Tag: article 50

  • Brexit: EU says no to May on renegotiating deal

    Jean-Claude Juncker with Theresa May Symbol copyright AFP

    Eu Union leaders have stated the Brexit withdrawal agreement is “no longer open for renegotiation”, in spite of appeals from Theresa May.

    She wanted prison assurances on the Irish backstop to help her deal get thru Parliament, after she delayed a Commons vote in anticipation of defeat.

    The PM said the deal was once “at risk” if MPs’ issues could not be addressed.

    Ecu Fee president Jean-Claude Juncker stated there may well be clarifications however no renegotiation.

    He advised the united kingdom to set out extra obviously what it wants, adding that the fee will put up information on 19 December on its arrangements for a no-deal Brexit.

    If this meeting in Brussels was once meant to provide Theresa Might with the beginnings of an get away direction from her Brexit conundrum, the signs are not just right.

    At certainly one of her such a lot prone political moments Number 10 was once hopeful no less than of a sign of a possible option to probably the most severe of a protracted list of Brexit issues – the debatable so-known as backstop designed to guarantee against a troublesome Irish border.

    But presently, that’s merely not on offer.

    EU leaders made undeniable – their warnings that their divorce handle Britain was once now not up for negotiation have been real.

    Requests for modification to ease the Westminster politics weren’t fulfilled, with key phrases from a extra accommodating draft passed by midnight.

    But the rejection provides succour in all probability to those in govt who want their critics to just accept that the high minister’s deal is also in reality, pretty much as good because it will get.

    In comments released by Downing Street on Thursday, Mrs May instructed ECU leaders she firmly believed the deal could get throughout the Commons and advised them: “Let’s interact intensively to get this deal over the road within the best possible pursuits of all our other folks.”

    and he or she mentioned it was in everyone’s pursuits for the deal to be “delivered in an orderly means and to get it done now” instead of “to run the chance of an unintentional ‘no deal’ with all of the disruption that will carry or to allow this to tug on any further”.

    “There May Be a majority in my Parliament who wish to leave with a deal so with the fitting assurances this deal may also be handed. Indeed it is the one deal capable of getting via my Parliament,” she mentioned.

    “Over the last years, i hope that i have proven you that you can agree with me to do what’s right, now not all the time what’s simple, on the other hand that tricky that would be for me politically.”

    Image caption Mrs May informed ECU leaders she firmly believed the deal may get throughout the Commons

    Mr Juncker urged the uk to inform the ecu what it desires in the long run courting.

    “Our UK pals wish to say what they want, instead of asking us to mention what we wish and so we’d like inside of a couple of weeks our UK pals to set out their expectancies for us, as a result of this debate is sometimes nebulous and imprecise and i would really like clarifications,” he stated.

    The Eu Council’s conclusions on Brexit – printed on Thursday evening – say the ecu could use its “best possible endeavours to negotiate and finish expeditiously a subsequent settlement that might replace the backstop, and may expect the similar of the United Kingdom, so that the backstop could handiest be in position for as lengthy as strictly necessary.”

    In different words, the ecu may continue trying to barter a trade take care of the uk even supposing the Irish backstop were prompted on the finish of the transition period.

    The Brexit withdrawal agreement handiest talks about “absolute best endeavours” being used to succeed in an agreement throughout the transition period.

    Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who holds the rotating EU presidency, prompt there might be a distinct Brexit summit in January to agree “further assurances”.

    But Irish most efficient Leo Varadkar mentioned that while EUROPEAN was once prepared to be “helpful”, a few of the suggestions she had put forward were “tough” and warned there might be no “unilateral go out clause” on the backstop.

    Downing Street has confirmed that MPs won’t now vote on Mrs Might’s deal prior to Christmas and mentioned the vote might occur “as quickly as conceivable in January”.

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  • May’s £106m power to push green cars

    Nissan Leaf Symbol copyright Getty Images Symbol caption A Nissan Leaf uses a charging element in Stockport

    New investment of greater than £100m to boost low and nil-emission vehicles in the UNITED KINGDOM can be introduced by Theresa Would Possibly on Tuesday.

