Category Archives: European Union

Government urged to ‘get a handle’ on supply chain crisis

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Chair of commission scrutinising post-Brexit trade deals says ministers must act now to get shelves stocked for Christmas

The government is being urged to “get a handle” on the supply chain crisis, as the chair of a cross-party commission created to scrutinise the UK’s post-Brexit trade deals said ministers need to act now to avoid empty shelves in the run-up to Christmas.

“Red tape and labour shortages from Brexit have exacerbated problems that are being acutely felt across production, processing, manufacturing, retail and of course logistics,” said Aodhán Connolly, who chaired an extraordinary session of the UK Trade and Business Commission, a group of cross-party MPs and business representatives set up as an independent adviser to government in April.

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Brexit: food and drink exports to EU suffer ‘disastrous’ decline

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First-half sales fall £2bn, says industry body, as barriers are compounded by staff shortages

Exports of food and drink to the EU have suffered a “disastrous” decline in the first half of the year because of Brexit trade barriers, with sales of beef and cheese hit hardest.

Food and Drink Federation (FDF) producers lost £2bn in sales, a dent in revenue that could not be compensated for by the increased sales in the same period to non-EU countries including China and Australia.

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Thousands of British students in limbo with post-Brexit visa chaos

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Students delay studying abroad and some even switch continents because of visa delays

Thousands of British students have been hit by post-Brexit visa hurdles, leaving many struggling to complete their language courses or take up internships in the EU.

While some have delayed studying abroad or even switched continents because of visa delays, hundreds of undergraduates taking modern foreign language courses may miss out on a vital part of their degree.

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EU removes six countries including US from Covid safe travel list

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Travellers from Israel, Kosovo, Lebanon, Montenegro, and North Macedonia also affected by move

The EU has removed six countries, including the US, from a Covid “white list” of places whose tourists should be permitted entry without restrictions such as mandatory quarantine.

A majority of EU countries had reopened their borders to Americans in June, in the hope of salvaging the summer tourism season although most required a negative test ahead of travel. The move was not, however, reciprocated by the US.

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Couple divided by Irish border because of post-Brexit rules

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Corrinne and Brett Giles live in Donegal and Derry counties due to ‘borderline unconstitutional’ application of immigration rule

A South African doctor and her British husband are living on either side of the Irish border because of what one MP called a “borderline unconstitutional” application of post-Brexit immigration rules.

Corrinne and Brett Giles live 25 miles apart in Donegal and Derry counties respectively, with Corrinne in a “constant state of anxiety” waiting for a family permit to join her husband in the UK.

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Majority of Northern Irish voters want vote on staying in UK

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Two-thirds of people say a border poll should be held at some point in the wake of Brexit

Two-thirds of voters in Northern Ireland believe there should be a vote over its place in the UK, but only 37% want it to take place within the next five years, according to a new poll for the Observer.

Some 31% of voters said there should be a vote at some point about Northern Ireland’s place in the UK but after 2026, the LucidTalk poll found. A further 29% said there should never be such a vote. There is currently a seven-point lead for Northern Ireland remaining part of the UK should any vote take place.

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Food, beer, toys, medical kit. Why is Britain running out of everything?

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Poor pay and conditions for HGV drivers and the loss of many thousands of EU workers are plunging the UKs supply chain into crisis

Gaps on supermarket shelves. Fast food outlets pulling milkshakes and bottled drinks from their menus. Restaurants running out of chicken and closing. Empty vending machines. Online grocery orders full of substitutions. Fruit and vegetables rotting in the fields.

These are just some of the most visible signs of Britain’s deepening supply chain crisis, which has seen stocks in shops and warehouses slump to their lowest levels since the Confederation of British Industry began surveying in 1983.

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Minister urges firms to invest in UK-based workers in HGV driver shortage

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Business secretary reported as saying foreign labour only offers ‘temporary solution’ as companies face supply chain crisis

Employers have been told to invest in UK-based workers rather than relying on labour from abroad as supermarkets and suppliers struggle to contend with a chronic shortage of lorry drivers caused by the exodus of hauliers from EU countries because of Brexit and Covid.

The business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, wrote to business leaders on Friday saying foreign labour only offered “a short-term, temporary solution” after industry groups, Logistics UK and the British Retail Consortium (BRC) called on the department to provide temporary UK visas to EU truck drivers. They said the lack of drivers was “increasingly putting unsustainable pressure on retailers and their supply chains”.

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Brussels battles old prejudices as it frees unloved river from its vault

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City aims to reopen parts of Senne but centuries-held view of it as toxic sewer remains surprisingly strong

While Paris’s winding Seine has been an inspiration for some of the greatest works of romantic art and literature, the unloved Senne running through Brussels has been buried away under concrete for the last 150 years, condemned by locals as little more than a sewer and cause of disease and unhappiness.

As a constant flood risk and source of cholera, it was vaulted in, built over and hidden from sight. Now, however, Belgium’s capital is preparing to stage an inauguration ceremony that officials hope will help force a rethink among Bruxellois about their centuries-held prejudices against the waterway.

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Angela Merkel scores higher approval ratings than any other world leader

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Exclusive: in six countries surveyed, outgoing chancellor is most appreciated for handling of German economy

Almost 16 years after she first became Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel’s approval ratings in five major European countries and the United States remain higher than those of any other current world leader, a new poll shows.

Asked by YouGov whether they had a favourable or unfavourable opinion of Merkel, who steps down next month after four terms in office, more respondents delivered a positive verdict than a negative one in all six countries surveyed.

