European Union

Skopje and Athens are apparently close to finding a solution in the 27-year-old conflict over the name Macedonia. UN mediator Matthew Nimetz has said that a proposed compromise could take the process "in a positive direction", without indicating what precisely that direction may be. In the two countries in question, however, there is little sign of a willingness to compromise.

Just six months after its last prime minister took office Romania is getting a new prime minister: President Klaus Iohannis tasked MEP Vasilica Viorica Dancilă with forming a government on Wednesday. She is widely seen as a close confidante of PSD leader Liviu Dragnea - who was convicted for attempting to rig an election - and takes over from Mihai Tudose, who resigned in a dispute with Dragnea. Romania's media display resignation.

Two months before the Russian presidential elections a major row has broken out among the opposition. Critics are accusing opposition candidate Ksenia Sobchak of being a Kremlin pawn and others are criticising Alexei Navalny, who has been banned from running for election, for calling on people to boycott the elections. With the opposition in such disarray Putin needn't fear for his job, commentators agree.

Virtually all cryptocurrencies have experienced a double-digit dip in their prices this week. The bitcoin's value dropped by 25 percent. Observers are not surprised by this crash of the digital currencies and propose a way to stop the downwards trend.

Today’s visit to London by President Macron is important on a number of levels, not least for triggering the long-overdue debate about whether King Harold would have been a Brexiter.

If the loaning of the Bayeux Tapestry is something of a sideshow, then it also speaks the overly febrile nature of British political debate that this was largely taken as a piece of psy-ops, rather than any kind of expression of fraternité.

No matter, for the overnight preview of increasing British contributions to management of the Calais security operation – including taking more migrants – has pushed the Harold’n'Bill show to one side.

As much as some sections of the British press have railed against this, it’s something that has long been in the pipeline.

France and the UK cemented their current situation with the Le Touquet Treaty (as yes, I’m no happier than you about writing ‘the the’) as part of the management of the Channel Tunnel: border controls would be moved into each other’s territory, to facilitate traffic flows at disembarkation, while responsibility for maintaining security would also be shared. In part this was necessary because of the UK not being in Schengen, but largely it was a function of the changed physical arrangements for transit.

That system worked well for the first years of its operation, but came under pressure during the migrant crisis and the build-up of a sizeable camp at Calais. France has an interest in clearing – literally – that problem and has been able to draw the UK into supporting this, since a collapse of Le Touquet would be considerably worse for the British.

Macron visited Calais last week and indicated all the elements that are now being reported in the UK, and the government has been willing to make supportive noises, not least because of the raft of other activities they can point to, on counter-terrorism and shared military capacity.

All of this matters for a number of reasons.

Firstly, it points to the breadth of Anglo-French relations, something that has long been a theme coming from Whitehall. The British embassy in Paris has been running a substantial campaign Les Voisins (Neighbours) that precisely plays up the scope of links between the two countries, an approach that the FCO is now keen to roll out to other countries.

That relationship matters in itself, but also because it demonstrates the UK’s continuing relevance in the world. One of the more macro charges against Brexit was that it represented a cutting-off from the international community, so anything that allows a counter-narrative of ‘nothing (else) has changed’ is useful. Indeed, precisely because of Brexit, it is important to demonstrate that those other strands of the relationships with third countries are operational and active.

Secondly, that much of the business concerns military cooperation is a key aspect, since the UK government sees this realm as one in which it holds a relatively strong position, given the size and ambition of its military capacity. Working with France matters in of itself, but also because it will reassure Central and Eastern European states of its continuing determination to secure regional defence against Russia. Recall that these states have largely seen Brexit through the security prism, so this is a credible and appropriate strategy.

But finally, this all highlights the way in which Brexit is going to have very substantial secondary effects.

As much as attention is focused on the immediate consequences of ending British membership of the EU, it is evident that this is only part of the picture. Not only will it require re-working of free trade deals with third countries (which might be more tricky than thought), but also of the wider system of bilateral relations, as a function of the changed situation of the UK.

If it has proved hard to scope out the direct effects, then the indirect ones has scarcely been attempted. That suggests that there will be many more moments of realisation of the impact of the new situation still to come, and none of those will have a comfort blanket (or tapestry) to hand.

The post Tightening Le Touquet and the second-order effects of Brexit appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

Jahin
Free movement of capital
Income from assets of French nationals who work in a State other than a Member State of the EU/EEA or Switzerland may be subject to French social security contributions

Confédération paysanne and Others
Approximation of laws
According to Advocate General Bobek, organisms obtained by mutagenesis are, in principle, exempted from the obligations in the Genetically Modified Organisms Directive

DRAFT REPORT on the implementation of the EU external financing instruments: mid-term review 2017 and the future post-2020 architecture
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Marietje Schaake

Source : © European Union, 2018 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2018 - EP

At Prime Minister’s Questions today, the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn didn’t ask one question about Brexit.

Of course, it’s quite right that his questions should have been dominated by the dramatic collapse of Carillion, the company that the government awarded contracts to worth billions of pounds even after they had issued serious profit warnings.

Yet, even in December 2016, Carillion was blaming Brexit for ‘uncertainty’ and a slow-down in their business.

And it’s blindingly obvious that the Tory government is so obsessed and diverted by Brexit, that they have not exercised due diligence on other aspects of daily governance.

Commented Labour’s former Minister for Europe, Denis MacShane:

“It is clear that government taken as a whole – the Treasury, Transport, Education and Justice departments – failed to exercise sufficient supervision over the firm and its myriad operations.

“Right across national and local government, officials were awarding contracts to Carillion and its sub-contractors until just a few days ago.

