Johnson Risks Breakup of UK over Northern Ireland Protocol, Says Varadkar

THE GUARDIAN: Ireland’s deputy PM accuses No 10 of making ‘shocking’ blunders with protocol bill

Leo Varadkar, pictured with Boris Johnson in 2019: ‘It is not normal for a democratic government in a respected country to sign a treaty and then try to pass domestic legislation to override it.’ Photograph: Getty Images
Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s deputy prime minister, has accused the British government of risking the break-up of the United Kingdom and making “shocking” blunders over Northern Ireland.

Varadkar said Boris Johnson’s administration had been undemocratic and disrespectful and tacitly accused it of being dishonest and dishonourable.

The tánaiste made the sharp attack in a BBC interview on Thursday night, days after the Northern Ireland protocol bill – which could override the Brexit deal – cleared its first hurdle in the House of Commons.

“I think that’s a strategic mistake for people who want to maintain the union because if you continue to impose things on Northern Ireland that a clear majority of people don’t want, that means more people will turn away from the union. It’s a peculiar policy coming from a government that purports to want to defend the union,” he said. » | Rory Carroll Ireland correspondent | Friday, July 1, 2022

EU Moves to Rein in ‘Wild West’ of Crypto Assets with New Rules

THE GUARDIAN: MiCA law contains measures to guard against market abuse and manipulation

Cryptocurrency prices have slumped recently, with the total value of the market falling from $3tn last year to less than $900bn. Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters
The EU has moved to rein in the “wild west” of crypto assets by agreeing a groundbreaking set of rules for the sector.

Representatives from the European parliament and EU states thrashed out an agreement on Thursday that contains measures to guard against market abuse and manipulation, as well as requiring that crypto firms provide details of the environmental impact of their assets.

“Today, we put order in the wild west of crypto assets and set clear rules for a harmonised market,” said Stefan Berger, the German MEP who led negotiations on behalf of the parliament.

Referring to the recent slump in cryptocurrency prices – the total value of the market has fallen from $3tn (£2.5tn) last year to less than $900bn – Berger added: “The recent fall in the value of digital currencies shows us how highly risky and speculative they are and that it is fundamental to act.” » | Dan Milmo Global technology editor | Friday, July 1, 2022

EU Leaders to Grant Ukraine Candidate Status in Blow to Putin

THE GUARDIAN: Brussels has dramatically accelerated the process, amid outrage over the brutality of the unprovoked Russian attack

Ursula von der Leyen and Volodymyr Zelenskiy as seen on 11 June. Zelenskiy said: ‘This is like going into the light from the darkness.’ Photograph: Natacha Pisarenko/AP
European leaders are poised to grant Ukraine candidate status, in a historic decision that opens the door to EU membership for the war-torn country and deals a blow to Vladimir Putin.

EU leaders meeting in Brussels are expected to approve Ukraine’s candidate status later on Thursday, nearly four months after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy launched his country’s bid to join the bloc in the early days of the Russian invasion.

The move from applicant to candidate usually takes years, but the EU has dramatically accelerated the process, amid outrage over the brutality of the unprovoked Russian attack, and to show solidarity with Ukraine’s defenders.

“Ukraine is going through hell for a simple reason: its desire to join the EU,” tweeted the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, on the eve of the summit. The commission last week called on EU leaders to grant Ukraine’s candidate status. “Our opinion acknowledges the immense progress that [Ukrainian] democracy has achieved since the Maidan protests of 2014,” Von der Leyen said.

Welcoming the expected positive decision, Zelenskiy said: “This is like going into the light from the darkness.” » | Jennifer Rankin | in Brussels | Thursday, June 23, 2022

EU Says Ukraine Should Be Given Candidate Status to Join Bloc

THE GUARDIAN: Commission also recommends candidate status for Moldova but gives more guarded response to Georgia

The European Commission has said Ukraine should be given candidate status to join the EU, in a show of confidence in the wartime government of Volodymyr Zelenskiy and a diplomatic blow to Vladimir Putin.

The EU executive also recommended candidate status for Moldova, another former Soviet state that launched an EU membership bid soon after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But it gave a more guarded response to Georgia, saying the country needed to carry out further anti-corruption and judicial reforms.

