European Union

Twenty-four journalists were killed in 2021 and 293 have been jailed concerning their work, making this year the most dangerous on record for media workers, according to data from the Committee to Protect Journalists

Rewatch this EURACTIV Virtual Conference to find out about the Commission's Impact Assessment for the transport sector in the latest climate package. If modelling data is seen to contradict real world data, what are the consequences? And who is responsible for ensuring that modelling assumptions evolve with real-world data, technology advances and the actual provisions of EU laws?

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and European Council chief Charles Michel congratulated Germany's new chancellor Olaf Scholz Wednesday (8 December) and vowed to work with him for a stronger EU.

The European Commission should keep its promises and uphold corporate human rights obligations according to an open letter sent to President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday (8 December) signed by 47 civil society and trade union organisations.

As we’ve noted previously in this blog, Brexit is a process, not an event. With the drawing in of the year, we might usefully revisit this notion, since there’s more of the process heading our way.

You’ll recall that one side-effect of the very speedy conclusion of the Trade & Cooperation Agreement (TCA) was that the UK decided it would have a progressive introduction of the controls required, given the need for infrastructure and personnel to make it all happen.

The original plans for this were rather swift, with the intention being to have everything up and running by mid-2021. That this was somewhat ambitious was highlighted by two subsequent announcements of further delays, some to 1 January 2021 and others to the middle of next year.

These deferrals of controls stand apart from those relating to the Northern Ireland Protocol, which required joint agreement with the EU and which are currently on a rolling extension due to the talks that have trundled on in the past weeks. Precisely because they have implications for the operation of the EU’s single market (via Northern Ireland’s alignment to it) these cannot be solely in the hands of London.

But the TCA deals with the general EU-UK relationship, and the reintroduction of controls is a function of the weakening of ties between the two parties, which means the UK is bound to enact measures to satisfy other legal instruments, of which the World Trade Organisation is predominant.

Technically, the UK is in breach of its WTO commitments with these deferrals, but in practice no-one seems minded to challenge that. The UK is on a path towards enforcement, it has lacked the means to enforce until now, plus the EU doesn’t need another point of contention to add to the pile, plus WTO arbitration takes a very long time. So it’s been alright to slide back the timeline.

However, this still matters.

The National Audit Office has been producing very useful reports for the past three years on UK readiness, including on these systems. The most recent came out last month and is worth a read as a balanced view of where things are at.

On these elements, the picture has gradually improved, with much of the work now in place to make 2022 enforcement a viable option. At the same time, the NAO rightly points up the considerable uncertainty about demand management and the impact on trade flows, plus the wider impact of the changing nature of the UK border.

While Northern Ireland has (rightly) been more visible, it will be cross-Channel business that will have a bigger economic impact in the long run. Until the UK has settled its systems and procedures for this, it will be hard to know more properly how Brexit is reshaping the economies on both sides of those waters.

PDF: https://bit.ly/UshGraphic77

The post More Brexit, part. 648 appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson apologised on Wednesday (8 December) after a video surfaced showing his staff laughing and joking about a party in Downing Street during a Christmas COVID-19 lockdown last year when such festivities were banned.

In today's edition of the Capitals, find out more about Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania being in discussions about possibly importing more electricity from Belarus and Russia, Romania adopting a series of more relaxed measures but worrying about the next wave, and so much more.

As Olaf Scholz was confirmed as Germany's new Chancellor on Wednesday (8 December), his second in command Robert Habeck faces a massive challenge: kickstarting a rapid expansion of renewables that touches on the limits of the possible.

One of the challenges for the French EU presidency is to convince its European counterparts that Paris's demand for harmonised standards covering agricultural imports is inseparable from the EU's flagship Green Deal, and the core concept of European sovereignty.

US soldiers in Ukraine were "not on the table", US president Joe Biden has said after recently speaking with Russian president Vladimir Putin by phone, while promising spectacular economic sanctions if Russia again attacked Ukraine. "If in fact he [Putin] invades Ukraine, there will be severe [...] economic consequences like none he's ever seen or ever have been seen," Biden told press outside the White House on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

British prime minister Boris Johnson apologised and his aide Allegra Stratton resigned on Wednesday after a video emerged of senior advisors joking about a Christmas party at Downing Street last year, when social events were banned under Covid-19 restrictions. Johnson said he did not know of the party and apologised for the "offence it has caused". Later on Wednesday, he announced tighter Covid-19 measures amid a surge of Omicron cases.

Former US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has awarded Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama with a “Global Innovator” award for his decision to accept Afghan refugees. The award was bestowed upon Rama on Tuesday (7 December) at a ceremony in New York City....

Depression levels have soared in Poland's LGBTI community after years of nationalist-conservative rule by Jarosław Kaczyński's PiS party, according to a study by the University of Warsaw's Centre for Research on Prejudice. Some 44 percent of LGBTI people reported serious symptoms of depression in 2019-2020, compared to 28 percent in 2017, it said. Parents had also become less tolerant of children who came out in the same period, it noted.

Slovenia hosted consultations between the trio of Germany, Portugal and Slovenia in light of their joint 18-month presidency of the Council of the EU on Tuesday (7 December), with the importance of economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic being emphasised....

Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, has pressured Kosovo to establish a Serb-only association of municipalities as was formerly agreed between Kosovo and Serbia in 2013. During a press conference on Tuesday, Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti said the agreement serves Serbia...

At the national assembly session that starts on Monday (13 December), deputies will first consider the opposition’s initiative of no confidence in the government, the Collegium of the President of Skupština (Assembly) decided. Milo Đukanović, Montenegrin president and leader of...

EU leaders and eastern neighbours aim to raise alarm on "destabilisation" and "use of migrants for political purposes" at a summit next week.

The Russian Embassy did not take part in a two-day session of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Peace Implementation Council Steering Board (PIC SB) because it does not recognise German diplomat Christian Schmidt as the international High Representative in BiH, given that his appointment...

A new report has found that following years of investments, crop-based bioethanol should now be considered a “cost-effective” measure to reduce road transport CO2 emissions by 2030.

The EU will propose a set of criteria on Thursday (9 December) to determine whether a gig worker in Europe using platforms like Uber, Bolt or Deliveroo should be considered an employee.