    The top minister will tell the 0 Emission Vehicle Summit in Birmingham she needs Britain to be a leader in green technology.

    The £106m funding boost can even duvet analysis and building for new battery and hydrogen technology.

    Mrs May is expected to say the government has an “ambitious venture”.

    “Our Highway to Zero Technique is essentially the most complete plan globally – mapping out intimately how we can achieve our objective for all new automobiles and vans to be effectively 0-emission by means of 2040,” she is going to say.

    “Those measures will drive the layout, use, uptake and infrastructure important for purifier, greener vehicles – and in doing so, it is going to help us appreciably scale back a major contributor to our international warming emissions.”

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    Mrs Might can even dangle spherical-table talks on creating the zero-emissions market and attracting extra foreign investment to the united kingdom at the summit.

    The talks will contain supply-chain companies from Germany, the united states, Japan, China, Spain and India.

    The govt will also screen a world initiative aimed toward dashing up the deployment of green vehicles and introduction of zero-emission infrastructure.

    The first signatories to the so-called “Birmingham deceleration” include Italy, France, Denmark, the UAE, Portugal, Belarus and Indonesia.

    The summit will even be attended via World Business Secretary Liam Fox, Delivery Secretary Chris Grayling and Business Secretary Greg Clark.

  • Have electorate modified their minds approximately Brexit? Question Me

    A Pro-European Union protester holds Union and European flags in Trafalgar Square Symbol copyright Getty Images

    With little greater than a yr to head earlier than the united kingdom is because of depart the ecu Union, the issue of Brexit continues to be a divisive one. Where does public opinion recently stand?

    Brexit keeps apace, with controversy never far away.

    The high minister recently proposed the uk must go away each the single market and customs union. Labour countered that the rustic will have to stay in a customs union.

    Former prime ministers Sir John Top and Tony Blair, have each prompt that Parliament should be ready to vote down any “laborious” deal and look at preserving a 2nd referendum – a chance dismissed by means of Brexit campaigners.

    None of this would subject if Theresa Might had a safe total majority in the House of Commons and a parliamentary birthday party that was once united in its strengthen for Brexit.

    Symbol copyright Getty Pictures

    In A Similar Way, 4 recent polls – carried out by way of ICM and ComRes among December and March – that checked out how people would possibly vote in a second referendum, albeit without posing the exact query that used to be at the poll paper, have also on average put Remain rather ahead – by means of FIFTY ONE% to FORTY NINE%.

    Extra common readings of ways electorate now view Brexit had been provided by means of an issue that YouGov have placed to their respondents on the grounds that shortly after the referendum.

    This reads, “In hindsight, do you think that Britain was once proper or unsuitable to vote to depart the eu?”

    there is a transparent, if hardly ever dramatic pattern.

    Up till ultimate year’s basic election individuals who replied “right” narrowly outnumbered individuals who said “mistaken”.

    Because The election the location has been reversed, with those announcing that the decision is “flawed” moderately more a lot of than people who spoke back “right”.

    So, all of the polling proof issues in the same route – there seems to have been a slight drop in backing for Brexit such that the balance of opinion might now be the reverse of what it was in June 2016.

    Brexit: All you need to grasp Immigration: Who should we let in after Brexit? What Is Going To Brexit mean for out of the country territories?

    However at this point really extensive caution is so as.

    Opinion polls are not all the time absolutely correct. Polling is simply too hazardous an enterprise for the position to be differently.

    While the polls are as shut as they are on Brexit, the one sensible judgement we will be able to make is that the end result of any 2d referendum is just too just about call.

    All that can assuredly be stated is that the uk is split down the center at the matter, simply as it used to be in June 2016.

    The uncertainty approximately the outcome of any future referendum is underlined when we look under the bonnet of the polls.

    the rationale why such a lot polls now have Remain narrowly in advance isn’t because extra voters have switched from Leave to stay than have made the adventure in the opposite direction.

    Fairly, such a lot of the motion is accounted for via the 28% who didn’t vote in 2016 now being much more likely to say they would vote Stay than Go Away.

    that means the outcome of any 2d ballot could well depend on who does and who doesn’t vote – at all times one thing that may be very tough to forecast.