EU leaders will decide next week whether to grant the three states EU candidate status, although full membership would be likely to take years. The decision would be a historic step for Ukraine, where reformers have been seeking democratic change since the Maidan protests of 2014, events that were the prelude to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and war on its neighbour. » | Jennifer Rankin in Brussels | Friday, June 17, 2022

EU Raises Spectre of Trade War If UK Rewrites Northern Ireland Protocol

THE GUARDIAN: Brussels vows to respond with ‘all measures at its disposal’ as Liz Truss sets out plan to make changes

Liz Truss and the European Commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič in February. The foreign secretary has asked to be given a rewritten negotiating mandate. Photograph: Thierry Monasse/Getty Images
The European Commission has raised the spectre of an economically damaging trade war with the UK, pledging to respond with “all measures at its disposal” if Liz Truss presses ahead with a plan to rewrite the Northern Ireland protocol.

The foreign secretary set out plans on Tuesday to table a bill that would make key changes to the protocol, including waiving all checks on goods flowing from Great Britain to Northern Ireland where they are not destined for the Republic of Ireland. » | Heather Stewart, Jennifer Rankin and Lisa O'Carroll | Tuesday, May 17, 2022

Reality check: the Northern Ireland protocol isn’t the problem, Brexit is: The Tories are addicted to conflict with the EU, for fear of taking responsibility for the consequences of liberation »

Sturgeon: 'Shameful' UK Playing Politics with Brexit

May 17, 2022 • Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says it's "shameful" for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government to play politics with the Brexit deal. (May 17)

Ukraine Bid to Join EU Will Take Decades Says Macron

BBC: It will take decades for Ukraine to be accepted into the European Union, France's Emmanuel Macron has said.

In a speech to the EU's parliament in Strasbourg, he instead suggested Ukraine could join a "parallel European community" while it awaited a decision.

This would allow non-EU members to join Europe's security architecture in other ways, said President Macron.

His words came as fierce fighting continued in the eastern Donbas region, where Russia is trying to make gains. » | BBC | Tuesday, May 10, 2022

War in Ukraine Prompts a Political Makeover in Poland

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Poland’s de facto leader and longtime scourge of E.U. unity, is portraying himself as a standard-bearer of European solidarity in defense of Ukraine and democratic values.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of Poland’s governing party, during a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv this week. | Andrzej Lange/EPA, via Shutterstock
WARSAW — After years of cozying up to Kremlin-friendly anti-immigrant firebrands and fulminating against the European Union, the leader of Poland’s populist governing party has taken on an unlikely new role: a standard-bearer of European solidarity in defense of Ukraine and democratic values.

Joining three European prime ministers on a risky train ride to Ukraine’s besieged capital, Kyiv, Jaroslaw Kaczyinski, Poland’s de facto leader and a longtime scourge of European unity, this week became the latest European politician attempting a difficult somersault prompted by mounting public horror at Russia’s invasion.

Mr. Kaczyinski’s trip came as millions of ordinary Poles have surprised their leaders and, in some cases, even themselves, with an extraordinary, nationwide outpouring of support for Ukrainians fleeing war and seeking shelter across the border in Poland.

The war in Ukraine has not only sent more than 1.5 million terrified people pouring into Poland, which just a few months ago was beating back migrants from its border with batons and water canons, but also spread alarm that Russia could widen the conflict beyond Ukraine, dramatically expanding and reshaping the contours of Polish politics. » | Andrew Higgins | Friday, March 18, 2022

EU Leaders Pledge Increased Military Aid for Ukraine | DW News

Mar 11, 2022 • As Russia's invasion continues, EU leaders have pledged more financial assistance and said further sanctions against Russia were in the works.

Europe has earmarked another €500 million ($550 million) for military aid to Ukraine, the President of the European Council Charles Michel said.

He spoke at the end of the meeting of EU leaders at Versailles in France. The money will be on top of the €500 million the EU has already committed to support Ukraine. At the same event,

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Europe would impose a fourth round of sanctions on Russia and President Vladimir Putin soon. She also said Ukraine's application for EU membership was being considered favorably, adding that the country is already "a member of the European family."

"Ukraine's membership application is an expression of their will and their right to choose their own destiny. Today we have opened the pathway towards us for Ukraine," she added

. French President Emmanuel Macron said the EU would hold an extraordinary summit by May to discuss joint defense investments in the block.


Lien connexe ici.