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Greece will not be ‘gateway’ to Europe for Afghans fleeing Taliban, say officials

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Athens calls for a united response, as refugees already in Lesbos hope their asylum claims will now be reconsidered

Greek officials have said that Greece will not become a “gateway” to Europe for Afghan asylum seekers and have called for a united response to predictions of an increase in refugee arrivals to the country.

Greece’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has spoken to Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, about the developing situation in Afghanistan this week. Greek migration minister Notis Mitarachi last week said: “We cannot have millions of people leaving Afghanistan and coming to the European Union … and certainly not through Greece.” The country has just completed a 25-mile (40km) wall along its land border with Turkey and installed an automated surveillance system with cameras, radars and drones.

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Ministers accused of failing to secure rights of Britons with foreign spouses in EU

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Campaigners say Britons are facing problems with Home Office over rights to return to UK

Ministers have been accused of breaching their promise to secure the post-Brexit rights of thousands of British nationals who settled in the EU and married foreigners.

Campaigners at British in Europe (BiE) have written to the Foreign Office minister Wendy Morton and the immigration minister Kevin Foster telling of the “heartbreak” and “distress” endured by British citizens who are facing problems with the Home Office over their rights to return home to the UK.

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Greek minister defends wall on border with Turkey during Afghan crisis – video

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After Greece finished building a 40km fence along its natural border with Turkey, the minister for citizen protection, Michalis Chrisochoidis, defended the move, saying the country could not wait for EU decisions. 

Amid concerns that the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan could lead to increased refugee flows to Europe, the EU border agency, Frontex, is helping Greece to secure its land and sea borders as well as using new detecting technology

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The revolt against liberalism: what’s driving Poland and Hungary’s nativist turn? – podcast

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For the hardline conservatives ruling Poland and Hungary, the transition from communism to liberal democracy was a mirage. They fervently believe a more decisive break with the past is needed to achieve national liberation. By Nicholas Mulder

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Spain offers itself as hub for Afghans who collaborated with EU

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Evacuees who have worked with EU institutions will arrive in Spain and then be settled in various countries

Spain has offered itself as the EU’s hub to take in Afghans who have collaborated with its institutions over the years, as Germany said there was an emerging consensus within the bloc to also ease passage for a limited number of other people in need of protection from Taliban reprisals.

However, migration experts warned that the vast majority of Afghan citizens already displaced by the fighting that brought the new regime to power will be left stranded unless European states proactively work to negotiate a safe corridor out of the country.

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Poland backs down in row with EU over disciplining judges

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Warsaw says it will shut down supreme court chamber that Brussels says is a breach of EU law

Poland has told the European Union it will shut down a chamber at its supreme court devoted to disciplining judges, an issue that has been at the heart of a dispute between Warsaw and Brussels.

The Polish government said on Tuesday that it sent a letter to the European Commission on Monday, the for Warsaw to inform the EU’s executive branch of how it would proceed with the disciplinary chamber after the EU’s top court said the chamber undermined judicial independence and contravened EU law.

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‘Spreading like a virus’: inside the EU’s struggle to debunk Covid lies

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Understaffed and underpowered, a Brussels taskforce tries to fight a fake news tide that threatens to undermine the union itself

In April 2020, near the start of the global pandemic, Felix Kartte was working 14-hour shifts as an EU policy officer, struggling to monitor a barrage of coronavirus-linked disinformation.

Articles claiming that the pandemic was a hoax, that it was caused by 5G, that it could be cured by hydroxychloroquine or alternative medicine were going viral across the continent – part of a global phenomenon the World Health Organization warned was becoming an “infodemic.” Kartte and colleagues in StratCom, the EU diplomatic service’s strategic communications division, could detect what they say were patterns of Covid-denier and anti-vaxxer disinformation linked to Russia and to a lesser extent China, being disseminated in several languages across Europe.

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The world is making billions of Covid vaccine doses, so why is Africa not getting them? | Gordon Brown

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While western governments get ready to administer booster shots, millions in Africa are still completely unprotected

In a shocking symbol of the west’s failure to honour its promise of equitable vaccine distribution, millions of Covid vaccines manufactured in Africa that should have saved the lives of Africans have been shipped to Europe in recent weeks. Indeed, this month and next, I have learned from African leaders that about 10m single-shot Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccines filled and finished at the Aspen factory in South Africa will be exported to Europe, at the very time that Africa is grappling with its deadliest wave of Covid-19 infections yet.

Compared with the swift development of the pathbreaking Covid vaccines, getting shots into all the world’s arms should be straightforward. But vaccine nationalism – and Europe’s neocolonial approach to global health – is dividing the world into rich and protected people, who live, and those who are poor, unprotected and at risk of dying.

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Gordon Brown hits out at EU’s ‘neocolonial approach’ to Covid vaccine supplies

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Former UK prime minister calls on western leaders to convene summit to address Africa’s vaccine deficit

Gordon Brown has accused the EU of adopting a “neocolonial approach” to the supply of Covid-19 vaccines and demanded rich western nations relinquish their stranglehold on pandemic treatments.

The former UK prime minister has called on Joe Biden, Boris Johnson and Mario Draghi to convene a special summit to coincide with next month’s UN general assembly in New York to address Africa’s vaccine deficit.

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Lead campaigner in People’s Vote group quits as director

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Exclusive: Roland Rudd, pro-EU group’s former chair, resigns along with director Richard Reed

Roland Rudd, one of the leading campaigners in the fight to keep Britain tied closely to the EU, has stepped down as a director of the company behind the People’s Vote group.

In a move one insider said marked as a “sorry end” to the slow decline of the movement forged during the fierce battle over Brexit, Rudd and another director, Richard Reed, resigned and handed over the reins of PV Campaign Ltd to Mark Kieran.

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