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    But do voters need any other referendum?

    on this the message from the polls is much more uncertain.

    There are, after all, various imaginable sorts of second referendum.

    it might be an easy rerun of the poll held in June 2016.

    Or a vote on the deal that may be in the end agreed among the united kingdom and the eu – the place the opposite might, at the one hand, be staying in the EU and, on the different, leaving without any kind of deal.

    Polling undertaken by way of Lord Ashcroft found that at the same time as rerunning the original ballot was once decidedly unpopular (51% had been towards, 38% in favour), there was less opposition to a vote the place the choice was once the deal as opposed to leaving with out one (39% have been in favour, 31% adverse, though 30% were unsure).

    At the same time, it isn’t handiest the kind of 2nd referendum that issues. So also does how the idea is presented to voters.

    When, on numerous occasions, YouGov has asked whether “there will have to or shouldn’t be a referendum to just accept or reject” the terms of the deal that may be eventually negotiated with the ecu, they have on average discovered handiest 33% in favour, and FORTY SIX% in opposition to.

    against this, when Survation has asked whether other people fortify “conserving a 2nd ECU referendum to permit the general public to vote on a Brexit deal whilst the main points are known” they have on reasonable found 46% in favour and handiest FORTY TWO% adverse.

    Presenting a referendum as a way of putting electorate responsible reputedly makes the speculation rather more attractive.

    But whether or not they will ultimately accept that position continues to be to be noticed.

    Approximately this piece

    This analysis piece was commissioned by the BBC from an expert working for an out of doors organisation.

    John Curtice is Professor of Politics, Strathclyde University, and Research Fellow, NatCen Social Analysis and The United Kingdom in a Changing Europe.

    Edited via Duncan Walker. Charts by means of Tom Calver and David Brown.

  • Theresa Might: ‘Common sense’ to arrange for no deal Brexit

    Video Might: ‘Common sense’ to arrange for no deal

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  • Brexit: No-deal ‘risks break-up of UK’ – Herman Van Rompuy

    Herman Van Rompuy Symbol copyright Getty Images Image caption Herman Van Rompuy was Ecu Council president between 2009 and 2014

    A no-deal Brexit could lead to the break-up of the united kingdom, the ex-president of the european Council has warned.

    Herman Van Rompuy advised the Observer leaving the eu with out a deal posed an “existential threat” to the uk.

    He added a no-deal scenario might have a “massive impact” on “areas corresponding to Scotland”.

    First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has prior to now mentioned she will make a decision whether or not to back a 2nd referendum on independence by the top of 2018.

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    Mr Van Rompuy’s comments come after the federal government revealed its first set of documents starting off no-deal advice for UNITED KINGDOM companies and public our bodies.

    Extra documents are expected within the coming weeks – and Downing Street has scheduled a cupboard assembly to co-ordinate planning for the middle of September.

    Currently, mid-October is seen as the most likely cut-off date for an settlement commencing the phrases of UNITED KINGDOM-ECU divorce.

    Speaking last week, UNITED KINGDOM Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab said achieving an settlement with the eu used to be still essentially the most most probably outcome – but preparing for other situations used to be the “responsible” factor to do.

    ‘Operation worry’

    Mr Van Rompuy mentioned that dialogue amounted to “nationalist rhetoric that belongs to another generation”.

    The former Belgian top minister introduced that he believed no-deal comments from govt ministers were part of “operation worry”, intended to scare the ecu into compromising on a deal.

    Former UNITED KINGDOM Brexit secretary, David Davis, has also accused the united kingdom govt of scaremongering over the implications of a no-deal Brexit in a tactic which he argues undermines the uk’s negotiating position.

    Writing within the Solar on Sunday newspaper, he stated a caution from Chancellor Philip Hammond that this kind of situation may just hit GDP by way of as much as 10% was “an try to frighten the inhabitants into imagining the most terrible results of leaving the european and not using a deal”.