Western Europe Leaders Rebuff Ukraine Fast-track EU Membership Appeal

THE GUARDIAN: Emmanuel Macron says ‘we must be vigilant’ despite eastern member states wanting to show Ukraine ‘path is open to them’

Emmanuel Macron has led western European leaders in rebuffing appeals from Volodymyr Zelenskiy for fast-track EU membership for Ukraine despite the backing of eastern member states.

At a summit in Versailles, the 27 EU countries acknowledged as one the “tectonic shift in European history” caused by Russia’s invasion of its neighbour and vowed to bolster their military might and “strengthen our bonds and deepen our partnership” with Kyiv.

But calls from Ukraine’s president, supported by Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, for a special membership process failed to convince France, Germany, Spain or the Netherlands.

France’s president said he wanted to “send a strong signal in this period to Ukraine and to the Ukrainians” of solidarity but “at the same time, we must be vigilant”, adding that he did not believe it possible to “open an accession procedure with a country at war”.

“Should we close the door and say never, it would be unfair,” he said. » | Daniel Boffey in Versailles | Thursday, March 10, 2022

Von der Leyen Pledges €1bn to Ukraine in Passionate Address: 'We Are United'

Mar 1, 2022 • President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen gave a passionate speech in European parliament in which she outlined the bloc's commitment to stopping Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

She announced that for the first time ever, they are using "the European budget to purchase and deliver military equipment to a country that is under attack." The EU will also give "up to €500 million" in aid to Ukraine to deal with the "humanitarian consequences" inflicted upon Ukraine by Russia.


Long live Europe! Es lebe Europa! Vive l’Europe ! – Mark

'Among the Darkest Hours for Europe': EU Reacts as Russia Launches Invasion in Ukraine

Feb 24, 2022 • The EU's foreign policy head, Josep Borrell, said as Russia launched an invasion in Ukraine on Thursday that it was 'among the darkest hours for Europe since the end of world war two'.

Russian forces have unleashed the attack on the orders of Vladimir Putin, who announced a 'special military operation' at dawn, as world leaders warned it could spark the biggest war in Europe since 1945.

The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said there would be 'massive and targeted sanctions' against Russia

‘It Is Soul-destroying’: Lorry Drivers Face Hours Stuck in Queues at Dover

THE GUARDIAN: Emergency traffic controls triggered 20 times this year as extra Brexit checks and freight volumes cause logjams

His lorry loaded with British Airways aircraft parts, Ivo Hradilik was expecting to drive onto a ferry headed to Calais, before delivering his cargo to the outskirts of Paris.

But there’s a problem with the customs paperwork, and the 26-year-old HGV driver from the Czech Republic will have to park up near the Port of Dover while the haulage company sorts everything out.

“From the new year it has got worse with the paperwork,” Hradilik said, clutching a handful of documents. He usually visits Dover five times a month bringing goods between Britain and the EU. » | Joanna Partridge ; photographs: David Levene | Thursday, February 3, 2022

How the E.U. Allowed Hungary to Become an Illiberal Model

THE NEW YORK TIMES: After years of complacency and wishful thinking, Brussels is finally trying to rein in the country’s pugnacious leader, Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary in June. The position he has put the bloc in says much about why it has stumbled in the face of populist challenges. | Bernadett Szabo/Reuters
BRUSSELS — After long indulging him, leaders in the European Union now widely consider Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary an existential threat to a bloc that holds itself up as a model of human rights and the rule of law.

Mr. Orban has spent the past decade steadily building his “illiberal state,” as he proudly calls Hungary, with the help of lavish E.U. funding. Even as his project widened fissures in the bloc, which Hungary joined in 2004, his fellow national leaders mostly looked the other way, committed to staying out of one another’s affairs.

But now Mr. Orban’s defiance and intransigence has had an important, if unintended, effect: serving as a catalyst for an often-sluggish European Union system to act to safeguard the democratic principles that are the foundation of the bloc.

Early this year, the European Court of Justice will issue a landmark decision on whether the union has the authority to make its funds to member states conditional on meeting the bloc’s core values. Doing so would allow Brussels to deny billions of euros to countries that violate those values. » | Steven Erlanger and Benjamin Novak | Monday, January 3, 2022

Orban bekommt Unterstützung von Trump: Ungarns rechtsnationaler Ministerpräsident will im April wiedergewählt werden. Dafür hat er prominente Unterstützung: Donald Trump. In dessen Augen hat Orban einen „wundervollen Job“ gemacht. »

France Urges Johnson to Use Frost’s Exit to Rebuild Trust with EU

THE GUARDIAN: Minister for the EU Clément Beaune admits to difficult relationship with ex-Brexit minister and calls for reset

The French minister for EU affairs, Clemént Beaune, says resignation of David Frost is chance for UK to improve relations with the EU. Photograph: John Thys/AFP/Getty Images
The French government has called on Boris Johnson to use David Frost’s resignation as Brexit minister to “rebuild trust” with the EU amid uncertainty over the prime minister’s approach in the new year.

