Category Archives: Europe

Brexit: EU official doubts backstop assurances will persuade MPs – Politics live

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Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen

Turning back to Marin Selmayr for a moment, Mina Andreeva, the European commission’s deputy chief spokeswoman has posted a tweet that seems intended to mollify Brexiters upset by the tone of his intervention earlier. She was responding to Fraser Nelson, editor of the pro-Brexit Spectator.

For the sake of completeness:
1/ @MartinSelmayr made clear that @MichelBarnier is @EU_Commission’s chief negotiator. https://t.co/AILUEJwCit
2/ @EU_Commission always open to listen - in full respect of national parliaments. Our position is expressed here: https://t.co/GKRKYR7pfM

Lord Trimble, the former Ulster Unionist party leader who won a Nobel peace prize for his role in the Good Friday agreement, has announced that he and others “are planning to take the government to court over the protocol on Northern Ireland - which includes the so-called “backstop” - as it breaches the terms of the Good Friday agreement.”

The announcement came in a three sentence press statement from Global Britain, a pro-Brexit thinktank. It said:

The Nobel peace prize winner and architect of the Good Friday agreement plans to initiate judicial review proceedings to ensure that the protocol is removed from the withdrawal agreement.

Lord Trimble says that alternative arrangements - as outlined in A Better Deal And A Better Future - should be put in place instead.

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Venezuela: Maduro hits back at ‘gringo plot to overthrow revolution’

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Address comes after EU countries and US throw weight behind challenger Juan Guaidó

Nicolás Maduro has hit back at the “cowardly” and “disastrous” decision of a succession of European countries to recognise his rival, Juan Guaidó, as interim president, as Venezuela enters what many observers believe could be a critical week in its fast-escalating political crisis.

Addressing a military rally in the northern state of Aragua, Maduro said he was the target of a “gringo” plot to overthrow the Bolivarian revolution he had inherited from his political mentor, Hugo Chávez, after his death in 2013.

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‘An insult’: French writers outraged by festival’s use of ‘sub-English’ words

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Prominent writers including Leila Slimani have spoken out against the Salon du Livre in Paris’s use of phrases including ‘young adult’, a ‘bookquizz’ and ‘le live’

A celebration of the “Scène Young Adult” at the Salon du Livre in Paris next month has drawn the condemnation of dozens of French authors and intellectuals, who have described the adoption of English terminology as an “unbearable act of cultural delinquency”.

The proliferation of English words on display at the book fair, where the “scène YA” was set to feature “Le Live”, a “Bookroom”, a “photobooth” and a “bookquizz”, spurred around 100 French writers into action, among them three winners of the country’s Goncourt prize – Lullaby author Leïla Slimani, Tahar Ben Jelloun and Marie NDiaye – and the bestselling writers Muriel Barbery and Catherine Millet. Together they have issued a scalding rebuke to organisers over their use of that “sub-English known as globish”.

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Former French MP sues sexual harassment accusers

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Lawsuit by Denis Baupin is seen as latest backlash against #MeToo movement in France

A defamation lawsuit brought by a former French MP against six women who accused him of sexual harassment and four journalists who reported the allegations has opened in what is seen as a further backlash against the #MeToo movement in France.

Denis Baupin, the former vice president of France’s Assemblée National and a prominent MP for the Green party, resigned in May 2016 after denying the allegations.

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Burglars use sewage pipes to break into Antwerp bank

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Sewers act as connection between tunnels dug from nearby building and into vaults

Detectives in Antwerp have been searching the sewers under the Belgian city for clues after burglars apparently used them to break into a bank before fleeing without trace, in a criminal caper fit for the big screen.

An initial investigation suggests the thieves started out in a building opposite the BNP Paribas Fortis bank in the early hours of Sunday morning. They then dug a tunnel 4 metres (13ft) long to connect with a sewage pipe running under the road.

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Many people in mostly Christian countries believe values clash with Islam – poll

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Almost one-third in UK see rift, finds survey ahead of pope’s visit to Arabian peninsula

Large numbers of people in Christian-majority countries in the west see a fundamental clash between Islam and the values of their nation, according to a survey.

However, significantly fewer people in the Middle East and North Africa view Christianity in the same way.

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European nations set to recognise Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s leader

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UK among countries set to back Guaidó as interim president unless Nicolas Maduro calls election

The UK, France, Germany and other European countries are expected to recognise Juan Guaidó as interim president of Venezuela on Monday if the current president, Nicolás Maduro, has not set a date for fresh elections by then.

EU leaders, including the Austrian chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, started expressing their support for Guaidó before the midnight deadline Sunday night.

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MPs slam Android-only app for EU citizens to apply for settled UK status

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Labour MPs and MEPs call on home secretary Sajid Javid to act over ‘digital discrimination’

Seventy-one Labour MPs and MEPs have accused the Home Office of “digital discrimination” for creating an Android-only app for EU citizens to apply for settled status.

In an open letter to home secretary Sajid Javid, frontbenchers including Luke Pollard, shadow environment minister, and Paul Blomfield, shadow Brexit minister, say the system “flies in the face of fair treatment of EU nationals”.

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Fear and anger stalk thousands of Britons living on Costa del Sol

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For 300,000 UK citizens in Spain, which does not allow dual citizenship, pension and healthcare worries are hard to resolve

A couple of years ago, Michael Soffe seemed to have a charmed life. A gourmet tour guide and wedding planner, he’d made a home and built a business in sun-soaked Málaga, the increasingly hip city at the heart of Spain’s southern coast.