    ‘Good deal’ confidence

    A Downing Street spokeswoman said: “we’ve always said the United Kingdom would continue to thrive within the event of a no-deal Brexit.

    “However we’re confident of having an even deal – one that grants for each a part of the United Kingdom and takes back control of our cash, rules and our borders. that may be what this govt will ship.”

    Scotland’s Brexit secretary, Michael Russell, said Mr Van Rompuy’s comments underlined the Scottish govt’s personal warnings about the “catastrophic” implications for jobs, funding and residing standards of a no-deal Brexit.

    He said: “the uk executive must instead commit to staying throughout the customs union and unmarried marketplace – the biggest such market in the global, that’s around eight times the scale of the united kingdom marketplace alone.

    “it is extremely relating to – and irresponsible of the united kingdom executive – that the entire basis of our financial dating with the eu Union and demanding issues comparable to customs preparations haven’t been agreed, with the clock ticking towards an european go out in March subsequent year.

    “it is also deeply relating to that the possible chaos of a no-deal Brexit is now observed clearly by with reference to everyone concerned – including the former president of the ecu Council – apart from the united kingdom government.”

  • What do the government’s Brexit “no-deal” papers display?

    The UK and EU flags Symbol copyright Getty Pictures

    Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab has set out what he referred to as “sensible and proportionate” advice in case the uk leaves the european with “no deal”.

    Ministers say a deal is probably the most most likely consequence however the govt has printed 25 documents of steering for people and companies across a variety of areas to try to bypass the “short-term disruption” which it admits is possible if the 2 sides cannot achieve a deal.

    Reality Test: What would ‘no-deal’ appear to be? Fox: No-deal in all probability Brexit outcome Scottish government warns in opposition to ‘no-deal’ Brexit Brexit: The Important Thing dates ahead

    BBC correspondents have unpicked some of the key details of the newly-printed papers.

    Economy: Kamal Ahmed, economics editor

    The main points on “no deal” revealed by means of the government are sobering. Just take one – trade across the border between the united kingdom and the european post-Brexit if there is no agreement.

    If there’s no deal and Britain reverts to “3rd country” standing, the federal government has provided a protracted list of preparations that companies which export and import to and from the european can be required to adopt.

    Image copyright Getty Pictures

    Customs declarations could be wanted, price lists (import and export taxes) “might also develop into due” and the government additionally says corporations are prone to want to put money into new computer systems to trace items.

    “If the uk left the ecu on 29 March 2019 and not using a deal, there can be immediate changes to the techniques that apply to businesses buying and selling with the eu. it will imply that the unfastened flow of goods between the united kingdom and EU might stop,” the government says.

    That is the crux of the issue. Leaving the single marketplace and the customs union with out a deal way significantly higher boundaries to business with the ecu.

    And upper prices for corporations which are engaged in that trade.

    Some of the whole prices to the economy might be mitigated over the medium term by larger trading opportunities with international locations outside the european.

    And the federal government has signalled that in some spaces – such as the need for prematurely bills of VAT on imports – it is doing its easiest to clean the have an effect on on cash waft by way of making an allowance for not on time payment methods.

    That has been welcomed by means of industry groups. But what’s key from the documents published on Thursday is pretty easy.

    The prices of “no deal” are likely to be considerable. And consumers and companies could be those paying the bill.

    Read more from Kamal

    Money: Kevin Peachey, non-public finance reporter

    Not so long in the past, someone going online to shop for a flight, clothes, or even just a new spade will have been hit with a surcharge merely for the luxurious of paying by way of credit card, debit card, or the usage of a virtual carrier similar to PayPal.

    The govt described them as “rip-off fees” and in January they were made illegal as the uk adopted EUROPEAN regulations. In a “no-deal” situation the federal government says the ones surcharges may just go back for someone in the united kingdom shopping for one thing from a store in the european – one thing that happens steadily thru on-line buying groceries.

    Image copyright Getty Photographs

    Equally, any transaction across the border may develop into slower as UNITED KINGDOM financial services and products could now not plug into the ecu’s payments system.

