criticises EU for calling Falkland Islands ‘Islas Malvinas’

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Prime minister says choice of words ‘regrettable’ as Brussels insists it has not changed its stance on disputed islands

Rishi Sunak has criticised the EU for its “regrettable choice of words” after it appeared to endorse the name that Argentina uses for the Falklands.

Downing Street was reacting after EU leaders attending a summit in Brussels supported an Argentinian-backed declaration that used the name Islas Malvinas alongside Falkland Islands.

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Islas Malvinas: EU signs deal using Falklands’ Argentine name

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UK asks bloc to clarify position after Buenos Aires declares ‘triumph’ over use of term in declaration

Forty-one years after the Falklands war, the UK has suffered a diplomatic defeat over the archipelago as the EU appeared to endorse the Argentine name for the disputed territory, Islas Malvinas.

Brussels supported an Argentina-backed declaration referring to Islas Malvinas at a summit of EU leaders with Latin America and the Caribbean (Celac) leaders on Tuesday, which Buenos Aires called a “diplomatic triumph”.

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EU to invest €45bn in Latin America and Caribbean

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Package includes projects to extract minerals, electrify bus fleets and help protect Amazon rainforest

EU leaders in Brussels have announced €45bn (£39bn) in investments to Latin America and the Caribbean, some of which will speed the shift to clean energy, but made little headway thawing a frozen trade deal that critics say will further degrade the Amazon rainforest.

The EU-Celac summit, the first of its kind since 2015, aimed to bring the EU closer to Latin American and Caribbean countries. Disagreements over how to refer to the war in Ukraine in the final text soured negotiations.

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Nicaragua fails to back censure of Russia at end of EU-Latin America summit

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Celac president declares first summit of its kind in eight years a success despite late wrangling

EU leaders have failed to persuade all of their Latin America and Caribbean counterparts to strongly condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, despite watering down a joint statement closing a two-day summit in Brussels.

Ralph Gonsalves, the president of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), brushed off a row after Nicaragua failed to agree to the sole paragraph on the war in the final 41-paragraph communique.

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Pride and scorn as Bulgaria unveils EU’s highest flagpole

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Raising of huge national flag in mountains of bloc’s poorest country widely mocked on social media

A soaring mast in the mountains of southern Bulgaria has made the EU’s poorest country the home of the bloc’s highest flagpole, filling some with pride and drawing scorn from others.

Nationalism and populism are on the rise in the Balkan nation, where many people remain strongly Russophile despite Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

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UK relaxes visa rules for foreign builders amid Brexit shortages

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Bricklayers and other construction jobs added to list alongside care workers and engineers

Bricklayers, plasterers and other construction jobs have been added to the government’s “shortage occupation list”, making it easier for foreign builders to come to Britain amid labour shortages partly caused by Brexit.

The UK government has relaxed visa restrictions for a number of sectors that face severe worker shortages, and has added bricklayers and masons; roofers, roof tilers and slaters; carpenters and joiners; plasterers and other construction workers to the list. Fishing jobs have also been added to the list.

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Tunisia says it will not be ‘reception centre’ for returning migrants

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North African country, which agreed €1bn deal with EU to stem irregular migration, says it will take back only Tunisians

Tunisia has said it will not be a “reception centre” for returns of sub-Saharan migrants from Italy or any other country in Europe despite a groundbreaking €1bn deal signed on Sunday.

Authorities in the north African country are determined not to enter a contract similar to that which the UK has with Rwanda and will take back only Tunisians who have made irregular entry to the EU.

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EU signs off €1bn deal with Tunisia to help stem irregular migration

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Ursula von der Leyen hails deal as an investment in shared prosperity and stability

The EU has signed off on a €1bn (£860m) deal with Tunisia to help stem irregular migration, as the president of the north African country denounced those who offer migrants “sympathy without respect” for their goal to have equity in life.

Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, hailed the deal with Tunisia, including significant measures to stem deadly irregular migration across the mediterranean, as an investment in shared prosperity and stability.

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EU to give Tunisia €1bn to fight trafficking and prop up ailing economy

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Von der Leyen to return with Italian and Dutch PMs despite warnings over ‘breakdown’ of democracy under Saied

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is to return to Tunisia on Sunday with the prime ministers of Italy and the Netherlands to sign off the details of a €1bn deal aimed at combating people smuggling and supporting the country’s collapsing economy.

Sources have confirmed they are expecting to sign off on a memorandum of understanding only days after a group of politicians in the European parliament warned that Tunisia should not be handed a deal on a “silver plate” amid fears of a “breakdown” of democracy in the country.