Clément Beaune, France’s EU affairs minister, who had a series of run-ins with the prime minister’s pugnacious minister, suggested that Downing Street should use the moment to reset the troubled relationship.

He said: “We had difficult relations but we always continued the dialogue. I send my best with respect to David Frost after his resignation. It is time for the British government to rebuild a climate of trust with France and the EU in the interest of all.”

While Frost has proved to be a tough negotiating partner over the last two and a half years, his formal resignation on Sunday set off alarm bells in Brussels and EU capitals. » | Daniel Boffey in Brussels and isa O'Carroll in London | Sunday, December 19, 2021

Departure of Frost as Brexit Minister Sets Off Alarm Bells in Brussels

THE GUARDIAN: Concern grows within Europe that his replacement will undermine recent truce in negotiations

The resignation of David Frost as Boris Johnson’s Brexit minister has set off alarm bells in Brussels, with officials unclear as to the approach that will be taken by the prime minister in the new year.

In recent weeks, the UK government softened its approach to the post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland, with the two sides brokering a Christmas truce in the talks on a relatively positive note.

There is concern that Johnson, under huge pressure from the right of his Conservative party over Covid restrictions, will feel the need to replace Lord Frost with someone who will want to unravel the new approach.

On Sunday, reports suggested that figures such as Iain Duncan Smith, the former work and pensions secretary, or even David Davis, who resigned as Theresa May’s Brexit secretary in 2018, could be in the running. Both men have called for the ditching of the Northern Ireland protocol in the past.

One EU diplomat said: “Hopefully the new negotiator will be more pragmatic, making good relations with the EU and its member states relations a priority over the pursuit of a pure, antagonistic Brexit - we’re not holding our breath.” » | Daniel Boffey in Brussels and Lisa O'Carroll in Brussels | Sunday, December 19, 2021

Gig Economy Workers to Get Employee Rights under EU Proposals

THE GUARDIAN: Draft legislation would improve status of millions of workers, with likely knock-on effect on UK despite Brexit

Gig economy companies operating in the European Union, such as Uber and Deliveroo, must ensure workers get the minimum wage, access to sick pay, holidays and other employment rights under plans for new laws to crack down on fake self-employment.

Publishing long-awaited draft legislation on Thursday, the European Commission said the burden of proof on employment status would shift to companies, rather than the individuals that work for them. Until now, gig economy workers have had to go to court to prove they are employees, or risk being denied basic rights.

Nicolas Schmit, EU commissioner for jobs and social rights, told the Guardian and other European newspapers that internet platforms “have used grey zones in our legislation [and] all possible ambiguities” to develop their business models, resulting in a “misclassification” of millions of workers.

In the EU’s 27 member states, about 5.5 million workers are misclassified as self-employed, when they should be treated as employees with benefits and protection, such as accident insurance, according the commission. Firms would only have to pay minimum wages, where they already exist. About 28 million people work for platforms in the EU, but this is expected to reach 43 million by 2025. » | Jennifer Rankin in Brussels | Thursday, December 9, 2021

Brexit may not stop EU’s gig economy reforms from reaching UK: Analysis: UK-based firms may find it easier to fall in with Brussels’ proposals to give casual workers more rights »

”We Defend Europe” - Message by Polish PM Morawiecki

EU Court Fines Poland 1 Million Euros a Day for Judiciary Row | DW News

Oct 27, 2021 • In breaking news from Brussels, the European Union's top court has ordered Poland to pay one million euros a day over a legal dispute with the bloc. The European Court of Justice says Warsaw failed to heed an earlier EU ruling that demanded changes to some of Poland’s judicial reforms. The EU decision in July found that the Polish Supreme Court’s new disciplinary chamber did not guarantee independence, in clear violation of EU law.

Poland fined €1m a day over controversial judicial system changes: Warsaw calls European court of justice move blackmail and says penalties ‘not the right road’ »

Polish PM Accuses EU of Blackmail as Row over Rule of Law Escalates - BBC Newsnight

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