    Those UNITED KINGDOM expats residing and drawing a pension in Europe may additionally be affected. as the Affiliation of British Insurers (ABI) has warned, there may be a chance that, without an agreement, a UNITED KINGDOM insurance company paying – say – an annuity to a UNITED KINGDOM expat in the ecu would not be authorised to do so.

    That pension supplier would both need to possibility a very good through wearing on making these bills, might must set up a subsidiary in the european to achieve this, or may do a deal with a eu counterpart.

    The ABI argues that a fairly simple co-operation among UNITED KINGDOM and EU regulators may just solve this issue, and allow other folks to continue drawing pensions and receiving insurance coverage payouts.

    The United Kingdom executive mentioned it might provide brief permission for financial corporations within the Ecu Financial Space to pay other folks in the united kingdom.

    Roaming fees: what is going to happen after Brexit?

    Well Being, Hugh Pym, health editor

    The fear in some portions of the NHS and the pharmaceutical business is what might happen in a “no-deal” state of affairs if provide lines for drugs are disrupted.

    If lorries get caught at Calais and Dover as a result of customs delays, necessary medication like insulin wanted within the NHS might be held up.

    Image copyright Getty Photographs Image caption The Uk currently imports more than 37 million packets of medicines each month

    Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock has now written to NHS and social care enterprises pronouncing there is no need for hospitals, GPs and pharmacies to stockpile medicines or for doctors to write down longer-dated prescriptions.

    He says pharmaceutical companies will need to have six weeks’ supplies constructed up to avoid any possible disruption.

    To that finish he has written to the firms asking them to explain their plans for having those supplies.

    NHS and industry leaders have welcomed the extra clarity provided by ministers with Thursday’s documents.

    they’re happy the government will permit drugs and devices examined in different places in the ecu to be used in the uk. But they are saying stockpiling six weeks’ price of medicines is not going to be easy with simplest 200 days to go until Britain leaves the european.

    Brexit: NHS managers warn approximately have an effect on of no deal

    Brexit: What may ‘no-deal’ imply for meals and medicine?

  • Brexit deal referendum need to be at the desk, says Sir Keir Starmer

    Keir Starmer Symbol copyright Reuters

    A Brand New referendum on a last Brexit deal have to be “on the table”, shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer has mentioned.

    Sir Keir informed BBC Radio 4’s As Of Late programme that even supposing Labour isn’t calling for a second public vote, if MPs reject the deal the PM puts ahead, “all choices” should be open.

    He brushed aside comments from colleague Barry Gardiner that a 2d referendum may cause “civil disobedience”.

    The executive has dominated out every other referendum, however some MPs need one.

    The UK voted to depart the ecu in June 2016, and this is because of happen in March 2019. Negotiations are happening on what their final dating will appear to be.

    In Advance this week, shadow international business secretary Mr Gardiner mentioned holding any other referendum on the UNITED KINGDOM’s EUROPEAN club could lead on to “civil disobedience”.

    He stated calls for another vote undermined “the whole concept of democracy on this us of a”, warning electorate could flip to “extra socially disruptive tactics of expressing their perspectives“.

    Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was once pressed on Mr Gardiner’s feedback all through a visit to New Lanark as part of a four-time out to Scotland.

    “There are no plans for any person to hold a second referendum,” he mentioned.

  • EU citizens will probably be secure if no Brexit deal says Raab

    Image copyright PA Symbol caption Dominic Raab and Michel Barnier will extra talks next week

    At a press conference in advance, the eu’s negotiator mentioned his purpose used to be to strike a future partnership of “unparalleled” scope with the united kingdom.

    But he warned growth on trade and economic co-operation lagged in the back of that on security and defence issues and said the eu wouldn’t compromise the integrity of the single market.

    Mr Barnier stated the question of the Irish border must be “de-dramatised” with the onus on both sides to make clear “which controls are wanted where and how this could be performed”.

    He brought: “Our problem for the approaching weeks is to try and outline an ambitious partnership among the uk and the ecu – a partnership that has no precedent.

    “This partnership has to respect the one market and the principles of the ecu undertaking, and if this is well understood we will be able to finish the negotiations successfully.”

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