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Committee report is rightfully scathing on UK’s China strategy

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The ISC’s warnings are unlikely to act as much of a brake on Britain’s approach to China

If there is one constant in the UK’s policy towards China over the past three decades it has been its short-termism and inconsistency, the scathing intelligence and security committee report on China rightly finds, comparing Britain’s endless course corrections with Beijing’s capacity to think strategically about how to advance the global interests of the Chinese Communist party.

If Downing Street thinks in terms of the next news bulletin, China has a planning cycle that in some of its documents takes it to 2049, as the ISC was told by one of its intelligence agency witnesses.

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EU passes nature restoration law in knife-edge vote

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MEPs back law to place recovery measures on 20% of EU’s land and sea by 2030 by dozen votes

The EU has narrowly passed a key law to protect nature – a core pillar of the Commission president Ursula von der Leyen’s European Green Deal – after months of fiery debate and an opposition campaign scientists criticised as misleading.

The nature restoration law will place recovery measures on 20% of the EU’s land and sea by 2030, rising to cover all degraded ecosystems by 2050.

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EU to drop ban of hazardous chemicals after industry pressure

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Exclusive: Leaked documents show that as little as 1% of products containing hazardous substances could be prohibited

The European Commission is poised to break a promise to outlaw all but the most essential of Europe’s hazardous chemicals, leaked documents show.

The pledge to “ban the most harmful chemicals in consumer products, allowing their use only where essential” was a flagship component of the European green deal when it was launched in 2020.

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Greek shipwreck: hi-tech investigation suggests coastguard responsible for sinking

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Research into loss of trawler with hundreds of deaths strongly contradicts official accounts – while finding a failure to mobilise help and evidence that survivor statements were tampered with

Attempts by the Greek coastguard to tow a fishing trawler carrying hundreds of migrants may have caused the vessel to sink, according to a new investigation by the Guardian and media partners that has raised further questions about the incident, which left an estimated 500 people missing

The trawler carrying migrants from Libya to Italy sank off the coast of Greece on 14 June. There were 104 survivors.

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British scientists can request grants if UK rejoins EU’s £85bn Horizon scheme

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‘Expected’ return could help retain scientists and researchers lost after grants were cancelled in Brexit row

British scientists and academic researchers will be able to reapply to the prestigious European Research Council (ERC) for grants if, as expected, the UK rejoins the flagship Horizon European programme, it has been confirmed.

The re-entry comes almost a year after 115 grants approved for British candidates were terminated by the council because of the delay in ratifying the UK’s associate membership of the £85bn Horizon funding scheme.

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‘A huge relief’: scientists react to hopes of UK rejoining EU Horizon scheme

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Expected return also greeted with dismay at UK’s decision to avoid being a net contributor to EU’s flagship programme

Scientists including the physicist Brian Cox have reacted with a mixture of caution, anger and relief that the UK appears set to rejoin the EU’s flagship £85bn Horizon science research programme after a protracted Brexit row.

Sources indicate that an announcement could come in days, possibly next week when Rishi Sunak is scheduled to meet the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, at a Nato summit.

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EU sets out first-ever soil law to protect food security and slow global heating

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Proposal to improve soil health throughout continent by 2050 criticised for lack of legally binding targets

The European Commission has proposed the continent’s first soil law, intended to undo some of the damage done by intensive farming and mitigate global heating.

Amid intense opposition to proposed laws on nature restoration and curbs on pesticides, the European Commission put forward proposals in Brussels on Wednesday to revive degraded soils. Research indicates that this could help absorb carbon from the atmosphere and ensure sustainable food production.

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Meta delays EU launch of Twitter rival Threads amid uncertainty over personal data use

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New app developed by Facebook and WhatsApp owner is due to launch in the UK and US on Thursday

Mark Zuckerberg’s rival to Twitter will not launch in the EU on Thursday amid regulatory uncertainty about the service’s use of personal data.

Sources at Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, said regulations were behind the postponement of an EU launch, amid a series of clashes between the social media group and the bloc.

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Spanish police arrest 15 after long investigation into alleged people-smuggling gang

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Operation allegedly involved moving people from Syria to Spain on a circuitous route via Sudan and north Africa

Spanish police have broken up what they say is an organised criminal gang involved in a highly unusual people-smuggling operation involving the moving of migrants from Syria to Spain on an 8,000km trip via Sudan.

A year-long investigation, which was coordinated by Europol and involved dozens of police officers from France, Norway and Germany, uncovered a network of alleged people-smuggling cells across north Africa and northern Europe as well as the main nerve centre of the gang in southern Spain.

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