Now he fears that everything he’s worked for is hanging in the balance as heedless politicians push Brexit negotiations to the brink. His biggest worry is that his partner, a two-time cancer survivor still in treatment, could lose his right to public healthcare.

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Queen to be evacuated if Brexit turns ugly – reports

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Cold war plans revived to move royals to safe locations away from London if unrest follows no deal

British officials have revived cold war emergency plans to relocate the royal family should there be riots in London if Britain suffers a disruptive departure from the European Union, two Sunday newspapers have reported.

“These emergency evacuation plans have been in existence since the cold war but have now been repurposed in the event of civil disorder following a no-deal Brexit,” the Sunday Times said, quoting an unnamed source from the government’s Cabinet Office, which handles sensitive administrative issues.

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Nissan shelving plans to build new X-Trail in UK, claims report

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Firm plans to move production claims Sky News, raising concerns about Brexit impact

Nissan has refused to comment on reports that it is abandoning plans to build a new model of one of its flagship vehicles at its Sunderland plant.

The Japanese car manufacturer said in 2016 it would be building the new version of the X-Trail SUV at the factory along with its next-generation Qashqai, prompting claims that Nissan and the government had struck a “sweetheart deal” to protect the company from any post-Brexit EU tariff wall.

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McDonnell accuses PM of ‘pork-barrel’ politics with Brexit ‘bribery’

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Shadow chancellor criticises May over reports she pledged extra cash for leave-voting areas if MPs back Brexit deal

John McDonnell has criticised Theresa May’s rumoured approach to persuading Labour MPs to vote for her Brexit deal as “pork-barrel” politics, saying: “If there is money there to spend on our constituencies, it should be done anyway.”

The shadow chancellor’s accusation follows reports that the government is preparing to plough extra funding into deprived areas that supported leave, with the Nottinghamshire MP John Mann claiming that a set of job-creation measures targeted at former industrial towns would make it “very difficult for Labour MPs in leave areas to vote against the deal unless they want a second referendum”.

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Belgium agrees to take in former Ivory Coast president

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International criminal court freed Laurent Gbagbo on Friday after his shock acquittal

Belgium has agreed to take in the former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo following his acquittal at the international criminal court in The Hague, a foreign ministry spokesman has said.

Karl Lagatie confirmed the agreement on Saturday, and added that he did not know if the ex-president was already in Belgium.

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Misconduct claims after pregnant woman forcibly removed from Stockholm metro

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Incident caught on video prompts accusations security guards targeted black woman

Swedish police have launched two separate investigations after a video of a heavily pregnant woman being forcibly removed from the Stockholm metro and pinned down on a bench went viral, prompting accusations of racial profiling by security guards.

Swedish public radio SR said Stockholm police were investigating the incident at the Hötorget station on Thursday evening as a potential case of misconduct and assault by the guards, but also “violent resistance” by the woman, who was travelling with her young daughter.

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Russia follows US in suspending nuclear deal

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Moscow announces move after US said on Friday it would withdraw from INF nuclear treaty

Vladimir Putin has said Russia will suspend its involvement in a cold war-era nuclear pact, following a similar decision by the US, and begin developing new nuclear-capable missiles banned by the treaty.

The move came a day after Donald Trump confirmed the US would exit the intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF) treaty. The US had complained for several years that a Russian cruise missile violated the treaty, a claim that Russia has denied.

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Leonardo da Vinci dragged into Salvini’s spat with Macron

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Louvre blockbuster marking 500 years since artist’s death may end up a casualty

He was a Renaissance master – painter, scientist, engineer and inventor – who was hailed as one of the greatest artists who ever lived.

But as Europe stages a year-long frenzy of events to mark 500 years since Leonardo da Vinci’s death, Italy and France are engaged in a diplomatic tussle over him that threatens a blockbuster exhibition at the Louvre in Paris.

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Vatican remains not those of two girls who disappeared in 1983

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Families question how experts did not immediately recognise remains were ancient

Human remains found at property in Rome owned by the Vatican belonged to an ancient Roman man and not to either of two teenage girls missing since the early 1980s, authorities have said.

The discovery of the remains in October raised hopes of a breakthrough in the cases of Mirella Gregori and Emanuela Orlandi, both of whom were 15 when they disappeared within weeks of each other in 1983.

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Brexit: Gibraltar ‘colony’ row flares as EU makes travel visa-free for Britons

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Footnote attached to EU regulation on insistence of Spain

A straightforward change in EU law guaranteeing visa-free travel for Britons in Europe after Brexit has sparked a diplomatic row after Brussels described Gibraltar as “a colony of the British Crown” in its no-deal legislation.

The footnote containing the contentious description of the Rock has been attached to the EU’s regulation on the insistence of Spain, with whom the UK has been in dispute over Gibraltar for three centuries.

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Sabine Weyand: the EU Brexit negotiator with a British sense of humour

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Weyand, who this week shot down UK hopes of reopening talks, has a reputation for being ‘direct, quick, with no bullshit’

MPs voted this week to send Theresa May back to Brussels to restart Brexit talks, but the Commons apparently missed the message delivered in crisp English one day earlier: the talks were over.

The messenger was the EU’s deputy Brexit negotiator, Sabine Weyand: the German official with a British sense of humour who loves Shakespeare comedies and Harry Potter, and has been known to describe any outlandish idea as “bollocks”.

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