“But ministers and their senior officials are now diverting so many resources to Brexit that they have no time or civil servants to oversee other key areas of government activity.”

He added, “There are many causes for the Carillion disaster but the way Brexit has taken over normal government work did not help.”

If the Opposition Leader was at all concerned about Brexit, wouldn’t he have mentioned at least something about its adverse impact on the government’s appalling record of governance and foolishly awarding contracts to the beleagured firm without due diligence?

Ok, so Mr Corbyn didn’t mention Brexit at today’s PMQs. What about last week, the first PMQs of 2018?

Well, on Wednesday last week Mr Corbyn’s questions were dominated by the crisis in the NHS. Mr Corbyn asked the Prime Minister, “If the NHS is so well resourced and so well prepared, why was the decision taken last week to cancel the operations of 55,000 patients during the month of January?”

But once again, Mr Corbyn didn’t mention anything about Brexit, or how it has resulted in over 10,000 NHS EU staff leaving, and how applications to work for our NHS from nurses from the rest of the EU are down by over 95%.

Isn’t that something to do with the current crisis and the chronic shortage of NHS staff?

If you were only to watch Prime Minister’s Questions this year, or on many occasions last year, you’d think the Brexit vote was of no interest or concern to either the leader of the Opposition or the Prime Minister.

And yet, Brexit presents the biggest constitutional crisis in Britain’s recent history, and is tying up almost all the government on nothing but Brexit. No wonder the government is barely able to cope with the daily routine of running the country.

Contrast our Parliament in Westminster today with the European Parliament sitting in Strasbourg.

Today the Ireland’s Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, gave a 20-minute address in the European Parliament. That’s something our own prime minister, Theresa May, has refused to do, despite being invited.

Mr Varadkar, who reflects Ireland’s strong commitment to the EU project, spoke in English, Gaeilge, French and German to MEPs. He said:

“Despite all the upheavals of recent years – the rise of populism and euroscepticism, nationalism and anti-democratic forces – we meet in solidarity, with a renewed sense of purpose.”

He added, “the promise of a better future has motivated people to work for the European ideal since the beginning.”

And on Brexit and peace, Mr Varadkar said, “Dear friends, it is hard to imagine the Good Friday Agreement being made without our shared membership of the European Union and the single market.”

He continued, “In Ireland we are now having to contemplate our future without the foundation that underpinned it.

“That is why the Irish Government has been so determined to protect the Good Friday Agreement, in all its parts, and in all that flows from it.

“It is why we have insisted that there can be no return to a hard border on our island, no new barriers to the movement of people or to trade.

“And it is why we are so deeply grateful for the remarkable solidarity and support we have received from Member States.

“It is everything we hoped for and more. And it is proof positive of why small countries benefit so much from membership of the EU.”

Of Northern Ireland Mr Varadkar said:

“The majority of people in Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU; the majority of its representatives elected to the Northern Ireland assembly want to remain in the Customs Union and the Single Market; and it is likely that the majority of people living in Northern Ireland will remain European citizens after Brexit, because of their unique status as dual Irish/British citizens under the Good Friday Agreement.”

He continued, “The values of solidarity, partnership, cooperation, which are central to the European project, have brought Ireland from a position of being one of the least developed Member States when we joined, to one of the most prosperous today.

“For us, Europe enabled our transformation from being a country on the periphery, to an island at the centre of the world, at the heart of the common European home that we helped to build.”

And the leader of Ireland said with passion:

“European values – peace, friendship, freedom, justice, opportunity, cooperation – are the values that we are committed to advancing in Ireland, on the island of Ireland, within our European family, and in our relations with the wider world.”

Mr Varadkar concluded:

“Building on the great successes and achievements of the past, I believe that with imagination, with creativity, and with courage, we can provide a soul and a heart for Europe, creating opportunities for all our citizens.

“We can ensure that the European ideal that took flight in the last century will soar in the twenty-first.”

Does our Prime Minister, Theresa May, share those values, principles and goals at the heart of what Mr Varadkar called “the European ideal”?

No.

Even though Mrs May batted for Remain in the referendum, there’s no sign that she has any deep-felt feelings for the EU.

Ditto the leader of the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn. Yes, he’s said he voted for Remain and would do so again if there was another referendum (another referendum which he steadfastly refuses to endorse).

But there’s been no words of passion from Mr Corbyn since the Brexit vote on the importance of Britain being at ‘the heart and soul’ of Europe. Or any speeches by him saying that Brexit was a mistake.

He doesn’t even want Britain to stay in the Single Market and Customs Union – the same as Mrs May. In other words, it’s a ‘hard Brexit’ that both our Government and Opposition are pursuing.

Yesterday in the European Parliament the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, gave a message to Britain:

“We haven’t had a change of heart. Our hearts are still open for you.”

In other words, Britain could change its mind about Brexit if that’s what Britain wants.

The European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, responded to Mr Tusk’s message by saying,

“He said that our door is still open. I hope this is heard in London.”

If ‘London’ means our Government and Opposition, if they heard the message, they are not interested. They are not listening.

But if ‘London’ really means London, one of the world’s greatest capital cities, then yes, London is listening; the city voted against Brexit and wants us to Remain in the European Union.

Ditto Scotland and Northern Ireland.

And now the latest polls by YouGov show that support for Brexit by Leave voters across the country is dropping like a heavy stone.

But with a heavy heart, I have to tell you that our political masters are stuck in the past. They keep bleating on about the ‘will of the people’ as expressed on just one summer’s day on 23 June 2016.

They are not interested to know about the ‘will of the people’ today. They don’t want to know, and they don’t want to find out.

And that my fellow Remainers, new and old, is our biggest problem. 

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